tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30164879311370592872024-03-05T14:27:38.467-05:00Endless Footpath<center><b><i>A footpath for those who seek fellowship with the wilderness.</i><br><br>Springer to Katahdin<br>
2,184 in 2014</b><br><br>
Chase is an Eagle Scout with a ton of backpacking experience and I am brand new to the world of hiking and backpacking. Along for the trail is our trusty 4 year-old Australian Shepherd, aptly named Sheila. Follow for gear reviews, insights into preparing for a long-distance hike, and information on hiking with a dog.</center>Kelley http://www.blogger.com/profile/06556167551563964184noreply@blogger.comBlogger66125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3016487931137059287.post-74416228209443864662014-07-05T12:36:00.001-04:002014-07-05T12:36:53.215-04:00Days 111 - 130: New Jersey, New York, Connecticut<b style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Day 111: PA 309 to George W. Underbridge Shelter (12.7 miles)</b><br />
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<b style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Day 112: Dubya Shelter to Leroy Smith Shelter (16.7 miles)</b></div>
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<b style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Day 113: Leroy Smith Shelter to Delaware Water Gap, PA; Church of the Mountain hostel (20.2 miles)</b></div>
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<b style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Day 114: Zero in DWG </b></div>
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<b style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Day 115: DWG to Rattlesnake Spring Campsite (13.2 miles)</b><br />
<b style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Day 116: Rattlesnake Spring to US 206; High Point Motel (14.9 miles)</b><br />
<b style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><u>Day 117: NJ 23 to Murray Property Cabin (7.1 miles)</u></b><br />
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Days 111 - 116 were some of the wettest days we have had so far. Having Cooper back was great, and Cowgirl carried on from DWG when we decided to zero. We traversed the Palmerton Superfund Site on Day 112, getting the steep scramble out of Lehigh Gap out of the way early. This was the worst tick day that we have had! We spent 2 hours at lunch picking a hundred ticks off of Sheila, and another 2 hours that night at the shelter. The rain started that night and the 20.2 miles into DWG was one of the toughest days we've had. I was simply fed up with the rocks, and the rain made everything slippery and dangerous. Surprisingly enough, it did not rain during our zero in DWG. This was probably our favorite trail town so far! $2.50 hot dog and pie anyone? We hung out with a great group of thru's and even got to slackpack to the Mohican Outdoor Center the next day. The rain didn't want to quit on day 116, so we pulled off at Culver's Gap and got into the High Point motel to dry out and recoup. It wasn't supposed to rain until around 4:30p on day 117, so we hit the trail around noon and booked it to the Murray Property. We ended up getting there with plenty of time to spare and enjoyed a lovely evening to ourselves watching the rain come down.<br />
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<b style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Day 118: Murray Property to NJ 94; Appalachian Motel (18.9 miles)</b><br />
<b style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Day 119: NJ 94 to Wildcat Shelter (17.1 miles)</b><br />
<b style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Day 120: Zero at Wildcat Shelter</b><br />
<b style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Day 121: Zero at Wildcat Shelter</b><br />
<b style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Day 122: Wildcat to Fingerboard Shelter (14.3 miles)</b><br />
<b style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Day 123: Fingerboard to West Mountain Shelter (8.4 miles)</b><br />
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<b style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Day 124: West Mountain to Fort Montgomery, NY (7 miles)</b></u><br />
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We caught word from Cowgirl that she and Chef were getting a room at the Appalachian Motel in Vernon, NJ, so we decided to take them up on their offer to join. We got in early enough to enjoy a couple of movies and to resupply in town. This section of NJ was mainly a boardwalk hike, so the going was easy, and one of my favorite sections of trail. On day 119, we entered NY with a bang! It was a steep climb early in the morning, followed by rocks in the afternoon. To get up to Prospect Rock, we had to climb a ladder and Sheila, being a butthead, decided just to throw herself at the mountain rather than to wait for instruction and help from the two of us. By the time we got into camp that night, she was limping on her left forepaw. We decided that we would watch her the next morning and see how she was feeling before pressing on. The next day she was still limping, so we decided to zero to give her the rest she needed. We spent the day hanging out, reading <i>Harry Potter</i> and eating. Sheila was still limping the next day, though it seemed a lot better. We decided to play it safe and take another zero. At this point I was suspecting Lyme or another tick-borne disease, but I wanted to wait and see. Maybe she had just outdone herself when we got into NY and just needed to rest. We decided to move on Day 122 to Fingerboard Shelter. We were running low on food and Sheila seemed to be doing better. This was actually one of the tougher days on the trail, terrain-wise. Before entering Harriman State Park, you come down this section of trail called Agony Grind. It was steep and rocky, and very treacherous. It was slow going and we were absolutely beat by the end of the day. I felt bad for pushing Sheila through this, but she seemed fine while hiking, just stiff after we sat for a while in camp. Fingerboard was a really beautiful shelter in a great setting. We met some section hikers at Fingerboard Shelter, a guy named Eric, his son, and his son's friend, and also recieved some trail magic from Paddy-O in the form of beer, gatorade, and donuts. The next day we spent the morning chitchatting with Eric and the boy's and then made our way down to Lake Ticora for a couple of sodas and some snacks. While there, we watched dozens of swallows tending to their nests. I noticed that one nest was knocked down, and the baby birds were lying on the concrete. At first I thought they were dead, and I asked Ramen Shaman to move them to a place where they wouldn't be trampled underfoot by any of the beach-goers. But they were still alive! So we put them in a box and handed them to the staff at the front desk, hoping that the folks at the Trailside Zoo could so something about them. We hiked on to West Mountain, getting caught in a torrential downpour 2 miles from the shelter. We set up camp just after the clouds cleared and had one of the most picturesque campsites we could have hoped for. Sheila was still limping in camp, but it was a lot less noticable than it had been at Wildcat Shelter. The next day, we had only 7 miles into Bear Mountain/Fort Montgomery. The day was pretty easy. There were 400+ stone steps up to Bear Mountain, and probably 600+ down into the trailside zoo. These steps really aggrevated Sheila's leg, but thankfully we were taking another zero for the next 2 days to attend the wedding reception of Treefrog and Squirrel, a thru-hiker couple who were getting married on the trail!<br />
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<b style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Day 125: Zero; Treefrog and Squirrel's Reception</b><br />
<b style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Day 126: Zero in Danbury, CT</b><br />
<b style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Day 127: Bull's Bridge Rd to Mt. Algo Shelter (7.1 miles)</b><br />
<b style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Day 128: Mt. Algo to Pine Swamp Brook Shelter (17.3 miles)</b><br />
<b style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Day 129: Pine Swamp Brook to Fall's Village, CT; Bearded Woods Bunk-n-Dine (8.1 miles)</b><br />
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<b style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Day 130: Fall's Village to Salisbury, CT; Bearded Woods Bunk-n-Dine (7 miles)</b></u><br />
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The wedding reception was awesome! We picked up some outrageous matching outfits at Walmart (American flag tees and neon yellow running shorts) and rolled in a few minutes late, making one hell of an entrance. Treefrog and Squirrel were so ecstatic to see us all, and we were thrilled to be there! The Ramen Shaman and I were especially excited to give them our wedding present; a real white blaze that had flaked off of a down tree in NY. What a great party, and a night we will not soon forget! The next day, Red and Canadiahhh! got back on the trail at the Bear Mountain Bridge, while we decided to jump up to CT with Cowgirl. She had the rental car until Monday, so we took advantage and drove to a very affordable La Quinta in Danbury, CT. We hit the Eastern Mountain Sports to get Ramen Shaman some new shoes and ran into Reroute, Kristo, and Geared Up! They were there with a trail angel Dora the Explorer, who had hiked the PCT with Geared Up last year. The trail is completely unexpected sometimes! We caught some of the US v. Portugal game at the Outback and called it night. Leaving town has always been very difficult for us, and day 127 was no exception. Not only did we have to run a few last minute errands, we also had to return the rental car by 2pm. So we didn't get back on the trail until maybe 3pm. It was hot and humid, so the 7.1 miles to Mt. Algo shelter was perfectly fine by me! Reroute, Kristo, Geared Up, and Dora even showed up with a little trail magic and invited us to dinner! The stretch from Mt. Algo to Pine Swamp Brook shelter was tough, and the water at the shelter ended up being a pond, but Sheila seemed to be doing very well, with no signs of limping even after the tougher day. We planned to do 15 in Salisbury the next day, but I was schemeing a scheme to celebrate Ramen Shaman's 28th birthday at Bearded Woods, so we pulled off early at Fall's Village. Everyone ended up being at Bearded Woods! Cowgirl, Geared Up, Reroute, Princess, Rocketman, and some new faces, Honeybadger and A-Train. Hudson and Big Lu really treated us like family. Not only did we have an amazing BBQ dinner, but Big Lu made a surprise birthday cake for Ramen Shaman! We celebrated and laughed throughout the night. We loved Bearded Woods so much, we only made it to the next town the next day and just had to come back! Sheila had fun playing with their two dogs, Cedar and Glacier, and Big Lu spoiled her like the rest of us with sausage dog food and all sorts of goodies!</div>
Kelley http://www.blogger.com/profile/06556167551563964184noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3016487931137059287.post-14281748523081798832014-06-16T13:05:00.001-04:002014-06-16T13:05:50.308-04:00Days 107 - 110: Lost & Found<div><b style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Day 107: Windsor Furnace Shelter to Dan's Spring (12.7 miles) <i>Search Party Day 1</i></b></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">We stayed in bed a bit later than we wanted to but we didn't stress too much since we only planned to do about 14 miles to Allentown Shelter. We started out the day listening to Pomplamoose's Pharrell Mashup and dancing down the trail. We hiked up to Pulpit Rock and drew a hopscotch board on the rocks, just to make the hikers behind us laugh a little. The day was pretty rocky overall, and the going was slow. Around noon, we received a text from Cowgirl saying that Cooper had run off after some deer near Dan's Spring and hadn't come back yet.</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">We stopped for lunch at Eckville Shelter around 3 and talked about Cooper. He had scurried off before after squirrels and deer, but he had always come back. Just outside of Damascus, Cooper came sneaking up on us out of the woods about a mile from where Cowgirl was camped. All in all, we didn't think too much about his running off. We figured we would get up to Dan's Spring and he would come bounding out of the woods to greet us. </span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">We climbed up to Dan's Pulpit calling for Cooper. It was slow going due to the rocks and boulders. We the arrived at a blue blaze trail that led off to the east. We assumed this was the Dan's Spring trail since the guide made no mention of a trail between Dan's Pulpit and Dan's Spring. Cowgirl had said she was camped out near the spring, so we headed down the steep trail to meet up with her. </span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">As soon as we started down, I had a feeling that something was wrong. We were going down too steeply for too long. No thru-hiker would have gone down that trail. I eventually voiced my concern and stopped while The Ramen Shaman continued on down. About 20 minutes later, I got a text from him saying he was turning around. I hiked back up the steep trail and waited for him at the AT. According to the altimeter, we had climbed down over 400ft! What a waste of 40 minutes! Damn you AWOL!</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">So we start back down the AT and come to the actual Dan's Spring, which is marked with a sign (and definitely more than 0.6 miles from Dan's Pulpit). It's about 5 o'clock, and we learn from Cowgirl that Cooper has been missing since 10am. I start to worry. </span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">We try to keep the mood light as Chase walks up and down the trail, calling for Cooper while I set up the tent. It's starting to get dark, there is rain in the forecast and with Cooper no where to be found, Chase and I decide to stay and help Cowgirl tomorrow. We decide that Katahdin can wait. We all talk about hiking down past the shelter the next day to see if he continued the journey north alone. Cowgirl is quieter than normal with her best friend missing in action. </span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">That night I quietly whispered to Chase all my fears about Cooper being missing as the rain fell softly on the tent. I tell him I would be a wreck. He says that there is nothing on the mountain that is a real threat to him and after thinking about it for a minute, I agree. Bears don't eat little dogs. We haven't heard coyotes. Snakes aren't necessarily a threat unless he stumbles upon them by accident. There is nothing in the woods to get him. </span></div><div><div><b><i style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></i></b></div><div><b style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Day 108: Dan's Spring to PA 309; then to Footbridge just past Hawk Mountain Rd (8.4 miles) <i>Search Party Day 2</i></b></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">None of us slept well and we were all up early. I felt like I heard his little bell outside the tent all night. Cowgirl hiked out of camp before us and we agreed to meet at the shelter in another 4 miles. I decided to leave a note about Cooper on the tree by the campsite to let other hikers who come through the area to know to be on the lookout for a little brown dog. </span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">We hiked over rocks and boulder fields calling for Cooper. We were still hopeful that he was in the area. When we arrived at the shelter, Cowgirl was there and we took the initiative to call some local animal shelters and post on Facebook about him. She decided that we had done all we could do by putting notices up and calling out for him. She decided that we should just continue hiking north. Again, she left the shelter before us and said she was going to get water at the B&B in another 4 miles. </span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The hike to PA 309 and the B&B was easy and hard. The terrain was an old road bed, which made the walking easy, but it was hard to leave the area in which Cooper was last seen. I wasn't sure we were doing the right thing. We crossed the busy highway and hiked for another 20 minutes before I broke down and had to stop. My legs felt like jello and my stomach was in knots. We sat down at a campsite and texted Cowgirl to see how she was doing. She said she felt wrong crossing the road. She came walking up to the campsite a few minutes later and we all shed a few tears and then came up with a plan.</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">We would hike back to the B&B and get a shuttle back to the Eckville shelter. We would camp where Cowgirl had last camped with Cooper at the footbridge at the foot of Dan's Pulpit. We would hike up to the Spring and back just to see. </span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Just as we were debating shuttle drivers at the B&B, Dad, an AT hiker who had to get off due to injury and is now offering shuttles in the Hamburg/Port Clinton area showed up to drop off a pack for a guy who was slack-packing. He would take us for a quick resupply and take us back to Hawk Mountain Rd for a reasonable fee. He also offered to stop by the Eckville Shelter and put a note in the log about Cooper. </span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">We stopped at a little market and picked up some supplies. Cowgirl bought us some hot dogs and potatoes so we could eat well that night. </span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">We hiked out to the campsite and set up our tents. The forecast called for a lot of rain that evening, and we worried about the scared little dog, all wet and pathetic in the woods. Chase and Cowgirl decided to hike up to Dan's Spring while I stayed in camp and collected firewood. </span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">I would occasionally call out to Cooper while I worked on the fire and making baked potatoes and hot dogs. They returned around 9pm just as it started to rain. They were both convinced after hiking the terrain again that Cooper would not have come back over all the rocks and boulders. It just didn't make sense. We ate as cheerily as we could and decided to camp one more night at Dan's Spring and search the surrounding woods, just in case he got caught on something. Cowgirl thought that he would be able to get out of his pack in case he did get stuck, but we couldn't be sure. </span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">It poured all night, and again we didn't sleep well. </span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><b style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Day 109: Footbridge Campsite to Dan's Spring (3.1 miles) <i>Search Party Day 3</i></b></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">We had 1.6in of rain that night. Cowgirl left camp early again and we followed her up the mountain, calling for Cooper. After coming over those rocks up to Dan's Pulpit, I too felt that Cooper would not have gone back that way. It just didn't make sense. The Ramen Shaman had run to the Eckville Shelter that morning to throw away our trash from the night before and he ran into a hiker we had met in the Shenandoah's named Sunbear. He seemed interested in wanting to help and said he would meet up at the Dan's Spring campsite to help us look for Cooper. </span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">When we arrived there later in the afternoon, Sunbear was there waiting and Cowgirl's stuff was sitting by the firepit. We waited a little while for Cowgirl to show up, and when she didn't we sent her a text to let her know we were waiting for her and that we wanted to coordinate before wandering off into the woods to look for Cooper. Turns out, she had already wandered into the woods and couldn't get back to the campsite! With our voice guidance, she made her way back. Can you imagine?! Cowgirl and Cooper lost! </span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">We agreed to have Cowgirl stay in camp in case Cooper showed up, and the three of us would branch off perpendicular to the trail and bushwhack in an effort to find some trace of the little dog.</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">When you step off the trail, it almost seems to disappear behind you. You can head in a straight line, turn around 180 degrees, and not be sure of the direction you came from. I used my phone to mark the location of the trail where I entered the woods and I made sure I was always within earshot of Chase. </span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Walking in the woods off trail proved to be very tiring. And the search seemed very overwhelming. While looking for Cooper, I couldn't help but to think of the hiker Inchworm that went missing in Maine last July. I felt like if I could be 10ft from him or some sign of him and never know it. I felt hopeless. </span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Chase and I regrouped at camp and waited for Sunbear. When he emerged from the woods, he seemed to have gone deeper into the woods than we had. He said that the mountain makes a very general slope downward and that there are dozens of deer paths leading into the fields at the base of the mountain. He postured that if he was a little dog, he would head down one of those deer paths and into civilization. Thinking about my experience in the woods, I had to agree. It was a very nice slope down into town. There was civilization not that far away from where we were camped. It was completely possible that he had left the mountain and made his way into town. </span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Sunbear left and we all felt a little better, even though we were still without Cooper. We set up camp for another night at Dan's Spring and decided that tomorrow for sure, we would continue north. We decided that it was up to Cooper to get found. </span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">We ended up camping with quite a little group that night. Reroute, Geared Up, Sisyfus, DaVinci, Dino, and Lady Moose showed up while I was down at the spring getting water. It was a nice night spent with great people, and I think the company really helped cheer up Cowgirl. </span></div><div><b><i style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></i></b></div><div><b style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Day 110: Dan's Spring to New Tripoli, then back to PA 309; Howard-Johnson in Allentown, PA (9.8 miles) <i>Search Party Day 4</i></b></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Again, Cowgirl was up super early and left before us. We again agreed to meet at the shelter for one last pow-wow. When we got there, we called a few more vets and animal clinics. We felt confident that we did everything we could do. We hiked on to the B&B and decided to get lunch there with the group we camped with last night. </span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Cowgirl spoiled us by buying us lunch. We ate and drank merrily and eventually decided we should get hiking if we were going to make it to the next shelter before dark. We crossed PA 309 with no regrets this time. We told ourselves that he would be picked up by somebody in town and we would get a phone call in a day or two. </span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">We hiked about 2 miles to the New Tripoli campsite and started hiking up and over some boulders. Cowgirl's phone rang and we all stopped to look at her. The look on her face told us that she didn't know the number and our hearts leapt. </span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"Hello?" She said, followed by "Are you kidding me?" She started crying. Chase and I cried out and started crying and laughing. Cooper had been found! He had wondered off the mountain into someone's garage! Just as we had suspected. :)</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">We sent Chase ahead to meet the guy, Josh, who was graciously driving out to drop Cooper off at the B&B. Cowgirl broke down a lot on the way back. She had been holding back for 3 days and was finally letting herself feel all of the stress and emotion. </span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">We got back to the B&B just as Josh and his family pulled up. Out jumped Cooper the dog, looking a little thin but very happy to see his mom! We told Josh the story of our past few days and took down their address to send them a thank you. We looked it up later and Cooper had traveled about 6.5 miles from the campsite at Dan's Spring! What a crazy little dog! We all felt so incredibly fortunate to have him back. </span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">We celebrated with a few beers and called Dad. We thought we should go into town and rest. Cooper seemed to be a bit shell-shocked and we knew hiking out wasn't an option. He ate and drank a bunch, and curled up in his mom's lap, happy to be safe and sound.</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div></div><div><i style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Cooper has been back on the trail for over a week now. He's made it through another state in that time! </i></div><div><i style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></i></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><i>We received a lot of negativity from the Internets about being irresponsible owners and some just plain mean comments regarding Cooper and bringing a dog on the trail in general. I stand by the fact that hiking the AT is not for every dog and not every hiker could handle the responsibility that comes with bringing a dog. Sheila and Cooper are having the time of their lives out here and they remain the number one priority on our hike. We know our dogs can handle it and that we can handle it. But mistakes were made and accidents happen. That being said, if you do choose to bring your dog it is </i><i>important to prepare yourself mentally for the possibility that your dog could be lost in the woods. It's just another thing on the long list of considerations one has to make regarding hiking long-distance with a dog. </i></span></div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-dsNUrnQmrzTZsxuuYdtqOa3Y1IwNX4eOvfckkdsvAEKR1HrS1kJFvc5Xf4IijmGCEEyP_b99MQkur45gOeLXWMaA4PZYyc9iLus8ngs1V8n_-axd-tJysue_QAIC6ucEwIUOxNTsUOQ/s640/blogger-image--187895216.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><font color="#000000"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-dsNUrnQmrzTZsxuuYdtqOa3Y1IwNX4eOvfckkdsvAEKR1HrS1kJFvc5Xf4IijmGCEEyP_b99MQkur45gOeLXWMaA4PZYyc9iLus8ngs1V8n_-axd-tJysue_QAIC6ucEwIUOxNTsUOQ/s640/blogger-image--187895216.jpg"></font></a></div>Kelley http://www.blogger.com/profile/06556167551563964184noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3016487931137059287.post-75515350835207122682014-06-13T19:37:00.002-04:002014-06-13T19:37:59.675-04:00Days 101 - 106: Enter Rocksylvania<b>Day 101: Clark's Ferry Shelter to Campsite on ridge (11.8 miles)</b><br />
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This was a hot and humid hike! We intended to get a little further, but a 2 hour lunch break impeded our progress. We ended up camping with a section hiker couple from Jacksonville, Alll Right and Half Left. They were pretty cool to talk to. Talk about a small world where we meet people from Jax in Pennsylvania on the AT! There was no water at this campsite so we ate cold and went to bed early. </div>
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We had spoken to a ridge runner at the Doyle in Duncannon who said that the rocks really start north of there. He wasn't kidding, but the rocks seemed like the type of rocks you find on top of any ridgeline in Virginia. I was skeptical. </div>
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<b>Day 102: Campsite to Spring, Campsite just before Rausch Shelter (12.8 miles)</b></div>
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Well, so much for an early morning! We finally got up around 9 or 10 and headed down to the spring at the bottom of the hill for brunch. We were done with this short & sweet day around 5pm when we set up camp next to Rausch Creek, which we learned is too acidic to sustain trout populations. To combat this, engineers installed these "filters" which diverts the creek water into a flow-through cistern filled with limestone so as to raise the pH of the water. The result is just a change of 1 or 2 pH units, but it allows brown and spotted trout to thrive downstream. The "spring" next to our campsite that fed into the stream was very rust-colored. We weren't sure if this was from too much iron in the water or some sort of nutrient imbalance. Anyway, we ended up camping out with Pooh Bear and Twizzler, and Cowgirl pushed on past the shelter. It was a quiet night. Still no horrendous fields of rocks. </div>
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<b>Day 103: Campsite to 501 Shelter (17.6 miles)</b></div>
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501 Shelter is famous for a few things. First and foremost, you can order pizza delivery. Secondly, there is a shower. These are the things that really matter to a thru-hiker. We left Rausch Gap a little later than we intended but the hiking was pretty easy. We crossed an old iron bridge at one point and made a tough climb up to the top of the next ridge. The mountains in Pennsylvania are really just parallel ridge lines, so the AT will follow one for a while and then jump to the next, resulting in easy hiking dotted with a few steep climbs and descents. This next ridge, Blue Mountain, was completely covered in poison ivy. Chase and I have never had a reaction to poison ivy, but the fear remains! Once we reached the 501 trail crossing, we jumped the gun and ordered some wings and a chicken parm sub. We waited at the parking lot for our food and ate there. We then carried our trash up to the shelter with the expectation that we would be able to dump our trash there. Alas, when we arrived we found a sign that welcomed pizza boxes but said pack out your own trash! We would have to carry our greasy styrofoam container with us into the next town. </div>
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<b>Day 104: 501 Shelter to Eagle's Nest Shelter (15.1 miles)</b></div>
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We saw a timber rattlesnake! That was the only exciting part of the day. The rest of it was rocky and awful. The trail so far in Pennsylvania seemed to be either sections of nice, flat, rock-free trail, or large boulders that you have to hop across, or small, sharp rocks that stick up out of the ground stabbing your feet to death, or a combination of small and medium sized rocks that <span style="font-family: inherit;">slow you way down and annoy you to no end. The rocks are really supposed to start getting bad after Port Clinton. My feet hurt a lot even with just this measly amount of rocks and I was worried that my overuse issue was coming back. We were excited about Port Clinton and the Cabela's to look for new footwear. The camping at the shelter was really nice, and we spent the evening bullshitting with the old guys; Gwalker, GreaseSpot, and Banter. </span></div>
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<b>Day 105: Eagle's Nest Shelter to Port Clinton, PA; Microtel in Hamburg, PA (9.0 miles)</b></div>
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The started out with me being annoyed at the lack of landmarks mentioned in the guide. Then we had a really steep descent into Port Clinton. A lady with 8 kids ranging in age from 5 to 19 asked me about Sheila and her breed. I told her if she wanted an aussie that they are great dogs but they need a lot of exercise and attention, and also she should consider rescuing one. She said they tried that and had to put the dog down because "it was crazy." I hope she never gets a dog. </div>
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Anyway, Cabela's came to pick us up and take us into Hamburg. That place is HUGE. We were expecting something the size of a Dick's Sporting Goods, but dayum! We then walked across to the 5 Guys Burgers and Fries to have lunch with Cowgirl and Pooh Bear, who had arrived in town the previous night. We then all went back to the Microtel to check in and have a beer with Cowgirl before she hit the trail again. One beer became a chorus of "una màs!" several times, and it was clear Cowgirl wasn't leaving town that. She ended up ordering The Ramen Shaman a pair of Ariat boots to hike in because she swears by the brand and also because she was drunk. Pooh Bear came with the two of us for a steak dinner, and Cheez-it picked out some new shoes; Merrel Moab Ventilator lowtops. Sleeping in a bed and having a shower is always awesome. </div>
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<b>Day 106: Port Clinton to Windsor Furnace Shelter (5.7 miles)</b></div>
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We were supposed to be out of town much much earlier, but Cheez-it decided her new boots were too narrow in the toe box. That's the trouble with these things; you never know how those shoes are going to fit until you wear them for a good long while and take them on the trail. I could tell just by walking across the street that they were too narrow. So it was back to Cabella's as everyone else hit the trail. After a few hours, I decided on a pair of Salomon XRMission trail-runners, and so far they have been great! We then had lunch at Cabella's and had to wait around until 2:30 before getting a ride back to the trail. We wasted more time at the post office in Port Clinton sorting through the dog food and sending home a few things. We actually started hiking around 3:30p. </div>
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The shelter was a little creepy. There were a few people sitting around, but none of them were planning to stay. We set up camp and started making dinner when we heard something crashing through the woods near camp. I saw a big black thing walk across the trail and quietly told Chase, "I think there is a bear over there." He got up while I held onto Sheila and chased it away, yelling and throwing sticks. I'm sure it was just going down for a drink of water at the spring. Regardless, we bear-bagged for the first time since North Carolina that night. </div>
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No rocks just yet, but that would soon change!</div>
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<i>The next 4 days were spent searching for Cowgirl's dog, Cooper. This was a really intensely stressful and emotional time for us, so I would like to do it justice by speaking about it in a separate post. We've been trying to keep our mileage up to stay on schedule for finishing at Katahdin by the first week of August, so I haven't had much energy to write but I will do my best to work on the next post throughout the week. </i></div>
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<i>Thank you to all our followers for your continued support! Be sure to check out our <a href="http://www.facebook.com/endlessfootpath" target="_blank">Facebook</a> page for more regular updates!</i></div>
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Kelley http://www.blogger.com/profile/06556167551563964184noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3016487931137059287.post-74353951098670816312014-05-31T06:51:00.002-04:002014-06-10T15:38:21.238-04:00100 Days<b style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Day 86: Zero day in Pittsburgh</b><br>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><b>Day 87: </b><b>Zero day in Pittsburgh</b></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><b>Day 88: </b><b>Zero day in Pittsburgh</b></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><b>Day 89: </b><b>Zero day in Pittsburgh</b></span></div>
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<b style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Day 90: Harper's Ferry to Crampton Gap Shelter (7.5 miles)</b></div>
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<b style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Day 91: Crampton Gap to Annapolis Rocks Campsite (14.1 miles)</b></div>
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<b style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Day 92: Annapolis Rocks to Raven's Rock Shelter (11.5 miles)</b></div>
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<b style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Day 93: Raven's Rock to Pen-Mar Park, Waynesboro, PA, Days Inn (4.6 miles)</b></div>
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<b style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Day 94: Pen-Mar Park to Tumbling Run Shelters (8.6 miles)</b></div>
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<b style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Day 95: Tumbling Run to Quarry Gap Shelters (12.2 miles)</b></div>
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<b style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Day 96: Quarry Gap to Pine Grove Furnace State Park Campground (16.9 miles) <i>Half-Gallon Challenge</i></b></div>
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<b style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Day 97: PGFSP to Little Dogwood Run (15.6 miles)</b></div>
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<b style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Day 98: Little Dogwood Run to stealth campsite near piped spring (17.3 miles)</b></div>
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<b style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Day 99: Campsite to Duncannon, PA, The Doyle Hotel (12.3 miles)</b></div>
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<b style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Day 100: The Doyle to Clark's Ferry Shelter (4.3 miles)</b></div>
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<b><i style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Hike recap...</i></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Our hike since returning to the trail has been awesome. Aside from having head colds, the terrain has been easy so our mileages have been rather consistent. We did a short day into Waynesboro to try to recover from our colds more quickly by spending a night in a warm bed and having a hot shower. The other short day was coming out of Duncannon because we didn't leave until 5pm due to a severe thunderstorm moving through the area. Our stay at the Doyle was amazing! The run-down old hotel definitely has some charm! Our attempt at the Half-Gallon Challenge was a bit pathetic. First, the General Store was closed so we couldn't participate in the "official" challenge, but the Ironmaster's hostel next door sold 1.75 quart containers of ice cream so we decided to make our own challenge. We decided to try and race each other which was a huge mistake! Eating ice cream very quickly is no fun at all, so we ended up eating half that night and half the next day. Our 98th day brought us through the Cumberland Valley and the quaint town of Boiling Springs just in time for their Memorial Day Parade. Sheila enjoyed the free eggs she yogi'd from the customers at Cafe 101, but she did not enjoy the 21 gun salute at the end of the parade. </span></div>
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<i><b style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Reflections on 100 days...</b></i></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Wow. 100 days! It seems like just yesterday we set out from Amicalola Falls in about 4 inches of snow and struggled to summit Springer Mountain before nightfall. I can still remember the feeling of the anticipation and excitement of what was to come. I remember being nervous of walking over to h the shelter to meet the other hikers at the end of our 8.8 mile day. I remember being really unsure of myself and unsure if I could really do the thing. The AT was a big and scary unknown. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Today, I'm a little more confident in who I am and why I'm out here, and I'm still excited about what's to come (New England!!! Whaaaa?!) The AT is still an unknown in many ways, but it also feels like home. Our 5x8 tent is the coziest little house we could ask for and walking the spine of Appalachia is the best commute. The AT has become the "real life," and everything else is referred to as the "before times." I'm confident we can summit Katahdin before having to head home and start the newest chapter of our lives. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The past 100 days have been marked by plenty of ups and downs (literally and figuratively), some of which I've documented in previous blog posts. It's hard to capture every moment out here to share with the world, but thinking back on these 100 days fills me with an immense feeling of joy and accomplishment. Hiking everyday for 11 hours a day is hard work. Sometimes you're rewarded with a great view or particularly nice terrain, but more often than not you seem to be trudging up and down pointless mountains over snowy, slushy, muddy, rocky, root-y, or uneven terrain. It's painful and exhausting more often than not. Hiking the AT is not about finding happiness in every step, though for us there is an inherent happiness in the hike. For me it's more about finding joy in the personal growth I have experienced which has stemmed from pushing my physical and mental limits and stepping outside my comfort zone. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">There is a quote I often see on cheesy home decor products that says, <b>"Life is not measured by the number of breaths you take but by the number of moments that take your breath away" </b>and I have found it to be so incredibly true. For over 100 days now I've been able to wake up alongside the most loving and kind man and our silly dog in a little tent in the woods with the biggest grin on my face, and it continues to take my breath away. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">On on! To Katahdin! </span></div>
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Kelley http://www.blogger.com/profile/06556167551563964184noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3016487931137059287.post-60449030155647014352014-05-20T18:26:00.001-04:002014-05-20T18:27:57.298-04:00"Psychologically" HalfwayHarper's Ferry is touted as the "psychological" halfway point of the Appalachian Trail. If you look at a map of the AT and you pointed to the visual middle of the trail, your finger would land damn near Harper's Ferry, WV but this isn't why it is considered the half-way point. The actual 2014 AT midpoint is somewhere just north of a woods road at mile number 1092.65, whereas Harper's Ferry is situated around mile 1019. But Harper's Ferry is celebrated and will continue to be celebrated as a major milestone for a few reasons. By this point in an AT thru-hike, a person has endured countless hardships, whether that be injury, inclement weather, the loss of a hiking partner or group, or some combination of all three. The Appalachian Trail Conservancy headquarters also resides in Harper's Ferry and many a thru-hiker delight in having their photos taken outside of the building. The ATC keeps photo books dating back to the '70s full of hiker portraits.<br>
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We were beyond ecstatic to arrive in fabled Harper's Ferry (albeit by car). Our shuttle driver, Strings, parked behind the building and we four walked up the steps and opened the creaky screen door, letting it slam behind us. I don't know what I was really expecting from the small, whitewashed building, but I can tell you I was on the verge of tears. My eyes instantly settled on an aged wooden plank in the back of the room. The old Katahdin sign was beautiful and didn't seem real at all. <i>We are at the ATC! They are going to take our picture! We're thru-hikers!</i><br>
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We were soon standing out front trying to keep Sheila still as the volunteer fiddled with the camera. She took a few different shots of us and we then followed her inside to watch the photo print and fill out the required information. While we were waiting, we spoke with another volunteer behind the desk and told him a little of our recent travels, what with having to skip ahead in order to finish at Katahdin by August. That's when everything changed.<br>
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The woman who had taken our picture was ready to fill out the information, including our start date and what number hiker we were to come to the ATC as a thru-hiker. She reached for the red permanent marker reserved for thru-hikers when the man at the counter stopped her.<br>
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"They aren't thru-hikers. They are doing an alternate hike since they missed some of the trail. Use the brown pen."<br>
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I was a little shocked when I heard this, but it didn't really register with me. It was as I was filling out our trail names and writing GA>ME that I realized that what he had said really bothered me. <i><b>We are thru-hikers damn it. </b></i>I mean, of course I understood that we wouldn't actually be hikers number 146 and 147, but being classified as an "alternate" really rubbed me the wrong way.<br>
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Chase and I have struggled through so much out here and we have found so many reasons to rejoice in the trail life. We feel like the AT has become a part of us, that the trail runs in our veins, guiding us toward Maine and helping us to grow along the way. To be classified in such a way really did some damage to my spirit. Our Maryland hike has been characterized by both of us having head colds and me dealing with the realization that the psychological halfway point isn't really halfway for us.<br>
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I've since come to terms with the brown "21" written over our ATC photo. We still have over half of the AT to hike and so much more time to spend out here in the woods and with each other. The numbers and milestones really are all "psychological," but the physical reality of what we are doing is still immense and applaudable.<br>
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Once we reach Katahdin, our AT miles hiked will be something like 1931.6 miles. Next year, we will hike the 22 miles into Damascus and party like a thru-hiker at Trail Days. We will make up the trail we missed from Glasgow to Harper's Ferry over the next couple of years as time allows on weekends and holidays. <br>
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I don't know when we will make it back to the ATC, but the next time we are there, I plan on holding my head high as we walk through the door and eating all of the cookies left for thru-hikers because damn it, <b><i>I am an Appalachian Trail thru-hiker.</i></b><br><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZweIt6ncthGsB1kP6L6RiNhmRbSSsXkQXBi0vvG3RngcaZrGi_GrAChVKtmdZL5qY72GE0-FXCAuo1JGaT1wRo_pLl79WyHWOam078k_rJz4aW-XcVOkGkY0lOhHW4bxG_QiN2rndcYU/s640/blogger-image-281995680.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZweIt6ncthGsB1kP6L6RiNhmRbSSsXkQXBi0vvG3RngcaZrGi_GrAChVKtmdZL5qY72GE0-FXCAuo1JGaT1wRo_pLl79WyHWOam078k_rJz4aW-XcVOkGkY0lOhHW4bxG_QiN2rndcYU/s640/blogger-image-281995680.jpg"></a></div>Kelley http://www.blogger.com/profile/06556167551563964184noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3016487931137059287.post-78845611942777203062014-05-16T14:41:00.000-04:002014-05-16T16:44:30.232-04:00Hiking with a Dog: 780 miles laterNow that we have officially passed the 1/3rd mark, I think this is an appropriate time to update our followers on what it has been like hiking with Sheila the Australian Mountain Dog. We've learned a few lessons along the way, and for anyone considering bringing their outdoor-loving dog on a long backpacking trip, you might want to take notes!<br>
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Hiking with Sheila is so rewarding, but it's also very challenging. Making sure she is happy and healthy is our number one priority. Having her along for the adventure adds one more variable to the equation of getting to Katahdin.</div>
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<i>Food & Water</i></div>
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In the beginning, we were stopping every 15 minutes to give her water which made our average pace barely above 1 mph. After hiking 780+ miles, we usually stop every hour or hour and a half to water her, depending on the terrain and the temperature. Between the two of us, we carry 6.5L of water to make sure that we all have enough. She can easily drink about 2L of water per day (sometimes a half-liter or more while in camp in the morning and at night, and a liter throughout the day). Doggy dehydration is serious, so make sure to carry extra for your thirsty pooch. We don't let her drink from streams or rivers directly due to the risk of<i> Giardia</i>, though sometimes she will sneak in a few laps.</div>
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For food, she started out eating twice as much as she did at home (about 4 cups per day, 2 in the morning and 2 in camp at night). We didn't anticipate how hard it would be to actually get her to eat. She would eat a few handfuls in the morning, and maybe a few more when we stopped for lunch. We finally learned to accept that she wants to eat the majority of her food at night. Nowadays she eats 5 cups of food per day; 1 in the morning, 1 in the afternoon, and 3 at night. She still acts a little picky and we have to work pretty hard to convince her to eat. There was a 2 week period where she was losing weight and we were worried she would have to go home, but we started putting about a tablespoon of olive oil in her food at night and we haven't had a problem since (fingers crossed!) She carries about 5 days of food in her pack and we will usually carry an extra day for her, just in case. </div>
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<i>Ticks</i><br>
Since the weather has warmed up, ticks have been our number one battle. She started out on a Seresto tick and flea collar, but we found that it just wasn't potent enough to fend off the explosion of ticks that seemed to come out of nowhere as we crossed into May. We were spending <b>1.5 to 2 hours per night picking off 30+ ticks (including the dreaded deer tick).</b> When we decided to skip some of the trail to let Cheez-it's foot recover and to get back on track, we switched to the Preventic collar and within 48 hours all of the ticks that were attached to her were dried up and dead! We will see how the new collar works once we are back on the trail, but for now, we are very happy with the switch. The Seresto collar works supposedly for 6 months and the Preventic is effective for only 3 months, but we think this is the best move. I will report when we return! We are also working with Tarptent to see about getting a "dog bivy" that will fit in our vestibule and keep her separated from us while keeping her from running off after an animal in the middle of the night. A big problem we were having with the ticks is that the live ticks would crawl off of her and onto us in the middle of the night. We are hoping that the fast acting Preventic will help solve some of this problem.<br>
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<i>Wild Animals</i><br>
Sheila is a herding dog by instinct. If she spots an animal in the woods and it just so happens to be running away, she really wants to chase it. Thankfully, she has only bolted off once after some deer. She also chased a bird that was flying in the sky in the Grayson Highlands. On that note, Sheila didn't seem to mind the ponies until we started making a big about them. Oh! She chased the goats at Woods Hole Hostel and we had to turn off the electric fence to get her back out. Thank goodness she actually listens to us when we yell at her.<br>
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We have come across one rattlesnake so far, but we know they become more common in PA. A guy named Bangarang told us about a rattlesnake vaccine you can get out west, but the few veterinarians we asked here on the east coast have never heard of it. Just be careful if you chose to hike with your dog in rattlesnake areas. Always keep your dog close and keep an eye out for any snake that may be on the trail or just off the trail. Rattlesnakes will often let you know if you're too close, but it's best not to push your luck.<br>
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<i>Hostels & Town Stays</i><br>
We have been very lucky at each hostel we've stayed at in that they have let us leave Sheila in the room while we run any errands. This is not a privilege, so always ask if it is okay. And don't leave your dog if you know that they are prone to whining or could become destructive if left alone. It really helps to hike as a pair if you take your dog, that way one of you can hang outside with the dog while the other runs into the store or orders food. Town seems to stress Sheila out immensely. The noise of cars and motorcycles really freaks her out after a week or two in the woods. We find that minimizing our time in town minimizes her stress.<br>
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<i>Gear</i><br>
Sheila's gear has been holding up wonderfully. Her saddlebags are showing some wear from her rubbing up against rocks and things, but I'm sure that they will survive for the rest of the trip. We have had a spot of trouble with the fit of the pack, causeing the whole thing to slide forward as we were coming down a steep descent, but I think the issue was more user error than a design flaw. I am really sad to hear that Granite Gear is discontinuing the Long Howl, because it's the only one we've found with this type of design and we prefer it much more than the typical dog packs.<br>
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For hiking in snow, I definitely recommend the dogbooties.com fleece booties. They are cheap and they get the job done. I was very hesitant about the hard-soled booties you can buy for your dog because none of them seemed to fit quite right and they seemed like they might do more harm than good in the long run. I just felt like they didn't allow her foot to move naturally, so when we found these simple fleece socks I was really excited. The fleece insulated her pawpads from the snow and slush while keeping the ice from building up between her toes and allowing her to walk naturally. I don't worry about rocks so much, though I'm sure she gets tired of walking on them (just like us!) After a long day on rocks, we usually rub her pads down with Musher's Secret to help nourish them. She loves a good footrub at the end of the day. These booties combined with the moisturizing power of Musher's Secret have helped to keep Sheila's feet happy and healthy.<br>
<br><i>A tough decision...</i><br>
Overall, we would not take her on another long-distance backpacking trip. We would take her out for a week or so at a time, but being on the trail for 6 months with your dog is a lot of extra hard work. If you're considering taking Fido for a long hike, be mentally prepared to spend a few hours a day taking care of your pet. If you aren't committed to the idea of putting your animal first in every situation, then don't bring them along. It has been very tough for us to continue on with her because on one hand we know she is having a blast, but on the other hand the risk to her health from tick-borne disease is real and has really been weighing on my mind. </div><div><br></div><div>For now, she will continue to hike with us and she will continue to steal the hearts of the hikers around her (including ours!) but if this new medication seems less than effective, we might end up taking her off-trail. Just please, please be a responsible pet owner if you decide that you are up to the challenge! If you have any questions, please feel free to comment below or send us an email to endlessfootpath@gmail.com</div><div><br></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh29GPxiUwk25W3BAsK3L36RC4vYI03XnAJYlSBG0Wa5Bqqvkv66o9gRjyVyPHEOluNe0VZMD2W8nCBajivSL9hYh64fplGu2MiOlZVM1FEWn_UnxtK-1AI9xSxA8YO8p7vcFHaNjIALng/s640/blogger-image--1994849717.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh29GPxiUwk25W3BAsK3L36RC4vYI03XnAJYlSBG0Wa5Bqqvkv66o9gRjyVyPHEOluNe0VZMD2W8nCBajivSL9hYh64fplGu2MiOlZVM1FEWn_UnxtK-1AI9xSxA8YO8p7vcFHaNjIALng/s640/blogger-image--1994849717.jpg"></a></div><br></div><br></div><br></div>
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Kelley http://www.blogger.com/profile/06556167551563964184noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3016487931137059287.post-40312267292783392482014-05-13T11:35:00.000-04:002014-05-13T11:35:34.782-04:00Goodbyes and Trail Magic: Days 69 - 85<b>Day 69: Doc's Knob Shelter to spring, campsite (12.8 miles)</b><br />
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<b>Day 70: Campsite to Stony Creek Valley (15 miles)</b></div>
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<b>Day 71: Stony Creek Valley to footbridge, stream, campsite (13.3 miles)</b></div>
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<b>Day 72: Campsite to VA 42, Four Pines Hostel (7.3 miles)</b></div>
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<b>Day 73: Zero at Four Pines</b></div>
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<b>Day 74: VA 42 to Craig Creek (11.5 miles)</b></div>
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<b>Day 75: Craig Creek to Four Pines Hostel (15.3 miles)</b></div>
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<b>Day 76: Four Pines Hostel to Lambert's Meadow Campsite (16.6 miles)</b></div>
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<b>Day 77: Lambert's Meadow to Daleville, VA (9.4 miles)</b></div>
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<b>Day 78: Daleville, VA to stealth campsite (6ish miles)</b></div>
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<b>Day 79: Campsite to stealth campsite past Bearwallow Gap (16ish miles)</b></div>
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<b>Day 80: Campsite to Cornelius Creek Shelter (15ish miles)</b><br />
<b>Day 81: Cornelius Creek to Marble Spring Campsite (12.2 miles)</b></div>
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<b>Day 82: Marble Spring to US 501, Glasgow VA and Buena Vista VA (7.7 miles)</b></div>
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<b>Day 83: Zero in Buena Vista, camped at Devil's Backbone Brewpub</b></div>
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<b>Day 84: Zero in Charlottesville, trail magic in Shenandoah</b></div>
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<b>Day 85: Zero in Charlottesville, trail magic in Shenandoah </b></div>
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As you can see from the above, we've been pretty busy! After coming back from Virginia Beach, we were super motivated to make up for lost time on the trail. We took an unexpected zero at Four Pines Hostel to wait out some weather (the same weather that put tornadoes down in Pearisburg), and had an amazing stretch of clear, sunny weather to cover Dragon's Tooth, McAfee Knob, and Tinker Cliffs, which are some of the most picturesque sections of the Appalachian Trail! </div>
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After we left Pearisburg, Cheez-it started having some foot issues. First, the top of her ankle was very sore and left her limping down the trail most of the time. That problem was solved by doing "alphabet stretches." To do alphabet stretches, point your toes and imagine that they are a paint brush. Then use that paint brush to write out each letter of the alphabet. This is a really good ankle strengthening exercise that I would recommend to all hikers. After this issue was resolved, Cheez-it's ball of her foot would be very painful by the end of the day and the top of her foot would be swollen. She dealt with this pain with a "grit and bear it" approach that had drained her of all patience by the time we arrived in Daleville. We were convinced that new shoes would help resolve this problem since she had been hiking in her Vasque Mantra 2.0's with stock insoles since Franklin. We picked up a pair of Dr. Scholl's massaging gel insoles at the recommendation of Dr. Grandpa Kibble and bought Cheez-it a pair of Salomon Synapse trail runners. It was clear the moment we left Daleville that the Dr. Scholl's were not supportive enough, so she switched back to hiking in the brand-new stock insoles of the Salomon's. This seemed to help, but as we neared Glasgow, VA Cheez-it's feet were in so much pain we had to stop every mile or so to let them rest.<br />
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By this point we had already been discussing our options regarding finishing the trail. Cheez-it had been accepted to the College of William & Mary School of Marine Science at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science and the moment she accepted the offer, we imposed a firm deadline for having to complete our hike. Orientation at VIMS is the 22nd and 23rd of August, and we have to find somewhere to live and move to Virginia from Florida before that. If we stayed on the trail and just kept hiking normally, the soonest we could be done with the trail was something like August 10th, which didn't seem likely since we would probably be taking a few more zeroes. We decided we would skip what we had left in Virginia and get back on the trail at Harper's Ferry. This was a really tough decision for Cheez-it to swallow. Skipping this section of trail meant leaving Icicle and Quailman behind. It meant we wouldn't hike into Harper's Ferry, proud and tired and dirty, and have our picture taken at the ATC headquarters. It meant missing 1/10th of the trail, which is really just a drop in the bucket, but there is something so emotional about making the decision to skip a significant portion of the trail. Would we really be thru-hikers at that point?<br />
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We talked and I (Cheez-it) cried a lot. But it made sense. It would put us on track to finish by late July/early August. We would be able to come back on weekends and section hike the Shenandoah's. We could take time off to rest my foot and get Sheila on new tick medication. So we decided to jump trail.<br />
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We spent one last night camped with Icicle & Quailman at Marble Spring, and we all hitched into Glasgow to get pizza and beer. We all ended up getting a ride into the larger town of Buena Vista and really celebrated with margaritas and fajitas. The next morning, the finality of our parting hit home as they caught a shuttle to the Food Lion to resupply and we tried to figure out the rental car situation. We cried and group-hugged and promised to keep in touch. It was hard watching them drive away. We had been through so much together and we connected with them like we had with no other hikers. It was at that moment that I understood what it must be like for a solo hiker to fall behind their group. I had always wondered, "Why don't they just do their own thing and find another group?" And the answer is because it's hard. When you're out here every day conquering the same obstacles with the same group of people, it's hard to leave them behind or be left behind. You build life-long friendships out here. No one really understands what your going through like another hiker, especially one that you have been with since the beginning.<br />
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Enough with the sappy stuff before I start crying all over the keyboard!<br />
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We got a rental car and drove to Reeds Gap to pick up any hikers looking to go to the Devils Backbone Brewpub, where they would let hikers camp for free. We didn't see anyone at the AT crossing, but when we got to the pub, we met ReRoute, Geared-Up, and Kristo. We spent a great night with them and offered to slackpack them into Waynesboro since we had to go there the next day anyway to go to the foot doctor to have Cheez-it's foot checked out in case of stress fracture or the dreaded plantar fasciitis. They really appreciated the offer and we had fun doing it! We also picked up the packs of Simba and Brightside as we drove down the Blue Ridge Parkway into Waynesboro. The foot doctor ended up being closed that day, so we hatched a plan to do some trail magic along Skyline Drive. We picked up some Cokes, lemonade, apples, bananas, and oranges and entered Shenandoah. The first hiker we saw was Good Company at Beagle Gap, waiting on a friend to come pick him up. We drove on and stopped at every AT crossing to try and catch hikers as they crossed the road. We ended up meeting a lot of people that we had met at Four Pines when we unexpectedly zeroed there. We were able to give out magic to Survivorman, a section hiker named Trashcan, Prom Queen, Wees, Cowgirl, Poohbear, Sunbear, Good Company (again), Spicekit, Coconut, Shybear, Top O, GramCracker, and Grasshopper. I may have missed some names, but I had them all sign-in on our trail magic log book so I'll update that later. It was so much fun doing trail magic!<br />
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Now, we are off to Washington DC to be a bit touristy and then off to Pittsburg to visit The Ramen Shaman's aunt and uncle and my sister, Cassie. We plan to get back on the trail on Friday at Harper's Ferry.<br />
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We will be updating our mail-drop page soonly to let everyone know of our next stops along the trail. The rental car and the time off has been rather costly, so I'm not sure we will be staying in too many hostels going forward. If you want to help out, but aren't sure about what to send, generic Visa gift-cards would really help us out at this point. We have our resupply down to a science, and while we surely appreciate and are excited to receive packages, sometimes we aren't sure what we need until we are in town, and putting together food for the week from a few mail-drops is hard to do. We would love to receive cards of encouragement and support to help us over this rough spot in our trail experience.<br />
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Thanks to all of our readers for the continued support and encouragement! Check out our <a href="http://www.facebook.com/endlessfootpath" target="_blank">Facebook</a> page for new photos from the trail which we will be posting before the end of the week!</div>
Kelley http://www.blogger.com/profile/06556167551563964184noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3016487931137059287.post-53943527271960650012014-04-27T13:00:00.000-04:002014-04-27T13:00:01.100-04:00On Slackpacking and Vacations: Days 60 - 68<i>From our previous post, Grandpa Kibble had just joined us for a fun week in the woods from Atkins to Woods Hole Hostel. Unfortunately he had injured his knee just out of town, so The Ramen Shaman came up with a plan for us to still make the miles while keeping Grandpa Kibble involved. We decided we would slackpack over the next few days. Slackpacking is the term used for hiking a section of trail with little more than water and some snacks for the day. The joy of slackpacking comes from being able to do more miles faster than you can carrying a fully loaded pack. We learned a lot about ourselves and our hiking style in the few days that we slackpacked, enough that we needed a vacation from it all!</i><br />
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<b><u>Day 60:</u> Chestnut Knob Shelter to Laurel Creek - Slackpacking Day 1</b><br />
The first 6 miles of this day were normal hiking miles, but we dropped off our packs with TruBrit at a roadcrossing and slackpacked the rest of the day. This was the only day of slackpacking Cheez-it enjoyed! The miles seem to fly by and you don't feel exhausted going uphill. Our night concluded at Fort Bastian, which was fun, but weird. Grandpa Kibble decided to become a trail angel to our little group of 12 hikers, and planned to intersect us at various roadcrossings throughout the next day with drinks and snacks. The Ramen Shaman decided that he would stay behind with his dad to spend some quality time and help with coordinating the trail magic. It would be up to Cheez-it to pick up the next 25.5 miles on her own!<br />
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<b><u>Day 61:</u> Laurel Creek to VA 608 - Slackpacking Day 2</b><br />
We arrived to the trailhead later than we had hoped (10am) due to TruBrit's shuttle schedule. Being slower hikers even while slackpacking, Icicle, Quailman, and I would be struggling to finish the 25.5 mile section before nightfall. The start of the hike began just fine and we kept a steady pace for the first 8 or so miles. Then we arrived at the roadwalk over I-70. I had hiked ahead of Icicle and Quailman while they took a little break and subsequently arrived at the road first. You exit the woods onto a dirt road and follow the road down to a paved road. Once you intersect the paved road, you can't see any more white blazes from where you stand, but there is a beaten path up a hill next to the road. I climb this hill and check out the view of the valley below, but soon I realize there are no white blazes and the footpath has dead-ended off of the other end of the hill, which is steep and covered in loose shale. I carefully pick my way to the bottom of the hill back to the road, feeling a little more than foolish. Thankfully I spot a white blaze on the nearby road sign and I know that I'm at least heading in the right direction. I follow the road as it takes a sharp left turn and crosses over the top of I-70. I spot a white blaze on the opposite guardrail and head for it. Once I arrive, I turn 360 degrees over and over again, trying to spot the next white blaze. I pull out AWOL's guide at this point and read the entry, "AT re-enters woods north of road." I whip out my compass and check that yes, I am indeed facing north, but no, I cannot see where the trail re-enters the woods. I spot a footpath that rounds the guardrail so I head over to check it out. I get a few dozen feet up the trail, but I can't see any white blazes, so I abandon the trail and decide that it would be better to wait for Quailman and Icicle so that we can all try and figure this out. I spot another white blaze on a tree by the road, facing in asuch a direction that you cannot see it from the guardrail white blaze. Quailman and Icicle arrive a few minutes later and we are all scratching our heads. I finally decide to walk further down the road to the east to see if I could find another blaze. And there it is. On a rock face oriented in such a manner that you can't see unless you are right in front of it is painted a lonely white blaze. I call out to the others and we all hike down the road together. We wasted 45 minutes wondering around on a road trying to find the trail. NOBO thru-hiker beware! This section is not well blazed.<br />
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This is only the beginning of our troubles. We head down to the trailhead and get back on. We decide to skip filling up on water at the trailhead and start the steep climb up. The shelter is only a couple miles away afterall, and we can just get water there. WRONG! The shelter ends up being 0.3mi off of the trail, and the water source is another 0.3mi farther past the shelter. Even though we are all low on water, we decided to just push on 8 more miles to the unreliable stream. This ends up being the biggest mistake of our entire hike yet! It's hot and the three of us are stuck on a ridgeline with no water! I hike ahead with the intention of filling up at the hopefully flowing stream and bringing it back to Icicle and Quailman. When I am about 3/4 of a mile from the road and the stream, The Ramen Shaman appears carrying tons of water for the three of us! I tell him to hike back to them because they only had 1 liter of water between the two of them. We all meet at the road crossing and find out that the unreliable stream is dry. We would have been in big trouble if The Ramen Shaman hadn't showed up. Together, we finished the last 4 miles and chose to be picked up at VA 608 instead of pushing the original 25.5 miles to Trent's Grocery. These last 4 miles were the most fun out of the day, and we ended our first full slackpacking day in good spirits. Grandpa Kibble left us beer and snacks at the road while he went to pick up a bunch of burgers for us, which was incredible and amazing. We spent the night with our trail family (Batman, The Priest, Noodle, Radioman, Cowgirl, Flex, and Poohbear) around a warm campfire at Trent's Grocery. Radioman was even kind enough to share his wine and salmon pate!<br />
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<b><u>Day 62:</u> VA 608 to USFS 103 and Woods Hole Hostel</b><br />
The morning was very stressful as we were faced with another 20 mile day to get into Woods Hole Hostel and a hot, homemade dinner at 7 o'clock. We got to the trail late again, and set off to make up the missed 5 miles and the next 15 miles into the hostel. The first 5 miles were mellow and we even got to cross a suspension footbridge! The next 10 miles were miserable. We hiked as fast as we could and skipped the side-trail to the waterfall. Cheez-it's ankle was sore and she fell behind the group, slowing everyone down. The Ramen Shaman ran ahead to get to the privy at Waputi Shelter, and the rest of us hiked quickly to meet him there. When we were less than a mile away from the shelter, we were all commenting to one another that hiking at this pace was no fun and we really weren't enjoying ourselves. Just then, Icicle took a bad fall and banged her knee pretty badly. That was the tipping point! We all just laughed at ourselves for trying to stick to a schedule that didn't make sense for us and was causing us all to be miserable! We threw up our hands and said "Screw it!" and decided to arrive at Woods Hole whenever we felt like it. We were done pushing ourselves to the point of not having any fun. We took a long break at the shelter to eat and rub our sore feet. Vegemite ended up catching up to us, and we hadn't seen him since Damascus. Grandpa Kibble called and said that he had left the car at the forest service road, and that really raised all of our spirits since we would be able to get to Woods Hole before dinner. Vegemite was down for catching a ride as well! We hiked on and stopped for a short break at a rocky overlook that gave us wonderful views of the Virginia farming valley below. It was quite the end to another crazy day. When we arrived at the car, we all piled in and headed for the hostel and a hot meal.<br />
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<b><u>Day 63:</u> Zero at Woods Hole Hostel - Zero Day 1</b><br />
We decided to take a zero day after our rough couple of days in order to rejuvenate a little. This was lucky because Cheez-it had just been contacted by a professor for the Virginia Institute of Marine Science back in Atkins and had been meaning to contact him for a phone interview. This day provided that perfect opportunity. The food and the atmosphere at Woods Hole is awesome, but they are overpriced in my opinion. For $15 you get a bunk in the unheated bunkhouse (which you are responsible for cleaning up), a gross privy, and an outdoor shower (which is no fun in mid-April). Our zero day had Cheez-it's spirits low, even though her phone interview had seemingly gone well. That night, we all sat around and contemplated options. We had the opportunity to visit the VIMS campus in Gloucester Point, VA in order to meet the professor and make an impression, and we decided that now was the perfect time. Icicle and Quailman were feeling like taking a few days off as well, so we hatched a plan the next day that would lead to all of us having an amazing beach vacation!<br />
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<b><u>Day 64:</u> Zero at The Days Inn in Christiansburg, VA - Zero Day 2</b><br />
Neville of Woods Hole offered to give us a ride into Christiansburg to start our adventure. We would hit up Williamsburg and the VIMS campus, and then drive to Virginia Beach to relax by the ocean! This day was full of walking from the hotel to the convenience store across the way to get beer, and then to the Cracker Barrel for dinner. We also watched Marley & Me, which was a mistake.<br />
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<b><u>Day 65:</u> Zero in Williamsburg/Gloucester Point/Virginia Beach - Zero Day 3</b><br />
We started out the day renting a car and spending the 4 hour drive saying how weird it was that we were in a car. Then we arrived in the Williamsburg/Gloucester Point area and drove on the Colonial Parkway, which was really beautiful. Cheez-it got to meet with her potential advisor and get a nickel tour of the campus. Then we all piled in the car and drove back to Williamsburg becasue we thought it might have a cool downtown area to hang out it. We could only find the overly commercialized portion, so we drove to the subburbs to eat at place called Oceans & Ale. During this time, we reverted to calling each other by our real names, which also felt weird. Eric, Kristin, and I each made bets about how many chicken wings Chase could eat. Eric won with his guess of 27 wings, though Chase admitted later he was saving room for Ben & Jerry's. We then drove another hour to Virginia Beach and checked into our amazing oceanfront hotel and beachfront room ($54/night on priceline; about $13.50/person i.e. cheaper than the typical hostel rate). The next day was sure to be epic.<br />
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<b><u>Day 66:</u> Zero in Virginia Beach - Zero Day 3</b><br />
We felt so relaxed on this day after spending all day hanging out by the ocean and sipping fru-fru drinks. $2 fish tacos at the hotel bar. This was the first day we actually felt rested on a zero day.<br />
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<u style="font-weight: bold;">Day 67:</u><span style="font-weight: bold;"> Zero in Virginia Beach - Zero Day 4</span><br />
We had an indian food buffet. That's all that needs to be said about this awesome day. We began to fell anxious about heading back to the trail, especially after we found it that it is essentially Cold War Part Deux out there.<br />
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<b><u>Day 68:</u> Zero in Virginia Beach/Pearisburg - Zero Day 5</b><br />
This was a whirlwind car trip from Virginia Beach to Richmond to Pearisburg! We stopped in Richmond to visit the REI to pick up a few things to get ready for our return to the trail. We originally intentioned to hike a few miles, but the rental car agency closed at 5pm, so we had to get a hotel! Day 69 will be a return to Woods Hole to catch up on the 12-ish miles that we missed into Pearisburg!<br />
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<i>Our vacation from the trail truly was restorative and we are ready to get back to the trail. There is a statistic floating around out there that 80% of thru-hikers that take more than 3 zero days in a row ultimately leave the trail. We don't like the negativity associated with such a statistic, because when you are feeling low on the trail, sometimes the best medicine is to take a few days off. I think it helps to get far away from the trail and the trail culture, that way you approach it with a fresh set of eyes after a few days off. </i><br />
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<i>Sheila spent her vacation chasing birds on the beach and getting very sandy and wet! She also got a good grooming and a foot massage. I think she will always be a beach dog at heart. </i><br />
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<i>Well, that's all for now folks! </i>Kelley http://www.blogger.com/profile/06556167551563964184noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3016487931137059287.post-31815267641057319772014-04-23T18:49:00.001-04:002014-04-23T18:49:45.926-04:00Trails and Tribulations: Days 41 - 60<i>Hello loyal followers! Sorry for the long stay between blog posts! It has been a crazy couple of weeks since we left Damascus and the only reason we have time to update now is due to the fact that we are in Virginia Beach on vacation from our adventure! Kelley is being considered as a candidate for admission to the Virginia Institute of Marine Science at the College of William & Mary (a very exciting and intimidating time in our lives!) so we decided to take a few days to visit the campus and escape to the ocean in order to rejuvenate our souls in preparation for the return to the trail life. Our good friends, Icicle & Quailman, also decided they needed a couple of days off and have joined us for this minor detour! </i><i><a href="http://hike2014.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">Check out their awesome blog: Trail Mix & Dirty Underwear</a><u>.</u></i><br />
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<i>You might be wondering why we would need to escape from the trail for a few days. A series of events led up to this, starting with the weather turning on Day 60. I'm planning on detailing this culmination of incidents and happenings that led to our decision to leave the trail for a few days in the next blog post, which I will be posting tomorrow or the next day. For now, here is a summary of our days since our last post!</i><br />
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<b><u>Day 41:</u> Hogback Ridge Shelter to No Business Knob Shelter</b><br />
This was our first 20 mile day! Holy cow! That morning we had decided that it would be ideal to make it to No Business Knob in order to get into Erwin early the next day before the forecasted thunderstorms rolled in.Thankfully most of the slush that was on the ground the previous day had melted away and the going was easy. We arrived at Spivey Gap (15.8 miles into the day), filtered water, ate raw Ramen noodles, fed Sheila, and pushed on into the growing darkness. Night hiking with emergency headlamps is no fun, but we were really excited to see that Boomer and Smudge were awake in the shelter as we arrived well after hiker midnight (around 9 o'clock in the evening). We made a quick dinner and hit the hay!<br />
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<b><u>Day 42:</u> No Business to Uncle Johnny's in Erwin, TN</b><br />
The descent into Erwin is seemingly endless. You can see the town for at least the last 3 miles, growing ever closer with each switchback. We made it eventually to Uncle Johnny's and checked into the only cabin they had left, Cabin F at a rate of $40 per night. The "free" town shuttles were really just a dinner and breakfast shuttle to one spot in town. We ended up having a good night and meeting Sunshine and Youngbeard, a newly engaged couple that we hiked with through Hampton, TN.<br />
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<b><u>Day 43:</u> Uncle Johnny's to Indian Grave Gap</b><br />
The weather looked atrocious on this morning, but soon cleared to blue skies and sunshine. We witnessed some of Uncle Johnny's more suspicious business practices as they quoted a couple $55/night for the same cabin we stayed in. We learned later from Icicle and Quailman that they stayed in the same cabin, but only because the guy who had reserved it alone all of a sudden found himself shacking up with Socs and Blaze, two pretty college age girls. The guy panicked and left because his girlfriend would have been very uncomfortable with the situation, so Socs and Blaze offered to share the cabin with Icicle and Quailman. Apparently this sort of thing happens pretty often when bunkroom spaces fill up. Buyer beware.<br />
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We ended up staying at Indian Grave Gap at Freshground's Leapfrog Cafe, a traveling trail magic food fiesta set up by attempted thru-hiker, Freshground. He made us hot dogs, chili, and homemade fries that night and banana pancakes, eggs, and bacon in the morning! Unfortunately there were no privies for the next 20 miles.<br />
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<b><u>Day 44:</u> Indian Grave to Cherry Gap Shelter</b><br />
This was a short day because I felt like crap after all the food. We met Radioman,Cowgirl & Cooper the Miniature Pinscher, along with Poohbear and M this night, and reunited with Penguinman. Sheila ate people poop because previous visitors to the shelter had decided that it was OK to poop behind trees 0 feet off of the trail. Disgusting!<br />
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<b><u>Day 45:</u> Cherry Gap to Roan High Knob Shelter</b><br />
Another long, hard day at 17-ish miles! Cheez-it felt great during the last big climb, while The Ramen Shaman's energy drained. For the last few miles of the climb, the trail was literally a sheet of ice, which made it dangerous and slow going in the setting sun. We managed to make it to the shelter, which was up another steep, icy trail, where we stayed with Sunshine,Youngbeard, and M. It was the coolest shelter I've seen so far with a fully enclosed space with windows and a door! Perfect for keeping out the wind.<br />
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<b><u>Day 46:</u> Roan High Knob to Doll Flats (NC border! - 2 States down, 12 to go!)</b><br />
It was slow going again as we came down Roan High Knob due to the continued sheet of ice. The next section of trail was full of beautiful balds, referred to as the Roan Highlands. The climb up Little Hump and Hump Mountains made us very tired and the final mile to Doll Flats seemed infinite over rocky terrain. It was a beautiful campsite though, and we had great company.<br />
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<b><u>Day 47:</u> Doll Flats to Upper Laurel Falls</b><br />
Tennessee was such a beautiful state! We were greeted with many rolling, green hills and many beautiful streams and waterfalls. We found a sweet headlamp at Jones Falls, which we have named The Sun due to it's brightness. We camped right near the river and enjoyed a peaceful night's sleep.<br />
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<b><u>Day 48:</u> Upper Laurel Falls to Black Bear Resort in Hampton, TN</b><br />
Black Bear Resort was really incredible, partially because it really was just awesome and partially because we stayed with such great people and had such a good time that night.We split a cabin with Sunshine & Youngbeard, and partied with Windscreen, Batman, Tree, Dorothy, Coconut, Spicerack, Cowgirl, Youngbeard, and Mr. Blue Sky until actual midnight. The hostel was very dog friendly and had a great layout, and they didn't have a problem shuttling you into town to resupply at Dollar General versus resupplying with them.<br />
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<b><u>Day 49:</u> Black Bear Resort to Watauga Lake Shelter</b><br />
We missed Laurel Falls! We accidently blue-blazed on the high-water trail, and got lost! But thankfully we saw Spicerack and Coconut and found the trail again.The hike up Pond Flats was stupid. You literally climbed 3000 feet just to come back down 3000 feet. Watauga Lake was beautiful, and we spent a fun night in camp with Batman, Owl and Dr. Scrambles.<br />
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<b><u>Day 50:</u> Watauga Lake to TN 91 (Yellowblazed into the Hiker's Inn in Damascus, VA - 3 States down, 11 to go!)</b><br />
On this day, we realized we had to push long mileage days in order to get into Damascus on time, which would set us up for meeting The Ramen Shaman's dad in Atkins on the correct day. I also got really down and felt very tired after realizing we wouldn't have the opportunity to take a zero day for another two weeks. With some harsh weather blowing in, we decided to pull an 18 mile day instead of a 21 mile day and to go into Damascus early. That way we could take a rest and recoup before heading for Atkins. This meant missing 22 miles of trail, but it also meant reuniting with Icicle & Quailman, whom we had been missing! We already spoke about doing that section of trail again, so the 22 miles didn't seem very significant to us. We also realized that people on the trail don't actually care what you do during your hike; only online armchair hikers care.<br />
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That night we met Batman at the infamous Blue Blaze Cafe and learned he had hiked the 41 miles from the Watauga Lake Shelter that morning, a feat quite worthy of a beer or two! You can find his awesome blog <a href="http://dustinwaite.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">here!</a><br />
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<b><u>Day 51:</u> Zero at Hiker's Inn</b><br />
The Hiker's Inn was amazing. The room we stayed in was clean and comfy, and they let us borrow some bikes to do our resupply.<br />
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<b><u>Day 52:</u> Hiker's Inn to campsite by pond</b><br />
We hiked out with Icicle & Quailman, happy that the "band" was back together. They are amazing friends and hiking and camping with them again was awesome! The miles seemed to just fly by. Soon enough, little Cooper the Min-Pin (Cowgirl's dog) came running up behind us. We hemmed and hawwed about going back to the shelter to see if they were there, but decided to push on to the campsite by the pond, which is where we thought Cowgirl and Radioman were staying. We made the right choice, and Radioman expressed his gratitude by sharing his booze.<br />
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<b><u>Day 53:</u> Pond campsite to Elk Garden campsite</b><br />
We climbed Whitetop Mountain and Mt. Rogers on this day. Well, really only Whitetop because we didn't do the blue-blazed summit trail to Mt. Rogers, but we were essentially at the top. The views were beautiful, but the wind was cold, so we hustled down the mountain to eat lunch and push on. We camped at the Elk Garden VA 600 campsite, which had a surprise privy!<br />
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<b><u>Day 54:</u> Elk Garden to Bearpen Trail campsite</b><br />
The Grayson Highlands are full of rocks. We were so tired at the end of 11 miles, we camped at the first spot we could find outside of the park. It was very beautiful though, and seemed unlike anything else in America. The ponies were cool too. Cheez-it was very worried about Sheila scaring off all of the ponies and ruining the experience for everyone, and she thought this was the case until we arrived at Wise Shelter. The Ramen Shaman ran down to filter water and called back to the shelter "Ponies!!" We were all ecstatic! Walrus, a section hiker, equated us all to 5 year-old girls which was an accurate assessment of our behavior. To be clear, Sheila didn't give a damn about the ponies until we seemed very excited about them, at which point she decided to bark like mad. The ponies didn't care. We pushed on to a beautiful campsite at the Bearpen Trail intersection and spent a great night by the fire, listening to Quailman read The Hobbit.<br />
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<b><u>Day 55:</u> Bearpen Trail campsite to Trimpi Shelter</b><br />
Another long day! 18 miles! But it was totally worth the sore and tired feet, because the next day we arrived at the famous Partnership Shelter for pizza delivery! Boomer, Smudge, Tree, Batman, and Dorothy were all in the shelter while The Lolligaggers camped.<br />
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<b><u>Day 56:</u> Trimpi to Partnership Shelter</b><br />
Food is an excellent motivator. We made these 12 miles before 3pm! And it was a just and excellent reward! Pizza, beer, and good times loitering in front of the visitor's center with the whole gang from Trimpi Shelter.<br />
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<b><u>Day 57:</u> Partnership to the Relax Inn in Atkins, VA</b><br />
This time we were motivated by an AYCE buffet at The Barn Restaurant that closed at 2pm in Atkins, VA. We woke up at 6am to the sound of The Ramen Shaman cracking a beer and hiked the 10 miles into town. The Priest caught up with us and walked into town with us. Mason (The Ramen Shaman's dad) arrived that evening bearing gifts of delicious oatmeal cookies from The Ramen Shaman's mom, Debbie. All of the hikers who hung around that night, including Batman, The Priest, Noodle, Cowgirl, Poohbear, Radioman, Icicle & Quailman enjoyed them immensely and they were gone in no time. It was a fun and productive night and we can't thank Mason & Debbie enough for their generosity! The buffet was disappointing though as they imposed a 3 plate limit and no refills on fountain drinks. We also switched into our summer gear, dropping our pack weights from the 40-50lb range to 25-35lb range. Cheez-it also heard back from a professor at Virginia Institute of Marine Science saying that she is being considered as a candidate for admissions!<br />
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<b><u>Day 58:</u> Relax Inn to Knot Maul Shelter</b><br />
This was our first day hiking with Mason (aka Grandpa Kibble)! We were all excited to leave town and start the adventure, but on the first uphill it was clear that Grandpa Kibble's pack-weight was a little much and our hardened hiking legs were too fast under the lightened load of summer gear. The Ramen Shaman ended up carrying Grandpa Kibble's pack to make things a little easier on him and we all trudged on to the shelter. At the shelter we met The Cougars, a group of 3 older ladies who are section hiking together. They were a lot of fun!<br />
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<b><u>Day 59:</u> Knot Maul to Chestnut Knob Shelter</b><br />
This was a day from hell, and is now Cheez-it's worst day on record. The day started out normally enough, overcast and a little rain, but as we climbed the 5000ft up Chestnut Knob, the weather turned. The rain turned into sleet, and the sleet turned into snow. Sheila coat was covered in a layer of ice and sleet. The temperatures plummeted on the Knob and the wind picked up, blowing at a sustained 20mph with gusts to 60mph. Thankfully the shelter on top was a fully enclosed concrete shelter with a door. About 13 others decided to stay in the shelter built for 8, but Cowgirl and Radioman made sure that the three of us had bunk space. The sudden turn in the weather combined with our lack of cold weather gear really caused Cheez-it to spiral into a depression and snap at The Ramen Shaman. The next few days would not do much to lift her spirits. The Ramen Shaman came up with a plan for us to make up the missed miles by slackpacking for the next few days. Radioman, Cowgirl, Poohbear, Noodle, Icicle & Quailman were all down for slackpacking, which was cool because we ended up traveling with this little group for the next few days.<br />
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<b><u>Day 60:</u> Chestnut Knob to Fort Bastian at Laurel Creek (near Bastian, VA) - Slackpack Day 1</b><br />
The plan called for us to hike to the next road crossing and drop off our packs with a guy named TruBrit who runs Fort Bastian, a place with tenting and pizza delivery. Grandpa Kibble hiked the remaining 10 miles with The Ramen Shaman, and decided that he would be a trail angel for the following days to our little group due to having injured his knee. This put a damper in our spirits because we were really looking forward to hiking with him. TruBrit's place was really interesting, and so was the man himself. We were all convinced he was a pathological liar after he told us that he had been a millionaire 3 or 4 times over and subsequently gave away his wealth each time and said he had hiked over 150,000 miles in his life. We did the math on this last part, and figured out he would have had to hike 3000 miles every year since he was born if we assume he is 50 years old. The stories he told were entertaining to say the least.<br />
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<i>We will be updating the mail drop page later this evening and adding photos to our Facebook page tomorrow morning before heading back out on the trail! Thanks for your continued encouragement and support!</i><br />
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<br />Kelley http://www.blogger.com/profile/06556167551563964184noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3016487931137059287.post-47728923830771427512014-04-07T17:39:00.001-04:002014-04-07T17:42:25.298-04:00Our 40th Trailaversary: Days 26 - 40<i>We are in Damascus! We decided to yellow-blaze 22 miles to get out of a bad wind & rain storm and honestly, we couldn't be happier! Not only have we been reunited with Icicle and Quailman, we have also been able to hang out in what I would consider the coolest trail town so far! Our original plan allowed for no dilly-dallying in Damascus, which would have been pretty terrible...</i><br />
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<i>I'm changing our format again to make it easier on me, especially since we hardly ever have cell service and I never want to write in camp at night. I'd rather be sleeping!</i><br />
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<u>Day 26:</u> Zero at Double Spring Shelter<br />
<u>Day 27:</u> Double Spring Shelter to Icewater Spring Shelter<br />
<u>Day 28:</u> Icewater to Tricorner Knob Shelter<br />
<u>Day 29:</u> Tricorner Knob to Cosby Knob Shelter<br />
<u>Day 30:</u> Cosby Knob to Standing Bear Hostel<br />
<u>Day 31:</u> Standing Bear to Brown Gap<br />
<u>Day 32:</u> Brown Gap to Old Rd.<br />
<u>Day 33:</u> Old Rd. to Laughing Heart Lodge in Hot Springs, NC<br />
<u>Day 34:</u> Zero at Laughing Heart<br />
<u>Day 35:</u> Hot Springs to Campsite near Lover's Leap<br />
<u>Day 36:</u> Campsite to Spring Mountain Shelter<br />
<u>Day 37:</u> Spring Mountain to Hemlock Hollow Hostel in Greeneville, TN<br />
<u>Day 38:</u> Zero at Hemlock Hollow<br />
<u>Day 39:</u> Hemlock Hollow to Jerry Cabin Shelter<br />
<u>Day 40:</u> Jerry Cabin to Hogback Ridge Shelter<br />
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<u><b>The Smoky's</b></u><br />
So, as you might have guessed, we survived our super cold night in the Smoky's. The temperature in our little bungalow never dipped below 25 degrees, which is just insane when you consider that it was less than 10 degrees outside the shelter. We spent our zero day playing in the snow (give us a break, we're Floridians!) and yogi-ing food off of the section hikers that passed through. Yogi-ing is the term for acting like a "Yogi Bear" trying to get food from someones pic-a-nic basket! It's easy to do: first, find a day hiker or a section hiker. Next, continually mention how hungry you are and that you are low on food. Section hikers almost always pack too much food, so if they catch on that you are discretely asking for food, they will off-load some of the extra weight right into your belly. It also helps to be a semi-attractive girl asking a bunch of college-age guys. In the Smoky's this was really amazing because we actually were low on food and had to ration for 2 extra days.<br />
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Chase actually got his official trail-name on our zero day in the Smoky's, because Pacman was gracious enough to point out that Angeleyes was "so gay." So Chase was redubbed "The Ramen Shaman" for his ability to suggest that mostly anything left at the bottom of your foodbag would probably be really good in Ramen. And he is so right on that.<br />
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The rest of our time in the Smoky's was pretty great. Hiking in the deep snow was an experience for sure. Icicle came down with a head cold at Icewater Spring Shelter and her last few days were really miserable. She wrote a really great blog post about it, which you can check out here. We all carry cold medicine now! Our second to last day to Cosby Knob was really great weatherwise, as it was blowing 40mph across the ridgeline with heavy rain! Superfun to hike in! NOT.<br />
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We were all very excited to leave the Smoky Mountains. "At least it's not the Smoky's" became a favorite phrase.<br />
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<b><u>Hostels</u></b><br />
We've stayed in a lot of diverse places so far on our journey. There is a lot of lore behind many of the hostels along the AT, and a lot of rumors about each one. I'm going to take a moment to talk about the three hostels we stayed in on this stretch of trail.<br />
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Standing Bear Hostel divides the AT community pretty decisively into two camps: people who love it, and people who hate it. I'm pretty sure this chasm is created over the people who own Standing Bear and the resupply options, because the accomodations are normal for the AT (basic bunkhouse, OK cabin). The community kitchen area was really awesome, and the shower was great (hot water FOREVER). The people who run it, Curtis and Rocket, are pretty typical "Dueling Banjos" mountain folk. We interacted with Rocket mainly, and he seemed like a pretty genuine and decent human being (though blazed out of his mind), but our brief conversations with Curtis left us feeling pretty uneasy. Drug use is pretty open and rampant there, so if you're uncomfortable with that sort of thing, definitely stay away. My main problem with the place was the resupply. Everything that a hiker would actually want to buy was marked waaaaay up. All of the meat was out of date. The coolers smelled like pee. I get the impression that they buy groceries at a discount grocery store and then just mark everything up 50%. While you can get buy here, I would suggest sending a resupply box (though I also wouldn't be surprised if they did away with accepting mail drops, as Curtis mentioned that it takes away from his business). Overall, I would stay there again, though we wouldn't resupply and we wouldn't stay for more than a night.<br />
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The Hostel at Laughing Heart Lodge was one of our favorite places that we have stayed so far. The location is a little outside of the main drag and the room we stayed in was a little small for the price (the smallest double room in the place, I think), but the common area and the people were awesome. Chuck Norris was a really great guy to talk to and he even let us leave Sheila in the room when we went to lunch and to do resupply. He let us do work-for-stay for one of the nights that we stayed, so we swept and cleaned rooms as hikers left. We were able to save a bit of money by buying some frozen pizzas and frozen fried chicken from the Dollar General and cook in the common kitchen. We hung out with the other hikers staying the night in the living room and watched "Pitch Perfect" while eating pints of Ben & Jerry's. The showers were awesome and had seemingly endless hot water. The lawn was also really great for spreading gear out on. We would most definitely stay again!<br />
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Hemlock Hollow is just outside of Hot Springs, and I don't imagine they get too much business unless it's during peak hiker-season. We really enjoyed our time there! Mark and his mom are great people who love the trail! The bunkhouse, cabins, and bathrooms were all built using lumber logged from the property, which was really neat. The location was beautiful! A small creek runs straight thorugh the middle of the property and the cafe has this wonderful porch that overlooks the creek. They let us do work-for-stay for one of the nights, so we stacked firewood with Mark, which was awesome. The bunkroom is heated via wood-burning stove, and it was really easy to overheat the place. We woke up sweating the first night and kept the windows open for an hour to let the heat out. Sheila loved hanging out with Rowdy, Mark's Aussie-mix dog. They played for hours! The only reason we stayed here was because of Sheila: she ate some trash back at Spring Mountain Shelter (the place was a dump) and didn't want to eat or drink that morning or that afternoon. Some winter weather was blowing in that night, so we didn't want to be stuck on the trail if something was seriously wrong. She was feeling fine again by the next day, and we all watched the crazy sleet/snow/rain/wind from the comfort of the cafe. The showers weren't very good, but it has something to do with the way they get the water, so you only have 5 minutes to shower and the next person has to wait 20 minutes. Sailor showers are a must there. The bathroom is nicely heated though, so this wasn't a problem in the winter. The resupply there is pretty limited, but they weren't fully stocked up for hiker-season yet, so that may have been why. We would stay again, but the distance from Hot Springs makes it not ideal.<br />
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<b><u>The Hiker Bubble</u></b><br />
We were unfortunate enough to get a taste for what hiking in the Bubble must be like when we stayed at Jerry Cabin Shelter. We hiked in around 5 o'clock and decided to stay as a section hiker named Codger had a fire going in the fireplace. We set our packs down and start collecting firewood to dry out our socks after hiking in snow and slush all day. About 30 minutes later, a couple come into the shelter and proceed to roll out their sleeping pads right next to the fire. They didn't even say hello to any of us before deciding to set up. Codger had his pack sitting on the floor of the sleeping area next to the fire and he had to awkwardly move it out of their way as they set up. Ramen Shaman and I thought it was weird and really rude, because we hadn't experienced anything like that before. Anyway, we all are introduced and everything seems fine until about 10 minutes later. I'm in the process of blowing up our sleeping pads because we decided we wanted to stay in the shelter with Sheila for the first time, and 8 people show up at the same time. All of them are thru-hikers. All of them started March 1st. I was very instantly overwhelmed with this group. I quickly decided that we should tent, so we moved out of the shelter, and they instantly took over. Everyone was great and nice and happy, but it just seemed so strange to me that such a large group had set out from Springer together and had been hiking together for nearly a month. We then put two and two together and decided that the couple that had come in a little early were claiming their space because they knew that there was a bubble of hikers coming. I remember hearing that there were something like 100 people at Hawk Mountain Shelter one night, and I cannot even imagine how crazy that must have been. My experience with the trail has very much been of an intimate community of hikers that are usually hiking alone and will probably camp or shelter with very few other hikers on any given day. We all know each other and can recognize one another coming down the trail. March and April starters will have no idea what that is like until much later in the game after most people have quit. I prefer the small group dynamic of early-starters, and I'll be happy when the fast March bubble pass us by.<br />
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<b><u>40th day on the Trail!</u></b><br />
Our 40th day was spent hiking miserably in slush. Thankfully we didn't even realize it was our 40th Trailaversary!Kelley http://www.blogger.com/profile/06556167551563964184noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3016487931137059287.post-71889851172879077092014-04-05T09:45:00.000-04:002014-04-05T09:45:05.867-04:00Hello from Black Bear Resort!Hi! We don't have WiFi or cell service here, so I am unable to post a full update, but I wanted to notify our lovely followers to our progress and happenings! We've posted some photos of our adventures on our facebook page: <a href="http://facebook.com/endlessfootpath">facebook.com/endlessfootpath</a><br />
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We are 48 days into our amazing journey and we are having a blast! Here is a quick update:<br />
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Sheila the Mountain Dog (aka Leaflitter) is doing fantastic! She truly loves the trail life. Being in the woods and meeting all the people makes her extraordinarily happy! She tends to sleep a lot when we take breaks and when we stay in a hostel. She is eating 5 cups of food per day, which is just crazy because she used to eat only 2 cups per day. All of her gear is holding up splendidly! Her pack holds about 5 or 6 days of food (about 8 pounds). Her fleece booties from dogbooties.com have kept her feet protected from the snow during the few times that we have hiked in the stuff. I love her dog bowl. It's super durable and able to be stuffed almost anywhere. She ate some people poop at Cherry Gap Shelter and didn't feel too good for about a day, but she's fine now.<br />
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Chase (aka The Ramen Shaman) is doing fine. He hurt is knee a little but got a brace for it and it seems fine. His heaviest pack-weight has been 64lbs!!!! out of Hot Springs because we over-resupplied, which is probably why his knee got hurt. Ramen says about the hike so far: "All of the negativity from my previous life, with all of the stress over worrying about everyday decisions and future life decisions, has just melted away once I entered the woods. The amount of positivity you receive from simplifying your life and living on the trail and interacting with these great people has done wonders for my attitude and outlook on life."<br />
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Kelley (aka Cheez-it) is kicking ass and taking names (JK but srsly tho)! I haven't had any more injuries, though I did fall on my face coming down Unaka Mountain and skinned my knee. Funnily enough, I was singing "Ooo ee oo ah ah, ting tang walla walla bing BANG" (and I fell). Cheez-it says: "Live simply and simply live! That is a piece of shelter graffiti that has really stuck with me and that I think captures the trail experience. It's been life changing and I think it will continue to be."<br />
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Thanks for all of the support, and I promise that I will update more thoroughly once we arrive in Damascus!<br />
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<br />Kelley http://www.blogger.com/profile/06556167551563964184noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3016487931137059287.post-2721827692040632642014-03-25T16:06:00.002-04:002014-03-25T16:06:50.429-04:00The Stuff of Thru-HikesWith an unexpected zero at Hemlock Hollow Hostel, we've had some time to actually reflect on our wild 36/37 days on the trail. <div>
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These are the things that thru-hikes are made of: food, weather, miles, and people. You may want to hike to be in the woods and see the sights, and thats all fine and dandy, but this is what will make it an experience.</div>
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<u>The Food</u></div>
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When you're hiking for hours on end you tend to only really think about food, especially the kind of food you can't get on the trail. During our stint in the Smoky Mountains, we actually took the song "Peaches" by The President's of the United States of America and made our version with lyrics such as "Going to the hostel/Gonna eat a lot of pizzas" and "Millions of pizzas/Pizzas for me/Millions of pizzas/Pizzas probably not for free." Needless to say, our trail foods tend to be a little lacking in one way or another. For breakfast, we tend to have a few scoops of Nutella and peanut butter, paired with a pack of breakfast biscuits or spread a-top a hearty piece of<a href="http://www.boyscouttrail.com/content/recipe/hudson_bay_bread-1380.asp" target="_blank"> Hudson Bay Bread</a>. Lunch has evolved into a tortilla filled with peanut butter and Nutella. Snacks are varied: Snickers, trail bars, GORP, gummy bears, Cheez-Its, etc. Dinner is a couple of packets of Ramen mixed with peanut butter, olive oil, hot sauce, and black pepper (backpacker's pad thai). When we get into town, we are often craving a burger and a beer. Then Chase (who has been dubbed The Ramen Shaman) usually buys a pizza, a two liter of Coke, a couple pints of Ben & Jerry's, and whatever else strikes his fancy. Town stops have proved expensive when faced with such a voracious eater.</div>
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<u>The Weather</u></div>
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We have been blessed with exceptional weather so far. It's snowed maybe 3 times? It has rained a few more times than that. We often have freezing temperatures in the morning, but nothing too serious. Lots of sunshine and 50 degree days. Our first two days in the Smoky Mountains were incredible, weather-wise. Highs in the mid-60s (which is really hot when you're hiking) and clear views. Our climb up Rocky Top Mountain was hot and dry, and we really felt like we were hiking in the Southwest. It's definitely harder to stay motivated when there is a constant drizzle. I have to really try and stay positive during days like these. Weather is also common camp talk, in addition to poop. Get desensitized y'all. </div>
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<u>The Miles</u></div>
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Our mileages have been kind of all over the place. We've done as many miles as 16 in a day and as few as 0.3 mi. For those close friends and family who have our spreadsheet plan, we are about a week behind schedule, which given the number of zeros we've had is about right. We hope to take fewer zeroes in the future, but the trail may have other plans for us. We are hoping to increase our mileages to between 13 and 18 regularly now that we have our trail legs. "It ain't about the miles, it's about the smiles!"</div>
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<u>The People</u></div>
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Thru-hikers are crazy awesome. A lot of them are weird, but you're probably weird too, so its all good. We've camped with all types: from stoners and retired Army Lt. Colonels to recent grads heading to med school in the fall. Almost everyone exudes a genuinely "good guy" feel (and hiker funk, mind you) that can't be matched in the outside world. It's really incredible making what are sure to be life-long friends in such an environment. One of my favorite days on the trail so far has been the day that we zeroed at the Double Spring Shelter in the Smoky's just because of the amazing camaraderie felt between all of us after pulling together to gather firewood and cold-proof the shelter as much as we could. Falling asleep to Quailman and Icicle reading The Hobbit is a great memory. Giving Pacman the secret trail name of "Gandalf" brought us all closer together. We've met a Batman and a Penguinman, a Windscreen and a Rocketgirl, a Tog, a Socs, a Blaze (named so because she caught her hair on fire the first night), a Vegemite, a Priest, and countless others. Most of them are way past us now, but I've heard tale that the trail often brings people back together when they least expect it. We are so grateful to the trail for bringing all these crazy folks together! I look forward to meeting many more characters!</div>
Kelley http://www.blogger.com/profile/06556167551563964184noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3016487931137059287.post-53660321759808338062014-03-21T22:24:00.003-04:002014-03-21T22:25:00.401-04:00Trail Daze: Days 16 - 25<i>Hullo world! Life on the trail is really busy so we haven't had hardly any time to post. After a long day of hiking, the last thing I want to do is stare at a bright little electronic screen before bed. Usually we just want to stuff our faces and pass out! </i><br />
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<i>Below is a summary of our most recent adventures. I figure there isn't much point in detailing "First, we left camp. Then, we hiked. Then, we ate..." etc., so here is a highlight reel of sorts of our day to day life. </i></div>
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<u>Day 16: Nero in Franklin</u></div>
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Not the Roman Emperor, a day where we did nearly zero miles! We did 0.3 miles this day because we ended up needing to spend a lot more time in town doing all the things we should have done on our zero day. We also met a great group of hikers (including Icicle and Quailman) who dubbed Kelley "Cheez-it" because she insisted that we carry 3.5lbs of the cheese flavored snack to get us through the Smoky Mountains! It was a fun-filled night at the Rock House Lodge (the sweet taproom inside of Outdoor 76) and we ended up hitting the trail at Winding Stair Gap around 8:30 that night. Cheez-it couldn't find her headlamp, but we sucked it up and night hiked the 0.3 miles to the closest campsite. Chase fell into a creek and skinned his knee (while wearing the only headlamp), and we pitched camp on the flattest spot around, which just so happened to be the AT. We were glad we spent the extra day in town with great folks and we definitely second-guessed our decision to camp instead of staying the night in a warm bed.</div>
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<u>Day 17: Winding Stair Gap to Wayah Bald Shelter</u></div>
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We woke to a heavy fog and instantly realized we were camping next to a homeless person. The night before we thought another thru-hiker had pitched his tent at the campsite, but upon further inspection, it was definitely a homeless person in a Wal-Mart tent covered in blue tarp material, which was tied off to the fallen trees in the area. No thru-hiker would go to that much trouble. But we weren't ax-murdered, so that was good. We were soon being passed by our comrades from the night before, Chainsaw, Pacman, AppleJacks, Icicle, and Quailman. We hiked through this crazy stuff called hoarfrost, which is basically these 2in long bits of frost that hang off of tree branches horizontally. Aparently it is really rare to encounter the stuff, so we felt very fortunate. We camped just outside the shelter as there were no tentsites big enough for our monstrous Tarptent. It felt very cool to be a part of a hiker group.</div>
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<u>Day 18: Wayah Bald Shelter to Wesser Bald Shelter</u></div>
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Wesser Bald fire tower was AWESOME. We could see Cheoah Bald and the beginning of the Smoky's. It was sunny and beautiful so we sat up there with a section hiker, Chainsaw, Icicle, and Quailman for about an hour before heading down the the shelter to camp for the night. Great campsite with the crew! Had a fire and learned all about how a friend of Chainsaw's married his half-sister. Ah, the South! We were all stoked to get to the Nantahala Outdoor Center the next day!</div>
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<u>Day 19: Wesser Bald to Grassy Gap</u></div>
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We followed Chainsaw out of camp by about 5 minutes, but he beat us to the NOC by about an hour and a half. As a result, he injured his foot on the steep downhill and was going to take a zero day to try to recover (since then, we heard that he had to get surgury and is off the trail). The Jump-Off was really cool. Sheila did great with all of the steep downhill. Chase had to help her down one section only because I didn't want her jumping down 4ft off of a boulder. We couldn't get our Smoky Mountain thru-hiker passes becasue the NOC's internet was down, but we did have a killer lunch and a Bell's Hopslam! We packed out a couple of beers to have with Quailman and Icicle that night, but they ended up pushing on further. I was content to stay 3.0 mi into the climb out of the NOC, because it was pretty tough going and I was trying to carry a full pack for the first time since Tesnatee Gap. The campsite at Grassy Gap had a sweet rock formation above it, so we took some time to explore the caves for bears (none were found).</div>
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<u>Day 20: Grassy Gap to a campsite just before Stecoah Gap</u></div>
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Hard going for the rest of the climb. Cheez-it's calves were burning from exertion and dehydration. The cure for this was to transfer some weight back onto Chase and to have a nice long lunch at Sassafras Gap Shelter. The sun came out in this time and made everything a bit better. The views from Cheoah Bald were breathtaking! To think we were looking at this spot from the Wesser Bald fire tower only two days ago was crazy! We hiked until about sundown and stopped to camp on a little mountain with a view into Stecoah. Sunset was amazing from our campsite.</div>
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<u>Day 21: Stecoah Gap to Fontana</u></div>
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We had to get up early and make it 16 miles before 4pm in order to turn Sheila over to the kennel. Our only 16 mile day so far had been into Winding Stair Gap and we got there by 7pm. Naturally, I was stressed. We also had to climb the infamously steep Jacob's Ladder, which I thought was a rock scramble (it's not). We pushed hard and fast and managed to get in by 4:40pm. I was literally running down the mountain, very angry at Chase for this time constraint. We turned Sheila over with many apologies. The only positive thing about being late was that I didn't have time to get emotional. Sheila hopped into the back of the car, laid down, and took a well-deserved nap. We caught the shuttle into the village and planned on getting a room. Icicle's parents were supposed to get them a room at the lodge, and they had told us previously that we could stay with them if we wanted to. I was willing to spend the $90 to get my own private room, but as soon as we walked in the door, Quailman and Icicle handed us the key to the room. We took showers and cooled off. It ended up being a great hiker-reunion kind of night, and I was grateful to be there.</div>
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<u>Day 22: Zero in Fontana</u></div>
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Laundry, hot dogs, beer. That's all we did that day. And then at 11pm we scrambled to get our bags ready to leave for the Smoky Mountains in the morning. We are really bad at Zero days. </div>
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<u>Day 23: Fontana to Mollies Ridge Shelter</u></div>
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We left late because we still had a million things to do before being able to leave the lodge. We hiked up to the Fontana Hilton shelter and hung out for a bit before setting off with Icicle and Quailman to begin our Smoky Mountain adventure. Actual bathrooms and showers are the only thing that make this shelter a "Hilton," which should show you how low hiker standards are. We spent an hour going over Fontana Dam, leading me to name our little group "The Lolly-Gaggers" for lolly-gagging about. We made it up the shelter around 8pm. There were a bunch of kids from the University of South Florida on a Spring Break backpacking trip, which was kind of surreal. We were just happy there was room in the shelter. </div>
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<u>Day 24: Mollies Ridge to Derrick Knob Shelter</u></div>
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Had a lovely lunch break at Spencer's Field which I can only describe as a meadow of tall grass. I'm sure it's beautiful in the summer, but it was still breathtaking in the winter.The hike up to Rocky Top felt like a desert. I probably should have put sunscreen on. The views were spectacular! We were fortunate to have such a good weather introduction to the Smoky's, but our luck would soon turn. </div>
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<u>Day 25: Derrick Knob to Double Spring Shelter</u></div>
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Woke up to wet weather! No sleep in a tin-roof shelter when the rain is pelting down! We hiked through it to the next shelter, Siler's Bald Shelter, and just so happened to have enough service to check the weather. Holy Winter Storm Batman! The forecast called for 10 degrees that night with windchill of -13 degrees on top of Clingman's Dome the next day, which we were supposed to summit on this day. Icicle and I were totally spooked by the weather forecast and once the group decided to hole up at the next shelter, we booked it the 2 miles in 30 minutes. So there would be 6 of us in the shelter; Pacman, TOG, Icicle, Quailman, Chase and I. We gathered firewood to last us through the cold evening, and made a plan to try and keep extra warm. We strung up our tents across the opening of the lower bunk in order to retain our heat a little better. All of our gear was wet, so we strung up a laundry line while Pacman stoked the fire. It started to sleet not long after we got in, and the northerners made sure that we Floridians knew the difference between the types of wintry mix. Chase and I were excited about snow! Some section hikers came in around 6pm and we welcomed them gladly into our warm bunk. Quailman and Icicle read The Hobbit aloud while we snuggled in our bags and Pacman kept the fire going for a few more hours. The temperature was dropping quickly, but it was a balmy 25 degrees in our tent-barricaded bunk filled with the heat of 8 bodies. Would we survive???? Tune in next week to find out! ;)</div>
Kelley http://www.blogger.com/profile/06556167551563964184noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3016487931137059287.post-11122253974514163792014-03-09T15:05:00.001-04:002014-03-09T15:05:10.176-04:00Trail Life: Days 11 - 15<u>Day 11 - Sassafras Gap to Cowart Gap</u><div>
That morning was pretty chilly. Quailman and Icicle got out of camp before us and headed for Dick's Creek to catch a ride into Hiawassee. We warmed right up on the way out of the gap, planning to camp as low as possible that night due to the forecast for lows in the teens. Cowart Gap looked like a great place on the map, as it was much lower than the shelter at Plumorchard Gap. We look it easy as the terrain was pretty tough and I didn't want to exacerbate my newly healed leg. The climb out of Addis Gap was particularly tough and I felt some strain in my left leg again. I was really worried until I really focused on the pain and realized it was coming from a different muscle group. I assumed I must have bruised the muscle a bit when I fell on my butt the day before. We made good time past Kelly Knob and arrived at Dick's Creek Gap for lunch and water. When we arrived, there was a creepy guy hanging around. I feel bad about saying this, but he was either just real poor mountain folk or a meth head. He was wearing a beat up pair of baggy jeans and a Georgia Bulldogs coat with a ball cap. He was missing a lot of teeth, and seemed just generally not well taken care of. He had an old terrier-type dog with him and was driving a newer Chevy truck. I definitely got a bad vibe from him as soon as we walked up. Thankfully, there was a road crew in the area and a lot of traffic because if there hadn't been, we would have moved on without stopping. He was putting up a shuttle-for-fee sign on the info board and when we walked past to set our stuff on a picnic table, he commented to us that his dog wasn't friendly. The dog was off-leash and looked like it probably wasn't vaccinated at all, so I definitely wasn't comfortable having Sheila so close to it. The dog followed us up to the picnic area and so did the guy. He kept trying to talk to us and we were trying to avoid conversation with him. He kept getting closer as his dog got closer, but eventually he picked up the dog and left. I almost took down his shuttle sign. That has been the only weird experience we've had so far. From the gap, it was only 1.8 miles to where we planned to camp, so we huffed it up the mountain and got to Cowart Gap with some time to spare before sunset. At first, it looked like a great place to camp! Tall evergreens with a nice soft pine needle floor. Picturesque in the fading light of day for sure! Then we started noticing some things. First, the campsite was on an old fire road or a hunting road (not mentioned in the guidebook). Second, all of the lower branches of these lovely evergreens looked dead and deadly. This forced us to pitch camp right next to the fire ring, which brings me to the the third observation. Scat everywhere! This area was clearly frequented by a variety of wildlife, so we would take extra precautions when hanging our bear bag and cooking. Lastly, this was a cold gap. We lost daylight about an hour before actual sunset, which forced us into our tent just after cooking. It was set to be a cold night indeed. I didn't sleep too well that night becasue I was worried about the dog being cold and the possibility of animals coming into camp and the fact that when our sleeping bags are zipped together, they are a little drafty! But we somehow got through the night!</div>
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<u>Day 12: Cowart Gap to Muskrat Creek Shelter</u></div>
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What a great day! This was the day we were set to enter North Carolina! One state down, 13 to go! It was freezing when we left camp in the morning. I put toe warmers in my boots to warm them up so that my feet wouldn't be miserable for the first hour. I cannot stand having cold fingers or cold toes. The fingers are easily managed because we bought these awesome Outdoor Research Flurry mitts that keep my hands very warm. The toe warmers are great on very cold mornings. Anyway, we booked it up the mountain in order to warm up. We even put on our rain jackets to cut the frigid wind. About a mile out of the gap, we realized we left Sheila's leash back at the campsite. We set our packs down and Chase jogged back down to get it. While I was waiting for him to come back, I met a group of hikers who had started on February 1st who said they were thru-camping. The one girl, Nomad, had contacted me on Facebook previously, so it was kind of cool to meet them. They were an interesting bunch, offering me a hit off a joint at 10am. They moved on a little while later and only one other hiker passed me while I waited for Chase to come back. Later on, we would learn the name of that hiker and hang out with him a bit, but I don't want to ruin the surprise! Chase came running back up the hill, drenched in sweat and stripped down to his baselayer top. We moved on and picked up the pace a little to make up time. I felt really good the rest of the day. The climbs were all pretty steep but we didn't need to take any long breaks for me to rest up. This made me feel so great! I was healed! I could hike normally again! And we were headed to NC! Such a great day indeed! We met the same thru-camping group at the border and they took our picture next to the sign. Chase held up Sheila so she could be in it too! It's such a great feeling getting that first state down. Georgia is no walk in the park. There are no fireworks or confetti when you pass the border, but I highly suggest making some noise to celebrate! As we passed by whooping and hollering, I remembered our first night on the trail and how everyday is a day to celebrate. We were going to camp at Bly Gap, but I was feeling very good so we pushed to Muskrat Creek Shelter. The climb up Courthouse Bald was fun! It was very steep and very windy, but I was so high from passing the border that it was just a fun challenge. There were no views from the top but it was amazing pushing to the highest elevation we had been at so far. We were also looking forward to being in familiar territory for the next two days, as we had section hiked from Deep Gap to Glassmine Gap over the summer. When we arrived at Muskrat Creek and got water to cook, it was already below freezing. We hurried as quick as we could to avoid freezing the water filter. It's a real problem in the winter. We sleep with the filter on most nights because it could crack if we are not careful. We crawled into the tent, put Sheila in her jacket, and bundled up for a cold night. </div>
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<u>Day 13 - Muskrat Creek Shelter to Carter Gap Shelter</u></div>
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Very, very cold morning! So cold that Sheila was actually shivering! She was lying on the ground while we were packing up the tent and stood up shivering. I wrapped her up in my Patagonia Micro Puff jacket to warm her back up. Once we got up and moving everything was fine, so I wasn't too worried about her. I made a mental note just to keep an eye on her during cold mornings. We made quick miles over the relatively easy terrain. I was getting really tired going up Standing Indian Mountain and feeling really discouraged until Chase pointed out that I was moving up the mountain much faster than any other climb previously. I didn't feel so bad after that! We stopped for a longer break at our favorite campsite on top of Standing Indian. It feels so good lying out in the grass in the sun on top of mountain with a view! We aired out our shoes and dried our socks while enjoying a Snickers. Then we got going down to Beech Gap. On the way, we met some section hikers who were pushing a 16 mile days to get to the NOC in 3 days. They passed us by and we weighed our options while taking a break at the gap. We could stay and camp early, or push to Carter Gap and be in a good position to get into Franklin by Sunday, a day earlier than we had planned. We decided that Chase should hike ahead and get to Carter before nightfall and start setting up camp so there weren't as many chores to do when I got there. Sheila and I followed behind him about 5 minutes after he left the gap. I caught up to him about 5 minutes later as he had stopped to talk to the section hikers. They all walked off together and I gave them a couple minute head start so that Sheila would follow me instead of them. Still, I was able to catch this group of fast hikers not too far from the shelter! This made me feel really good about myself, coming from having to take a zero due to injury to hiking my longest day ever quickly was really just the best feeling. We set up the tent near the shelter in a thicket of rhodededron, got water, cooked, and crawled in our bags not long after nightfall. I fell asleep quickly but I woke up around 3am to the sound of something brushing up against the tent. I sat frozen for a few minutes as it happened again and again all around us. Finally I whispered to Chase that there was something outside. He sat up sleepily and listened, commenting that it was probably a skunk or something. I think he was skeptical until he heard it too, on both sides of the tent at the same time. He got a little wide-eyed and started to unzip the tent. He poked his head out and sighed, "It's snow!" The sound was the snow sloughing off of the tent fly! I think it's obvious we are Floridians... </div>
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<u>Day 14 - Carter Gap Shelter to Winding Stair Gap</u></div>
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After last night's adventure, we got out of camp around 8 and happily snapped pictures of the winter wonderland we found ourselves in. 1/4 of a inch of snow was all it took to make everything seem magical. I was exciting hiking through this light snowfall because you could see animal tracks on the trail. I would love to pick up a book on tracks and scat and the Appalachian flora, just so we know what's out there! Sheila's paws were a bit unhappy in the snow, so we put on her fleece booties. Dogbooties.com sells these great lightweight socks essentially that secure via an elastic velcro so they actually stay on her feet while she is hiking. Fleece also insulates when wet, so for the snow, these were a great purchase. She was soon trotting along happily again. The snow had melted by the time we got to Betty Creek Gap, and we took a break to prepare for climbing up Albert. We were debating making today a 16-mile day and pushing to Winding Stair Gap to get picked up to go into Franklin a day early. The daunting part of that plan was that we would have 9 more miles to go after summiting Albert, which is a really tough climb. The lure of pizza and beer was too much though, and we decided to go for it! On the way up to Albert we met a Southbounder named Prada. He saw Sheila and immediately recognized her! Sheep Dog has made us famous for sure. We chatted with him about his cold weather hike, about being stoked for 100 miles left until Springer, and took a picture with him. He was a really cool guy, and I hope his final 100 miles were amazing. We pushed onwards and upwards. The climb up was much easier than I remembered from my first hike back in July. We were at the top before I knew it. Sheila had no trouble with the steep ascent. I swear she is part mountain goat. We ate lunch at the top of the fire tower and took some pictures. Then we huffed it to Long Branch Shelter to use the facilities and relax for a bit. 6 more miles to go! A group stopped us at Glassmine Gap and chatted with us about hiking with a dog and thru-hiking in general. They seemed like a newbie kind of group. One guy was in jeans and a button down plaid shirt. We eventually got free of them and booked it down to Winding Stair. We stopped at Rock Gap to rest a minute and I seriously reconsidered pushing on another 4 miles. I was so tired! Sheila was falling asleep on her feet. But the pizza and beer got a hold of us, so on we went! On the last couple of ascents and descents, everything seemed blurry. Fatigue made our legs feel like Jell-O. Night was coming quickly and we would be lucky to be there before 6pm. Finally, we passed the sign for the gap. It seemed like forever to actually reach the road beyond the sign, but we were so happy when we got there. The Budget Inn van picked us up and brought us into town. We settled Sheila into the room and called for a ride to the pizza joint. Vito's Pizza in Franklin will come and pick up hikers from the Budget and bring them in to eat and drink! It was awesome! We ordered a large pizza, a chicken parm sub to split, an order of cheese sticks (which ended up being similar to a small cheese pizza) and a couple of beers. We ended up having leftovers for the next day, which was fine with us. You sleep so well when your fat, clean, and happy.</div>
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<u>Day 15 - Zero in Franklin</u></div>
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This zero day sucked! We were so disorganized! We went to breakfast and came back to the room feeling like zombies. The Budget didn't have the boxes we bounced from the Hiawassee Budget, so we had to wait for the Sapphire Inn to bring them by at 11. By then, laundry had to be done before we could run our normal errands. I needed to pick up extra dog food and we needed to resupply through Fontana. We decided to ship a resupply box to Fontana to get us through the Smokies, so we had to buy extra and figure out how to efficiently ship it. We decided to walk to get these errands done, as the 4 o'clock shuttle seemed a little late in the day for us. By the time we hit the pet store and got to the Three Eagles Outfitters, the shuttle had caught up. The outfitter ended up being closed (closes at 4pm on Sunday) so we rode over to Ingles to get food. We ended up holding up everyone else because we were buying 2 weeks worth of resupply. We got back to the hotel and still felt like we had a whole days worth of stuff to do. We planned to ride back to the outfitter in the morning and to hit the post office too. We would try to catch the 11am shuttle back to the trail. We went to bed pretty uneasy with the daunting task ahead! </div>
Kelley http://www.blogger.com/profile/06556167551563964184noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3016487931137059287.post-75749563467779638862014-03-02T22:21:00.002-05:002014-03-03T06:59:23.263-05:00Getting into the swing of things: Days 6 - 10<div><i>Hello from Franklin! I have updated our ETA's on the Mail Drop page! We have started to pick up the pace in order to meet our 15-mile per day average, but we are not quite there. My injury has fully recovered, as you will read in future blog posts. </i></div><div><i><br></i></div><div><i>Below is a summary of days 6 through 10 on the trail. I think posting in 4 day groupings makes blogging a bit more manageable. </i></div><div><i><br></i></div><div><i>We haven't posted many photos yet because we are still working out transferring them from the camera to the iPad. Hopefully soon though! </i></div><u><div><u><br></u></div>Day 6: Zero in Hiawassee</u><br>
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Our zero mile day (commonly called a Zero in the hiking world) in Hiawassee was just what I needed to heal up and feel better. We woke up pretty early, ate breakfast at the Subway, talked about our hiking plan, and started in on the chores that needed to be done. We sorted laundry and set up the tent. We laid the sleeping bags over a railing in the sun so they could air out and dry out a little. I brushed Sheila and brushed her teeth. We then decided to take a break and walk up to the local grocery store, Ingles, for lunch and resupply. We have been jokingly calling the place Inglés (as in the Spanish word for english), so we had a lot of fun walking around and deciding what we would eat for the next ten days. We decided to stock up on all the hiker favorites, things that are lightweight but calorie-packed like Ramen and Snickers. We had also heard about this great recipe for a backpacker's Pad Thai that called for chunky peanut butter in chicken-flavored Ramen with a little hot sauce added. I was particularly stoked about this meal option, as Pad Thai is one of my favorite foods. We also bought a lot of trail bars and these great breakfast biscuits that would be sure to get us going in the morning. For lunch, we settled on a great Ingles deli sub made with Boar's Head meats. We agreed to only eat half today so we could eat the other half on the trail the next day. We also bought a bag of Cheez-Its, which were a wonderfully salty and cheesey snack to balance all of the sweet and bland trail bars. When dinner time rolled around, we walked up to the local all-you-can-eat (AYCE) buffet, Daniel's. We heard from our shuttle driver that they had a pretty great salad bar and we were in desperate need of some veggies. The salad bar ended up being only okay, and everything else was fried. I had an entire plate of deep-fried, brown meats. Since the veggie options weren't spectacular, we opted to finish off with a dessert of raw broccoli (the only real vegetable on the bar besides cucumbers). Feeling pretty satisfied, we hiked back to the motel to pack our bags and get ready to hit the trail the next day. We ended up sharing a couple of beers with a couple of other hikers, Honeybun and Derrick, who had pulled a 19 mile day to get into town. They were both planning to zero as a result. I think they might have been ex-military, but I could be wrong. We had a great night overall, and were excited to get back out there. My leg was feeling much, much better, but even so, we talked about taking it slow once we hit the trail, doing low-mileage days just to make sure everything would be alright. Sheila relished her time in town, sleeping most of the day away.</div>
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<u>Day 7: Tesnatee to Low Gap Shelter </u><br>
We woke up pretty early in order to get our bags packed and be ready by our 9am shuttle departure time. Our driver ended up knocking on our door at 8:15am, which made me feel rushed. We hit the post office so Chase could fill out his change of address form and then headed to the gap. I was feeling pretty ready to take on the day. The man who drove us back to the gap seemed nice enough, kind of your "good ol' boy" type. We got to the gap a little after 9:30am and started our huff up out of the gap carrying 10 days worth of food and full water. Just before setting off, we met a hiker named Penguinman whom we had met at the base of Springer our second day on the trail. At the time, he had been heading up to the top with his wife in order to get some pictures of him signing the register and near the plaque, etc. His wife was wearing a big, puffy parka with faux fur around the hood and a pair of baggy jeans. We heard later on that she wasn't able to get up to the top of Springer, and I'm not surprised. It was really icy that day. Anyway, we met Penguinman again and set off from the bottom of Tesnatee Gap. The climb was just as hard as it had been two days ago, but by taking it at an easy pace with lots of stops to rest, we made it to the top without incident. We were passed by quite a few hikers on the way, but we made it! There were several great views from the top of the gap. It was such a beautiful and sunny day, you could actually see the outline of Atlanta in the distance. Seeing the hazy outline of a gigantic city from the top of a mountain will certainly make you feel very small. After sightseeing for a bit, we pushed on to Hogpen Gap and ate our lunch of leftover subs in a little clearing. Some section hikers passed us while we ate, as did Penguinman, who had stopped at Hogpen to get water. We took our time and made it to Low Gap Shelter by about 3pm. The shelter area was really beautiful and the water source was great. There were many great places to tent as well. The section hikers who passed us earlier were setting up in the shelter and building a fire. We all chatted a bit as I signed the register, and then we went off to set up our tent. Some other thru-hikers trickled in as we set up camp and made dinner. Trish and her boyfriend Jessie recognized us from the blogosphere because of Sheila. She has made us so popular! Trisha was really funny and thinking back on that night, I hope we bump into them again soon. A couple of solo thru-hikers joined our little group, including a guy named Gizmo who had hiked from Ft. Lauderdale, FL. The night at Low Gap marked his 66th on the trail. The last group to arrive was a couple that I had actually been in contact with a little pre-trail, Kristin and Eric (now known as Icicle and Quailman). They were super awesome and I was really glad we got to meet them. If it wasn't for having to pull off the trail for a day, we may have not met them so soon! Our little group of hikers stayed up until 9pm, talking and passing a flask around the campfire. So many great stories were told and lots of great coversation was had that night. It was probably one of my favorite nights on the trail, and I'm very grateful for the zero in Hiawassee for making it possible!<br>
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<u>Day 8: Low Gap Shelter to Blue Mountain Shelter</u><br>
After such a great night, Chase and I woke up and got out of camp later than we wanted to. This wasn't that big of a deal, since we were planning a pretty low mileage day anyway. While we packed up camp, Icicle and Quailman offered to carry some of our weight for us to help my leg recover and take some of the burden off of Chase. They were planning a shorter day as well and seemed really eager to help out, so we graciously accepted their offer. They hiked a bit faster than us, so even though we got out of camp earlier, they passed us in the first few miles. Taking it easy allowed us to really take in the scenery. It was another warm, lovely day on the trail filled with sunshine and a few great views. The beauty of hiking in the winter is that you almost always have a view of the mountains surrounding you. We took our last break of the day 3 miles from the shelter. The terrain looked really easy, so I wasn't worried about worsening my injury at all, but this last bit of the hike ended up being tons of rocks. Rocks are terrible because they wear your feet out if you walk on them, they can move and make you roll an ankle very easily, and you have to slow way down to avoid either of those things. We finally made it the shelter a little after Icicle and Quailman. They were still plopped on the ground eating what they could, which is a pretty common practice (eat first, everything else second) after a day of hiking. Chase set up the tent while I gathered water and signed the register. We also collected firewood and got ready to have a little campfire that night. That is the great thing about getting into camp early; so much time to do things before it gets dark and cold. We ended up sitting around with them until about 8pm. They were planning on zeroing at the shelter the next day to let Icicle rest a little, as she was thinking she might have pulled a muscle in her calf hiking through the rocks. It was nice being able to hang out with them a second night and get to know them more. We finished off the last of the booze we packed in and called it a night.<br>
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<u>Day 9: Blue Mountain Shelter to Rocky Mountain</u><br>
Our ninth day on the trail was pretty interesting. We woke up later than we wanted (as usual), took a group photo with Icicle and Quailman, said our good-byes, and hit the trail. It was very cold and windy, so we stopped a little way down the trail and put our mid layers back on. I have these Outdoor Research Flurry mittens that are amazing. Even in the high winds, my hands were toasty warm. We hiked down into Unicoi Gap feeling very good. The pain in my leg seemed to have disappeared entirely. We were already craving a burger, so we decided to try our hand at hitching and to grab lunch in Hiawassee. Chase stood out by the road while I hung back at the parking lot because I was feeling a bit shy. 15 minutes or so went by with no luck, and I was putting my pack on to keep going up the trail when a white SUV pulled in to drop off a hiker. The elderly couple kindly offered to take all 3 of us into town. They ended up buying us lunch from Hardee's which was an incredible piece of trail magic! Even Sheila got a burger! From the Hardee's we walked over to the Ingles and restocked on snacks. Chase had been eating like a bear already, and we needed more snacks to keep him happy. We also picked up some Terra chips for Icicle and Quailman! $40 later, we had to hitch back out the gap. We set off down the road and waited until we were on the edge of town to stick our thumbs out. It really was embarrassing for me, but after a few minutes, it seemed like the natural thing to do. In a trail town like Hiawassee, we didn't expect to wait long for a ride, and we didn't. A gentleman in an older Chevy truck picked us up as he was leaving town. Sheila and I jumped in the back of the truck and off we went! Unfortunately, the guy was about to run out of gas, so he had to drop us off about 2 miles from the gap and head back to town. I guess when we picked us up he thought we were going to Dick's Creek Gap. Anyway, we stuck our thumbs out again, this time on a country mountian highway between two small towns. It seemed like more people were driving into Hiawassee than into Helen, and we didn't get a ride until we were about a mile from the gap. It seems like when you have no hope left, the trail provides. A guy named Mike picked us up. His kids own the Hayloft restaurant in Helen, GA. He told us that at the Hayloft, they will come pick you up from the gap to eat lunch! That would have been good for us to know earlier in the day! Because of the unexpected hitching adventure, we didn't get back to the gap until 4 o'clock. We checked the guide and decided we could only get to the campsite on top of Rocky Mountain before nightfall. My leg was feeling a bit sore from walking on the road with out trekking poles, but as soon as my feet touched the mountain, everything felt fine. We climbed out of the gap and arrived sooner than expected at the campsite. The camping area was beautiful; nice grassy and mossy spot with a view of the town below. As night fell, the city lights came to life below and provided a contrast to the starry night above. It was a cold and windy night on top of the mountain. At this point, life on the trail was beginning to normalize and really feel like home.<br>
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<u>Day 10: Rocky Mountain to Sassafras Gap</u><br>
Because I was feeling better, we decided to push our miles up a little and get to Sassafras Gap that day. We got out of camp pretty early, but the wind was bitterly cold and seemed to cut through to the bone. It was a foggy morning but as the sun rose and teh fog burned off, the day proved to be sunny and warm again. The great weather really made my mood soar. We made great time to Tray Mountain Shelter, where we took a longer break to get water and eat lunch. On the way out of the shelter, we ended up running into Icicle and Quailman! They were planning on camping at Sassafras Gap and to go into Hiawassee from Dick's Creek Gap the next day. We let them hike on ahead and continued to take it easy on our longest day since my injury yet. We met a group of hikers from Germany at Steeltrap Gap as we were taking a break. They were also heading for Sassafras and was wondering how to signal to their third hiking buddy that they moved on. I was changing my pants at the time. No time for modesty on the trail! ;) The Patagonia Houdini wind pants I was wearing as hiking pants had torn a bit in the seat of the pants and I didn't want to further damage them, so I changed to just hiking in my base layer bottoms. We moved on ahead of the Germas, but they caught up and passed us soon after. The last few miles to Sassafras Gap were mostly uphill, and it took us longer to reach the gap than I thought. I was trying not to feel too down about moving slow; after all I was still recovering. We met up with Icicle and Quailman and set up our tent near theirs. I have them the Terra chips and they seemed really grateful! I guess they were on their last portions of food before resupply in Hiawassee. We shared the bag between the four us as we set up home for the night. No campfire that night; we were all pretty beat and we were looking at a harder day in terms of elevation changes for that next day. It was a quiet night indeed. </div><div><br></div><div><i>Posting blog updates has proven to be a little more sparse than we anticipated. I promise to try and do better! Chores tend to eat up your free time when you get into camp, especially if you arrive late. Also, I tend to be so tired at the end of the night that I fall asleep by 8pm. I have been keeping up a written journal to help reflect on the days past. </i></div><div><i><br></i></div><div><i>Thank you everyone for your continued support!</i></div>
Kelley http://www.blogger.com/profile/06556167551563964184noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3016487931137059287.post-11175574070004395662014-02-24T21:02:00.001-05:002014-02-24T21:06:36.928-05:00The Worst Day<u>Day 5: Slaughter Creek to Tesnatee Gap</u><div>Our fifth day on the trail started beautifully. We woke up around 4am, looked at each other, and said "Let's do this!" We were packed and on the trail up to Blood Mountain by 730am. There was a heavy fog that enveloped everything, making the trail seem more magical and mystical than normal. Chase got a great shot of me walking up to the old Blood Mountain shelter. The fog makes it extra eerie and awesome. No views for us that day, but I wasn't concerned about that. FOOD. Hot, delicious food was waiting for us at Neels Gap. The wind was ripping across Blood, dragging the clouds behind, but I wasn't interested in sight seeing. The rocks were slick with the dampness that comes from touching the clouds, but I paid it no mind. I trugged on with a singular goal; reach Neels Gap or die trying. I even ignored the burning pain in my leg that was becoming worse by the second.</div><div><br></div><div>Reaching Neels Gap was a great feeling. The climb down Blood seemed to last an enternity, but we were there right on schedule. Chase went in and ordered a pizza and started a tab. Starting a tab at an outfitter is really amazing, and I'm very glad that Mountain Crossings offers such a service. We ate one Red Baron pizza, 3 bags of chips, a turkey sandwhich, some beef jerky, and I had an apple juice while Chase chugged a Coke. We stocked up on Ramen, peanut butter, trailbars, and Snickers to get us through the next three days before we would head into Hiawassee. </div><div><br></div><div>We left Mountain Crossings with full bellies and a head full of worries about the impending severe thunderstorm that was forecast to hit the trail that night. We decided that we needed to stay in a shelter to stay safe from what promised to be torrential rain and lots of lightning. With all of the down and weakend trees in the area from last week's ice storm, we were worried about being crushed while we slept. We decided to push our longest day yet, and try to reach Whitley Gap Shelter. </div><div><br></div><div>I was okay with this plan. We had to push hard and fast, but I thought I was capable of it. We stopped to get water and I set off like a bat out of hell to make up the time lost. My leg was burning, but I wouldn't accept defeat. We zoomed past many a pretty site and I lost interest in my surroundings. Finally, on the way down into Tesnatee Gap from Cowrock Mountain, I lost it.</div><div><br></div><div>I stopped for a break and was getting up as Chase was hiking up behind me. He is normally much faster than I am, to give you an idea about how fast I was moving. My leg was in burning pain and Chase was commenting that it was only 0.7mi from the Gap to the entrance of the shelter, and then another 1.2mi to the shelter. I spit at him, "This must be just SO EASY for you!" And I trugged off without another word. I made it to the bottom of the gap, berating myself for lashing out at him, but also feeling sorry for myself because I was weak. I thought about all of the people I was proving right by not being able to cut it, by not being able to handle another step on the AT. I broke down crying on the way up out of Tesnatee, which is a very steep climb. My leg was screaming at me, I was feeling soft and weak and foolish, and I couldn't go on. Chase, being who he is, just hugged me and took my pack off. We sat on the trail, and I cried a bit more, and we decided to go into town. I needed to rest, to recoup, and get my head together.</div><div><br></div><div>Thankfully, there was service on the road, and we were able to call a shuttle. While we waited, we cooked up a pot of Ramen and ate. A wonderful woman named Sally picked us up and drove us down to Hiawassee, a good 30 miles from Tesnatee. She was a fisherwoman from the Tampa area, so we all bonded over the ocean, and that miraculous feeling you get when you wade into calm waters at sunrise. Remembering that feeling made me a bit homesick, but it also brought me back to a centered place in my head and my heart. I remembered why I was hiking in the first place.</div><div><br></div><div>Sally drove us to the ATM, pointed out the all-you-can-eat (AYCE) buffet in town, and dropped us at the Hiawassee Budget Inn. We checked in and threw all of our gear in the room, made sure Sheila was settled, and headed up to the Dairy Queen for a burger and a sundae. After eating, I opened up to Chase a bit about why I was feeling so down and why I felt like I needed to press harder. I wanted to keep up with the few people we had met and I wanted to meet more hikers. I wanted to belong to the trail. I wanted my hiking legs <i>now</i>. We made a pact to communicate more and to take it easy when we got back on the trail. We also decided to take a full zero in Hiawassee the next day to help the strain in my leg get better.</div><div><br></div><div>Back at the motel, we met some other thru-hikers as we sat on the porch drinking a Fat Tire, two guys named Asshole and Blackbeard. Both had hitched in from Dick's Creek Gap and were a little crazy. Asshole had some great stories from the trail and some good advice. It was nice to talk to them about their experiences. Talking with them made me feel like an actual member of the Appalachian Trail community. </div><div><br></div><div>We feel asleep happier and more experienced than the day before. It's true what they say; a hot shower, a hot meal, and a warm bed can heal all wounds from the trail.</div><div><i><br></i></div><div><i>I'm writing this post on our ninth day on the trail, and I can say that day 5 was the worst day so far. I've learned a lot from it though, and I wouldn't trade the experience for the world. You learn so much about yourself on your lowest days. I'm not hiking to prove that I can to anyone and I don't owe an explanation to anyone. I'm doing this for me and to get in touch with myself. I looked at my Appalachian Trials lists that night, and I'm sure it won't be the last time.</i></div>Kelley http://www.blogger.com/profile/06556167551563964184noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3016487931137059287.post-29299814610428731162014-02-23T16:33:00.000-05:002014-02-24T20:01:24.185-05:00First Impressions: Days 1 - 4Hello world! We are blogging from a beautiful spot on the side of Blood Mountain. The sun is about to set and we are in for a show for sure. We'd like to take this moment and catch the world up on what has been happening on our hike so far!<br>
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First of all, thank you so much to everyone who voted for us in the Appalachian Trials 2014 Badger Sponsorship! We took home 3rd place which means we will be recieveing some sweet free gear, including some dry dacks, Bedrock sandals, LARABARS, and some chocolate! We couldn't be happier with the results!<br>
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Secondly, a BIG thank you to Chase's parents, Debbie and Mason, for getting us to where we are today and making sure we were well fed and rested before setting out! You guys rock!<br>
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Thirdly, we will try to share some photos here, but a majority will be shared at our facebook page: <a href="http://www.facebook.com/endlessfootpath">http://www.facebook.com/endlessfootpath</a><br>
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<i>Let's get started!</i><br>
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<u>Pain & Gain - Kelley</u><br>
Our first day on the trail started out fantastically! We had a hearty breakfast at Amicalola Lodge, jogged up the stairs to Amicalola Falls, picked up our packs and hit the Approach Trail from the top of the falls. When we logged in at the visitor center, we were #50 and #51! It was kind of cool being the among the first 50 hikers to set out to Katahdin. It seems like such a far off goal (and it is) so I've been trying to focus on the short term. On the Approach we met our first fellow thru-hiker, Teddy Bear. He told us later on that he had flip-flopped a previous year, but this year he wanted the pure NOBO experience. He passed us pretty quickly and we've only seen him once since. We hiked through a lot of snow to get up to Springer, but it was really beautiful. When we did get up to the top, it was just before sunset so we hurriedly signed the register and hiked down to the shelter. We chose a campsite on thick snow near an evergreen tree. Neither of us had camped in snow before, so it was pretty exciting. Sheila seemed to really love the snow. We made sure to keep her feet warm with these little fleece booties from dogbooties.com. We will be ordering more as they proved to be the only kind of booties to stay on her feet! After we got camp set up, we popped a bottle of champagne to celebrate the beginning of an adventure. I figure everyday on the trail is a reason to celebrate!<br>
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The next day we got up and out of camp by about 9am. My feet were freezing and they didn't warm up until a couple of miles down the trail. We used our microspikes to get down Springer because all of the slush from yesterday was now ice. They worked great, but they made our feet tired. We met some more thru-hikers at Three Forks as we filtered water; Turtle, Figgy, and we saw Teddy Bear again, who gave us some beef jerky in exchange for water. We hiked all the way to Horse Gap and stayed with another couple. The gap was cold and windy, but we got through the night safe and warm. We realized that we didn't plan our meals very well in the last minute scramble, and we only brought dinner for 3 days when it looked like we were going to need 4 to get to Neels Gap. This lit a fire under me and encouraged me to push harder than was needed.<br>
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On Day 3 we hit Sassafras Mountain first thing. This is a beast of a mountain if you've ever looked at the elevation profile. Right after Sassafras is Justus Mountain, which is just as beastly. It was nice getting these two big elevation gain/loss peaks out of the way, and our hike for the rest of the day was relatively smooth. Because of the hard early morning, I was feeling pretty beat, so we made it a short day and stopped at Liss Gap early. Early camp was nice. There was plenty of time for all of the chores to get done before night fell and it started cooling off. It rained a little through the night, but with my face 6 inches from the tent ceiling, sleeping was hard. Not to mention this was our warmest night so far, and I was sweating half the night.<br>
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Day 4 started out really well. We got out of camp at 730 and hiked through some mist and fog to Woody Gap. There were real bathrooms! But sadly, no Fresh Gounds Leapfrog cafe, which we encountered back in November. We kept passing and being passed by Ibex and her group (another entrant to the Badger Sponsorship, Alexis Eliot) through out the day. On the way up Preaching Rock, I had this terrible pain in my upper thigh and had to slow way down. I remembered that I had the same pain yesterday coming down Justus Mountain, so I'm guessing I just pushed too hard that day. We decided to cut our day short of Blood Mountain so that I could rest my leg. This meant cold dinner and minimal breakfast tomorrow, but I know that I need to take it easy.<br>
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It's a marathon, not a sprint.<br>
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<br>Kelley http://www.blogger.com/profile/06556167551563964184noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3016487931137059287.post-33111549856817672012014-02-15T13:32:00.001-05:002014-02-15T13:32:02.188-05:00Mail Drops! And an update on our contest! + more!Hello interwebs! Right now we are on the road to Amicalola Falls State Park! I'm sorry for the inconsistent postings! You wouldn't believe how busy we have been these past two weeks.<br />
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Word to the wise: don't try to pack and move your entire apartment in one day.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Here's some quick updates!</span></b><br />
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<u><span style="font-size: large;">Appalachian Trials Sponsorship Contest</span></u><br />
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We are currently in 3rd place in the <a href="http://www.appalachiantrials.com/chase-kelly-want-badger-sponsorship/" target="_blank">Appalachian Trails 2014 Badger Sponsorship Contest!</a> If you haven't voted for us already, please do! All you have to do is click the link, hit the Facebook "like" button above or below our video, and share with your friends! Third place wins some free LARABARS, dry sacks, and some sweet sandals, in addition to an e-copy of <a href="http://www.appalachiantrials.com/" target="_blank">Appalachian Trials by Zach Davis</a>. The 1st and 2nd place folks are <i>hundreds</i> of likes ahead. Like 400 likes or more. It's absurd.<br />
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<i>Appalachian Trials </i>has been an incredible source of information on how to prepare for an Appalachian Trail thru-hike and really, life in general. Zach is a great guy too!<br />
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<u><span style="font-size: large;">Gear!</span></u><br />
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So with the crazy winter, we have switched back to the Gregory in order to bring our 0 degree bags. And good Lord our packs are HEAVY now. Especially with 10 days worth of Sheila's food. But, better safe than sorry. We can always send stuff home.<br />
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That being said, I won't be updating our gear list until we get back. We just won't have the capabilities. If you have any questions about what we are bringing, send us an <a href="mailto:endlessfootpath@gmail.com" target="_blank">email</a>, or leave a comment.<br />
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<u><span style="font-size: large;">Mail Drops and Trail Magic</span></u><br />
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If you're interested in sending us some trail magic while we are out there, we posted a <a href="http://endlessfootpath.blogspot.com/p/about.html" target="_blank">Mail Drop</a> page where you can find information on how to send us stuff while we are out there! We will update this list periodically when we have a better idea of where we would like to stop, and about what day we expect to arrive.<br />
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<u><span style="font-size: large;">Blog Updates!</span></u><br />
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If you'd like to sign up for an automatic email list that will let you know when we make a post, please send an email to <a href="mailto:endlessfootpath@gmail.com">endlessfootpath@gmail.com</a>. We will be posting hopefully once a week! I won't be using this format to upload pictures because it's difficult to format, so you can view all the photos of our adventure at <a href="http://facebook.com/endlessfootpath">Facebook.com/endlessfootpath</a>.<br />
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Feel free to ask us any questions! We are more than happy to try and answer within the week. :)Kelley http://www.blogger.com/profile/06556167551563964184noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3016487931137059287.post-53664139959131065142014-02-10T11:53:00.000-05:002014-02-10T11:54:15.561-05:00Chase and Kelley want a 2014 Badger Sponsorship because!Hi! We've been very busy getting ready to leave (4 DAYS!!!!) and in that time, we made a video! Please follow the link below, watch us be silly, and hit "like" at the bottom of the page! Every "like" puts us closer to winning some great gear and support, curtesy of <a href="http://www.appalachiantrials.com/chase-kelly-want-badger-sponsorship/">Appalachian Trials...</a><br><br>
<a href="http://www.appalachiantrials.com/chase-kelly-want-badger-sponsorship/"> http://www.appalachiantrials.com/chase-kelly-want-badger-sponsorship/ </a>
<br><br>
Thank you everyone!
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Cheers,
<br>
Kelley and ChaseKelley http://www.blogger.com/profile/06556167551563964184noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3016487931137059287.post-87930348713153343852014-02-02T11:49:00.002-05:002014-02-02T11:49:34.130-05:0013 Days: Gear and Cake!It is a truly surreal feeling realizing that you are in the process of selling off and packing up your entire life in order to set out on a 6 month journey to find your self, your passion and your purpose. Maybe I'm putting a little too much faith in how life changing this experience is going to be, but I have these butterflies in my stomach and this hope in my heart that everything is going to be different when we come back down to the real world.<br />
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Last night we hosted a group of our closest friends and family for an intimate goodbye and support-group meeting. We covered topics ranging from our gear and our winter worries to how to address a mail-drop and our itinerary. We drank and ate and talked into the night, and I can't be more grateful for their support. Our dear friends, newly engaged Anthony and Felica made us the most AMAZING cake in the world.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0b9fXWpCbkraeZ39IqsJ_pISk9Dw77wl58EgtVEqzIDOeigzFqOx0NO3RtmsT3WfxvnRmgVElSGu-fLL0cFhp-Hy1816-MBZ5NV6AUAmXxaFjSjhV3Ts7uKEcmBy3wJKvkGbi1GePW9E/s1600/IMG_0604.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0b9fXWpCbkraeZ39IqsJ_pISk9Dw77wl58EgtVEqzIDOeigzFqOx0NO3RtmsT3WfxvnRmgVElSGu-fLL0cFhp-Hy1816-MBZ5NV6AUAmXxaFjSjhV3Ts7uKEcmBy3wJKvkGbi1GePW9E/s1600/IMG_0604.JPG" height="480" width="640" /></a></div>
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This was really just too much for my poor heart to handle. I am going to miss these folks so much.<br />
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We watched the NatGeo Appalachian Trail documentary on mute and narrated it (hilariously) ourselves. We planned visits on the trail. We even busted out a very special bottle of <a href="http://www.stonebrewing.com/verticalepic/" target="_blank">Stone Vertical Epic 09-09-09</a> to share with these great people. It was the best way to close out a very special evening. I only wish I had thought to bring out my Polaroid camera to capture the good times.<br />
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Things have been a little hard the past couple of weeks what with trying to pack and organize and make sure we didn't forget to order any gear. My dad has also chosen to be unsupportive of the hike, so it's been really tough for me to deal with, but surrounding myself with loving and supportive people makes everything easier. Next weekend is our big, final farewell bash. If it goes half as well as last night did, I will be so elated.<br />
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<b><u><span style="font-size: large;">Let's Talk Gear!</span></u></b><br />
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As a result of our <a href="http://endlessfootpath.blogspot.com/2014/01/23-days-and-counting-winter-shakedown.html" target="_blank">last shakedown on Standing Indian</a> we made some big decisions and we are changing out our Big 4 and adding a few extra items.<br />
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<b>Pack: <a href="https://gregorypacks.com/GM58032.html?lang=default" target="_blank">Gregory Deva 60</a> and <a href="http://www.campmor.com/gregory-baltoro-65-internal-frame-pack.shtml?source=CI&ci_sku=60483MOSS&ci_gpa=pla&ci_kw=" target="_blank">Baltoro 65</a></b><br />
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<a href="http://www.campmor.com/wcsstore/Campmor//static/images/items/larger/60483.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.campmor.com/wcsstore/Campmor//static/images/items/larger/60483.jpg" height="320" width="297" /></a></div>
<a href="https://sits-pod21.demandware.net/dw/image/v2/AAKN_PRD/on/demandware.static/Sites-GMP-Site/Sites-gmp/default/v1391325399815/products/00_2013%20UPDATE/Deva/product-hero_Deva60_SepiaGray.png?sw=472" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="288" src="https://sits-pod21.demandware.net/dw/image/v2/AAKN_PRD/on/demandware.static/Sites-GMP-Site/Sites-gmp/default/v1391325399815/products/00_2013%20UPDATE/Deva/product-hero_Deva60_SepiaGray.png?sw=472" width="320" /></a><br />
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These packs are Cadillacs! You hardly realize you're carrying 30lbs. At a massive 5lbs 11oz, these guys weigh twice as much as our <a href="http://www.moosejaw.com/moosejaw/shop/product_Osprey-Exos-46-Pack_10084136_10208_10000001_-1_" target="_blank">Osprey Exos</a> packs. Why? Because we decided to carry heavier, bulkier gear to combat the winter weather and we need the extra space and extra comfort of the bigger packs. We will be switching to the Exos in April though, if the weather normalizes.<br />
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<a href="http://s7ondemand1.scene7.com/is/image/MoosejawMB/10092431x1042926_zm?$product550$" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://s7ondemand1.scene7.com/is/image/MoosejawMB/10092431x1042926_zm?$product550$" height="200" width="200" /></a><br />
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<b>Sleeping Bag: <a href="http://www.moosejaw.com/moosejaw/shop/product_Mountain-Hardwear-Lamina-0F-Sleeping-Bag_10092431_10208_10000001_-1_?cm_mmc=PPC-_-GooglePlusBox-_-Mountain%2BHardwear-_-Mountain-Hardwear-Lamina-0F-Sleeping-Bag&ad_id=GooglePlusBox&zmam=89081595&zmas=5&zmac=111&zmap=805544&adtype=pla&gclid=CNmLx5LtrbwCFUtp7AodsWkArg" target="_blank">Mountain Hardwear Lamina 0</a></b><br />
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Yeah, we decided we needed a zero degree bag. The night we were on Standing Indian, the temps dipped into the teens with 35mph winds. It was cold! We were able to stay warm and to get some sleep, but Chase had trouble keeping out the drafts. We will be switching back to our <a href="http://www.zpacks.com/quilts/twinquilt.shtml" target="_blank">Zpacks Twin Quilt </a>when the weather warms.<br />
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<a href="http://www.rei.com/media/yy/dcdde634-6abb-4017-8408-c5b6ee68d8af.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.rei.com/media/yy/dcdde634-6abb-4017-8408-c5b6ee68d8af.jpg" height="142" width="200" /></a><b>Sleeping Pad: <a href="http://www.rei.com/product/829850/therm-a-rest-neoair-xtherm-sleeping-pad" target="_blank">NeoAir Xtherm</a></b><br />
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This is a warm pad! And super comfy! And it weighs almost nothing! And it takes up half of the space that the ProRest pads took up! Overall we love this pad and we are confident that it will provide all the of insulation from the frozen ground that we will need. We plan on using these the whole trip.<br />
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<b>Tent: <a href="http://www.tarptent.com/stratospire2.html" target="_blank">TarpTent Stratospire II w/ solid interior</a></b><br />
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We decided to also purchase a solid, windproof interior for the TarpTent, so hopefully with the combination of the warmer bag and windproof layer, we will stay nice and toasty even in the worst conditions. We will be switching back to the mesh when the weather warms.<br />
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<b>Other Gear:</b></div>
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In addition to all of the above, we also purchase a couple pairs of down booties to keep our feet warm in camp, we are ditching gloves for mittens, and we also picked up some items for Sheila. She will be getting a fleece blanket and fleece booties to wear in camp to help protect her from the elements. We think that with these additions our winter camping experience will be much better over all. </div>
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I will be working on updating the gear spreadsheet today and tomorrow so that it reflects these changes. I will also be posting a new page with a list of mail drop locations if you want to send us some magic!</div>
Kelley http://www.blogger.com/profile/06556167551563964184noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3016487931137059287.post-28416284962006472952014-01-22T20:22:00.000-05:002014-01-22T20:22:09.820-05:0023 Days and Counting: Winter ShakedownThis past weekend, Chase and I took advantage of a long
weekend to test out our new sleeping bag and packs by hiking the familiar
Standing Indian loop trail in North Carolina. We drove up Friday night and
checked into the Sapphire Inn in Franklin just as a light snow was beginning to
fall and temperatures dipped into the teens. This was Sheila’s first soiree with snow and the first time I had been in the stuff in
almost 10 years. We were pretty giddy, even as our cheeks stung from the wind
as we rushed from the car to the hotel room.<div>
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The next morning, the forecast at the 4000ft Rainbow Springs
weather station called for temperatures below freezing all day with a slight
chance of snow and lots of wind. The sun was shining so we didn’t think too
much of the weather and we were pretty confident in our gear. After a hardy
breakfast, we headed to the backcountry information station, suited up in wool
gloves and mid-weight jackets, and set off on the 4.7 mile Lower Ridge Trail
that would lead us to the summit of Standing Indian Mountain, our intended camp
for the night. <o:p></o:p></div>
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We didn’t get on the trail until after noon and breakfast
seemed like it was ages ago. The Lower Ridge Trail turned out to be very
strenuous and I was exhausted in the first 2 miles. Between the lack of calories
and the biting cold, I felt absolutely drained. I wanted to push on to camp
without stopping, but my legs felt like jelly and I couldn’t keep going without
some energy. We stopped and munched on Nutella and graham crackers, which were
delightful, but soon the sub-freezing temperatures and blowing wind stole all
the warmth from our fingertips. We knew we had to get moving again to get the
blood circulating. We pushed onwards and upwards and the feeling finally
returned to our fingertips just as we reached the AT and the side trail that
led to the campsites and summit.<o:p></o:p></div>
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I was very excited to reach camp and set up. I was cold, I
was tired. The view was beautiful and there was a light dusting of snow on the
ground. We pitched in the most exposed area as possible on purpose in order to
test out how the tent would fair in the wind and how our sleep system would
handle the intense cold. We reached camp about 2 hours before sundown, but I
couldn’t keep my toes warm outside of the sleeping bag, so I sat in the warm
tent while Chase tested out our stove by making us some hot chocolate. Our Ti-Tri
stove is pretty awesome. Chase loved being able to use wood as fuel, though it
took him a minute to get the fire going. He did comment that if you wanted to
use the wood-burning function as a little campfire, you would need a lot of
wood to keep it going.<o:p></o:p></div>
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While Chase was still fiddling around with the stove, some
other hikers came up to check out the view and to pitch camp. They had three
dogs with them, two big males and a female puppy. Sheila loved playing with
these dogs and had a blast with them, but the owner wasn’t very responsible. He
let the dogs roam free all over the camp and didn’t pick up after his animals.
One of the dogs kept trying to come in our tent. It was really frustrating
because it is experiences like these that make people resent seeing dogs on the
trail. They were fairly well-behaved, but they just didn’t have any boundaries
and the owner wasn’t stepping up to the plate. I’m just glad that all the dogs
got along.<o:p></o:p></div>
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We made dinner a little while later and buttoned down the
hatches as the sun was setting. Sheila was cozy-comfy in her Ruffwear
Cloud Chaser jacket and a polartec buff wrapped around her ears. She curled up
on her Therm-a-rest foamy and fell asleep quickly. Chase and I shuffled around in
our Zpacks twin quilt and relished the warmth of our NeoAir Xtherm pads.
Despite the warmth of these items, the wind still managed to infiltrate into
the bag. This kept Chase up most of the night. Sheila woke up a few times
looking for extra warmth. I tried wrapping her in my silk sleeping bag liner,
but this didn’t do much for her. Eventually she crawled down to the bottom of
the bag and didn’t come out until the sun came up. This created problems in and of
itself because Sheila would push our pads away from one another and allow the
cold from the ground to seep between us. Overall, we didn’t get a great night
sleep, but it wasn’t as terrible as it could have been.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The next day we decided to head down the Kimsey Creek Trail
back to the car because we realized we didn’t bring enough food for Sheila. On
our last hike with her, we had to force her to eat. This time around, it didn’t
seem like we were feeding her enough. While it sucked bailing early, we got the
chance to see a very beautiful trial in the winter. The icicles and ice
formations along the creek were really beautiful.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSa5UBnWBfXdOk5qBqmXcwqosXF5jnHi8TQbmGmrY-wJO5M6k9XnzGnXPckY9SQQiOeBNQafBgEua5_XRShI1bcTHFjf6dOiZXKvUQUvn6dQ5MPKq74ftesYK26eQZBFvwhtFxvkkKz98/s1600/IMG_0065_2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSa5UBnWBfXdOk5qBqmXcwqosXF5jnHi8TQbmGmrY-wJO5M6k9XnzGnXPckY9SQQiOeBNQafBgEua5_XRShI1bcTHFjf6dOiZXKvUQUvn6dQ5MPKq74ftesYK26eQZBFvwhtFxvkkKz98/s1600/IMG_0065_2.jpg" height="640" width="480" /></a></div>
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Overall, we learned a thing or two about winter hiking and
camping. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<ol>
<li><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">Get mittens and down booties. Keeping our
fingers and toes warm is really important, and we found that our wool gloves
and water-proof over-gloves were not sufficient. Mittens keep your fingers
warmer because they are pressed together and generate more heat. Down booties
would be great for camp when your boots and thick socks do little to keep out
the cold on short walks around the campsite.</span></li>
<li><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">Get a solid interior for the tent. Our Tarptent
currently has only the mesh interior, which will be great for summer, but in
the windy and cold conditions we encountered, having that extra layer of nylon
between us and the elements will be well worth the extra couple of ounces.</span></li>
<li><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">Get Sheila a sleeping bag. Well not exactly a sleeping
bag. I loved how easy it was to slip the liner beneath her and kind of tuck her
in it to try and keep her warm, and I would love to get a heavy duty fleece
liner to help her stay warm at night. We went to REI but they don’t have
anything child-sized in the world of bag liners, so I enlisted my friend Roni
to help sew Sheila a bag. I would like for it to be a warm fleece on the inside
and a soft-shell material on the outside, kind of like her Cloud Chaser jacket. The plan is to order a couple of
yards of Polartec fleece from the Interwebs and fashion her something warm. I
may try to use a couple of patterns online.</span></li>
</ol>
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Kelley http://www.blogger.com/profile/06556167551563964184noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3016487931137059287.post-71381927570070461852014-01-05T13:32:00.001-05:002014-01-05T13:33:10.110-05:0040 days and 40 nightsThings are really moving quickly now! Honestly I don't have much more to update on, other than the fact that we finally compiled all of our winter gear, weighed it out, and packed it up. If you want to check out the full list, visit our <a href="http://endlessfootpath.blogspot.com/p/gear_5.html" target="_blank">gear</a> page above.<br />
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Here's a summary of our Big 4:<br />
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Backpack: <a href="http://www.ospreypacks.com/en/product/superlight/exos_46" target="_blank">Osprey Exos 46</a> (2lbs 4oz)<br />
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<a href="http://www.ospreypacks.com/images_products/159_536_lg.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://www.ospreypacks.com/images_products/159_536_lg.jpg" width="251" /></a></div>
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Tent: <a href="http://www.tarptent.com/stratospire2.html" target="_blank">Tarptent Stratospire II</a> (2lbs 8oz)<br />
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<a href="http://www.tarptent.com/photos/ss2-5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="http://www.tarptent.com/photos/ss2-5.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Sleeping Bag: <a href="http://www.zpacks.com/quilts/twinquilt.shtml" target="_blank">Z-Packs Twin Quilt 900 Fill Power Down XL (20 degree)</a> (1lb 14oz)<br />
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<a href="http://www.zpacks.com/images/quilts/twinquilt/grn_twin_top_l.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://www.zpacks.com/images/quilts/twinquilt/grn_twin_top_l.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Sleeping Pad: <a href="http://www.rei.com/product/829822/therm-a-rest-prolite-plus-sleeping-pad" target="_blank">Thermarest Prolite Plus</a> (1lb 8oz)<br />
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<a href="http://www.rei.com/media/hh/80b569d8-37cb-400b-9984-19250aa62688.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="265" src="http://www.rei.com/media/hh/80b569d8-37cb-400b-9984-19250aa62688.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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The only item out of our Big 4 that we are looking to probably replace is our Thermarest pads. They're bulky and heavy and with the smaller pack, we really need the space. I've been looking at the <a href="http://www.rei.com/product/829850/therm-a-rest-neoair-xtherm-sleeping-pad" target="_blank">Thermarest Neoair XTherm</a> pads, but at $180 I'm a bit hesitant to pull the trigger. We haven't paid full price on hardly any of our gear so it's a hard pill to swallow.<br />
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Tomorrow we are set to pack up some things around the house, take the Christmas decorations down, and organize the storage shed. I'd also like to fill out our Appalachian Trials lists and post those sometime next week.<br />
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We've decided to do a winter overnight at Standing Indian in a couple of weeks. With the crazy weather this week, we'd really like to make sure that our gear is sufficient in case we get caught in a winter storm. For once, I'm hoping for cold and snow!<br />
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<br />Kelley http://www.blogger.com/profile/06556167551563964184noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3016487931137059287.post-14912674488132725522013-12-26T15:43:00.000-05:002013-12-26T15:43:28.853-05:0050 Days OutTime really is just speeding by. I took the day off today to nurse a baby hangover and to refocus a little. Christmas was a blast this year which was a nice change.<br />
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Santa brought us a few things for the hike, including a couple of titanium mugs to match our new <a href="http://www.traildesigns.com/stoves/caldera-sidewinder" target="_blank">Evernew Ultralight Titanium Pot and Traildesigns Sidewinder Ti-Tri stove</a>! We're very excited about this new cook-kit, as it has allowed us to shave about 1.5lb off of our carry weight, not to mention this new set packs down much smaller. Santa is a little late bringing our <a href="http://www.zpacks.com/quilts/twinquilt.shtml" target="_blank">Zpacks twin quilt</a>, but we're excited to see how all these items fit into our smaller and lighter Osprey Exos 46 packs. With all of these changes, we've managed to get our base pack weight down to around 14.5lbs!<br />
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Now, we added onto that weight a little last night. Santa brought me an iPad mini and a <a href="http://www.fiftythree.com/pencil" target="_blank">Pencil</a> so that I could document my thoughts and such while on the trail easily. I haven't fully decided if I want to bring these items, especially given their cost and delicate disposition, but I appreciated the gesture nonetheless.<br />
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We've been testing out potential cameras the past few days to try and decide which one we would like to bring on the trail. My favorite so far has been the Olympus TG-2 Tough camera. It's only fault in my book has been the sad, sad panorama mode that "stitches" together several images. I much prefer the smooth panorama that I've grown used to on the iPhone, so I could probably get away with just using it to capture 180 degree views.<br />
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Thinking about it now, it seems like we are planning on bringing quite a few electronics... Not too sure how I feel about that.<br />
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Chase has been able to cut back on work now that it is after the holiday and he actually has Sunday off this week. We are hoping to make some great progress on packing and planning. Maybe I'll even get the gear spreadsheet finished!<br />
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Merry Merry y'all!<br />
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<br />Kelley http://www.blogger.com/profile/06556167551563964184noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3016487931137059287.post-31546777559551385102013-12-14T18:22:00.001-05:002013-12-14T18:22:33.748-05:00Every moment speeding by...I have been so overwhelmed with responsibilities these past two weeks that it has been difficult to find any time for blogging.<br />
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I'm still working on putting together our gear list, but this has proved difficult do to last minute changes in some key pieces. I promise it will be up soon! We are narrowing down cameras, back-up batteries, and trail runners at this point, but we just changed cook kits and sleeping bags, so things are still very much in flux.<br />
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Chase and I haven't been home together enough for us to sort out our proposed schedule to let our friends and family know where we will be and when. I'm hoping things will slow down after Christmas and we can figure all of this out.<br />
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The house is a mess. Most of my stuff has been packed in boxes, but Chase has a long way to go. I got the Christmas tree out of the garage today and had a mini panic attack about the amount of stuff in there. Good thing we are taking the week before hitting the trail off to tackle it!<br />
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I'm giving my boss notice that I am leaving on Monday. That should be a fun day. /joy<br />
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Sheila doesn't seem stressed out at all...<br />
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<br />Kelley http://www.blogger.com/profile/06556167551563964184noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3016487931137059287.post-29147800379493801632013-12-01T19:07:00.000-05:002013-12-01T19:07:06.709-05:00What's in a name?<i>That which we call a rose</i><br />
<i>By any other name would smell as sweet.</i><br />
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Or would it?<br />
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I've been wrestling with the idea of trail names since we returned from our second shakedown hike. Really I've been thinking about it since the moment we met our first thru-hiker on the trail and sort of awkwardly looked at one another and shrugged as we introduced ourselves. <i>I'm Kelley, and this is Chase.</i> That sounds way more lame than <i>Two-bit </i>and<i> Mini-Moose </i>(I just made those up, so they aren't that cool). I found I was embarrassed of my own name on the trail, and I'm curious if this happens to others...<br />
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I feel like not having a trail name makes you an outsider. To me, a trail name is an instant invite into the cool kids club; and without it, you're just another nobody. I want to make it clear, we weren't treated any differently by hikers, I just felt like I didn't quite belong. I might be a <strike>little</strike> <i>lot</i> sensitive to this sort of thing, as my self-confidence isn't really the best (one of the many reasons I decided to hike).<br />
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From the beginning I've viewed a trail name as something that is bestowed upon you as you struggle through the first few weeks of the AT, something that really speaks about your character or your odd habits or something silly that happened to you. I was really willing to embrace this, to be nameless until the universe decided I should have a name. But now I'm having second thoughts.<br />
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We won't be staying in shelters and having the dog complicates some things, so I'm just worried about being nameless for a month and a half. According to the <a href="http://www.whiteblaze.net/cmps.php?page=2014thruhikers" target="_blank">whiteblaze 2014 registry</a>, there is a little bubble of people heading out in February, so my thoughts that we will go nameless seem a little unfounded, but my worry remains.<br />
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I thought it might be a lot of fun to let our closest friends and family name us at our going away party, so we could carry a little bit of who we were starting out. A reminder of where we came from. I like this idea a lot, though Chase isn't warming up to it very well. He wants to be named on the trail. And I have to admit, choosing a name before hand may take away from our trail experience.<br />
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We could always name each other, but again I think it takes away from the experience. Maybe I should just stop worrying about it.<br />
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All good things take time.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVNq5WA_1S6H7On3sN8NuZEEeSWptCH1sT2P_zN5gHrfWsX3hXdykb93coSV954ZDLt9U_YQ2-IU_3_MqlB0tWWowEgYdY_xnle436z-1U7vFRoBd5P5rvhKehYk1LZ-lxQvHzbqk4xRs/s1600/Kelley+and+Sheila+Blood+Mountain.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="560" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVNq5WA_1S6H7On3sN8NuZEEeSWptCH1sT2P_zN5gHrfWsX3hXdykb93coSV954ZDLt9U_YQ2-IU_3_MqlB0tWWowEgYdY_xnle436z-1U7vFRoBd5P5rvhKehYk1LZ-lxQvHzbqk4xRs/s640/Kelley+and+Sheila+Blood+Mountain.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Kelley and Sheila on Blood Mountain</td></tr>
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<br />Kelley http://www.blogger.com/profile/06556167551563964184noreply@blogger.com0