Category: 2018 Appalachian Trail

The Benadryl that Alice sent us has been put to use. I’ve decided to up the anti to two at night and I am able to fall asleep and only get up once through the night. The only down side is that my bladder is just as active so it’s critical that I sleep on the uphill side of Bunny so I don’t have to lay in a puddle.

We have a fairly long day planned for us today with the first 8 miles being nearly 2000’ of climbing. Luckily, I slept well last night. If we had today to do yesterday, I’d be dead (or whining a lot which is not my normal MO). We had some nice vistas on the way up Roan Mountain.

Stickers and Lady Bug tend to take a lot of breaks and enjoy the day. If they see something off to the side of the trail, they don’t hesitate to investigate it. Because of this, we are able to hike with them if we keep moving, otherwise, they would be way ahead of us. We passed them just before we reached the summit of Roan Mountain and got to the former site of the Cloudland Hotel. All that remains is a partial foundation and an old chimney.

We pushed on through Ashland Gap and climbed up to Roan High Knob Shelter where we ran into Sleeves again. This being Easter, Sleeves took the day off of hiking to quietly reflect. This is also the first fully enclosed shelter we have come across. While I was getting water to make us some hot tea for lunch, Stickers and Lady Bug caught up with us. We spent over an hour recovering from the climb, eating lunch, and talking. Another member of the front edge of the March bubble (just Nick from Iowa) showed up and had a quick bite before heading on. He is averaging nearly 17 miles/day and wants to get his average up to over 20 so he didn’t stay long.

Now that our climbing was over (for the most part—there’s always more climbing) we could kind of keep up with Stickers and Lady Bug. It was all downhill to Carvers Gap. As soon as we stepped out on to the road, a Jeep pulled up and asked us if we were thru-hiking. We talked with Josh and Casey a bit and they gave us some M&Ms. My mom always told me not to take candy from strangers which doesn’t apply here since M&Ms are the life force of thru-hiking.

Since we still had about 7 miles to go for the day and there were so many cars present, we thought there had to be a trash can where we could lighten our loads. It only made sense since there was a bathroom. I gave Stickers all of my trash and he went in search of a can, but there wasn’t one (which explains why the area was so trashy). Bunny said she would take care of it.

She toe tackled the first person that passed and started shoving the bag of garbage in her face. Her parents ran over and said they would take the garbage, just please get off of the girl. I know Bunny will have a completely different interpretation of events, but Stickers did say “Man, that was f’d up. I would have just carried the trash.” You be the judge.

We were totally unprepared for what we saw next. We had no idea why there were so many people at the gap but we soon found out. We climbed a few hundred feet up to the first of three balds we were to pass today. It was simply incredible. We weren’t even up to the top of Round Bald but we had 360 degree views of the Appalachians. These views more than made up for all the effort we have spent to date to get here. We still had two more balds (Jane and Grassy Ridge) and the views just kept getting better. We were in sensory overload.

It took us a couple of hours to traverse the balds—partly due to our gawking, but also partly due to our near celebrity status as through hikers. People would come up to us, get a whiff, back away, and ask if we were hiking all the way to Maine. People even asked to have their pictures taken with us (I later found out Lady Bug was offering $5 to anyone who could stand next to us for 2 minutes without passing out and could document it with a photo, but a photo request is a photo request). People kept asking if we were hiking the AT like Bill Bryson and we would politely say “No, we are actually hiking the entire trail and not just 1/3 of it.”

It was still 3.7 miles to Overmountain Shelter and it was past 5. Bunny and I have already hiked after dark twice on this trip, but it’s not a preferred event for us. The four of us have been known to cover nearly 3 miles in a single hour if it leads to a hostel, but were we up to the “4 mile for an iconic shelter” challenge?

The first shelter we came to was one of the smallest we have seen—4 people would be cramped. We stopped for some water and a snack. Bunny irritatingly reminded everyone that I had received some M&Ms back at Carvers Gap so I was forced to share them equally between all of us. I did all the work of taking them and carrying them for 4 miles and now was forced to give up “my precious.” I’m a big man. I turned my head so no one could see me weep.

The final 1.9 mile I tried to run. To everyone else, it appeared to be a slow, awkward walk. I was giving it my all thinking that I was finally making tracks only to turn around and see everyone bunched up behind me. I guess I’ve got a ways to go before I get my hikers legs (I’ve got the appetite—in fact, I’ve always had it).

We got water on the way to the barn. We saw a bunch of tents set up out front and were worried it might be full. It’s rumored to be able to sleep 50. It was a group of young, fast, red shirted crew members (so I didn’t get any of their names) that wanted to camp out under the stars to take advantage of the views. When we got to the barn, only “just Nick from Iowa” was there.

We took one of the open platforms on the east side to take full advantage of the morning sunrise. The second floor could easily sleep 50 itself. The best part about the refurbished barn, though, was not its size. The best part was that it had a privy. Ever since Hot Springs, we have all had to dig holes for relief. I think this is why my weight loss progress has come to a near halt.

With dinner complete and chores all done, we went to bed. Stickers was the last one up and he saw a mouse eyeing “just Nick” with devious intent. To ward off any further mouse encounters, Stickers tried to protect us by stuffing toilet paper all around the platform. It may have helped because all the paper was gone in the morning, but I had my second mouse on head encounter in the night.

EFG

This was the most miserable night we have had on the trip so far (I say so far because we can usually sink lower). I am so disappointed with our Big Agnes gear. When our Exped sleeping pad failed before Franklin, we went to Three Eagles Outfitters and bought new Big Agnes sleeping pads. We thought we were getting the new ones which are rated high. Instead, we got the discontinued version with no R value. Sleeping directly on the ground would not be any colder. Every time we have slept on these in our tent, we have frozen and not had a decent night’s sleep. The trend continued last night.

Even though we were awake before 7, we couldn’t face getting up. Once again, ATweather.com had blown the forecast. It was not supposed to drop below 30 at altitude but was still only 25 at 8 inside of our tent (meaning it was probably 10 degrees colder outside). Around 9, we decided we couldn’t put off the inevitable any longer and were in the process of stretching when Stickers and Lady Bug passed by our camp. They had had just as miserable of a night and had a cold supper because they weren’t prepared for a dry camp either (they had missed the unmarked turn as well). They had camped just a half mile back from us at Max’s tree.

We agreed to meet at Cherry Gap Shelter (a little over 3 miles ahead) to eat breakfast and dry out our gear. I went to get our bear bags down only to realize they were more pathetic than I had thought. It would have taken a lot less effort and been just as effective to just put a bow on them and leave them under Max’s tree. I didn’t even have to raise my arms to touch them.

The four of us leapfrogged each other the rest of the day to Clyde Smith Shelter. At Iron Mountain Gap, we thought we saw a trash can and I decided to drop my pack and get rid of the extra pound I was carrying. We met a woman, Cathy, and her grandson, Ethan and talked about thru-hiking. She has done pretty much all of Georgia, North Carolina and the Whites in New Hampshire as well as Katahdin. She offered to take our trash for us since there wasn’t a trash can at the parking lot.

Once again, very few hikers along the trail. We just kept our heads down and hiked today. We were just worn out from the lack of sleep and only cared about getting a spot in the shelter. We were late getting there, but were optimistic about getting off of the ground since no other hikers passed us today. If the trail had been any harder today, I wouldn’t have been able to make it. If it wasn’t for Bunny prodding me on all afternoon, I would have sat down and slept in the trail.

I was ecstatic when we finally could see the shelter. Stickers and Lady Bug had already been at the shelter for over an hour and no one else was there. Not only did we get a spot in the shelter, we had ample room to spread out our crap and chill. Bunny set up our beds while I went to get water down a very steep hill and cook supper. Lady Bug built a fire for us to sit around.

We were perfectly placed to watch the sunset in the west while, simultaneously watching the moonrise in the east. It was much warmer tonight when we went to bed. I don’t know if it was due to the fact that we were 1700’ lower in altitude or that the weather is finally turning to spring.

EFG

With the storms running through the area last night, the electricity kept going on and off in part of the hostel. Fortunately, I was awake and up often enough (read bladder issues) to notice and move my items that needed to get charged into the bathhouse. Every time I moved, the cat woke up and readjusted position. By 5a, she was getting playful so I kicked her out of the room—I had no guilt that it was raining (lightly).

We were all packed up and ready to go at just before 9. Postcard came in and said the coffee shop was looking pretty good considering the rain. I agreed, but Bunny wanted miles on the trail. We thought Patches agreed with Bunny, but when we headed out the door, she was no where to be found. Apparently, she fell victim to the procrastination affect of rain and jumped on the shuttle to town. Her daily average to be done by May keeps increasing. We think Lady Bug and Stickers are heading out, but we’ve thought that before when they ended up taking another zero (but that was a $3.78 Lady Bug delay—the cost of two drinks for the hot tub).

The trail was not very busy at all today. I think we are at the tail end of the Gatlinburg “snow bubble” and the fast hikers from the March bubble have all passed us. Once again, we have an uncrowded trail. With any luck, we will be able to stay in the lull all the way to Damascus.

Furry Little Animal was the first to pass us. We met him last night on the shuttle to Wal-Mart. He loves to walk and is averaging 20+ miles every day. He also hiked the Camino de Santiago last October after the busy season where we hiked it in May before the busy season.

Next to pass us was a recently retired man from Northern Georgia. I don’t know how we haven’t met him before because we know all the same people. He has been planning on thru-hiking for over 20 years. He was reluctant to call it trail magic, so he’s calling it a “Trail Blessing”—he became a first time grandpa just a few days ago when hiking between Devil Fork Gap and Sams Gap. He got the call that his daughter was in labor and he was able to get off trail in time to be there for the birth of his grandson.

The only other person to pass us today was Red Robin. He started on March 14 and is averaging well over 20 miles a day. He hasn’t taken a single day off and only been in one town since he began hiking—it’s hard to skip Hot Springs since the trail runs through the middle of town. He’s in a rush because he starts medical school at Penn State on July 15. I wonder if he’s really having a chance to enjoy the trail at the pace he’s going—he doesn’t see any of the sights just off of the trail, but the same can be said for most of the high speed wave of the March bubble.

We got to near the top of Unaka Mountain and saw a decorated Christmas tree off the side of the trail. I don’t know what happened to the guy, but Max’s family set up the tree as a memorial to him. There was a log book for people to sign in his memory. When Bunny caught up with me, she said Guthook was showing that we were at our designated campsite.

It was down to 30 and had been hailing/raining for the last hour. There was no water any where around. We checked the guide and saw that we had missed our turn for the camping spot about a half mile back. We decided to push on to get off of the mountain cause of the deteriorating conditions. When we got to the top of Unaka Mountain, we decided to camp in the dense spruce forest because we were too cold and tired to push on.

We hurriedly set up the tent. I boiled what water we had so we could have a hot drink before bed in the hopes of warming us up. In hindsight, we would have been better off using it to make a hot water bottle instead. We ate a cold supper of protein bars, snickers, and animal crackers with our hot tea. I hung such a lousy bear bag that Mizman’s poor job at Cold Spring Shelter looked good (a drunken raccoon could have gotten his). I guess I was hoping that no bears would be out on such a crappy night.

EFG

Today was truly just a day of rest for the old folk. Geo, Summit, and Bear Foot were gone before we even thought of waking up. Traveler, Pit Boss, and Play by Play were just leaving as we caught the morning shuttle to McDonalds with Stickers, Lady Bug, and a new Patches (male). We got our laundry, showers, resupply, and beer drinking out of the way yesterday.

The plan for the day includes a nap and, more than likely, another round or two of food. Little Blue came by around lunch time to say goodbye. Grizzly came to pick him up and take him to his house while he rests his ankle. The plan is for him to rejoin all of us in Damascus in about 9 days. The next goal is Damascus next Saturday to celebrate Stickers’ birthday on the 7th of April.

While sitting around in our room, Postcard returned into the known world. We had heard she got a return ride to Sams Gap and we were expecting her to show up last night or today. Now all we need is for the real Patches to show up and spend the night. She went back to the hostel she was staying at last night around 9:30 with the illusion that she was still going to do laundry and hit the trail this morning—I’m laying odds against either of those things happening.

We have heard of a couple more people getting off trail. Pizza tore a tendon in the Smokies and made it much worse hiking out to avoid hypothermia—she’s out for 6-8 weeks, minimum. Madlib had a death in the family and had to get off for a bit which makes it unlikely that she will have enough time to complete her thru-hike and still have time to find a teaching job this fall. Chu Chu had to get off the trail but we’re not sure why. We haven’t heard of Finnegan’s whereabouts for a while but know he got more frost bitten fingers getting into Hot Springs last snow. Dare Devil has been off trail since Gatlinburg and is planning on coming back next week, but we don’t know where. All hiking plans are subject to change.

Stickers and Lady Bug rented bikes to travel around town this afternoon. Before they could go, Dirty R and Grape Stomper showed up; someone had stolen Dirty R’s credit card numbers so he had to get that straightened out before they could leave. We heard they left but come back after 1 mile to spend another night in town. Rain storms are predicted for tonight.

And what about Patches? She showed up around 4 with the intention of still heading out tonight, but she was working on replacing her boot laces. Yada yada yada—she’s sleeping in the bunk above me right now. We knew if she came back, the cats at the hostel would keep her here. I now have one sleeping on my feet that Postcard and she let into our room a few hours ago, and it is raining steadily outside…

We never got our naps or drank our remaining beers today. I guess I will have another case of “resupply flu” tomorrow as we head back up into the mountains. We got to make contact with our off-trail angel, Alice and arrange for our next drop just after Damascus. We also heard about some gear tests that Patrice La Vigne has arranged for us—socks and hiking poles which we will get in Damascus. Justin and Patrice were the inspiration for us to have the nerve to even attempt our “escape.” We have an amazing amount of support behind us. We are very lucky to have such great friends.

EFG

Last night was our best night of camping so far. We had a moon so bright that I thought someone was shining a light in our tent. I also only had to get up once so maybe my overactive bladder has had more to do with cold than old age (fingers crossed, wishful thinking). When we woke up, everything was high and dry. It never even got below 40 last night so it was perfect sleeping.

By the time we rolled out of bed, only Stickers, Lady Bug, Pit Boss, and Play by Play were left hanging around the shelter (Pit Boss and Play by Play were still asleep). We all ate breakfast together and talked while getting ready. With “just under 10 miles” to go today (Play by Play is apparently better at English than math), we knew we could have a leisurely morning and still make it to the hostel in time to catch the lunch shuttle into town for some “nutritious” food.

We all took off a little after 9. Pit Boss lead the way with me following him. Bunny Tracks and Play by Play were a bit behind deep in conversation. Bunny has taken to Play by Play to fulfill her need to mother. She wishes her own son was hiking the AT for the life lessons he could learn and the maturity he could gain. Play by Play is such a mature and fun kid to be around that everyone likes him. And maybe Bunny Tracks fulfills a “grandmother” hole that Play by Play has (or maybe just an extremely mature aunt).

The walk into town went very quickly. It was short sleeve weather and we were making great time. Ultimately, I became the slowest of the group. We didn’t have many uphills but I was running out of steam on the climbs. I don’t think I’m eating enough to fuel big pushes (plus I knew we still had a bag of M&Ms left and I hate to enter a town with excess chocolate).

We made it to Uncle Johnny’s just past noon. The shuttle into the AYCE pizza buffet didn’t leave until 12:30, so we were golden. Geo was in the outfitter as we were registering. Pit Boss and Play by Play weren’t planning on staying here, so they found a different shuttle to run them around town. We joined Geo, Summit, Little Blue, Bear Foot, and the Professor on the shuttle. We found out that Little Blue is going to have to get off the trail for a week or so to rest his ankle.

After lunch, we did a little resupply shopping at Dollar General before the return shuttle showed up. When we got back to the hostel, Bear Foot and I decided to borrow bikes and make a beer run. This is where I discovered Bear Foot’s propensity to fall down. We were riding along talking when he just disappeared. I looked back and he was on the street with the bike laying on top of him. It looks like it would be best for me to carry all the beer back (when/if we make it to the gas station).

Geo got to fulfill a lifelong dream and shave someone’s head—mine. Don’t ever fall asleep in a Hiker Hostel. It’s fitting that the guy with the longest hair shaves the head of the person with the least amount of hair. It was almost 70 outside when we went out for supper and a run to Wal-Mart, but I felt a need for a fleece beanie.

Pit Boss and Play by Play barely recognized me when they got back to the hostel. They had taken longer to run their errands than they had anticipated so we were able to talk them into spending the night with us since we had a four person room to ourselves. We could have gotten by with just a nearo today and hit the trail again tomorrow, but we haven’t had a day off since Hot Springs and we’d like a full day of rest tomorrow. We’ve gotten almost all of our chores done (including purchasing Vagisil—for chafing! What did you think?)

EFG

Today will go down in history for a couple of firsts—our earliest start AND our longest mileage to date on the AT. We didn’t have much choice on the first because the only shuttle returning to the trail was leaving at 7 which we had to make (unless we wanted to hike an additional 2 miles to the trail, and we didn’t). There were 9 people on the van and who do you think was last to hit the trail? Even so, we were hiking by 7:20.

We had a 6.5 mile uphill stretch before we got to the top of Big Bald. You have to give ATweather.com credit—they are never even close to right. It was supposed to be in the mid 50s with a slight chance of rain. It started out looking like this might be a possibility, but by the time we got to Big Bald, we had 40mph winds, fog with close to zero visibility, and temperatures barely above freezing. We stopped to absorb what we heard were amazing views all the way back to the Smokies. What we got was a grey wall about 10’ from us.

In spite of the weather and uphill, we managed to maintain a 2mph pace all the way to Bald Mountain Shelter where we had lunch with Lady Bug and Stickers. This shelter was one of the dirtiest that we have come across so far. Normally, we might be inclined to eat inside to get out of the wind, but it was so dirty we chose to eat at the table outside and stay in the wind. Today was Stickers’ mom birthday as well as Bunny’s brother’s so let me take the time to with Mike and “Momma Stickers” a very happy birthday.

After lunch, we still made decent time, but not as good. The trail after the shelter was more like a highway with lots of great camping spots and downed trees. I could imagine this as a very happening spot in a few weeks when the March bubble makes it to here. Not Today and Zs had told us to expect a lot of downed trees along the trail. We were surprised to find the trail completely clear. As we rounded a corner, we could hear a couple of people talking. It was a couple of trail maintenance workers (a father and son team). The dad has been a volunteer for over 26 years and actually help build a lot of reroutes in the area in times past. There are over 20,000 volunteers who do maintenance on this trail each and every year. They cumulatively put in hundreds of thousands of hours in to make it possible for us to thru-hike this trail on “our own.” This is the best trail magic we run into—the invisible keepers of the trail.

Stickers and Lady Bug quickly caught up with us after lunch. We hiked together for several miles to day and took a break at Whistling Gap to grab some water. There were a couple of families there sitting around a campfire. They offered us some food but we did the most unusual thing—we turned it down since we were coming into a resupply and had plenty of food to last us. It was here that Lady Bug did the most amazing thing I have ever seen a person do.

Women do tend to do mesmerizing things in front of guys. They can take off their bras without removing their shirt, but this doesn’t hold a candle to Lady Bug. She unzipped her waist belt, and, pulled out an open bag of M&Ms that was almost full. She offered me the bag. I was dumbfounded. I cannot fathom opening a bag of M&Ms (any size) and not finishing the bag. I’ve always thought the resealable bag for M&Ms was the dumbest, most useless invention of our times.

We all took off and headed to Spivey Gap (including the two families). When we made it down to the road, Rambling Rose was there doing trail magic. We all grabbed a bite to give us energy (I chose some peanut butter cheese crackers and Bunny went for a protein bar). Traveler was also there. He had gone further than he planned but not as far as he had hoped. He decided to call it a day at a little over 13 miles. He was waiting on a shuttle to pick him up and take him to Uncle Johnny’s Hostel in Erwin so he could catch up with Joe Kool and Domatello. I’m glad that he is listening to his body.

We only had just under 5 miles to go to the shelter. Stickers said goodbye and was off like a shot. Of everyone we left with this morning, Lady Bug and Stickers were the only other ones close to us that we had seen all day. Everyone else was 15-30 minutes ahead of us by now. A few more speedsters from the March bubble had passed us today when we had taken a short trail up to some exposed rocks with great afternoon views. We tried to convince them to take the short side trip and soak in the beauty, but they were too focused on miles and speed.

It took us almost 3 hours to do the final 4.7 miles. We got into the shelter just before 7 but at least we made the miles in daylight. The shelter was full and 3 tents were already up beside it. We had walked past the water source almost 1/4 mile before the shelter so I had to go back before we could eat. We had a very pleasant evening talking with everyone as we set up camp and cooked supper. The day had warmed up as predicted and it looked like we were going to have a comfortable night for a change. I hung our bear bags by moonlight then went to bed.

EFG

We rented a heater for the little cabin we have. It helped to get the temperature all the way up to 47 inside (there isn’t any insulation in the cabins). It was nice enough that we didn’t have to use our quilts in the double sleeping bag. In fact, we didn’t even have to zip the sleeping bag all the way up to stay warm. It’s always a big plus if you wake up and don’t see your breath.

There were seven of us on the 8a shuttle back to Devil Fork Gap: Stickers, Lady Bug, Little Blue, Grape Stomper, Dirty R, Bunny Tracks, and me. We all started within a couple days of each other back in February yet we always managed to not run into Little Blue until about a week ago. He managed to hobble down the trail late last night and Dirty R borrowed Sarah’s car to pick him up.

The plan is for the Stickers, Lady Bug, and Bunny Tracks to slack pack today. Since I don’t believe in slack packing (for me), I am choosing to “summer pack.” It’s a fine moral hair I am splitting, but in a few weeks, I will be sending home our winter gear. I chose to hike today NOT carrying the gear I will be sending home. It’s important to note, I AM NOT SLACK PACKING.

We were all hiking by 8:30, a rather early start for us. When we got to the trailhead, Pit Boss and Play by Play were just crossing the road. We caught up with them and shared trail gossip trying to find out where two missing people are. Namely, Patches and Bear Foot aka Baby Bear Face aka Edward Plastic Hands. We have lost sight of them and were wondering if they might have possibly found each other. It was determined that Bear Foot caught up with Geo and Summit and Patches camped about 8 miles back last night—still no love connection even with everyone working so hard to make our dreams come true. It’s a long trail, we still have time to work on it.

Dirty R, Grape Stomper, and Little Blue quickly fell behind the rest of us. It was speculated they might be doing a little pain reduction therapy since Dirty R’s knee is hurting a bit as well as Little Blue’s ankle.

It looked like a beautiful day, sun shining and clear skies, but it was cold. We got the illusion of warmth climbing up from Devil Gap, but as soon as we got to the ridge line, the winds kicked in and we froze. The north side of the mountain was only just above freezing with a strong, biting wind while the south side would offer a little sun warmth. We encountered very little snow until we got near the summit and then it was only patchy (not Patches).

We hiked as a group of six most of the morning, but eventually broke up into our normal pairs. We all met back at the shelter for lunch. I’ve noticed that most of the twenty somethings all listen to radio, or music, or an audiobook—they can’t seem to unplug. I still look forward to the quiet of nature and just my own belittling internal voice to keep me company. Sometimes, if I’m really lucky, I can get the prick to shut up for a bit.

The shelter was only 2.4 miles from Sam’s Gap. Play by Play and Pit Boss were the first to leave to catch a shuttle into town to resupply. We exchanged phone numbers with them. Play by Play is the 14 year old hiking the trail and is a very smart and personable young guy. He’s a lot of fun to be around. I talked with him quite a bit while hiking today (with my summer pack—not slack packing!)

We took our time coming down and stopped for some scenic overlooks of Sam’s Gap below. Even with the breaks and stops, we made it down to the gap in 5 1/2 hours making our hiking pace a little over 1.75 mph—pretty good for us. I am looking forward to when it’s warm enough that we will be able to maintain and exceed this pace all the time.

There was a potential for some trail magic when we got down to the parking lot. There was a guy with a pickup waiting to offer rides to passing hikers. He asked us if we knew Gazelle because he had given her a ride in Gatlinburg with the group she was traveling with then (and still is as far as we know). We told him that we did know her, but she is probably a few days ahead. He offered to give us a ride to the hostel, but Sarah pulled up just then.

We were the first ones at the hostel today other than Strider and Traveler. I thought Joe Kool would be the first one injured in their group because he was complaining about his Achilles’ tendon. Traveler pulled something in his thigh which made it painful for him to walk and ended up taking a day off to partially recover. He’s already talking about how fast he can cover the 24 miles between him and the other two amigos. I hope he doesn’t push too hard too fast and do some real damage.

Lady Bug made us dinner tonight while we all sat around in the house talking and taking turns in the massaging chair. Play by Play managed to discover some new settings for the chair that we weren’t aware of which made the line extend out longer than last night even though fewer people are staying here tonight.

Tomorrow, we all catch the 7a shuttle back up to Sam’s Gap with the goal of hiking just over 18 miles so we have a short day into Erwin. As everyone knows, our plans never fail.

EFG

note to self: get some Vagisil in Erwin

Last night sealed the deal—we are hostel bound. We stayed warm and dry, but I am tired of the cold. On the bright side, we couldn’t see our breath when we stuck our heads out of our bags in the morning. As usual, I got up first and made my lovely wife hot tea and scrambled eggs for breakfast (even though I don’t like chicken abortions, I sucked it up and boiled the water).

It was another frozen trail/slushy trail kind of day. I am tired of snow. I am tired of ice. I am tired of cold. I am tired of fog. I am tired of politics. I am tired of being tired. I am tired.

Today’s excursions includes a trip over Big Butt Mountain. We passed through an open field where hikers have been adding their names to the snow on the side of the trail. Of course, we added ours: Bunny with a few footprints after, and Easily (crossed out and replaced with Best) Forgotten. Other than a short visit by the crack on top of Big Butt, our primary goal remained making it to Devil Fork Gap to catch a ride to the hostel—so much slush after the summit on the way down.

Once the slush gave way and the trail started to dry out, our spirits lifted a bit. I was actually thinking that maybe we could skip the shelter, after all, the temperature was almost 50. Mother Nature, being a bit vindictive at times, decided to let me know she was not going to let go of winter too quickly and promptly lowered the temperature back to 35 with just a single ridge crossing.

A little less than a mile from Flint Mountain Shelter, we saw a fly hanging in the tree with a lot of blue showing. No doubt, it had to be Little Blue. His pack is blue. His shirt is blue. His pants are blue. His filter is blue. Everything he owns is blue. Ironically, his favorite color is not blue, it’s indigo. He has been having ankle issues and decided to take a zero out here in the woods rather than make it to the hostel last night. He’s been hiking with Dirty R, Grape Stomper, Bear Foot, Geo, and Summit but they are scattering a bit.

We headed up to Flint Mountain Shelter to wait for Lady Bug and Stickers to catch up. Poncho and Switch were there having a bite to eat. After a bit of talk, we discovered we had already met them at the diner the other day in Hot Springs. Poncho is a high energy guy. He never stops moving. He made all of his own gear just because he has too much energy. We talked with him for quite a while while we waited for the other two to show.

When Stickers and Lady Bug showed up, they grabbed a bite to eat and made arrangements for us to be picked up at the gap. We covered the 2.7 miles in an hour down to the gap—our fastest hour to date. The woman that owns the hostel was unavailable so she sent her neighbor to pick us up. Mike took us on a little tour of the area including a brand new state park in the area.

We got to the hostel and immediately liked it. It was clean and brand new. As soon as we got our showers, we decided we would stay another night. Everyone decided we should slack pack tomorrow, but this goes against my hiking standards. I have no problem staying another night, but I have got to carry my pack the whole way. It’s kind of a CCD issue with me.

EFG

Stickers arrived after I had already gone to bed. I heard some people say his name so I got up to see him. He and Lady Bug hiked almost 20 miles to catch up today. They thought they would probably catch up with us in another day or two (knowing that Bunny never sticks to a plan).

While everyone was getting ready, we started getting to know everyone. Traveler was sleeping next to me last night. He is from New Zealand and lives in London. He’s got a 6 month visa to do the trail. Traveling with him are Joe Kool and Domatello. They are trying to put in long days and they are running the trail (they were the ones running to the shelter yesterday). Joe Kool was complaining about his Achilles’ tendon. Bunny suggested they slow down and enjoy the trail more. That was pretty much the end of the conversation.

We’ve noticed that several people that started out doing big miles are feeling the consequences. There were four older guys called “the Four Horsemen” who hit the trail doing between 20 and 25 miles every day. What remains of “the Four Horsemen” are well past Damascus—there are only two left. What kind of Apocalypse can there be with only two Horsemen? Bottom line, there are a lot of people that end up getting obsessed with big miles and not paying attention to their bodies. They are having trail ending injuries.

Leave it to Americans to take a pleasure trip and turn it into a competition. The people from the front end of the bubble that are catching us are the biggest competitors in the field. I admit to getting caught up in the furor. Lots of times I feel like we need to be moving faster as people continue to pass us up but then I look at the people we are seeing on a near daily basis—they are the same people that started the trail within a day or two of us and are taking their time and enjoying themselves.

The last ones on the trail were not us—it was Stickers and Lady Bug. They were still in the tent when we left. A couple miles of snow and slush hiking caught us up with Little Blue and Bear Foot; they were just getting out of their hammocks. Little Blue told us there was a bad weather bypass ahead for Big Firescald Knob.

We got to the trail split and had a disagreement. Bunny has a very loose definition of bad weather. She interprets snow on the ground, freezing rain, upper 20s, and 40 mph winds as bad weather. I call that an average day on the trail in NC. I didn’t want to, but Bunny gets her way, down the blue blaze weather bypass we went.

There were only two sets of footprints on the bypass trail. The views to the west started opening up. I started getting stomach cramps thinking about the fact that we are supposed to be hiking the AT and here I am on a blue blaze trail. I thought we might as well call Chris Jones and ask him what date he wants us there—we’ll yellow blaze it and catch a bus. We’ve started down the cheating path; where does it end?

I started bugging Bunny about the views. After a half mile, she told me to just go back and risk my life to walk the exposed ridge (thinking she was shaming me). I said see you at the shelter and turned around. I can only assume that I made it successfully across the ridge. Ignoring the copy of “Handbook for the Recently Deceased” I found at the next shelter with the bookmark saying not to call “Beetlejuice” three times, nothing unusual happened.

There were a few icy spots on the ridge, but, overall, there wasn’t anything too terribly frightening about the ridge walk. I did have to “butt” walk in a few places to make it down but the view payback more than compensated for any inconvenience. It turned out to be the most exciting mile and a half of the trail I’ve walked so far. Bunny made the right decision for her (and me). She would have been crying in a couple places even though she has actually walked in worse places. I would have been worried about her constantly.

When I got to the trail junction at the north end of the ridge, there was a scrawled message in the snow for me. “EFG, Br sheltie.” I was confused. Am I supposed to bring a sheltie with me? Bunny later claimed that she was saying “EFG, BT to the shelter.” In the mean time, I wasted a half an hour looking for a stray dog to catch.

The worst part of the trail was the final bit of walking to the shelter. The wind was whipping me mercilessly and pelting me with ice. There was no wind on the “exposed ridge” but now that I was on the regular trail, I was miserable. I got to the shelter as Bunny was so concerned that she actually stood up and stuck her head out of the shelter to look up the trail to see if I was coming yet. Little Blue had offered to send a young hiker out looking for me, but she declined the offer saying it wasn’t necessary unless I was 72 hours delayed.

We ended up with a full shelter tonight (only 6 of us including Lady Bug and Stickers who made it in a little after 5) and three tents outside. There were two other thru-hikers in the shelter we hadn’t met yet, Hokie Pokie and Donut. It was so cold that we were all in our bags well before dark—everyone but Stickers who was waiting for the rain to stop so he could hang his bear bags. It didn’t let up until after he hung his bags.

It was another night down in the 20s with the added bonus of rain. We decided we had a hostel in the plans for tomorrow night. Little Blue and Bear Foot told us of one that will pick us up at Devils Fork Gap. Tonight we only dream of a dry warm night; tomorrow we live it.

One final thought for the day; today is Bunny Tracks’ dad birthday—Happy Birthday Bunny Papa Bill.

EFG

We now know why Three Eagles Outfitters in Franklin, NC had such a great deal on the Big Agnes sleeping pads we bought from them—the pads are discontinued and have no R rating at all. We froze our asses off last night. We tried putting our rain coats under our hips to get a little more insulation but it didn’t really help. The hot water bottle wasn’t enough to melt the ground beneath us. Cold night = sleep deprived Bunny = slow hiking with lots of complaints.

Being the fantastic, loving husband that I am, I got up early, fetched water, got the bear bags down, and made hot coffee with carnation mix for Bunny to have while she was still in the tent. I even went so far as to make her breakfast in bed (yet again) to try and place her in a better mood. As usual under these circumstances, I delivered the hot drink and food to the tent, bowed, and backed slowly away not making any sudden movements or any eye contact.

Even with my efforts to appease with my early rise, we got a late start. It was already after 9:30 which means a change in our 6 day plan to Erwin. We said goodbye to Yukon Rasputon (a local guy that was camping on the trail and greeting hikers. We met him last night as we were going to bed. He said he was up there doing magic but we didn’t find out until later that he was roasting marshmallows for hikers—-we didn’t get any, just like we didn’t get any t-shirts from Three Eagle Outfitters in Franklin, NC) and headed on to the next shelter. I was trying to avoid admitting that our plans were gone to shit.

The trail was slick and slow going, again. It was ice today. Not too far down the trail, we saw Swass and Flo holding Remmy up and working on his feet. They were only applying mush wax, but Remmy was afraid it might have been a nail cutting and he wanted none of that. Once the wax was on, he was cool.

As the trail winds around the mountains, it gets exposed to more sun in places and snow would melt completely off of the trail. After a couple of hours and about 4 miles, we came upon a section that was dry. We stopped for a snack and stayed for a nap. I slept in the trail from the sleep deprivation we experienced from the cold last night. I woke myself up from hearing heavy breathing and drool—it was a good nap. Bunny said she wasn’t enjoying the Break as much as I was and she was moving on.

We have a new plan with plenty of new justification. We have decided to cut back from 15.5 miles to 8.6 miles today. We will do 14 miles tomorrow—now the justification; we figure that Stickers and Lady Bug got a late start yesterday so they must have camped part way up to the shelter. They will also have modified their mileage for today so they will cut off the second shelter. We will regroup at Little Laurel Shelter.

We were the first at shelter well before 4. We claimed our spot in the shelter and started to get organized. A little later, an ex military guy in his early 60s named Trek arrived. He has thru-hiked the AT 8 times already and is on his 9th go. Before we were done cooking, another group of 5 people arrived running to the shelter. They had passed 19 other hikers running down the trail so they could get spots in the shelter. Two of the guys were a complaining a bit about tight tendons and other issues from long distance and fast hiking.

One of the guys said he had eaten dinner last night with Stickers and Lady Bug at Elmer’s Hostel in Hot Springs. It looks like they took another zero. The shelter area started filling up with more and more hikers. The front edge of the bubble has caught up with us. With any luck, there is a gap between the fast movers and the rest of the rabble. We’re hoping that everyone spreads out quite a bit and we can make Damascus ahead of the slow movers.

Everyone sat around talking about how amazing the experience is hiking the AT. One kid made a comment about how interesting it is that he is hanging out and becoming friends with people his grandparents’ age (while glancing from Bunny Tracks to Trek and avoiding eye contact with me). I know this is true because in a previous life we used to hang with a group of old women our grandparents’ age who would get boozed up every Friday evening—the alcohol greatly helped their normal dispositions.

EFG