The Beginning of the End

On 7/22 I did 14.3 miles to the middle of nowhere. On 7/23 I did 20.7 miles to Sought Arm Road. On 7/24 I did 17 miles to Sabbath Day Pond. On 7/25 I did 9.4 miles to Rangeley, ME and resupplied. On 7/26 I did 10.7 miles to poplar ridge. On 7/27 I did 13.1 miles to South Branch Carabasset River. On 7/28 I did 16.5 miles to Avery Memorial Campsite. On 7/29 I did 14.9 miles to West Carry Pond. On 7/30 I did 14 miles to Carataunk, ME (there is nothing there but a bar, and I gave them a lot of my money). On 7/31 I did 22.7 miles to Bald Mountain Road. On 8/1 I did 14 miles to Monson, ME and resupplied. On 8/2 I did 15.1 miles to Long Pond Stream. On 8/3 I did 20.8 miles Carl Newhall Lean to. On 8/5 miles I did 21.5 miles to Wadleigh Stream. On 8/6 I did 19.6 miles to Hurd Brook Lean to. On 8/7 I did 13.4 miles to the birches at the base of Katahdin. On 8/8 I did 5.2 miles to the summit of Katahdin and never felt more confused in my life. 

So I broke into Maine, just 281.8 miles to Katahdin...just my ass! Talking to previous through hikers they all said to slow down in Maine because it is the most beautiful state and you will want to keep pushing yourself and miss the best part of the trail. I think they were looking back on the hike with fond memories because there is no way you can do Maine too fast. The first two days in Maine I did not even use trekking poles because I was scrambling up and down rock faces all day long. The idea that the White Mountains were hard and the most epic part of the trip was a lie, don't get me wrong, they were hard, majestic and so much fun, but thru hikers were talking about the White Mountains back in Georgia, no one ever talked about Maine but they should have. In fact if I died on the trail the number one suspect in my death should be the state of Maine. While Maine was a kick in the teeth, there was nothing that was going to stop me. I had walked over 2000 miles and nothing was going to stop me; cut my leg off for all I care, I was going to complete this journey with my pack on my back and a smile on my face, even if it was a forced smile. About 10 miles into Maine is Mahoosuc Notch, which really separates hikers into two groups, it is either the most fun mile and a half or the hardest mile and a half of the trail. The notch is a geological phenomenon, go ahead and google it, because there will be much better pictures of the notch and a more accurate description of what it is than I can provide. What I can say is that it is a giant playground for hikers (I am in the first group of hikers). It is a long boulder field in the heart of two 300' rock faces that provides an arena for some intense hiking parkour. It was getting late in the day when I got Mahoosuc's Notch and met two South Bounders, they said it took them 3 hours to get through the Notch, I was looking at the light and wondered if I could get through it before dark, they then mentioned they met a North Bounder who did it in 30 minutes, I asked them for the hikers name, but they didn't know his name but by the description they gave me it was definitely Bilagio. I took it as a challenge and started my timer, I was jumping over crevasses, climbing through tunnels, hanging off of trees, climbing boulders and jumping onto precarious rock faces, I made it to the other side in 45 minutes (i have no idea how he did it in 30 minutes) it was so much fun. I wanted to catch up with my friends the Struggle Bus (Uphill, Sugar Magnolia, Crafty, Six Strings and Wookie) but if I didn't have people to meet up with, I might have gone back through it again.... what a rush!

I thought the Struggle Bus was a half a day ahead of me, but I met up with them 2 miles after Mahoosuc's. They had a dog with them and it took them close to four hours to get through it. From talking to them, Uphill basically had to carry the dog through the Notch. So I don't think they had as much fun as I did. We hiked together until we hit Rangeley, ME where we resupplied. I met up with Frizzle in town and we calorie loaded at a few bars before the second to last section of the trail. The day out of Rangeley was miserable with cold wet rain, so much so, the Struggle Bus and Frizzle took a zero. I decided to hike on (had I known it was the last time I would have seen Frizzle I would have said a much more meaningful good bye, instead of see you down the trail.) I ended up hiking with Walking Man and GQ, whom I spent the night with at the fraternity in Hanover. I made it to the Kennebec River outside of Caratunk and had to take the local Canoe Ferry across the river. Back when the AT was first conceived there was a full time ferry at the Kennebec crossing which catered to the logging and fishing community, when those industries slowed down you could still get across on a ferry, but had to make arrangements days in advance and wait for the ferry. Since the logistics of the ferry caused delays a lot of hikers would try to ford the river by-themselves and multiple people have died doing this, so the ATC staffs a full time canoe operator on the Kennebec during the hiking season. On the other side of the Kennebec is a very small town called Caratunk, which doesn't have much, but it does have a brewpub. I ended up spending the night at the brewpub and hiked a very hungover 22.7 miles the next day. The Struggle Bus passed me while I was at the bar, but I caught up with them outside of Monson and walked into town with them. Monson, ME is the last stop before Katahdin. I resupplied in town and picked up a pair of shoes I had sent to myself, the only problem was the shoes were too small, but my old shoes looked like they had gone through a tree shredder... this would prove to be a problem. I hiked out the next day with the Struggle Bus and started the 100 mile wilderness. There is an ominous sign at the start of the wilderness warning hikers they need at least 10 days of food on them, as there are no towns between here and Katahdin. While Maine is the hardest state and the next 100 miles were extremely tough, I think 10 days of food was a little much. I hiked the first and second day with the Struggle Bus over some beautiful land. The peaks in the 100 mile wilderness might not be highest, or the steepest but the summits were epic; the realization the journey was coming to an end was constantly discussed, but I tried to stay present and enjoy the landscapes that I am most likely never to see again. The Struggle Bus was wanting to put in big miles in the last stretch of the trail, I wasn't so inclined as I had no deadline and I was switching pairs of shoes every 2-3 miles to keep my feet from bleeding too much. I said my goodbyes to them and hiked the rest of the trail on my own. I did run in to Walkingman and GQ a couple of times along the last stretch but for the most part had the last 60 miles to myself. 

I have accomplished a lot, but with that being said I cannot actually tell you what I accomplished. I know I set out on the trail with goals in mind, but I cannot remember them now, nor do they matter. I am going to finish this trail and make it to Katahdin because I am a prideful and stubborn person, but whether or not I made it to Katahdin doesn't really matter. I guess in a bar I can tell everyone I walked the entire trail and people will be amazed by the mileage I did and tell me how awesome it was and they cannot believe I did it etc. etc.; but we all know that doesn't matter, what really matter is the changes to my outlook on life, my self-awareness, and my new priorities on the much larger journey, which were all changed 100's if not a 1000 miles ago. Right now I feel like I am dotting the "T" and crossing the "I". I really cannot sum up everything I learned, I know I will look back on this hike and see it as a turning point in my life even though I cannot articulate exactly how it is going to affect me in the future I would like to share with you two sayings I came up with on the trail (I figure a 1000's miles per saying is a good quota).

If you want to be happy in life you need to do three things   

Be Simple Be Kind Be Strong

With Regards to Taking Risk

Throw yourself to the mercy of chance, be humble until you become proficient, and then live as if you knew no other way

I made it to the base of Katahdin on 8/7, there is a registry at the base and I saw Struggle Bus was summiting that day as well as Unhinged and Everyready who I hadn't see since Unionville, NY. I waited at the base of the Mountain all day and congratulated the thru hikers as they came off the mountain, it was surreal to see them, they were done with the hike, they were joyous and reserved at the same time. I didn't really know what to say to them, there were just a lot of hugs and long stretches of silence. Their hike was over and they were ready to hitch out of the state park and onto whatever else life had in-store for them. I slept at the base of the mountain and got up at 5:00a to start the climb. It was a really fun climb with huge boulders to scramble over and ledges to shimmy across, physically it was a fitting mountain to end on. It took me three and a half hours to get to the top, but I don't remember even climbing up it. Since I got an early start, I was the only one on the mountain. It was an odd feeling getting to the top; it was a lot like a funeral (yeah I know this sounds pretty intense, but to be honest it’s what it felt like for me). You know before you go to the funeral the person is already dead and there is nothing you can do about it, but it is not until you see the casket, or the summit that you really are overcome with emotion. I was lucky enough to have the summit to myself for 45 minutes. I just sat and stared at the summit sign. I think I cursed at it and hugged it a few times. After 45 minutes another couple came up the mountain, I figured I should get them to take my quintessential summit picture on top of the sign with my arms raised high. I took the picture since it was tradition, but I certainly did not feel like I conquered anything. It did not feel good to be done. I started my walk down the mountain, by this time there were large numbers of people coming up Katahdin to enjoy themselves on a beautiful Saturday morning. I didn't say a word to anyone as I went down, but I must have had a look on my face (or maybe I just looked like I was living in the woods for the past four and a half months) and a random day hiker approached me and gave me pat on back, he congratulated me and said "welcome to the next hike, the path might look different but the principles are the same", and with that I walked off of Katahdin

Samson-The-Bear. 

I feel how I look

One of the flatter parts of Maine

Loved Sleeping by the lakes at night and listening to the loons

Entering the 100 mile wilderness

Sugar Magnolia, Uphill, Crafty

GQ crossing one of the many rivers

Katahdin from a far

False summit on Katahdin

Celebrating something, who knows what

Coming down Katahdin, Thru Hiker #200. August 8th 2015

Current trail conditions are likely to be rocky, rootie with a severe chance of mud

Okay so here is the deal, I haven't updated my blog for almost a month and a half, I am going to let you in on a little secret, I summited Katahdin August 8th. I hadn't posted anything because to be honest I was so freaking tired that I became a robot that just slept, ate, and walked. My body finally had had enough and when I woke up every morning it felt like the gravitational force of the earth doubled on my body (okay I might be a little dramatic) and the terrain got epic (in a good way) but the last thing I wanted to do at night was type my blog on my tiny little screen while thinking of witty things to say... my bad... so sorry for the delay and I hope you all like my last two blog posts. 

On 7/17 I traversed the first half of the presedentials and did 19.1 Miles to Lake of the clouds hut. On 7/18 I did 10.1 Miles to Osgood Tent Site. On 7/19 I did 10.6 miles to Carter Notch. On 7/20 I did 15.2 miles to Gorham, NH. On 7/21 I did 16.5 miles to NH-ME Border. On 7/22 I did 14.3 miles to a stream. On 7/23 I did 20.7 miles to South Arm rd. On 7/24 Id did 17 miles to Sabbath Day Pond. On 7/25 I did 9.4 resupplied at Rangeley. On 7/26 I did 10.7 Miles to Poplar Ridge. On 7/28 I did 16.5 to Avery Memorial Campsite. 

So last I spoke to all of you I was heading into Franconia Notch. I walked into the towns of North Woodstock, NH and Lincoln, NH. I wanted to resupply in town and keep moving on. In town we used our Hiker senses and found a brewery. Frizzle didn't want to go back out on the trail and was very adamant we drink a few beers and think about going back out, she knows me too well and after a running down the tap list, it was an easy decision to stay in town, The only problem was there was no great place to stay in town, except for a free hostel, which he had heard from other hikers was a unique experience but not necessarily the most clean and relaxing environment. I happened to see a sign for a hostel that was going to open up the next day. I ended up giving them a call to see if they would open a day early for us. The hostel called the Notch said they weren't 100% ready for hikers but if we didn't mind  a little disorganization we could come on over. Frizzle and I were the first thru-hikers to stay at the hostel, which was a beautiful converted farmhouse, we hung out with the owners until late in the night talking over beers and giving them tips and ideas for their hostel from our experiences on the trail.

There are two famous ridge walks in NH, the first is Franconia Ridge which we started the next morning after hanging out in the hostel waiting for a storm to pass by. Frizzle and I climbed Liberty Mountain to get up to Franconia Ridge. It was still a cloudy day from the storm but Mount Lafayette was actually cutting the clouds which allowed the ridgeline behind the mountain to be exposed but still in the clouds. While traversing the ridge, we ran into a group of thru hikers  we were friends with (they named their group Team Struggle Bus) and hiked the rest of the day with them. To say it was epic would not do justice to the beauty of the ridge, and while I know a lot of the landscape was being hidden by the clouds, it was an awesome experience walking an exposed ridge above the clouds. As soon as we summited Mt. Lafayette we were hit by the intense weather it had been blocking, it easily dropped 25 degrees and the winds were strong enough to knock you down. We made it to Mt. Garfield that night and hunkered town from the wind in our tents. 

One of the things on the trail I didn't know the logistics of were the Hut systems in the White Mountains. The AMC (Appalachian Mountain Club) is the organization that maintains the Appalachian Trail in the White mountains and runs the huts. I had heard other thru hikers call the AMC the Appalachian Money Club, since the stories told about the AMC seemed as if they were not hiker friendly and pandered to weekend hikers sporting brand new LL Bean gear who had no problem handing over $100 dollars a night to sleep in a backwoods dormitory. I was not sure how the Huts were going to treat thru hikers, but in the end have nothing but wonderful things to say about them and the staff that run them. The huts are for weekend enthusiasts who want to sleep in the back-country with basic amenities, but are very thru hiker friendly. The AT passes by 6 of these Huts and they vary in size, some can hold 20 people while the lake of the clouds could hold more than 80 people. The huts are either on the trail or very close to the trail and hikers are welcome to stop by the huts to take a load off, refill water bottles and if the hut has any left over food they let the hikers come in and eat the scraps. They also offer work for stay, where they give you some chores to do, and you can eat a full dinner in the hut and sleep on the floor of the dinning room. I didn't plan on doing any work for stays but in the end, I ended up doing work for stay in four of the huts. It was nice getting the extra calories from the food, and gave me an excuse not to have to do huge miles through the white mountains (which at the time I thought was going to be the hardest part of the AT).

I mentioned before that Franconia Ridge was one of two epic ridge walks on the trail, the other one is the presidential traverse (both are located in the White Mountains). Frizzle, Tropical and I woke up at 4am to start the traverse from Zealand Hut, it was going to be a 19 mile day over some of most beautiful terrain. We made it 6 miles to crawford notch where we all decided it would be a good idea to have a beer on top of Mt. Washington that night. Unfortunately we got to crawford notch at 7am and there was little to no traffic to hitch into town to get a six pack, but we were determined to crack one open on the mountain. There was a town in both directions so Frizzle and Tropical stood on one side of the road and I stood on the other side of the road trying to get a ride to a town. A truck ended up pulling over for me and I jumped in, it was a former thru hiker who took me to a general store, waited for me to get the beer, and then drove me back to the trail head. Frizzle and Tropical didn't even see me get picked up and when I returned to the trail 11 minutes later with cold beer they were ecstatic, in fact we are pretty sure I set the world record for fastest beer run on the Appalachian Trail. With our packs slightly heavier we started up the first mountain, It was a pretty steep ascent but once we got to the top the views were breathtaking. I took a bunch of pictures but none of them do any justice to the grandeur of the vistas. There were a dozen mountains in between us and Mount Washington and every time we got to the peak of one of those mountains, we could see Mount Washington getting bigger and bigger. It was an exhausting day, but we were full of so much adrenaline we couldn't be stopped. There was a hut near Mount Washington called Lake of the Clouds where we spent the night. My initial game plan was to set my pack down at the hut, do my chores and wait till dark to climb Mount Washington naked. Don't ask me why I wanted to do that, it seemed like a good idea, and since I have climbed it over 10 times in the middle of January or February, I thought it would be fun to do it without any clothes on. Unfortunately a storm front was coming in, so we decided to summit that evening and try to get a view since we knew we would be in the clouds the next day. Since we were going to climb it in the evening I couldn't go in my birthday suit, so I had to go in my underwear instead. We got to the top of the mountain and drank our precious beer on top of it. I have driven up to New Hampshire numerous times and summited Mount Washington in some extreme weather, but this time it was different, I was no longer visiting the top of the mountain, this time I felt like I belonged up there.  

The whites are known for their volatile weather and the next morning we couldn't see 20 feet in front of us. You learn on the trail that you will never see every view, I was so happy we had gotten the first half of the presidential range on a beautiful day since  the second half of the presidentials were completely socked in, it was actually pretty eerie, since you could hear voices but not see the people, and Frizzle and Tropical could appear and disappear in the fog in a blink of an eye. Frizzle and Tropical decided to stay at Madison Spring Hut and I wanted to push on to Osgood Tent Site, so we said our good byes and I pushed on through the fog by myself. Everything turned out just fine, but as I was hiking up Mount Madison by myself, I couldn't help but think I made a mistake since the trail was hard to fine and I was completely exposed and if I got turned around, there was no place to setup a tent since the entire mountain is just a boulder field, but I managed to stay on course and made it down into the valley and slept at Osgood. I woke up the next morning and took down the trail and did something I had never done before... I got lost. The Whites are a poplar destination, and with that there are a lot of trails crossings. I was in a wilderness area with little trail markings and managed to take the wrong junction and ended up traveling west when I wanted to travel east. After about 2 hours in the wrong direction, I knew i wasn't on the AT anymore, but also wasn't sure where I got off of it, and since there were so many trail crossings, I wasn't even sure I could backtrack the way I came, so I figured I would keep walking, until I ran into a point of reference. I walked another hour and a half, hoping that I was paralleling the AT somehow and came across a campground. I found some campers and told them I was looking for the AT, they just looked at me like I was an Idiot. I then asked them if they knew where Pinkham Notch was (I always started my climbs of Mt. Washington at Pinkham Notch, and knew it was on the AT). They told me Pinkham Notch was about 16 miles away (it should have been 4 miles away from Osgood). My heart sank, since not only was I really far away from where I wanted to be, I wasn't sure exactly how to get back to the AT.  I asked them how they got to the campsite and they said there was a gravel road 6 miles off of NH 16 they took to get here. I was in luck since I knew Pinkham Notch was located on NH 16 (it is nice to be lost in an area you are familiar with) I didn't want to walk 6 miles on a gravel road to NH 16, so I asked them the general direction of NH 16 and bushed wacked it to the road which was only  about a mile through the woods. After fording some creeks I could hear cars and poped out on the side of the road. I stuck out my thumb and the first car stopped and picked me up, and took me to Pinkham Notch. I grabbed some grub at Pinkham and pushed on to carter Notch. Pinkham to Carter is only 7 miles away, but it may have been the hardest 7 miles on the trail, you are no longer hiking, but instead you are climbing, pulling yourself up rock faces and scrambling up the sides of the mountains. I still managed to get to Carter Notch while it was light out and sat and read a book in one of the most peaceful places along the trail. If you get a chance google Carter Notch, none of the pictures I took turned out that great, but it was certainly a magical place.

After Carter Notch I pushed onto Gorham, NH and resupplied in town. The next day I made it to the border of Maine and set my tent up on the state line. I was excited to be in my last state. I had already walked over 1,900 miles, and just gone over the famous Presedentials, I had seen everything the trail could throw at me, I was trail hardened and ready to stroll through the last state.... man was I wrong. 

Franconia Ridge

Front Row L:R Frizzle, Sugar Magnolia, Crafty     Back Row L:R Wookie, Samson-the-Bear, Bilagio, Uphill, Six Strings

Above the clouds on Franconia Ridge

Frizzle and I modelling, the best part of it was trying to get back up with our packs on

UpHill and I after Mount Garfield

Tropical, Frizzle and I with Mt. Washington in The Background

Heading towards the presidentials things started to get fun

Feeling good, right before we hit Mt. Washington

If you look close enough you can see Tropical and Frizzle with Mt. Eisenhower in the distance

Frizzz Nasty!

I wanted to Hike Naked but this will have to doT

The day after Mt. Washington was nasty, better drink a beer 

Mahoosucs Notch was something else

Where the Hell are the Moose?

On 7/6 I zeroed at the 12 tribes organic farm. On 7/7 I did 17.3 miles to Lookout Cabin. On 7/8 I did 11.3 miles to cloudland. On 7/9 I did 17.6 miles to Hanover. On 7/10 I did 4.4 after getting sick near Trescott Rd. On 7/11 I did 20.9 miles to Smart Mountain. On 7/12 I did 19 miles to Jefferson Brook. On 7/13 I did 18.4 miles to South Kinsman Peak. On 7/14 I did 6.3 miles to Franconia Notch for a resupply. On 7/15 I did 10.3 miles to Garfield Shelter. On 7/16 I did 9.5 miles to Zealand hut.

When I was in Rutland, VT I stayed at the Yellow Deli Hostel. I was packing my gear  getting ready to head out and hitch back to the trail head when the caretaker asked if we wanted to stay another day and work on their organic farm. The Yellow Deli is run by the Twelve Tribes which is a religious commune and I figured they hadn't poisoned me yet or stolen my passport so it would be fun to take a zero on a farm. The farm was about an hour out of town and supports the local deli and a couple hundred of the local community members. I was really impressed with the farm, it was 40 acres with about 10 acres of it being used to grow organic vegetables and the rest was for hay and grazing. I asked why they didn't grow more vegetables and they said the 10 acres and livestock is only managed by 3 people and the help of sparatic volunteers (me), which is a ton of work for such a small crew. One of the benefits of working on the farm is they don't mess around with food, and fed us a phenomenal breakfast, lunch and dinner (i felt bad since hungry hikers to them are probably like a plague of locust devouring everything in sight) and when it was too hot to work in the heat of the day we jumped in the river and picked raspberries... best zero yet.

I entered into New Hampshire on the 9th. The first town you come to in NH is Hanover which is home to Dartmouth. That was a culture shock. Not the same way Gatlinburg was, but it still felt very unnatural and looking around at the college kids driving Porsche and wearing teal boating shorts I didn't necessarily fit the micro-culture. I thought it would be a great social experiment to take a few University of Cincinnati students and switch them with some Dartmouth students and watch what happens, it could be the sequel to Eddie Murphie's Trading Places. So I had to get a good jab in at high class atmosphere of Hanover, but in reality it was very welcoming. On my way into town I had a two mile road walk and a lot of cars would honk and give you the thumbs up on your way into town. Their were several restaurants where just by showing up they gave you free food, I got a free slice of pizza, bagel and donuts just for being a dirty hiker. I was at a cross walk and a young student came up to me and said "Do you like apple pie" there is no other answer to that questions besides "Hell yeah I do". She told me to follow her back to her place. I noticed there were two other hikers following her, Walking Man and GQ. We got to her place which turned out to be a coed fraternity. We walked in and were promptly served endless amounts of apple pie and coke. She then said "by the way you can shower here, do laundry and sleep here if you want". JACKPOT!!!!!! College!!!!!! I wish I could tell you about an awesome toga party or a two story beer bong, or how we stole a statue from the quad, but it was a rather tame night of pizza and beer and a ton of laughs. Which is just as well as thru hikers don't tend to have a lot of money for bail. 

I'm finally back in some real terrain. In the log books at the shelters there would sometimes be words of encouragement saying the best is yet to come. Well the best is here and now. I will be above 4,000 feet for the first time since Virginia. I have climbed Smart Mountain, Moosilake, pronounced moose-e-lock-e, (say that three times fast, and if it doesn't put a smile on your face, I don't know what is wrong with you) and Kinsman. I was pushing myself at my normal 20 mile day pace. My feet at the end of the day were really swollen and looked like a hobbits feet. I hate to say this, but when I reached the summit of Moosilake I only spent 5 minutes up there and took off down the trail. A section hiker saw me, and actually started to yell at me "SLOW DOWN, YOU HAVE TO SLOW DOWN!" he was right and luckily Frizzle caught up with me the next day before going over Kinsman and she is going to be my accountability hiker and keep me from being a mile monster. This is an epic section of trail and needs to be appreciated for its grandness. 

I have re-read some of my blogs and it surprises me how little I have talked about what hikers actually eat. This is strange since hikers really only talk about three things, food, weather and our despise for Bill Bryson. Below is a sample of what I eat on a daily basis, every hiker is different but this is what fuels me through my wanderings. I try to get out of camp as quickly as possible  in the morning so as I am packing up I eat a bagel covered in peanut butter, a hand full of trail mix and a little chocolate. I then walk 3-5 miles to find a cool spot, usually by a view, to eat my second breakfast. Second breakfast is two packets of oatmeal and peanut butter, coffee, and chocolate. For first lunch I eat a tortilla with pepperoni and cheese (I'm convinced the need for refrigeration is a conspiracy, I have seen hikers eat a lot of food that requires refrigeration 5 days out of town and they don't look that sick afterwards). For second lunch I eat a tortilla with peanut butter and crushed chocolate in it. For dinner I usually have a starch and a protein which most of the time is a Knorr Rice Side and Tuna, I have convinced myself its a lot like eating cooked sushi. Sometimes I switch it up with potatoes and summer sausage but it all really depends on how good my resupply selection is; and of course chocolate for dessert.  I also add olive oil to my tuna and rice when i know im going over tough terrain and need extra fat (on occasion when I'm tired and low on food I'll just drink the olive oil and chase it with a little water). That's basically what I eat every day. I have had to purchase extra food now that I don't hang my food bag every night, but instead bring it into my tent. It seems like every morning I wake up my food bag is open and there are crumbs in my sleeping bag, not sure why though

Thru hikers working at the yellow deli farm

Fields of raspberries

Unique shelter with a crows nest on top.

5 seconds on Moosilake summit

Going down Moosilake was beautiful

Turned around to talk to Frizzle, and had to take this epic picture.

I just had my coffee before summiting Kinsman

Typical trail in the White Mountains

My hobo stove

Drying out in the rain

On 6/26 I did 20.5 to Upper Goose Pond. On 6/27 I did 20.6 to Dalton. On 6/28 I did 13.1 to Mark Noepl Shelter. On  6/29 I did 16.5 miles to Seth Warner Shelter after resupplying in North Adams. On 6/30 I did 15.7 miles to Porcupine Ridge. On 7/1 I did 22.2 miles to Stratton Mountain. On 7/2 I did 19.2 miles to Mad Tom Notch. On 7/3 I did 15.8 miles past little pond lake. On 7/4 I did 22.2 miles to Killington mountain.  On 7/5 I did 6.3 miles to Rutland and resupplied.  

Well I guess Massachusetts heard that Virginia was going to get the award for wettest trail, so Massachusetts rerouted all of their trails to creek beds. In all seriousness about one third of Massachusetts trail's are actually creek beds, it didn't take long to give up trying to stay dry and just walking through the creek and accepting wet feet. On my way into Dalton, Massachusetts I heard Scott Jurek was only a couple miles behind me. Scott Jurek is a fully supported "hiker", meaning he does not sleep out on the trail and he doesn't carry food with him but has a support team and vehicle. He is trying to run the entire Appalachian Trail in 42 days (and it looks like he is going to suceed). When I heard that he wasn't far behind me I made it my goal for the day for him not to pass me. I fueled myself with Jameson and Metallica Pandora and took off running. At every road crossing I passed his support crew; there was a crew of three guys with cameras and a drone following him making a documentary as well as two other people who supported him with food and water. Every time they saw me they just laughed as I was sprinting with a full pack and trekking poles across every roadway, I made it to Dalton without him passing me. Now I only did 20 miles and he probably did 50 miles that day, but for that 20 miles I stayed ahead of Scott and I'll take that as a small accomplishment. I met a hiker before Dalton named Ferris. She grew up 10 minutes outside of Dalton and offered to host me for the night at her parents house. She ended up picking me up in Dalton and when I walked into her parent's house I was greated by a lot of familiar faces. Cliff Hanger, Frizzle, Mr. Lenaryd, August, 5, and Bellagio were all there. It was an unexpected break and a joy to see so many familiar faces. Her parents cooked enough food to feed 9 slightly starving thru hikers (they probably had to get a second Mortgage just to afford the grocery bill) and enough beer to numb the pain in our knees.

Since Dalton we had 6 days of non stop rain. I ended up crossing into Vermont which is nicknamed Vermud (I know we aren't very creative with names), during a break in the storm for a photo opportunity, but shortly there after the rain picked back up. By the 4th day of the rain everything I carried was soaking wet, I was able to follow rule number one on the trail (don't let your sleeping bag get wet), but everything else I had was completely saturated.  I woke up on 7/1, not wanting to get out of the tent, the pouring rain sounded like a typewriter on my tent, and I felt like a castle surrounded by a moat as I kept my body directly ontop of my sleeping pad as water was now filling up my tent. Around 9am there was a break in the rain so I made a move and started to pack up my soggy gear. I didnt really want to move but I had to much pride to take a zero in my tent. As I started to walk Tropical and Forrest came up behind me. I hadn't seen them since Pearisburg, VA and was really happy to see them. We all hated being in the down pour but laughed our way up to Stratton mountain. It should be noted Stratton Mountain was where Benton MacKae had his vision of the AT, all we could vision on the summit was the rain cloud we were in.

Since the start of Vermont I was on the long trail. It was the original long distance trail in the US. It goes the entire length of Vermont and for the first 105 miles of the trail the AT and the LT coincide. The idea of the white blazes and shelter systems on the AT were taken from the LT. Where the  two trails separate is the only place where you could follow a white blaze and be heading in the wrong direction as the LT heads north and the AT heads East across VT towards the white mountains.

By 7/3 the rain finally subsided, that morning Forrest, Tropical and I made it to an open summit and laid all of our gear to crisp out in the sun, we later went to Little Pond Lake and swam in a mountain lake before calling it a night. The next day we made a push to Killington Mountain to watch  fireworks from the summit. On my way to Killington I passed over route 103 and hitched into town to pick up a few beers. It took me 22 minutes to hitch into town, buy beer and then hitch back out (the trail gods were looking after me that day). A lot of other hikers were aiming for Killington as well, some put in short days, and some put in long days in order to be at the summit on the 4th. It was a party up there, I hadn't seen so many tents in one spot since Springer.  We got a fantastic show being able to see the entire valley below celebrate the 4th. Mother nature decided to join in and when lightning started to light up the sky it was time to get off the summit, I made it down and into my tent right as the rain let loose. 

It sometimes easy to think that I am walking through the middle of nowhere, but this entire hike has been full of history. I have probably walked by a 100 miles of stone walls, which today seem odd in a forrest but remind me the mountain tops were once used to graze animals. It is also not uncommon to see old stone chimneys on the trail or off in the distance. In Southern VA I walked through old freed slave communities in the valleys. In Middle VA there were plaques stating the AT is following old trails used by the revolutionists to cut off the British. In Maryland almost half of the trail goes through old battlefields and troop routes for the civil war.

One of the lakes in Massachusetts

Shays rebellion marker in MA

Crossing into Vermont

Forrest and I hiding from the rain in one the fire towers

Forrest walking on the trail

Typical trail in Vermont

View from the shelter

Back in real mountains, and crisping out!

Tropical and Forrest Modeling

Checking out the view from the Ski Towers a on Mt. Bromley

Found some early morning trail magic on the 4th with forest and cliff Hanger

On top of Mount Killington to watch the fireworks on the 4th. (So cold I had to put my jacket on and get in my sleeping bag during the firework show)

Cool picture taken ontop of a suspension bridge over the river

New Jersey, New York, New England.

On 6/12 I did 9.1 miles after resupplying in Unionville, NY. On 6/13 I did 19.8 miles to Prospect Rock. On 6/14 I did 17 miles to just south of NY 17. On 6/15 I did 22.6 miles after crossing the Hudson River. On 6/16 I did 16.6 to Fahenstock lake. On 6/17 I did 21 miles to Nuclear Lake. on 6/18 I did 20.5 miles to Schaghtoke Creek. 6/19 thru 6/21 I zeroed in Kent, CT with a good friend. On 6/22 I did 11.6 to Hatch Brook. On 6/23 I did 19.6 just outside of Salisbury, CT. On 6/24 I did 21 miles just before Great Barrington, MA.  On 6/25 I did 7.8 miles after resupplying in Great Barrington, MA.

Well I thought the nicest thing I was going to say about New Jersey was thanks for not being Pennsylvania; I planed on having my steel toe boots mailed to me since I figured I'd be walking through refineries, and the first few ponds and lakes I came across I scaned the water expecting to see dead bodies and sunken cars. Surprisingly New Jersey was really nice. The trail was very well maintained and there were a ton of rivers and lakes scattered along the trail; There were also great views all along the way, the first since VA. I even saw a bear in New Jersey without incident. It turns out the bear and I have a lot in common, we both like to go for long walks through the woods, we both get very angry when were hungry, and we both like our stomachs rubbed. The only negative thing I can say about New Jersey is the mosquitoes. I was walking through Wallkill natural preserve and slaping the mosquitoes off of me thinking nothing of it, I look down at my hand a couple minutes later and it was tripping blood from all the mosquitoes I had killed. They have mosquitoes the size of 50 cent pieces and that's not an exaggeration. I have made it all the way to New Jersey without using DEET but these mosquitoes require chemical warfare. New York was more of the same beautiful views, and the terain has started to get slightly harder with a lot of rock scrambles. I crossed the Pallisade parkway just 34 miles outside of NYC, if there wasn't a sign stating the proximity to the city you would never have known. I definitely hit a low point in New York. Actually it has been my lowest point of the entire trail; Right before I crossed the Hudson River I was only a hundred twenty four feet above sea level, I guess it's all uphill from here.

Question, in any of my blog posts did it sound like I was starving? I know I mentioned I had lost a decent amount of weight, but nothing to be alarmed about. I have had three very crazy resupplies. Benjamin Franklin struck again, this time he sent 14 pounds of dried fruit and jerky with some other treats. I should mention some of the other treats were anchovie paste and caviar. We sat around the camp and tried the caviar and anchovie paste. We all agreed it was pretty terrible in fact Clifford ended up puking from it. Also included in the resupply was a frisbee, which I will definitely be throwing in the fields and taking all the way up to Maine. One of my former bosses met me at the New Jersey high point state park. Now I've worked on and off for for him for almost 6 years, and have a ton of great and creative names I could call him, but since there's a chance I will someday work for him again I'll just leave his trail name to Mr. Ed. When he met me at the state park he opened up the back of his car and it looked like he just went to a whole foods store and told them to fill up the entire cart. There was so much food I actually had to turn some of it down. Mr. Ed also believes in supporting Kentucky's local economy which is good since 2 days after we met up it was National Bourbon day. I also had a great resupply from Seabass in Kent. Among the resupply was some good Irish Whiskey and socks. Now socks might not seem all that special but after 1,500 miles they were heaven.

I celebrated my birthday on the 23rd of June. Along with the Irish Whiskey, my good friend sent me back on the trail with freshly made cookies and scotch to share. I felt like Santa Claus bringing joy to the thru hikers passing out baked goods and liquor. I had quite a few disciples following me down the trail that day.

 Funny Story: I was getting water at a shelter and when I returned I saw Hawk. Hawk and I have been running into each other throughout the entire trail and he is a joy to walk and talk with. I got excited when I saw him and went "Shit! Hawk!". As I yelled his name he was in the process of telling his name to a few hikers he never met. The timing was perfect, and all of a sudden the shelter started calling him ShitHawk. I hope the name doesn't stick or else he might not want to walk with me anymore. 

By middle Connecticut I had completed 2/3 of the trail. As far as the physical movement on the trail goes I could break it up into 3 stages. I will have to say the first third I was trying to figure out how exactly long distance hiking works and was constantly testing out routines and different ideas; the second third I found my rhythm and moved like a slightly inebriated machine across the states. For the last third I want to  change it up a little bit. The corner stone of my routine was my map and watch. I have now stopped wearing a watch and will base my decisions on how my body feels vs. time or mileage. I will no longer set an alarm, eat at specific times or walk predetermined mileage for the day. Instead I will wakeup when I'm ready, eat when I'm hungry and walk until I'm tired. I hope this change will allow me to be even more present on my final leg.

Found some free white gas. Not really supposed to use it in an alcohol stove.. but it has made cooking more exciting

Celebrating national Bourbon day under a waterfall with some Makers. 

Frizzle is very patriotic.  We could see the skyline of NYC from the here.

First steam crossing of the AT. Many more to come, I guess they couldn't afford bridges.

Hawk and I drying out on my BDay

1500 miles in

when did I get so grizzly? 

He was so friendly

View close to Mt. Everett 

I'm unemployed, homeless and living in the woods... tough break man

On 6/1 I did 13.1 miles to a spring at mile 1,164.3. On 6/2 I did 11.6 miles to Rausch Shelter. On 6/3 I did 20.6 miles to Shower Steps Trail. On 6/4 I did 21 miles to Port Clinton. On 6/5 I did 9.5 miles to Pinnacle rock after resupplying in Hamburg. On 6/6 I did 18.7 miles to New Tripoli. On 6/7 I did 18.3 miles to just after the superfund site. On 6/8 I did 15 miles to outside Wind Gap, PA. On 6/9 I did 14.4 miles to Delaware Water Gap, PA for a resupply. On 6/10 I did 22.2 miles to rattlesnake mountain. On 6/11 I did 21.5 miles to the observatory in New Jersey High Point state park.

Well there is no way to sugar coat this... northern PA kicked my ass. To start the weather was terrible. The first two days of June were a complete downpour, it hadn't rained this hard since Roan mountain and it flooded the entire forrest. I don't think I have put in less miles since the start on a non resupply day, but it's hard to put in the distance when you are soaked to the bone for 48 hours. On the second day of the storm I decided to go to a shelter, when I got to the shelter I didn't have any muscle strength in my hands to undo my pack buckle. It had been a cold rain, but I didn't feel any significant chills, but this was definitely the first signs of mild hypothermia. Luckily Uphill was already at the shelter and he was able to give me a hand with my pack. He also had a similar problem when he got to the shelter and had to put his hands in his armpits for 10 minutes before they would work again. I jumped into my sleeping bag to warm up and about 45 minutes later TJ showed up. I haven't seen TJ since I broke my tent pole outside of Damascus and he lent me his emergency tent pole repair kit. I was excited to see him and give him his kit back, but when I saw him he had a worried look on his face. I asked him what was wrong and he said he thought he was having a stroke since he couldn't get his left hand to move. I looked at Uphill and we both chuckled and jumped up to give him a hand with his pack explaining we all had the same symptoms. It was a miserable rest of the day, I stayed in my sleeping bag except to help when other thru hikers showed up. Many hikers took zero days in their tents, those who did venture out all pushed for a shelter. Rausch Gap Shelter was designed for 6 people, we ended up squeezing in 13. So the rain sucked but the terrain was worst. Since Georgia we have talked about how rocky Pensylvania was going to be. When I entered the lower half of the state, I thought it was fairly rocky but nothing to complain about... boy was I wrong. Once we hit middle Pensylvania it was basically a rock field for the rest of the state. It was mentally and physically exhausting. All you could  do was keep looking down at your feet and plan out your next few steps. The terrain had ominous names like Knife Edge and Sharp Ridge. I managed not to sprain my ankle but the constant rock hoping has left the arches and balls of my feet in agony. Many of the hikers were taking a lot of vitamin I (ibuprofen) to deal with the pain and swelling, personally I like to support Kentucky's economy and prefer a shot of bourbon with my rice and tuna every night to dull the soreness. Another fun fact about PA is that it is extremely dry, even though it poured rain there are multiple 12-16 mile stretches without water and when there is water it's half a mile off the trail and a slow trickle. I actually walked into a town to get water since I figured it was easier to find it in town than on the trail. Ohhh and another thing, while Virginia has fields of trillium and other wild flowers, PA has fields of poison ivy. I'm not really sure why the government picked Nmievada to do its nuclear bomb testing, from what I have seen Pensylvania would have been a much better choice.

Okay, I think I have adequately expressed my feelings about the natural surroundings of PA, but there are some redeeming things in PA, namely the people. I stopped in to multiple towns in PA (Duncannon, Wind Gap, Port Collins, Boiling Springs, Delaware Water Gap) many of the towns you probably have never heard of. All of them are about the size of a postage stamp, and have some of the friendliest people I have met on the trail. I never had a problem getting a hitch in to town. Thru hikers were invited into fireman's union and legion halls as guest to drink really cheap beer with the locals. When walking into bars or restaurant they let us bring our packs inside and always sat us next to outlets. Even the Barber shop in Port Clinton was hiker friendly. The owner invites hikers into the barber shop for coffee and cookies and allows us to hang out and charge our phones for as long as we want, even though he knows none of are going to get a hair cut. He just seemed thrilled to help us and was really interested in our stories. The only good thing about the rocks is they provide a unique habitat for flowers and allowed me to see new plants that I had yet to see on the trail. Another positive thing about PA was I saw a ton of wildlife. I saw timber rattlesnakes, porcupines, a nest of  unknown Snakes fighting, tons of deer and turkey with fawns and chicks I also saw a large bear. Now do you think I had a normal interaction with the bear...no  

The AT takes you through a superfund site. Back in the day there was a zinc smelting operation that left the entire mountain side deforested. The land is badly scarred but they are currently trying to reestablish vegetation on the mountain. As I was walking through the superfund site, I ended up walking behind a very large bear. The bear was walking the AT with me about 70 yards in front. I made some noise and it turned around to see me and just kept going on its merry way. I followed the bear for about 500 yards always keeping the same distance as it meandered along the trail. As we were walking the bear just stopped suddenly  and got up on its back legs and stood up. I stopped walking wondering what it was doing when all of a sudden it turned around and started to charge down the trail towards me...shit. It was a lot like being stuck on rail road tracks; the bear was a locomotive, the AT was the set of tracks, and I was the hopeless car stuck on the tracks as the train was quickly approaching. The bear was 70 yards away which unfortunately gave me plenty of time to comprehend what was bareling towards me. I knew I couldn't run so I dropped my pack, yelled out a bunch of great expletives and braced for what was sure to be a very quick and one sided confrontation. The bear got within 15 yards of me and then bolted up the side of the hill... a miracle the train derailed before it hit the car. I stood there dumbfounded. A minute later two section hikers started to walk towards me asking if I had seen the bear. They were excited saying they saw it for a brief second stand up on its legs and then disappear. Unfortunately we had inadvertently pinched the bear. It didn't seem to mind that I was behind it, but when the other hikers were coming in the opposite direction it felt trapped and decided to change directions, glad I stayed 70 yards back and not 55 yards back. Someday I'll see a bar and not have a minor heart attack.

My last note on PA is actually a seious one. The Appalachian mountains have been infested with an invasive caterpillar called the Gypsy moth. They are literally eating away the forrest. It's not uncommon to walk by old oaks that have been completely stripped of all leaves. There are so many of these caterpillars that it sounds like a light rain all day in the woods but it is actually just the caterpillars poop hitting the ground. As of now I'm unaware if there is even a solution to dealing with them. It's hard to watch as I have seen the trees come to life in spring and now get methodically destroyed everyday by these small but highly active caterpillars.

We named the porcupine Irwin

Not actually sure what type of snakes these were

Catching a view with Frizzle

Tried to catch the sunrise at Pinnacle Rock, but their was to much cloud cover  

Half eaten leaves on the trail from the Gypsy Moths. This is pretty much what the entire trail looks like now.... not good 

Trail Magic! Locals actually take water jugs into the trail and leave them for hikers.

Superfund sites on the AT are superfun

I thought he made a good hiking partner, I thought wrong.

This is the trail in Northern PA

Timber Rattler

View from on top of Kittatinny Mt.

Been walking with these two on and off for the past two weeks. From Left to Right: EverReady, Samson-the-Bear, Unhinged 

Barber Shop in Port Clinton 

West By God Virginia (I have no idea what that means)

On 5/15 I did 20.6 miles to Blackrock hut. On 5/16 I did 23.5 miles to just outside Elkton,VA. On 5/17 I did  23.8 to Crescent Rock. On 5/18 I did 26 miles to Gravel Springs Hut. On 5/19 I did 18.6 to Jim and Molly Denton shelter after resupplying in Front Royal, Va. On 5/20 I did 31.1 miles to the West Virginia border. On 5/21 I did 17.7 miles to Harper's Ferry station. 5/22 through 5/25 I was off trail at the annual Memorial Day Cabin. On 5/26 I did 19.8 Miles to POGO Campsite. On 5/27 I did 23.1 miles to Tumbling Run Shleter. On 5/28 I did 19.7 Miles to Birch Run Shetler. On 5/29 I Did 15.9 miles to James Fry Shelter. On 5/30 I did 23.4 miles to the middle of nowhere after resupplying in Boiling Springs. On 5/31 I did 18.8 Miles to Clarks Fery Shelter after resuppling in Duncannon. 

Okay so its ben awhile since I updated the blog, between no signal and a broken phone I have not had the opportunity to update everyone on my ramblings on the trail. I did get a bunch of messages asking if I was okay, as people were growing concerned by my lack of activity, which is great to know that a search team for my body was being formed. It would not be a very wide search area maybe 3 feet wide by 2,200 miles long. For the record when you do find my body, I want to be cremated and put into a firework and shot off over Mount Mitchel,NC (please do not do it during the dry season, I dont want my lasting legacy to be a forrest fire). Now that we got that out of the way, let's get to the good stuff.

So when I left Waynesboro, VA I went into Shenandoah National Park and well..... it kind of sucked. There is a road going through SNP called Skyline Drive. The AT goes through SNP for 103.2 miles and crosses Skyline Drive 28 times and skirts it at least twice that many times. That means I was less than 1.5 miles from a road at all times. The irony of it was at every trail crossing there were plaques stating what the rules for the "backcountry" are. My parents' woods in Ohio are more backcountry than SNP; and rule number one on the plaque is to keep your dog on a leash (this must be so they don't get hit by a car). I'm not the only one who was dissapointed by SNP. The two founders of the AT, Brenton Mackaye (the visionary) and Mayron Avery (the builder), stopped talking forever because Brenton was vehemently opposed to the building of Skyline Drive and Mayron was okay with it. I would buy Brenton a beer right now if he hadn't died in 1975. There are so many people that visit SNP the animals have become accustomed  to humans. There was a doe on the trail with a young fawn and neither moved as I approached, I actually pushed the deer out of the way with my hiking pole. Luckily for the deer there was a section hiker behind me or else I would have been eating venison for dinner that night. Scribbles ran into a bear with two young cubs, which is the only time to really worry about black bears, but they paid no attention to him at all and nothing came out of it. The Shenandoahs aren't all terrible, they have things called waysides which are convenience stores and short order grills located less than 0.5 miles from the trail. Now most of the items in the convenient store require a can opener and are geared towards people who are roughing it in their mobile homes, but they did have cheap beer so that was a plus. The other nice thing about SNP is that it is relatively flat, which is good since I had to put in some big miles.

As you can see from the mileage from the start of SNP to Harper's Ferry, WV I was moving faster than normal. I had miscalculated the mileage per day I needed to do in order to get to Harpers Ferry the Thursday before Memorial Day and had some ground to make up. I spent several days night hiking to tack on the additional miles. On the 20th of May I hit the 1000 mile marker right before I entered a section of the trail known as the roller coaster. The elevation profile for the roller coaster looks like a 13 mile sinusoidal wave. I finished the roller coaster very late in the night as I crossed into West Virginia. I drank a beer I had carried in for the celebration of pushing out of Virginia and then went directly to sleep on the ground as I was too tired to get out my tent or sleeping bag. On my way into Harpers Ferry I went to the Appalachian Trail Conservancy headquarters to get my picture taken for the year book (I find it funny the HQ are located in a state that only has a few miles of trail in it). I was North Bound thru hiker 213 for 2015, which means since January there have been 212 other thru hikers before me. My train wasn't coming till 5am on Friday and I was planning on sleeping in the train station Thursday night but it closed at 5pm since it was a national historical building and owned by the park service. So I ended up sleeping on the train platform (the only difference between a bum and a thru hiker is gortex).

My arrival into D.C was interesting. It was slightly shocking to see so much concrete and so many people (and none of them looked remotely happy). On the plus side there was more coffee than you can shake a stick at. I had to walk 35 minutes from Union Station to my rides house and was able to stop into three different coffee shops. I spent four days in a house along the Youghiogheny with a bunch of great people. I was able to rest my legs, and fill up my stomach (I'm down 35 lbs, but may have gained some of that back after the constant feasting). I certainly did not catch up on sleep as I was hanging out late into the night but I will gladly trade sleep for the great company any day. 

When I got back to Harpers Ferry I crossed over the Potomac and was in Maryland. Maryland was a 40.6 mile stretch and was well maintained. I crossed the foot bridge that goes over I70 that I used to drive under on my many trips to D.C. I did not have the same feeling of awe as I did when I crossed the bridge outside of Hot Springs. It felt more natural; I was thinking "of course you're walking across this bridge, why wouldn't you be?".

I was almost able to say Maryland was an uneventful stretch but as I was heading towards the Mason Dixon line the sky started to darken. I knew I was in trouble when the woods went silent; the winds picked up and it started to pour rain. The sky turned into a strobe light. I was on a ridgeline and it was 2 miles off in either direction so there was no point in running. I was counting the seconds in between lighting and thunder. It quickly approached three seconds. I decided to stop walking and sit on my pack, as I was taking off my pack I heard a deafening sound and even with my eyes closed I could still see light as if it were a summers day. I opened my eyes back up and could see and feel the downpour of rain but couldn't hear anything. It was similar to a war movie when a bomb goes off and the audio is cut. I looked up and about 50 feet in front of me, on the trail, was a tree smoldering. It looked like someone put a stick of dynamite in it and blew half the trunk into pieces. I just stared at the tree as my ears started to ring (ringing is good, it means you're not dead). I stayed still for a few minutes just kind of taking in the situation. I had a pretty gnarly headache but besides that I was good to go. I started to head to the border of PA thinking whether or not it was good karma since I did not get struck, or if it was bad karma and just a warning of what's coming?

5/29 was a great day. A former member from the UCMC (University of Cincinnati Mountaineering Club) joined me for the hike. I passed Dead Womens Hollow which is mile marker 1,094.6 also known as the 2015 half way point on the trail. I did a photo shoot at the halfway point but knew I had more important things to do a mile down the trail. It is a tradition to eat a half gallon of ice cream after crossing the half way point. Now I'm lactose intolerant, and fully know what I was going to do to my body, but a tradition is a tradition. I started the half gallon challenge with two other thru hikers. I was able to finish the half gallon of ice cream in 22min 55 sec, Croc Rocket finished it in 28min and Uphill beat us both with 20min 1sec. We all got really cold after eating the ice cream, I stood in the sun and the other two guys actually put on their jackets. I spent the rest of the day waiting for bad things to happen to my guts but felt fine, in fact I felt great (probably one of the few days I wasn't calorie defecient). I think I have finally stressed out and worn down my body so much that it just doesn't care what I do anymore (similar to what I did to my parents growing up). I have a little less than 1,100 miles left on the trail. If the second half is anything like that the first half I'm in for a great time.

Entering WV after a long day

Suiting up for some night hiking

1000 mile marker

Sign as you go into the Roller Coaster

Doe and it's fawn (fawn is in front of the tree)

Part of the AT in Harpers Ferry 

SNP

View from the train platform at Harper's Ferry

This is the nicest shelter on the AT by a factor of 100x

I got excited at the half way point

Probably shouldn't drink so much coffee either.

Croc Rocket and I starting the challenge

Field of Ferns

Virginia blues be damned

On 5/4 I did  16.8 miles to Four Pines Hostel. On 5/5 I did 18.8 miles to just north of Lamberts meadow. On 5/6 I did 11.9 miles to Fulhart Knob after resupplying in Daleville, VA. On 5/7 I did 17.2 miles to Cove Mountain Shelter. On 5/8 I did 16.3 miles to Thunder Mountain. On 5/9 I did 14.6 miles to Glasgow, VA for a resupply. On 5/10 I did 15.4 miles to Pedlar River. On 5/11 I did 27 miles to priest shelter. On 5/12 I did 15.5 miles to Devils Backbone Brewery. On 5/13 I did 19.2 miles to Waynesboro,VA for a resupply. On 5/14 I took a zero in Waynesboro. 

Whomever came up with the term Virginia Blues for the AT must have been half blind. The past 40 miles have been pretty epic. I hit Dragons tooth late on 4th. Dragons tooth is a stone monolith on top of Cove Mountain. Just as fun as climbing the tooth is the down climb from the mountain which at times requires the use of rebar steps bolted to the slab in order scramble down the rock face. After Cove Mountain I headed to a "hostel" down the road. It is run by a guy named Joe who just wants to provide a relaxing environment time for hikers, it was a night filled with beer, pizza, games and a lot of great music. You would actually be, surprised how many hikers carry instruments with them. I have seen guitars, banjos, trumpets, bongos, and fiddles strapped to packs. At the hostel Skip entertained us all night as he played his violin next to the bonfire. In the morning I headed out through some rolling farmland and up Catawba Mountain to McAfee Knob. I know I need a thesaurus because I describe a lot of things as either beautiful, cool, or amazing; but to be honest there really isn't anything I could say to describe the view from the knob, even the picture below does not do justice to how surreal the view is. Don Vino and I had lunch at the Knob and pushed on to Tinker Cliffs which is a 0.5 mile stretch along rock bluffs overlooking the valley.

When we got done with lunch at McAfee Knob we went to Cambell shelter to get water. As Don Vino went to get water, I sat down under a tree to look at my guidebook to see what was coming up next. About ten minutes passed and I heard foot steps coming back towards me so I got up and turned around expecting to see Don Vino. Much to my surprise it was something even harrier than him, it was a black bear and it was only 10 yards from me. Luckily the bear and I had the same thought "Ohhh Shit!". The bear took off running before I could even ask it's name. Unfortunately it took of running down towards the stream where Don Vino was at the time just coming back up the hill. After having run into him as well, it bounced around like pinball and ran across the front of the shelter where I was able to take a few quick pictures of it.

I have been having a lot of interesting experiences with my animal friends. I spent the night by myself on Cove Mountain. Around 11pm I heard footsteps outside of my tent. I initially thought it was a hiker coming in late, but the more I listened to it the more it sounded like a bear, in fact it sounded like multiple bears. My food was hung in a tree, but I couldn't go back to sleep knowing the bears were in my camp. I decided to get up and scare them away from my tent. So I grabbed my headlamp and my pocket knife (nothing stops a bear attack like a two inch pocket knife) and jumped out of my tent. I did not see any bears directly outside my tent, but could hear them walking around in the darkness of the night. I turned my headlamp on its brightest setting and scanned the woods. I caught two large glowing yellow eyes at about chest height (that's a big bear) 30 yards off into the woods. It was a sobering moment as I had now wished I did not get out of my tent. I was standing outside of my tent, in the dark of the night, starring at a very large outline of a bear; I did the most intimidating thing I could think of at the moment... I cursed it out in German, and what do you know it worked. The yellow eyes disappeared and I could hear it crashing down the mountain. The other bear in my camp was not as afraid of my terrible accent as the first bear. I could not see the other bear, but could hear it walking back and forth on the other side of a rhododendron grove. I started to make all sorts of noise and commotion but it did not retreat as easy as the first bear. I turned my head lamp on and off trying to scare it with light and even grabbed my cooking pot and banged it on a rock a few times but nothing I did startled the bear which was only about 15 yards away. At a loss of what to do, and not wanting to go back into my tent with a bear so close, I thought of something even worst than my German accent. I started to sing California Dreamin by the Mommas and the Papas. I didn't even get pass the third line in the song before I heard it too crashing down the other side of the mountain. Those may have been slightly non-traditional methods of scaring (or annoying) bears, but hey... it worked. The next night I spent at Thunder Mountain Shelter by myself again. It was getting dark and I had not slept well the night before so I decided to sleep inside the shelter instead of setting up my tent. I woke up at 2am feeling something run across my forehead. When I woke up I could hear mice scattering around the shelter. I thought to myself this is why I don't sleep in shelters, but tried to go back to sleep. I could hear the mice running around behind me and felt them running over me. I grabbed my water bottle and decided I was going to hit the next mouse I felt, I laid still and felt one climb up my sleeping bag, I turned on my headlamp and to my surprise saw a large rat sitting on top of me. Now I know this might comes as a surprise to some of you, but I actually have standards with what I will sleep with, and rats don't make the cut. I hit it with my water bottle which did little more than startle it. Since I was already up, I decided to night hike to Glasgow and try and get a better nights sleep in town. Since it was been warm out I have been seeing a lot more snakes. I can usually identify the snakes and if they are not venomous, I pick them up and move them off the trail. As it got lighter out coming into Glasgow, I ran across a black snake and moved it off the trail. As soon as I set it down and started to walk away I heard rattling. Now I know I hadn't slept well for the past two nights, nor had I had my morning coffee yet, but I was pretty sure I couldn't mistake a black snake for a rattle snake. I turned around to see the black snake curled up like an eastern timber rattler and saw that it had buried its tail in the leaves and was shaking it violently replicating the sound of a rattle snake. It was pretty impressive to see a black snake mimicking a rattle snake. 

The Appalachian trail goes across the James river outside of Glasgow. As I was walking across the foot bridge, Beowulf approached it from the other side and met me in the middle. He told me it was an AT tradition to jump of the bridge into the James, so I had to do it. I figured it would wake me up, so in I went (it was only 25 feet high). It was a refreshing swim (and surprisingly warm) and woke me up for my hitch into Glasgow. Both Glasgow and Waynesboro, VA are extremely hiker friendly towns. Both towns set up shelters in their city parks for hikers to stay in for free when they are in town. In Glasgow the shelter had a shower with a propane heater, and in Waynesboro the shelter was next to a YMCA that allowed hikers to take free showers. It is really cool that these small towns give a lot of support to thru hikers. Not only are the towns hiker friendly in VA, the breweries are as well. Devil's backbone brewery picks up hikers off the trail and brings them to a brewpub where we are allowed to set up our tents next to the brewery and they even cook us a hikers only breakfast before throwing us back out on the trail. All of the support we get a long the way is amazing. 

Dragons Tooth

Four Pines Hostel is in a guys 3 bay garage on his farm (the bunks double as couches)

McAfee Knob (besides Katahdin it is the most photographed spot on the trail)

Mr. Bear

Don Vino being Don Vino, and yes he is wearing a kilt.

Sunset, Beowulf is on the far left watching the sun go down.

 Looking down on the James River

Field of trillium 

Apple Orchard falls is over 200 feet tall

Morning fog on the mountains

Top of Bluff Mountain

Sweet Home Virginia

On 4/22, I did 20.3 miles to a campsite just after Pine Mountain. On 4/23, I did to 24.5 miles to Partnership Shelter. On 4/24, I did 6.7 miles after resupplying in Marion, VA. On 4/25 I did 18.9 miles to Knot Maul Shelter. On 4/26, I did 20 miles to Jenkins Shelter. On 4/27 I did 25 miles to Jenny Knob. On 4/28 I did 21.7 miles to Woods Hole Hostel. On 4/29 I did 17.2 to rice field shelter after resupplying in Pearisburg. OnOn 4/30 I did 16.5 miles to Bailey Gap. On 5/1 I did  17.9 miles to VA 630. On 5/2 and 5/3 I day hiked with a friend outside Pearisburg.

So I have broken into southern Virginia and so far it has been a great state, which is a good thing since it's a good chunk of the AT. I have already knocked out the highest peak, Mount Rogers, in Virginia so it should be easy going from here on out. The terrain for the next few hundred miles looks easier and I'm okay with that. North Carolina's and Tennessee's elevation profiles looked like a Richter scale after an earthquake, maybe the smoother ground will give my ankle time to actually heal before I hit rocky PA (I am currently yelling out some creative expletives every time I slightly roll my left ankle on the trail). Coming out of Damascus I walked along parts of the Virginia Creeper Trail before I started the climb up Mount Rogers. The section of the Virginia Creeper Trail I was on followed the river in the valley and looks like an awesome opportunity for a week long bike trip through Virginia in the future. 

After Mount Rodgers I entered into the Grayson Highlands during a serious windstorm. The gusts of wind were upwards of 40 miles per hour and reminded me of Mount Washington. During the gusts of wind I could turn into the wind and fall forward and the wind would keep me from falling. The Highlands are an unique geographical area and reminded me of a rocky Colorado plain. As I was crossing the Highlands it started to hail and I had to take cover behind a large boulder. Getting hit in the face with hail at 40 miles per hour feels a lot like getting hit in the face with 40 mile per hour hail. Luckily the hail only lasted for about ten minutes and I was rewarded for dealing with the strange weather with ponies and rainbows. You will have to take my word on the rainbow as I forgot to take a picture of it. As for the ponies, apparently back in the 60's the USFS released a bunch of wild ponies into the park to help control the vegetation. There are now bands of ponies that graze on the Highlands and surprise thru hikers who had no idea they were there.

We'll I crossed the 500 mile mark last week when I entered Grayson Highlands  and shortly after that I hit the quarter mile mark for the trail. I have reflected on both of those milestones and realized I am actually indifferent to the numbers. It's great to know that I can physically and mentally take on the trail, and barring any serious injury I should be able to continue the trend; but for many hikers, including myself, Katadhin is the end of the hike, but not the reason for the start. I was talking to Cliff Hanger about the trail and he said it best "The trail is a catalyst for the hikers goals". This is where I'm supposed to tell you my goals for the trail, but to be honest they have changed week to week and sometimes even day to day. The trail has given me a lot of time to reflect on the past and think about the future. I still have the same amount of questions to answer as when I started the trail, but I now have a new perspective to frame my thoughts. One thing I did manage to figure out is the secret to happiness, but I will let you walk the trail and find out for yourselves.

I went into Pearisburg for a resupply today. A coworker/friend (l'll just call him Benjamin Franklin) wanted to support me on my trip and sent me a package to the post office in Pearisburg. I went to the P.O to pick up the package, I handed the P.O employee my ID, she went to the back and returned to the front with a huge box, I didn't even approach the counter since I thought it was for someone else. She said here you go and pushed the box across the counter. I couldn't believe the size of the package, I have had gear resupplies that were in smaller boxes. There were other hikers in the P.O and one asked if I had a new backpack shipped to me. I said no, I believe it is food.  He then asked if it was from my girlfriend and I said no. He then said who the hell would send you that much food! I opened the box on the floor of the post office. It was like reaching into a magicians hat. At this time there was a small crowd around me watching me pull out various items from the box. Mr. Franklin is the king of jokes and I cannot actually mention everything that was in the box, but the whole post office was either in tears from laughing or shock from what I was pulling out. What I can tell you was in the box was over 10 lbs of jerky and dried fruit and some whiskey. Now do you think I'm going to actually hike with the additional 10+ lbs. from the jerky/fruit/whiskey?.....you bet your bottom dollar I am, and I am sure I will make a lot of friends in the next few weeks as I share the most outlandish resupply the AT has seen. 

Right after Rice Field Shelter I started to hike on a 70 mile section of trail that I had previously hiked in 2012 with my girlfriend of the time. Reflecting back on the hike the only thing I could think of was how bad I felt for her. She honestly thought I knew what I was doing, and the worst part is, I thought I knew what I was doing. I have no idea how much my pack weighed back in 2012, but going through all the items in my head, I bet it was over 55 lbs and hers was probably just a little less than that. I had cotton clothes, 4 or 5 pairs of socks, seven pairs of underwear and a first aid kit that could have been used to treat a platoon. We were miserable on the trail. It took us a day and a half to do 11.7 miles. We got to Bailey Gap shelter and we were discussing turning around and heading back to the car the next morning. When we were at the shelter two thru hikers named Hopeful and Bunny came strolling in full of energy after a 20+ mile day. We shared with them our sad story and how we planned on turning around in the morning. Both of them were extremely positive people and even after looking at our overloaded packs, were sure we could push on and make our original itinerary. We were still hesitant on the idea of pushing forward, so they started to recount all of their tales of the past 700 miles and listed dozens of reasons of why they should have stopped but that a positive outlook kept them on the trail. They helped us go through our packs and showed us ways to eliminate weight, we also ended up giving them a lot of our food (I told you section/day hikers always bring to much food with them). The next morning it was an easy decision for us, we headed North away from the car. It's pretty cool that some people can come into your life for such a short amount of time but yet have such a lasting impact. It is quite often that I think about Hopeful and Bunny and the power of a positive attitude. It was a blast to re-walk this part of the trail that had once been almost insurmountable with the same bounce in my footsteps that Hopeful and Bunny had  four years ago.  

Hanging out in the highlands

Not so scenic parts of the AT with Ginger T.

Walking through farm lands of Virginia (you can see the lower elevations have started to bud, while the higher elevation is bare)

500 miles in at the start of Grayson Highlands 

Common site outside dinners along the AT

2012, faking a smile with the heavy pack (for some reason I dressed like was going on a safari)

2015, looking good as always

Woods Hole Hostel

10 Speed leading the way

Spring has Sprung

On 4/12, I did 20.7 miles to No Business Knob Shelter. On 4/13, I did 10.5 miles to Curly Maple Gap after resupplying in Erwin, TN. On 4/14, I did 17.2 miles and spent the night in an apple orchard. On 4/15, I did 20.2 miles in a crazy rain storm to an old barn at Overmountain. On 4/16, I did 18.8 to mountaineer shelter. On 4/17, I did 20.3 to Pond flats. On 4/18, I did 23.1 miles just south of Tennessee 91. On 4/19, I did 23 miles to Damascus. On 4/20, I took my first zero in Damascus. On 4/21, I did 18.5 miles to Beech mountain and camped out on the bald.

Well it was inevitable that Proudfoot and I would eventually split. He needs to get to Damascus to meet up with some people and will be doing some serious high mile days. We released two doves as a sign of our friendship when we said our goodbyes. I think I'm going to slow down my mileage a little bit and smell the flowers. Spring has sprung at the lower elevations and it is beautiful. There are some hill sides that have such an intense aroma of flowering buds its like walking with a rose up to your nose as you traverse the mountain side.

So far the section between Hot Springs and Erwin has been the best section of trail yet. Maybe I like it since it is finally starting to warm up, but also the views have been amazing, there is a diversity in the landscape from fields and balds to forrest and exposed ridgelines. On 4/11 I spent a majority of the day just walking through forests of wild flowers, I'm not going to lie it was pretty much amazing. 

In Hot Springs I saw a bumper sticker that said "No Rain, No Pain, No Maine". Right now I would trade a little extra pain for a little less rain, the past two days have been a washout. The rain stopped for an hour or so on 4/14 as I went up Unaka mountain. At the top of the mountain was a dense spruce forrest. The trees were so tightly packed in, no sunlight hit the forrest floor and the thick layer of pine needles made the whole area void of sound. It felt like I was walking through a Brothers Grimm scene, just waiting for something to jump out at me. On 4/15 temperatures dropped as I went up Roan mountain. I believe Roan is an old word that means shitty trail design. The entire trail turned into a cold and fast moving stream, I'm pretty sure I saw a trout on the trail. The wind and rain made the day difficult, you had to keep your head down and body hunched over just to keep from getting blown around. I was able to crank out some miles, but unfortunately wasn't able to take in all of my surroundings; on the plus side I was able to find an old barn to sleep in and get out of the rain so it was a pretty fun end to a water logged day.

As I am winding my way towards Virginia I have been playing a game called "Is it wind, or is it a waterfall" . As I go over a ridge I listen for a rushing sound and try to figure out if I am hearing the wind, or an upcoming waterfall. I had no idea there were so many waterfalls on the trail. I have probably past one or two a day for the past week. I cannot wait for the air temperature to get a little bit warmer and I will be able to take a few more showers along the trail.

On 4/18 I woke up at 5:30a on top of Pond Mountain. The next 6 miles of the trail were closed to everyone except AT thru hikers because of high levels of bear activity. I thought this would be a great chance to finally wrestle a bear (I have already wrestled a lion and a tiger, and just need a bear for the trifecta). I hit the the trail by 6:15a and slowly and quietly walked down the mountain. I ended up going the entire 6 miles without seeing anything. By lunch time I stopped by a stream where two other hikers were refilling their water supply. After talking with them, I found out they had camped about 200 yards north of of me and hit the trail by 6:00a. They saw 5 bears, and one of them even came crashing down in front of them. Next time I'll have to get up a little bit earlier. The bears won this round but I'll be back.

The constant heavy rain definitely slowed me down and threw a wrench in my supply logistics.  My next resupply was Damascus, and I was going to walk into there two meals short, but that's the price you pay when you are trying to save weight and plan your movements perfectly. I was with another older hiker (I will not mention his name at this time) who was in worst shape than I was. He was a day and a half short of food because of the storms. As we were walking down one of the mountain sides to a gap I offered to split what remaing food I had with him and just push through it. He thanked me for the offer, but said he was going to get a resupply at the gap. I was confused since there wasn't anything near this gap except a trail head. When we got to the gap there were about five cars full of day hikers. He wanted to have lunch at the trail head so we sat down next to a fence. I pulled out my food bag and started to look for my lunches. I looked over at him and saw him pull out a jar of peanut butter. He then picked up a leaf and smeared the peanut butter on it, gazed at, sighed loudly , and then started to eat it. I knew exactly what he was doing, and did everything I could to not die laughing. When he started to chew on the leaf the trail head went silent, and then moments later every day hiker was reaching into their bags to pull out food to give to him (to be fair, day hikers normally hike for 6 hours but carry two days of food on them). He had probably been given enough food to make it to Maine. I'm not sure if he is a genius or a con artist (probably both) but it was by far the funniest thing I have seen on the trail.

The weather turned for the worst again as I made my approach to Damascus. I had originally planned on getting into Damascus 4/20 morning, but a nasty front rolled in and was dumping rain on me so I decided to get in late on 4/19 instead. I divided the food I had left into two and ate a big breakfast on 4/18 and 4/19. The freezing rain made it too cold to stop on my push to Damascus so I just kept moving and only stopped to refill water and to setup camp. On the outskirts of Damascus we crossed into Virginia (on the AT Virginia is 556 miles long, which is longer than Georgia, North Carolina and Tennessee combined). I believe the AT is getting higher than normal rain fall, as two large trail bridges after Damascus were washed down the river. 

I have walked 469 miles without a full day off and was excited to take my first zero in Damascus.  In town I switched out my cold gear with my warm gear. Instead of shiping my gear to Damascus, The Old Man, Cat Lady, and Mo Man drove out from Cincinnati to do a welfare check on me and brought my warm gear (I did not send all of my cold gear back, due to my last experience with the weather). It was definitely good to see family, grab some beers and get some lighter weight gear. Once you cut dead weight you realize how easy it is to actually move.

On 4/21 I hit the trail again. It was a gorgeous day. I walked with Ginger T, and a new hiker named TJ whom I met that day. Around 6:00p we walked around Beech mountain which had a beautiful exposed bald. I suggested we spend the night up there since it wasn't supposed to storm and would be an epic sunrise and sunset. Before I had my tent staked, high winds picked up and blew my tent down the mountain. I sprinted after it, and after about 70 yards I caught up with it but tripped right before I reached it and fell into my tent snapping one of the poles. Luckily TJ had a tent splint and I was able to do a field repair on the tent which should last until I can get into town and find a replacement. I was sitting in my tent, not too happy with how the last 30 minutes unfolded and opened up my food bag to start dinner. When I opened my food bag I found a beer I had stashed away. I cracked the beer and watched the sun disappear below the ridgeline, all suddenly became right with the world again. 

Forrest full of flowers

Spruce Forrest on top of Unaka Mountain 

Laurel Falls

Ohhh hey guys

Ten Speed and I above Watauga Lake (he is a former Swiss professional cyclist, I need to stop walking with athletes).

Onward and Upward

On 4/5, I did 18.3 miles to Newfound gap and hitched into Gatlinburg for the night. On 4/6 I did 15.6 miles from Newfound Gap to Tri-Corner Knob Shelter. On 4/7, I did 18.4 to Standing Bear Hostel just outside Davenport. On 4/8, I did 20 miles to Walnut Mountain. On 4/9, I did 13.1 miles to Hot Springs, NC. On 4/10, I did 19.6 miles to Little Laurel Shelter. On 4/11, I had a great day of hiking and did 22 miles to Hogback Ridge Shelter

After all the shenanigans with the hypothermic guy, Proudfoot and I pushed on the next day to Clingmans Dome. The approach to Clingmans was a lot of fun since the forrest significantly changed as we gained elevation. Typically when you gain elevation the trees become smaller, but as we climbed the trees got larger, which blocked out the sunlight making it feel like dusk during the late morning. The AT intersects the Clingmans Dome trailhead that is used by park visitors who drive up to the top. It was a slight shock to come out of the forrest to throngs of tourists on Sunday morning, especialy after being surrounded by dirty hikers all week. Clingmans Dome is the highest point on the AT, so technically it's all down hill from here.  After going to the top of Clingmamns Dome we decided to push for Newfound Gap where we heard through the grapevine there were trail angels. When we arrived to Newfound gap there was a party! There were several vehicles setup serving all sorts of food and drinks, and a lot of the thru hikers were taking extra long breaks to soak up the sun and some extra calories. Beth and Bernie were two of the trail angels who drive up from Florida every year to support the thru hikers, and we ended up hitching into Gatlinburg with them. Gatlinburg is a giant circus, the little bit of shock I experienced at Clingmans Dome, was nothing compared to walking the streets of Gatlinburg, we felt very out of place and I was anxious to leave town as soon as I got in. Like any good thru hikers we were able to resupply, find a buffet, and a brewery. We hitched back out of town the next morning, if I never make it back to Gatlinburg I will be okay.

4/6 was cold and rainy and unfortunately we were walking through some of the most beautiful parts of the smokies but couldn't see more than 100 feet out from the ridges. The shelter was full, but thru hikers have special priviledges to set up tents in the smokies if there isn't room in the shelters.  So on a plus side I found out my tent can handle a serious storm while keeping me dry, so that really helps boost confidence on the trail. The next day's forecast was calling for storms all day, but we caught a break in the morning and had clear skies. I was able to take in the surroundings as I watched a thunderstorm roll in. The thunderstorm came in faster than I expected so I ended up having to outrun it and get over the ridgeline before it struck. I took off running for the top of Mt Cammerer and I made it just over the ridge as a firework show of lighting and thunder erupted behind me (my poles are carbon fiber and my pack is frameless, if I had a lot of metal on me I would have sheltered). I threw on my poncho (still glad I did not burn it) and walked down the mountain in one of the first cool Spring Showers. At the bottom of the mountain was Davenport and the edge of the Smokies. I think I'll come back and do this section of trail again someday and hope for better weather and less drama.

Going in and out of the smokies has led to a lot of elevation gains and drops, it not uncommon to be at 1,400 ft in the morning and then be at 5,500 feet above sea level by lunch. The general rule of thumb when hiking is the temperature will drop 3.5 degrees Fahrenheit for every 1,000 feet of elevation gain. The change in temperature due to elevation allows me to still experience winter on the ridgeline and early spring in the gaps. 

After leaving the smokies, we decided to check in at standing bear hostel to dry our gear out. There's not much to say about the hostel other than I'm glad I woke up with both of my kidneys. Proudfoot and I got another headlamp start at 6 am the next day. Ever since the beginning of the smokies we have basically been walking the Tennessee and North Carolina border, if we get water on the east side of the trail we are in NC, if we get water in the west side of the trail we are in TN. We met up with a motley crew along the trail including Yogi and his dog BoBo, shit-to-do, south paw (she broke her arm in the smokies and is walking with a cast) and wobbles. We got to the base of Max Patch when we ran across a trail angel who was serving beer and oranges, to take up to the bald, so naturally we had to oblige. It was a beautiful bald and hard to imagine it was covered in snow four days ago. The crew danced across the mountain top as if it were in the Sound of Music, I just wish I had a frisbee.

The following day we were going to take a nero (near zero) in Hot Springs, where the AT actually goes down mainstreet. I use to drive through Hot Springs once or twice a year on my way to Mount Mitchell to do some backpacking in the black mountains, so I was familiar with the town. I guess I got excited when I turned the ridgeline and could see the town because I cinched my backpack straps tight and ran the last 6 miles into town. I ended up staying in an old mansion and slept in the same room where Earl Shaffer slept in 1948 (he was the first person to hike the entire trail at once). The town was very hiker friendly and I'm glad we did not take a zero day there or I might not have left. I made sure i filled up my water in town before I hit the trail sincs a lot of the water in the area has a high sulfur content from the hot springs. About 4 miles outside of town is an AT bridge that goes over US 25 / 70. On all my trips to Mount Mitchell, I always looked at that bridge and thought "someday". I never would have thought that someday would have been today. There is another bridge I used to go under when traveling back and forth to DC, I am looking forward to crossing that bridge as well in a month.

Trail Angels at Newfound Gap on Easter

Jersey Girl, HoBo, Proudfoot and myself getting a ride into Gatlinburg, 

Just 1972 miles left to Katahdin 

The smokies before the storm rolled in 

Crossing Over US 25 / 70 (Hawk in the background)

Hawk, Samson the Bear, Ten Speed

Bobo the dog, Yogi and Proudfoot hiking up Max Patch

Just another day in the AT

100 Miles In

On 3/30, I only did 4 miles before going into Franklin, NC to resupply. On 3/31, I did 15.8 miles from Winding Stair Gap to Cold Spring Shelter. On 4/1, we only did 11.9 miles to NOC  (I cannot pass up a beer list I have never heard of it's one of my few faults). On 4/2, we did 21.7 to Cable Gap. On 4/3, we did 20.6 to Russel field. On 4/4, we only did 9.2 miles to Derrick Knob Shelter (find out below why it was such a short day).

I'm 100 miles in, well to be exact I'm 125.6 miles in but whose counting. Physically I feel fine, a little swelling of the big toes from my shoes crashing into them on the down hills, some tingling on my right hip from my pack and a couple burnt fingers from my stove... overall no real issues. The thing that has suprised me the most about the first 100 miles of the hike is the amount of logistics and planing that is done every night during dinner, or in the sleeping bag. We are constantly looking a head at the terrain and the weather to determine how far we can travel, what time to get up, how much food do we have left, when to get water, when and where can we get resupplied, whether or not we are going to shelter or tent (that's right I now have a tent!) are we travelling alone or in a group, etc. I'm sure as I move down the trail it will become second nature, but currently it's taking a lot of time to plan out my next days moves and coordinate resupplies.

Well, after drinking a few beers at the NOC, Proudfoot and I came up with a genius plan to make it to Clingmans dome on Easter, the only problem with this is there are a few mountains in the way. We left the NOC at 6:00 am on 4/2 and started the hike with headlamps, we had a 3,762 foot assent before hitting the ridgeline, I managed to sprain my ankle going down Stecoah Gap, but I was able to duct tape it up and push on to Jacobs ladder (duct tape and beer will fix almost all ailments on the AT). Jacobs ladder is a section that climbs 600 feet in 0.25 miles, it's the type of climb that people let out a howl after they finish, or in my case a growl.  We finished 4/2 with a little less than 22 miles under our belts (my 900 calorie dinner still left me hungry and I ended up eating one of my lunches as well). On 4/3 we got another early start, we crossed the Fontana Dam and entered the Smokies with a 2,820 foot climb, and then followed the ridgeline to a shelter (they make you stay in shelters in the smokies). After putting in a little over 20 miles, we should have no problem making it to Clingmans Dome, and might make an early break for it on the 5th to catch the sunrise. 

I learned another new term. Hikers Midnight- it's when ever you go to bed, which in my case almost every night is 8pm.

Well, 4/4 started off like a normal day, it had poured rain the night before and temperatures dropped below freezing, but we had stayed warm and dry in the shelter. Proudfoot and I got up and hit the trail by 7am. We typically go to the next shelter or campsite to eat breakfast (by this time we should be warm enough to sit down). When we got to the next shelter (Spencer Gap) we were met by one of the campers and she asked if we were rangers, at which we replied no. At about the same time a 20 year old kid, named Phil, comes running into the shelter saying that he had found him, but didn't have enough gear to stay out there and keep warm. The background to this story was a hypothermic section hiker came into Spencer Gap at 4am saying there were two others out on the mountain who needed help. The shelter got up and looked for them, they quickly found one hiker, but could not find the third. Three guys went out looking for the third hiker (with no gear). One of the three was Phil. Phil told us the guy was in realy bad shape and couldn't talk due to the onset of hypothermia and was maybe 3 miles down the trail, Phil also lost contact with the other two guys in the search party and did not know where they were. Proudfoot and I set out down the trail, we were moving as fast as we could, but due to the intense fog (we couldn't see 20 feet infront of us) and not knowing exactly where the down hiker was, we were not able to move at our normal speed. After about an hour and a half we came across the down hiker who had managed to crawl under a rhododendron and was next to one of the guys in the search party, Kevin, who was trying to share his body heat (at this time we don't know where the third person from the search party was). Kevin did not have any gear with him and was also now hypothermic. We broke down our gear and covered Kevin up, giving him our sleeping bag, hat and gloves. I was able to make a wind screen out of my tarp poncho (glad I did not burn it), and tried to get the guys warm. The injured hikers name was Brad, who was out of shape with a bad knee and only had minimal clothes on. I asked him what was cold and he said his feet. I pulled out my thick winter socks and said it was going to be a pain to get these on in his sleeping bag, but that we needed to do it. He then sticks his feet out from under his sleeping bag, which is when Proudfoot and I realize he just had blankets and a sleeping bag on top of him and that he is not actually enclosed in anything. After realizing this Proudfoot set up his sleeping system and my mylar blanket across the trail on flatish ground. We then picked up Brad (he weighed 270 lbs) and moved him across the trail into a sleeping bag (it wasn't pretty put we got it done) we setup my sleeping system next to Brad and put Kevin in it. By the time we had Brad and Kevin in sleeping bags it was 930am. We were told rangers were called at 4am and they should be coming up any minute to assist. While waiting we learned Kevin and the third guy in the search party, Chris, initially walked by Brad in the dark, they ended up making it to the next shelter on the trail, but Chris was to cold to go back out, so Kevin went back by himself and found Brad on his return to Spencer. We started to feed Kevin and Brad candy bars and hot chocolate to get their energy levels up. By 1130a we got them to stop shaking, but there was still no sign of the rangers. Proudfoot ran back to Spencer to get an update on our support. I stayed with the guys. It got to be 2 o clock and I hadn't heard anything back from Proudfoot.  I started to worry about dark since there was no flat ground to setup a tent, I also figured the only way to get this guy out was going to be by helicopter but we were in a dense part of the forrest. My best bet was to move the guys 700 yards to Thunderhead Mountain top, where a helicopter extraction would be easier, and worst case I could set up my tent and we could shelter overnight. Kevin was weak but when I told him what we had to do he got up and the two of us lumbered up the trail propping Brad up until we got to the top of the mountain around 3 o clock. I got Brad and Kevin back into a sleeping bags and started to setup my tent. Before I got my tent setup I could see Proudfoot leading the rangers towards us. When the rangers got up there they came to the same conclusion that the only way to get him down was a helicopter. I stuck around as they were taking his vitals and called in the helicopter, but once he was in the care of the rangers, and just waiting for the helicopter, I took off down the trail to salvage a few miles before night fell...

Breakfast on top of Wesser Bald with Proudfoot

It's good to take a load off at Nantahala Outdoor Center (left to right: Proudfoot, Wildman, Cain, Buffy, Hunter)

Entering the Smokies 

Crossing Fontana Dam 

View from the fire tower (the Fire tower looked like it was abandoned and going to fall down)

Brad is in the blue sleeping bag, Kevin is in the green sleeping bag with the turquoise poncho on him. I'm the orange blob on the side of the hill sitting down kepping them from rolling down the hill (photo by Proudfoot)

Hiker TV

On 3/27 i did 20.1 miles from Blue Mountain Shelter to just beyond dicks creek gap. On 3/28 I did 15.8, sleeping a long a stream in the valley to protect myself from the wind. On 3/29 I did 20.1 miles to Rock Gap Shelter.

On 3/26 Due to the amount of people at the start of the trail, I spent my first night in my tent or should I say my tarp. It was horrible. The temperature dropped to 35 and it started to rain and then the wind picked up. I managed not to get soaked but wet enough to swear off this tarp. Tarp tents are great, but since most of the campsites on the AT are on a Ridgeline there isn't a lot of protection from the wind and this particular tarp is smaller than I am used to, this combiation puts myself in a less than ideal situation. I texted The Old Man at 11pm that night to start doing some research on tents for me. When I told my current hiking partner, Proudfoot, I was texting home to get a tent in the middle of the storm he died laughing. Who goes on the AT without a solid form of shelter.... this guy.

I learned a new term for a bonfire, they call it a hikers TV.

I have been running into a bunch of trail angels on the trail so far. A trail angel is usually a church group or former through hiker that sets up at a road crossing, or other areas along the trail and provides food and drink to the hikers. Today we started out in some really nasty weather, at one of the gaps I smelled hamburgers, Proudfoot told me I must be super hungry until we ran into Brown Trout, who through hiked it in 2002, he was grilling up burgers on the side of the mountain in a storm. We destroyed the burger, listened to some Grateful Dead on the stereo he lugged up there and kept moving; it was by far the best burger I have ever eaten. The church groups tend to provide coffee and oatmeal, and the former through hikers tend to provide beer and snicker bars, both groups are highly appreciated.

If you look at the trail log at the top of the posts you can see Proudfoot and I are are putting in some decent  miles, especially for the beginning of the trip. We are both pushing to get to Franklin, NC where the promise of a shower, laundry (never thought I would be excited about laundry), beer, and maybe even a tent excite us. The trail has been great to us so far, a couple of rainy days, a little snow and the past two nights have been in the teens, but the hikes have been amazing once we get warmed up in the morning. Even with the great hikes, I believe my body is telling me I need a break; during the snow shower around 2 am on the 26th I swear I saw one of my hiking poles get blown down the mountain. I was so sure I saw it, I jumped out of my sleeping bag, in my base layer, and started to craw on the snowy ground trying to catch it. I ended up waking up Proudfoot with all the commotion, when I explained to him my pole blew away his only response was "really a pole blew away" at which time I kind of snapped to and realized that even though it was extremely windy, it would take hurricane force winds to blow a pole away. I crawled back in my tarp and found my headlamp and low and be hold my pole was next to my sleeping bag. It must be the lack of oxygen at 4,000 feet that caused my hallucination.

 On 3/29 we had a great hike going to Albert mountain. The approach was steep enough we had to put the hiking poles away and scramble up the mountain using both feet and hands. When we got to the top there was a fire tower. Not sure if the forest department meant to leave it unlocked or not, but since it was open we climbed up to eat lunch inside. Once up there we had an awesome 360 degree view of the landscape. I took some panoramic pictures that will be better printed than posted. Oddly enough we spotted a fire three ridge lines from the tower, but figured it was so large that it had to have already been seen. 

Enjoying the view

Entering North Carolina 

Proudfoot getting ready for dinner

On top of Albert Mountain Fire Tower

The Trail Will Provide

A quick run down of the numbers, on the 23rd I did 8.8 miles from the approach to Springer Shelter. On the 24th I did 15.6 miles to Gooch Mountain shelter. On the 24th I did 15.9 miles to Neel Gap and slept in the mountain cross hostel. On the 25th we pushed to Blue Mountain shelter after  18.8 miles.

I pity anyone who walks the AT looking for solitude for two reasons, first there are a ton of people at the start so unless you start the trail really early or realy late your going to run into someone. Second, so far everyone I have met is a character and has a story to tell. (For those who don't know you either show up with a trail name or you are named by your fellow hikers on the trail, I have been hiking with the Darkest Hour for two days and have no idea what is non trail name is). Fools Gold The Richest Man on the AT is 12 years old and hiking with his mom and sister from LA, he has a 30 pound pack and is determined to make it to Katahdin. Can Do is 78 years old and pushing for Maine he has section hiked the entire AT but wants to make a push and do it all at once. There are dozens more people that I have already met in three days and it would take all of my downtime for the rest of the AT to tell their stories.

To say I was prepared for this trip would be a stretch, I researched the gear, but that was about it. Before Saturday I didn't even know where the approach trail for Springer was, I carried in seven days of food even though my first resupply could have been within 3 days, and I hadn't really even looked at my guidebook until I was on Springer. With that being said Dirty Harry provided me with the some words of wisdom saying "the trail will provide for you, but just know sometimes it provides you with a hard time" With that being said knocking out two 15 mile days, and an 18 miler today I think I'll be alright, and pick it up as I go. What's the worse that can happen.

Tree of Lost Souls

View from the top level at the shelter, 14 is reading and rope burn is about to gorge himself 

Statistically Speaking

The day is upon me to start this epic trip. I have spent the last two weeks catching up with friends and family and having gone to dozens of going away parties I might need the next 6 months just to recover from all of the cheer.

I took a before, picture... so it will be fun to see what I will look like when I finish in Maine. As of March 22nd I'm 205 lbs (without beer and gyros I'll probably drop to 170). My shoe size is 9, your foot actually grows because of the swelling (unfortunately nothing else grows with it). I'm 28, and I have a couple bets with my friends that I will most likely be 29 when I finish and in case of an emergency my social security number is 867-53-0900.

The messages I have gotten from everyone have been nothing short of amazing and motivating. Not many people are fortunate enough to take 6 months of their life off to tackle such a trip. I know those who are not able to join me are sending a lot of positive vibes. I have enjoyed planning with my friends and family and the old man where they are going to jump on the trail with me (if you get get the itch to do some backpacking and want to smell like a goat, shoot me a message and we can figure out where our paths will cross).

About 2000 people try to do this every year with only about 25% of them making it. Luckily I am extremely stubborn, so short of being eaten by a bear, which still has 5 to 1 odds, I hope to push through what ever comes my way. On the plus side there are several children who will be named in my honor if I do have a less than desirable encounter with my furry brothers.

Tonight I'll spend the night on top of Springer Mountain. From there it is 2189.2 miles to Mount Katahdin.

First Night at camp, that's only two people's gear