And so this is Christmas

With the holidays approaching, I decided to play a little hookie from my dissertation and family obligations and do some winter hiking.  Winter is a great opportunity to let my new pup run off leash, since he has well trained puppy friends and few stimulating hikers where we chose to go, plus large swatches of land without paved roads to dodge. Admittedly I had some concerns about snowmobile traffic,  which ended up being unwarranted.

We went hiking on the north country trail in Michigan around the traverse city area,  and it did not disappoint! Our section started a little south of Fife Lake and went north toward Kalkaska. The hiking club maintaining this stretch of trail has been active,  so the maps you can purchase through NCT are a bit out of date.  The interactive map, however,  is spot on.  And the sections they added are gorgeous, traversing beautiful stream banks and rolling hills. We began where the trail crosses 131 south of Fife Lake at a roadside park. The park is closed in winter but there is still room in front of the gate to park your car for a day hike. If you plan to overnight,  there is a campground about 2 miles trail south that would be more appropriate. The trail here is easy and follows a pretty river. A bench sits at a nice overlook about a mile in for those of you who are just passing thru. About five or six miles in,  you hit a lovely dam.  In the summer,  this stretch is full of swimming spots begging to be used.  A state campground about 8.5 miles in is lovely,  though primitive,  and has privies a plenty. When we went through there was a tree down in a campsite,  but there was evidence that someone was already working to remove it. 

You cross railroad tracks after the campground,  and can make your way into the town of Fife Lake both from Lakeshore Drive (which is a bit of a needless hike) and by following 4th street or a snowmobile trail away from the NCT, which the trail follows briefly before crossing west over 131.

The trail is pretty, but nondescript from this point until you travel north of Mayfield rd. About 2.5 miles north of that road crossing, you enter a portion of the trail (signed at the north end) called "valley of the giants." There is a lovely stretch of stealth camping if I ever saw it. A few miles north of that is Sheck's campground, which looked pretty nice. There were a lot of picnic tables and fire rings, anyway. This stretch is also a little more hilly, and just all around pretty.

The scene maintains its beauty for another 4.5 miles or so, which is where the holiday season got the better of us and ended our long stretch of day hiking. In sum, we walked around 27 miles of the NCT, all of them snowy and most of them quite beautiful. This was a Christmas gift I gave myself, and I loved every minute of it.

Well done, winter wonderland.

another country heard from

Its been a long time, internet!

Well, not really. But shortly after our last post, my magic phone stopped being magical. It took more battery to connect to the internet and type a blog post than the phone got while charging. So a two hour break was no longer conducive to blogging. Add to that the fact that my phone was already an old, crappy thing that didn't have the right (insert tech phrase) to write to the blog offline and just upload when we had a connection, and that writing in the memo app wasn't able to copy and paste to blogger (I lost a good 10 days worth of blog posts that way), and that was it. Since I had followed so many blogs in the months before my hike, I felt really badly. I remember how much fun I had virtually following people - coming home from a long day of grad school and hopping onto my favorite blogger's pages to see why I was working so hard - I wanted to pay it forward with this blog.

Then you ask, so why didn't you upload when you got back? Did you quit the trail?

Good questions.

About the time I realized there was no hope for my old phone and blogging (see lost blog posts note above), I got some amazing trail magic and some terrible news. We were in New Jersey, sitting at a bar (the name escapes me now, and my ATbook is stored with my gear), and met an amazing couple. They invited us over for dinner, showers, and a comfy couch, and we were more than happy to comply. They also taught us an amazing way to drink whiskey...with a chocolate milk chaser. Honest to goodness, don't knock it till you try it. We hadn't made our miles for the day, but their company was so pleasant, we decided to indulge in their kindness.

And thankful I am we did. The next morning my father called. My grandmother had passed away. The couple lent us their GPS unit, got us to a car rental place, and helped me get back to say goodbye to my beloved gram.

Needless to say, when we got back from the funeral, the trail had lost a lot of its carefree happiness. I sat down to blog a few times, and I just couldn't. I knew I wanted to finish the trail, knew my gram would want that for me, but I no longer had the emotional energy to write it all down for the world to read. I kept a hand-written journal the whole trail (highly recommended weight - a mini composition book goes a long way), and I continued to write in it. But down time was for me. I had to recharge my batteries. There was a lot of crying while walking, a lot of intense contemplation. When we made camp for the night, or found ourselves in a town, I got loud, friendly(ier than usual) with the locals, and drunk.

So, you ask, why are you writing now?

Firstly, I don't know who 'you' might be, or if 'you' exist. But I'm writing now because 1) NASCAR sent me an email, I responded, and never heard from him. If for no one other than Nascar, Bullwinkle, and the few people we grew to love on the trail, I wanted to let them know we finished. There is some grey area there. We skipped a section to hit the Whites when Jesse's brothers came out. They wanted to hike with us in the Whites, not in the foothills. Our plans would have put us there if not for the time off for the funeral.

And we skipped some of Maine. Jesse got hurt, quite a substantial back injury that had him on muscle relaxers for 2 weeks. Sleeping in the woods and not going anywhere was out of the question: anything but a bed hurt his back. So we spent a lot of money on a crappy hotel in the middle of nowhere. Eventually we decided we wanted family and our money more than we wanted to pass every white blaze on the trail. But we both really wanted to hike Katahdin. It had been such a goal for so long, we needed it.

We did hike Katahdin. And at the top, Jesse proposed! It was a beautiful ending to what had been the experience of a lifetime. Though bittersweet with the loss of my gram and the injury, we felt gloriously accomplished. And I hope we go back someday to hike the 100mile wilderness and catch the section we missed. Maybe we'll make up for missing the Shennys - but I doubt it. I loved aquablazing with every fiber of my being, and truly believe we saw those mountains the way they should be seen. From heron hatcheries to the friends we found in Farmer and Chovinard, it was my second favorite part of the trip. Besides, there's too much beautiful land to see in the world to travel the same patch twice. I've got my eyes on the Porcupine Mountains in Michigan, bagging all 46 peaks in the Adirondacks, and maybe the John Muir trail...and that's all in addition to the Carmino del Santiago. Yes please, wine hike! (BTWs, hope you're well, Ironman!)

In the lack of Christmas spirit brought on by the loss of the aforementioned matriarch, we haven't made holiday cards to send in thanks of those who helped us on our way. We will, we promise. But expect them later in the year. Perhaps as a SAD (seasonal affective disorder) pick-me-up in February, on the cusp of another year of promising thru hikers!

I'm also writing because I want to have a record of all of the awesome hikes Jesse and I do. We're starting an adventure together now. One even bigger than the AT. Also because lots of trails in our home state of Michigan have very little information floating around about them on the interwebs. We've been hiking the North Country Trail here in Michigan, and have hiked a section of the Michigan Shore-to-Shore trail. Someone has to encourage people around here to get out of doors!

If you (whoever you are) find yourself in Michigan and want to hike - or grab a beer and talk trail - shoot me an email. Make sure you include your email in the note (as per my sad lack of correspondence with Nascar, I think this thing might randomize your email when you send the note).

And look forward to hearing more adventures from Margarita and the now-less-aptly named TreeBeard. Happy trails!

Getting to waynesboro, mile 857 and day 63

Getting to Waynesboro, VA, by April 23 has been a goal of ours all month. I really wanted to aquablaze and got Jesse on board somewhere around mile 300. Aquablazing is canoeing the Shenandoah River that parallels the ridgeline the Appalachian Trail follows. We had to get to waynesboro, the town in which you start, by April 23 in order to have enough time to complete the aquablaze before Jesse's parents came out to visit us.

Believe it or not, pushing yourself to get to a place by a certain deadline on the AT is really difficult. It requires you to make a certain number of miles each day, but with the added pressure of knowing that each mile you don't make must be completed the following day or you don't get where you're going, regardless of the weather or if you tweaked your ankle or if you've got a headache, makes it very stressful.But we did it!

Day 57, Apr 16- 28.2 miles, mile 752.2
We slack packed today from Troutville to the Middle creek campground. I can't say enough kind things about the campground, even if it was an extra 1.3 miles after our 28 mile day. The people were very kind, gave us a ride back to the trailhead, and even met us with a lost package a few days later. It was a really long day, our first and hopefully only marathon, but we survived. And at the end, we ran into our slack packing friends NASCAR and Bullwinkle, who had a couple of cold bud lights for us.

Day 58, Apr 17- 15.4, 767.6
NASCAR and Bullwinkle gave us some slack magic and drove our packs ten miles down trail. We picked them up and hiked further north, where we ran into them again. They told us they were camping by the Blue Ridge Parkway about a mile north of where we met them, so we decided we would have a shorter day and hang out with them for the evening. They regaled us with some tales of their past hiking and what we might expect further north on the trail. NASCAR gave us some sound advice about the windows in the Doyle hotel, and Bullwinkle shared a story about boy scouts hiking a particularly rough patch of trail in Maine, and we didn't stop laughing all night.

Day 59, April 18, 14.9, 782.5
We received another slack magic adventure from NASCAR and Bullwinkle today to the James river near Glasgow,VA. The hike was almost entirely downhill, a big down, which does a number on knees and ankles. It was a great reprieve. I spent a lot of time observing the wildflowers that have finally started to emerge. I saw pink ladyslippers, a wild iris, a bunch of flowers whose names I don't know but whose appearance on the trail I've become so thankful for, and even a few trillium! Once we picked up our packs, we had every intention of hiking another 6-8 miles to get to an 18-20 mile day finishing on another ridgeline on the other side of the river. Let me just say, every thru hiker looks forward to VA because were told it's supposed to be flat. That statement is a bold faced lie. We went thru a 3-4 day stretch where we traversed perpendicular across the ridgelines and have done nothing but 2000 foot climbs and descents. Yuck. Anyway, we wanted to get back up on the ridgeline today so we didn't have 2 2000 foot climbs tomorrow. But when we showed up at the shelter for a privy stop and to get water, we couldn't leave. There was a pile of firewood, a creek running just left of the shelter, beautiful flowers. We made camp. What can I say, the flesh was willing but the mind was weak. I picked wild scallions and fiddleheads to add to our dinner and we sat in the shelter and read.

Day 60, Apr 19, 20.1 miles, 802.6
During our hike today we learned that Buena Vista, a town about 20 miles away from where we started today, had a catholic church, so we pushed all day so I could hit up Easter mass the following morning. The last 7 miles leading into town were my absolute favorite on the trail so far. We ran into Bullwinkle and NASCAR at a suspension bridge and chatted for a few minutes. We found out they'd be parked at the gap where we stopped, so we had another bud light to look forward to before went into town.  We got to the gap at around 7 and chatted for a bit as we tried to get whole of the hostel owner in Buena vista. Having no luck, we left a message saying our friends were there and we'd probably just stay and try to settle up with the hostel, the bluedogart cafe, in the a.m. We showed up at the hostel to find Chovinard, his cousin, and Uffda hanging out and drinking beer. Chovinard kindly shared his case of yuengling since he nearest place to get beer was a few miles away. We hit up an Italian place around the corner and finally heard back from the hostel owner around 10:30. She was at Easter vigil mass, so understood my plight and said she would do what she could to get me the additional 9 miles to the church, although she was going to be gone and how this would be arranged was entirely unclear. The hostel was, by far, the shittiest place I have ever stayed at, but the people were kind, so it was an okay experience.

Day61, Easter Sunday-  12.1, 814.7
I tried to get to the 8am mass so we could get back on trail at a reasonable time, but had no luck hitch-hiking to the church. The hostel owners husband randomly showed up at 10, though, and said I'm here to take someone to church, so I got to the 10:30 mass. He also drove me back after, and we chatted about hunting in Michigan and in the hills of VA. We got back on trail around 2 pm and still managed 12 miles. Perhaps we were aided by Easter candy from our slack magicians. I kept wondering where Chovinards cousin was, as he was supposed to hike in a few miles and then hike back out to get back to base after his visit. He was really into the trail when we were all talking the night before, and excited to experience it. When we got to a nice camping spot around 8 and found chovinard there, we learned that his cousin had turned around after a mile. Remember the giant climbs I mentioned above? Well, hiking today started with one of those. And military man went from mocking our hiking poles to wishing for them. I felt pretty bad ass. We camped with farmer and chovinard and told them about our aquablaze plans.

Day 62, Apr 21, 19.4, 836
Spent the day flip flopping with chovinard and farmer, they'd get ahead and then enjoy a vista, and we'd get ahead. Then farmer and chovinard started asking us about the details of canoeing...were getting them excited about it. Maybe they will come with us. Then we took a break to soak our feet before the next up, and they jumped in the water. We also got our last slack magic from Bullwinkle, grape fantas.  So. Cold. We got to just a mile or so away from the shelter and pitched camp by a pretty creek.

Day 63, Apr 22,
Pushed hard to make it into the outfitter before day close, since we knew we would need a full day to prep for aquablazing. Meant a bit of walking on the blue ridge parkway, but we made it to the outfitters with 25 minutes to spare. Got to the YMCA to take a free shower. They provided towels, shampoo, and soap. I felt like a queen! And we stayed in the town pavilion, also free. Waynesboro is a very hiker friendly place.

We took a zero here to prep for the journey, and were delighted to learn that we'd have company on the river!

Keep on keeping on, thru day 56

We're taking a much needed zero today, April 15th. It wasn't our original plan, but we are really excited about it. I broke one of my hiking poles just south of Pearisburg and we sent the replacement (free, thanks, Black Diamond) to a campground 26 miles from Troutville, where we are today. It was either 2 13 mile days or we could slack pack 26 miles and take a zero day. We are excited to slack pack our first time (it means someone takes our pack to the destination and we hike with only what we need for the day. It has been really nice to take a break today, and it is Crunchy, one of the Brits, birthday, so 12 of us are going out to dinner to celebrate.

Day 49, Apr 8- 17.6, mile 631.3
Day 50, Apr 9- 14.5, mile 645.8
Day 51, Apr 10- 663.3
Day 52, Apr 11, 18.2, mile 681.5
Day 53, Apr 12- 16.8, mile 698
On this day we tackled a rocky ridgeline that had very little water. It was hot, near 80, and sunny. A beautiful day, by all accounts, but it forced us to carry more water than we usually do. Water weighs 2lbs a liter, and extra weight and rocks kills my knees pretty rapidly. Anyway, we got 2.5 miles beyond the dragons tooth, which was crawling-literally- with over a hundred undergrads from Virginia tech, and headed toward our reward, a hostel with a shower. We hadn't showered since April 2nd and I was so excited!

The hostel, 4 pines, was in a guy named Joe's garage. It had couches, a bed, a couple cots, some lawn chairs (like those people lay out and tan on) with pads, and a stove, microwave, and hiker fridge. It also had the guys tools, fishing supplies and other sundries. I felt at home instantly. He also had tons of hiker type resupply foods-  for free- and eggs for us from his chickens. It was amazing. His is a donation hostel, and I'd go there again in a heartbeat. He also gave us a ride to the Homeplace restaurant, an all you can eat homesyle restaurant where they keep bringing out plates of fried chicken, potatoes, gravy, green beans, etc, etc, until you can't eat anymore. Then they bring out cobbler! I probably wouldn't love it as a restaurant in real life, but in trail life it was phenomenal.

Day 54 Apr 13- 714.9, 16.9 miles
Day 55, Apr 14-724, 9.1 miles

Back on trail in the morning. Text me or leave us a comment here if you'd like. I want to formally thank a couple friends, Dean, Udu, and Joshua, for sending packages our way. And, of course, Tom and Brenda for sending out some summer gear and being our home base. It helps our budgets and our morale so much. Some days, the trail takes more than it gives, and kind notes on the web or my phone really brighten our moods.

Here's a pretty pic of the sky today. The clouds were eerie. Cheers!

Birthday pic

Days 37 to 48

Mar 27, day 37: 461, 20 miles- we acquired a team name today, team morning glory, because of our fairly regular early morning bowel movements. I know, but that's the main topic of conversation out here, after food and how much our feet hurt. Were looking forward to Damascus, va tomorrow and our 4th state.

Mar28, day 38, 5.9, 467.1: I'm labeling the date for my uncle ( hi uncle al). We neroed into Damascus and I finally got a call out to family. Then we got laundry done and checked in to Dave's place across from the outfitters. I highly recommend mt rogers outfitters and Dave's. The place is the heart of town,and in just a few hours you know everything and everyone in town.

Day 39, mar 29, 0 miles
Family stuff stuck us in Damascus another day, but I love this town. The Damascus vortex held us briefly, and we felt very welcome.

Day 40, mar 30, 16.1, 483.2 total
At the suggestion of numerous locals, we took the creeper trail for the first few miles of our day. Its not the actual AT, but they join up about 12 miles away from town. It followed a lovely river and was a great change of pace from repetitive woods. I was pretty emotionally drained, but we stayed in the shelter with friends who brightened my day.

Day 41, mar 31, 500.5, 17.3 today
And I would walk 500 miles and I would walk 500 more.... shit! 500 miles. And we went thru a state park with ponies! I pet and fed the first one, before the signs told me not to.

Day 42, Apr 1,18 miles today, 518 total
We walked. A lot. All of my journal musings talk about personal life reflections. I was tired and emotionally exhausted. Its really hard to hike in that state. Lucky for me, Jesse kept me smiling despite myself. Another thing to be thankful for on the trail.

Day 43, my birthday! 13.2, 531 total
Hiked into Marion for birthday celebrations. I'll try to attach a picture, but check out facebook if I can't.

Day 44, apr3, 547.9, 16.7 today. This is the 25% mark! It was rainy all morning but cleared in the afternoon to be a not so terrible day.

Day 45, 560.1, 12.2 miles
I had a good time hiking today for the first time in a while. Its been so cold that the nice day made it glorious. We stopped short of our daily mileage to camp by a gorgeous stream, and I was glad to just enjoy for a day.

Day 46, Apr.5, 575.7, 15.6 today
Hiked a lot over a hellish ridgeline today and engaged in some trail drama and gossip about Warren Doyle, a man who really likes the AT. A lot.

Day 47, Apr 6, as u know, we went to a DQ in bland va and I did a quick update. We got to 592, 17 miles that day.

Day 48, Apr 7, 613.7, 21.7
Long day of hiking.

Day 49, today, Apr 8. Met a guy who played a judge in an upcoming blockbuster, illusions of red and white. We hiked 17 long miles to get in, and plan on hiking another one or 2 before we make camp outside of pearisburg va.  Gotta run!

Quick update from a dq in Bland, VA

I know I'm behind on updates, but cell service has been a nightmare thru Tennessee, and my birthday and some family stuff back home took up all my time at the last two town stops.

Day 35, march 25th: hiked 12 miles in heavily falling snow. By the time we got to the hostel, wet and frozen, 8 or 9 inches had fallen and there were drifts above our knees. We stayed at Kincora, a very famous hostel on the trail. Nice place, and we could dry our socks, but there was no heat so we froze until we crawled in our bags for the night.

Day 36, March 26-  24.3 miles, mile 441.3. That was rough. In snow. But we made it to a shelter and didn't have to tent. So we sort of dried out....kinda.

Now we're at mile 587, and I promise I'll fill in the back log, but gotta buy more food and hit the road. We've got another 6 or 8 miles to do after we hitch back to the trail.

Cheers!

Days 25-34, we're at Mile 405!

Today I'm writing from a hostel computer, the Vango Abby Memorial Hostel outside of Roan Mountain, TN. The computers we used in Erwin created some serious problems, so we apologize. Here's what we've been doing lately...

Day 25: Leaving Hot Springs. Mile 274.8, .9 miles today. We tried to leave, really we did. We bought a 6 pack in preparation for our visit to the actual hot springs in town before we hiked out 4-6 miles. They were booked. Until 10:15 p.m. So we took our beer by the river at the edge of town, where the trail leaves the area, and drank it. And then we realized the store was only a 5 minute walk away...so we got more beer and camped just a mile out of town.

Day 26: 288.7, 13.9 today. We woke to rain, but packed our tent and hit the very big ups leaving Hot Springs. We said goodbye to our favorite food, a home-made cheese stick with salami inside! Thanks, Tavern! We got about 10 miles in to the first shelter, where Jesse wanted to call it a day. It was cold, very windy, and we were frigid. But the shelter was facing directly into the cold wind and rain, so I urged him to keep hiking, at least until we got behind the mountain and out of the wind. We managed another 4 miles (we wanted to do more, but...). Jesse lost his favorite base layer. The brown one he's been wearing pretty much daily since he bought it. He changed shirts at the shelter when we decided to move on, and even though we felt like we had another 3 miles in us, we decided to set up camp and he'd run back a ways on the trail to see if he could find it. No dice, although we heard recently that a friend of ours on the trail, a kid named 'Doc' from PA, found it, picked it up, and is now wearing it happily. We're glad to have trail magic-ed it to him!

Day 27: 306.2, 17.5 today. We started St. Patty's Day in the rain, sad we weren't in a bar. Right next to where we camped at the road was a sketchy, rundown old garage with a sign "Mom's" on it. There was a sign on the trail about 1/2 mile back suggesting that we'd find it. We walked into it, met the owners, ate Jimmy Dean breakfast sandwiches, and were quite pleased with the place! It was very sketch, with ripped cardboard lists denoting what was to be found in the coolers. The inside was dark, smelled and looked like my grandfather's old shed - wood burner included - but it was GREAT! The owner told us the place used to belong to his mother, hence the name. They used to make moonshine in the 50's and 60's, and the place was also once a honky tonk with 2 jukeboxes going at once (and it was tiny). I was in love. No green beer for us, but we hiked a ton of miles and met some cool people.

Day 28: 321.1, 15.9 today. We are noticing that 15 miles is the new 12 for us. Our bodies ache at the end of the day, but its not insurmountable and we still have a little more in us most days. Today, around mile 13, we reached the top of our last up, which opened into a meadow. We haven't had a lot of luck with meadows on top of mountains, or balds, but it was sunny and beautiful. It was the first nice day of hiking in a while. The last nice day we had was during our non-hiking time in Hot Springs, hiking, its been chilly, wet, or windy (or all 3) for a while.

Day 29: 338.1, 17 miles! We pushed 2 miles past the shelter so that we could get into Erwin, TN in time to 1) get McD's breakfast, and 2) get all our chores done and leave Erwin the same day. If the shelter had had a privy, we would have been more keen to stay.

Day 30: 346.2, 8.1. You know the story of Erwin and the library. We hiked in, spent all day in Erwin, googled the location of the only bar in Erwin at the library - apparently the only effective thing the internet could do there - and found the AWESOMEST hole in the wall bar. We weren't sure it was open, or if it had been in 15 years, when we walked up. But there were cars in the driveway, so we gave it a shot. I've never been scared to open a bar door for fear of being unwelcome, but I was. And I was wrong. In it sat 2 older couples, another lady, the barmaid/owner, and a cute dog named Bailey. We sat there for an hour or so and drank and chatted. Everyone was extremely welcoming and one guy offered to give us a ride anywhere we needed to go in town. Since we were going to dinnner at the Corner Grill only a block away, we kindly refused, but we thought we might come back after dinner, buy a round, and hope the offer was still available. It wasn't necessary because we struck up a conversation with another great couple at dinner, the Byrds, and they gave us a ride back to our packs which were being babysat by Uncle Johnny's hostel. While the town was spread out and not very libation friendly, the people were amazing. And we hear that the ribs at Hawg and Dawg are not to be missed. Other NOBO thru hikers, if you're going thru on a Friday, call Hawg and Dawg on Thursday and have them put a rack on for you. Apparently that's what the locals do so they don't miss out. Thanks, Erwin!

Day 31: 361, 14.8. We hiked hot dogs out of Erwin and when we made camp on this day, we grilled each and every one of them and ate them. Yum. Ew. We accompanied that with some buttered elbow macaroni with garlic and pepper. A feast fit for the gods.

Day 32: 376, 15 miles. Against my better judgement knowing that a storm was coming, Jesse convinced me to stay in the Roan Mtn. shelter, the highest one on the AT. I'm glad he did. It was a freaking cottage! Four walls, a door, and even cedar shakes on the sides. And with us and our friends (who have been piggy backing us since before Hot Springs), it was a nice, warm bungalow. Our friends are the only people we've seen for more than a week on the trail. They are IronMan, Extra Mile, and 'the germans', a trio of german people, only one of whom I caught a name for - Pillow. We haven't seen our younger friends, Mountain Mime and Doc, in a while. We left them in Erwin, coming in as we were leaving. I know the trail is a social place, but these are the only people we've gotten to know more than 'hey, how are ya' or the like. At this writing, the group of 5 is ahead of us, pushing to a hostel a bit further ahead. Depending on the weather, we'll see them again soon. Hopefully M&M and Doc will catch up, too. They're much faster than we are, so I expect we'll see them soon.

Day 33: 391, 15 miles. We got remote trail magic - a term I've coined for the only trail magic I had originally expected to see starting as early as we have - where a box of food or cooler of drinks is left by a roadside for hikers to decimate. The can of pepsi was A.Mazing. Caffeine is miraculous. It was snowing when we woke up at the shelter, and that turned to drizzle as we walked north. But we hit a bald at about 2 p.m., and the wind was blowing us off the trail. I literally had to use my poles to keep me from moving off trail by a foot with every step. It was 10x worse than Max Patch. It was 50 minutes of hell. I had to lean into the knee and ankle that have been bothering me to stay straight, and they were really tired when we finished. But we were frozen, so we had to keep going. Half of Jesse's beard and all of my left side were covered in ice crystals. When we got below the blowing wind, the trail was so rocky that we still couldn't stop. And my body ached. When we finally got to our campsite, I was dog-tired. But Jesse insisted we hitch to the nearby town for food. A father/daughter picked us up and gave us a tour of Roan Mtn. before they left us at the Dairyland, and Angela and her daughter Carolina Rain (pretty name, right?) and Skylar gave us a ride back to the gap near our campsite. The kindness of people on the trail never ceases to amaze me. It was 10degrees that night, so the warmth - physical and emotional - was really appreciated.

Day 34: 405, 14 miles. This was about the prettiest stretch of trail yet. We hiked 14 nice miles into a hike in/hike out shelter, Vango Abby Memorial. We're staying in the room above the bunkhouse, with t.v., and we bought eggs for breakfast tomorrow. Scotty, the owner, is a wonderful guy. We had a great chat with him when we came in, and we look forward to sending him a postcard when we finish our hike thanking him for the hospitality. Highly recommend this place to any thru hikers! We know its going to be freezing tonight, with an early morning snowstorm. So with the heat and the eggs, we're sure to get a late start. But we want to be in Damascus by Friday a.m. so we can catch the MSU basketball game. Okay, I want to be there because it's a stepping stone to getting me to a town for my birthday, basketball/beer is just the carrot I'm using to get Jesse to play along. Wish us luck, cuz that's 60 miles away...in 4 days...!

 Me by Mountaineer Falls today, Day 34. Don't let the sunlight fool you, its not quite 40 degrees!

 Jesse and I dueling at the North Carolina/Tennessee border.

 Sunrise at the Fontana 'Hilton' shelter.

Jesse after the hell bald..

A nice vein in metamorphic rock

Still in Erwin...

So I'm bogarting 2 computers in the Erwin Public Library. One computer is (very, very slowly) uploading 4 or 5 pictures from my camera to the blog. After about 25 minutes of waiting, I thought I'd try to send a few emails and give my parents and my advisor some pictures. The browser system here is so old, I literally CANNOT compose an email. Sorry! I tried! Anyway, I'll try to highlight what we've been up to. Since Hot Springs, it was rainy and cold for a couple days. We hiked a well-known AT bald, Max Patch, and it was hell. There were 60 mph wind gusts trying to knock us off our feet as we hiked up and all around this ~5acre bald. The views would have been gorgeous had we time to look, but the wind was stinging our faces and I had tears flowing down my cheeks the whole time. The AT is a mean bedfellow. Also, and I don't remember if we've shared this, but Jesse's zipper has stopped working on his sleeping bag, so I've had to zip him up each night with his auxillary zipper (that sits at the bottom for ventilation). At the post office today here in Erwin we received a replacement part that should fix it. We went over Big Bald yesterday, and it was much nicer. It was sunny, in the mid-fifties or maybe even 60, and we loved walking around without trees encroaching upon us. We hit a meadow about 2 miles before we stopped the day before, and we knew it was coming. We had hiked 15 miles to get there, the last couple of them felt like they were straight up. When we hit the meadow, that scene from Bambi ran through my head about Bambi getting excited and rushing into the meadow. The I remembered the last 2 miles we had to hike and it was just like Bambi's mom stepping in front of me and curbing my excitement. I will say one thing about the AT in North Carolina. Most of the day you're not pleased at the trail and its creators because they've chosen to take you 7 miles south (yep, away from Maine) to avoid a few homes or an extra 6 miles to do a lap around the mid-section of a mountain. But at about 5:30 p.m. when you're feet are sore and you're tired as all get out, knowing you don't have to climb to the top of the mountain makes you praise the AT trail maintenance crew. We're not too far from the official end of our time in North Carolina. We've been skirting the boundary of TN for a while now, so its about time to enter the 3rd state officially. I realize this is quite disjointed, but we're still waiting for the 6th picture to upload. I hope the fans back home ;) appreciate it, because this is serious town time we could have been spending at the cinema or the one bar that Jesse had to google for us to find. I apologize, we could only get 3 pictures to load. But after 1.5 hours, we're headed to lunch and then going to hitch back to the hostel and hit the trail. I hope you enjoy the pictures, we tried really hard! Cheers!

From a Library in Erwin, TN

Hi all! I'm posting from a library in Erwin, TN in an attempt to get some of my pictures to upload. The web browser isn't well supported by my blogging platform, so I'll do my best here, but no guarantees. Still...probably better than anything I could do in a shelter! Its day 30. We're 341 miles into the trail. And in the last 3 days we went 50 miles. That's craz

y. But we're starting to figure out this whole hiking thing, and it is starting to go more smoothly for us. Whenever it is cold and rainy here, its pretty difficult. So if you see rain in Tennessee or North Carolina in the forecast, send us warm thoughts. Okay, here come the pics. If things go well, I'll add some text! Cheers!

Day 20 - 24

So, we have given the Appalachian trail a personality. Rather, I think we have discovered it. In Georgia, the trail takes you up and over every single mountain. Its like, "oh look, here's another mountain, the view is almost exactly the same as from the last mountain, but let's take you up there just to confirm." Then, north Carolina does its best to take you up near the top and then walk you ALL the way around it. It goes out of its way to make a mile as the crow flies more like a ten mile hike. The smoky mountains are their own beast. Apart from the shelters, which are equipped with their own fireplaces, the smoky mountains are way over-rated. The trail follows the ridgeline through a number of pointless ups and downs. And you can't tent, you must make it to an awkwardly spaced shelter location.
Anyway, we are in Hot Springs now. We had to do a 17 mile day and two 13 mile days to get here, probably our best stretch of mileage. I'm pretty proud of us. We spent the night at elmers, and I would recommend that place to everyone. What a cool guy, and what an amazing old Victorian house! It was an honor to stay there.

Day 21: mile 230.1, 12.9 miles
Day 22: mile 247.7, 17.6 miles
Day 23: mile 260.8, 13.1 miles
Day 24: mile 273.9, 13.1 miles

Days 13 - 19

We are in Gatlinburg today spending our first zero day. I would have liked to wait a bit longer, but the last few days have done a number on the tendons of our feet, and we pushed longer miles yesterday so we could spend a day in town. We got a maildrop from Tom and Brenda with our first resupply. It saves us some cash and time so ee can explore the town. So that's what we're doing today, day 19.

Day 13: 144.0 miles, 8.3 today. Today was a great and terrible day. We hiked an easy mile into the NOC, ate breakfast and ordered pizza to go there, and spent a few hours uploading thee last blog post your read. That was great. But hiking uphill for 7.5 miles in cold, while in a less than sober state was less good. And Jesse hates ups. Oh man, it was bad. Nite hiking into the shelter, cold...ugh.

Day 14: 155.2, 11.2 today. The cold clouds and wind formed gorgeous, what the Brits call whore ice, I think cuz it grows sideways on the branches. The ice grew like stalactite crystals on either side of the branch or leaf it grew on. I've got pics on my camera, sometimes using them makes posting these blog posts difficult, so well see if I can share them today. Anyway, we camped in a bunch of this ice, which fell through the course of the day.

Day 15: 165.8, 10.6 today
We hiked into Fontana today. You have to stay in a shelter once you enter the smoky mountains, so we had to do shorter than our preferred 12 to 13 mile days the last few days. The shelter at the entrance has showers, and they were amazing! Firts shower since day ten. We supplied in the one open store in Fontana, which had beer on tap and made to order personal pizzas and hot dogs. Yep, you guessed it, we ate lunch there and had a couple beers. We even bought Busch light for the shelter. We bought our permits for the national park and proceeded to the shelter.

Day 16: 179.6 miles,13.8 today. The shelters in the smoky mtns have fireplaces in them. We stayed with the British couple from timeoutadventures.co.UK, and a few others. It was fun to meet the brits since I'd read their blog before we left and they had been just ahead of us for days.

Day 17: I had bad dreams and so had trouble getting motivated the first few hours. It was downright yucky. But we stopped for lunch, the sun came out, and my full belly helped turn the day around. We hiked 1.7 miles short of our planned day, but it was because we knew the next shelter was full. As it ended up, we had a shelter, complete with jesse-made fire, all to ourselves (okay, and the mice).

Day 18: we hiked 12.5 miles, the last 7 or so with a German named Heiko. We got trail magic in the form of stickers from a couple doing a section hike, it was 65 degrees and sunny, and when we arrived at newfound gap, a couple - Godspeed and Mountain Mama- greeted us with sandwiches, fruit, pop, and a free ride into Gatlinburg!

That who knows what today will bring, but we are looking forward to a day without walking (too much).

Pics!

Days 6 thru 12, mile 136.3

I will apologize for the brevity of this post. I'd written a lovely one in Franklin, nc, on day 10, but my phone won't let me post it. Now I'm hurriedly typing at a restaurant near Byron Center, nc.

I'll ramble a bit about all of the days together at the end, but give a brief overview of each day first.

Day 6: we hiked 12.3 miles to end at deep gap shelter, just 3 miles from haiawassee, ga, our first town resupply. We met 2 guys there, animal planet from cincinnati, and city slicka from Boston. We had good chats and forgot the pains of Kelly knob, a bitch of a mountain.

Day 7: pulled 12.6 miles with a 2 hour in and out resupply in town. After 3 miles hiking to a road, we were picked up by the 2nd car that passed. We rode in the back of their pick up and they went slow so we wouldn't freeze. Boy did we move fast! They dropped us off about 5 ft from the front door of the grocery store. Then we got in line for coffee at the Starbucks and a gentleman asked if he could buy us coffee. We were so grateful. A deli sandwich and food later, we hitched back to the gap and hiked another 9 miles with full bellies and packs.

Day 8: pulled 12.1 miles.it was really really cold, like in the teens. We were nice and warm in our bags though.

Day 9:we hiked up Albert mountain!  It was a big fifteen hundred feet up in a third of a mile. It was cold in today too, but less so than the day before.

Day 10: hiked 7.2 miles before eleven am. Then we spent the day in Franklin, nc, showering, doing laundry, eating pizza, and drinking beer at the sapphire inn. Was great to feel clean.

Day11: watched 3 hours of dogs and cats 101. Left the hotel at eleven and hit the trail by noon. We hike another eleven miles and stayed at wayah bald shelter with red beard and Matt. Nice guys, I hope we run into them again. A nice family came upon me peeing in the woods, but were cool about it. They told us they left trail magic in the form of honey buns by a streAm at the top of the mountain, which motivated us. 

Day 12: spent the night after a huge 15.5 mile trail day with some people from Michigan out here for spring break. They had bourbon, and so became my absolute best friends.

Were in the NOC now, eating and supplying to head into Fontana. The smokeys are next! Were nervous, but if the weather is alright for us, we will do alright.

Breakfast is here! Cheers!

Days 1-5, Springer Mtn to rocky mtn

Wow! We've made it five whole days on the trail! Alive, but so tired each night, posting has been out of the question. I've been keeping a journal, too, so I won't forget to share any big details.

Day 1: we spent the night at hiker hostel before we left. Kind of pricy, but they shuttled us from north of the airport to the hostel, let us shop for stuff we needed, gave us a bunk, and fed us breakfast. Then they dropped us off at the point just north of Springer mountain. That's the start of the at. We hiked up the mountain, took obligatory pics, and started our for real journey! I was practically hyperventilating up the mountain. So scared/nervous. At about mile 4 it started to feel real.  We ran into a guy who was hiking to Springer to start, but he started in ft Lauderdale, so he'd been hiking for sixty some days already. We ran into him again on day 4. We stayed at a campsite about 9 miles in, putting our mileage for the day at about 10, nine of them official trail miles.

Day 2: while hiking we met a mom and her son, Corben, who're attempting to hike the trail, too. Jesse thinks his middle name is Dallas (5th element reference, yall). The hiking was fun, but uneventful. We hiked a mountain called sassafrass, which took 2246 steps to summit. It was really foggy the first two days. We were hiking right thru the clouds. The top of that mountain could have been a movie set for a horror film. We set up camp after about ten miles, so we'd officially hiked to mile marker 20 on the at. Then, it rained. Big thunderstorm. Started at about three am. Went to about 6. We'll write more about living thru storms later. Suffice it to say, the tent I sewed held but we had a river between our inflatable pads. The only things that got wet (thanks to drags and planning) were parts of our sleeping bags, which we hung to dry outside our packs on day 3. All in all, it worked out well. (Truth be told, were still hoping to dry a headlamp that was incidentally flooded during said storm...)

Day 3: after the storm and a poor night's sleep, I had little hope for the day. We pushed beyond my dreams of blood mountain shelter, the oldest standing shelter on the trail, down into mountain crossing outfitters. We supplied and decided to pay for a hostel stay since the hike down blood mountain was torture on our bodies. After a day that started at 3am and included over 11 miles, we didn't have the last mile or more to the next campsite in US. The hostel was not the best, but the people at mountain crossing were stellar. So was the fanta grape pop! We also ran into Corbin and his mom again there. They were also wet from the storm.

Day 4: (my fingers are cold and battery is running lower so this will be short). Left neels gap with one of the shelter kitties in tow. He hiked about .25miles up a hill with us and we had a trail kitty for a short time. Oh God he was cute. The rest of the day was hard but uneventful, and we pulled into our first shelter at low gap. We finally met other hikers, in sum there were 10 people and a dog! And the two weekend campers made a fire for us with their saw. We had fun chatting.

Day 5: we hiked about 11 miles, ending on top of rocky mountain here where I tell the tale. More when I can find a computer.

Also, please text if u want to get in touch with us. We've had much better luck with that than phone signal.

White, sandy beaches

As Jesse puts the final touches on his thesis, I'm in sunny Anna Maria Island, Fl being kissed by the sun.

Truth be told, its actually been 60 or less most mornings during my walks, and crazy windy all day. I've decked myself out in my hiking smartwool most days to stay warm.

But I've been taking pictures of cool coastal processes for teaching back in the real world, done some reading for my dissertation, and, yeah, had a bit of fun.

We've seen dolphins flipping, wind surfers dancing on the waves, and we went to Harry potter land (aka universal).

I try to dedicate the mornings to work and the evenings to play, and get out on the beach to see geology in action all morning. I refuse to pack shells, though I will regret it when I enter the teaching world.

Also, we got to see a ton of talking parrots and macaws, and my dad joined the Moose Club.

That's it for now, soon well be on the trail and the cushy vacation life will be a distant memory. For now, hiking seems like sweet repose from the 'get up and go' vacation lifestyle we adopt here. (Seriously, 5 hours of sleep is asking a lot from this vacation....I know, poor poor me).

All Dressed Up and No Where to Go

Because I am leaving before Jesse and spending time on the beach with family, we had to get ready for the trip a bit early. It must have taken us a day and a half to run around, pick up small things not already in our pack essentials (needle, floss, safety pins, etc.). But we did it!

Biggest surprise? How LIGHT they are! With food (but not water) Jesse's pack is about 22 pounds. Mine is about the same. This is, of course, without mittens, hats, balaclavas, and other things which we'll be wearing or carrying the first month or so. 

Now is a great time, again, to mention the people who helped us get to this point. We turned Jesse's parents' basement into a small outfitter. His brothers helped me move (carload by carload), and everyone up in Snyderville has given us tons of support as we've tied up loose ends with our real lives. 

I'm a little worried about getting on a plane with my gear, but that worry means this trip is so close I can taste it!

In the words of my yooper sister...

Holy wah, its so short!

If you don't recognize the exclamation, watch Escanaba in da Moonlight on Netflix. Holy wah, indeed.

That's me. I don't yet recognize it as me. I think I've scared myself in the mirror a dozen times already, thinking there's a stranger behind me. The nice lady next to me is Tracy, the stylist at Salon Nuveau who did my hair.

I thought this would be a traumatic experience, and in some ways it really was. I had a few nervous energy/emotional tears. That hair has been with me for a long time, and I was an infant the last time my hair was this short. But I was ready for this, and even though the sound of scissors right next to my head was THE scariest thing I've ever heard, I'm glad I did it. Just one more experience, one more way to push beyond my comfort zone.

Thankfully, my mom was there to play the role of photographer and moral support. She forgot the booze, though. Luckily, the lovely ladies at the salon were also able to provide liquid courage! Here's a highlight reel, of sorts:

Oh shit...what am I getting into...

Rocking' the 'gonna sell my hair' ponytails.

*singing* the first cut is the deepest...note my mother, photographer extraordinaire, in the mirror. Hi, Mom!

Looking' good, mullet girl!

Liquid courage, courtesy of Salon Nuveau.

Goodbye, hair! I'll miss you!

A Request

HI!

I say hi, but I have no idea who's reading my blog. Thank you, though! Writing this is helping me chronicle the journey I've already taken in preparation for the AT, and will document my future. And I hope it will keep me connected to my family, friends, and other people who want to travel (or are traveling) the AT.

That said, I've got a request. If you'd like me to send you a post card, email me (trish.smrecak at gmail dot com) your address! I look forward to sending notes to people, and who doesn't like getting real mail??

I'd love to hear from you, too! I won't be checking facebook much, nor will I likely find your email in a crazy full inbox. So please, leave me and Jesse a comment on the blog, let us know what you've got going on!

Finally, if you'd like to send a care package, here are a few helpful tips on what to pack from a blogger hiking another trail. If you want to send a package, let us know via the comments section of the blog about when you'd like to send it, and we'll give you a post office or hostel/business you can send it to. Care packages should be labeled with our names, a note that says "hold for AT thru-hiker" and can have your phone number in the return address (in case they have any questions).

I will also mention that I LOVE LOVE LOVE Wasabi peas! And couscous. And veggies! And Wasabi Peas! Did I say wasabi peas?

Okay, so, leave me your addresses if you want postcards!!!

Here are some pics of friends and I snowshoeing in the Adirondacks to get me in the spirit!
Also, 16 days. Ho.Ly.Shit.

:) Cheers!

Motivation

Jesse and I are both scientists. Sometimes scientific articles have a section entitled "Motivation." This section is supposed to explain the motivation behind your hypothesis, or 'why the hell do this research anyway?'

Along with many other aspiring thru-hikers, I read Appalachian Trials by Zach Davis (the Good Badger). He keeps a great website for thru- and section- hikers at http://www.appalachiantrials.com/appalachian-trail-thru-hiker-resources/appalachian-trail-2014/.

His book stands out from the many other good books out there in that it deals with the mental preparation needed and the mental trials people go through on their AT thru hiking journey. Its great, read it.

In it, he asks would-be thru hikers to write down their list of reasons they are hiking the Appalachian Trail.

I'd like to share mine. Its not the whole list, but it is my primary motivator:

This blog is entitled "Just a Bummin' Around." Keen readers will note that these are lyrics to a song with the same name. The song exemplifies what I'd like my trail experience to be, but it also reminds me of something more. My grandpa used to have a classical country band, and I learned a lot of old country songs from him strumming his guitar and singing with us. I don't remember him singing this song when he used to play guitar, but for a couple years before he died, we'd go out to a local bar and listen to another group of guys sing old country songs. They'd sing this one, and grandpa would join in every time. Even before I met Jesse, before we decided to hike the trail, this song spoke to me.

My grandpa was in and out of nursing homes for the last few years of his life (and years before....he seemed to love rickety ladders....). He was a tough ol' bird. We shared a birthday, and I would always come home, no matter where I was living, and spend it with him. One birthday, 5 or 6 years ago, he was in the nursing home, so we had cake and ice cream up there. I remember him doing laps around the nursing home, pushing himself to build his strength back up so he could come home. His perseverance, internal strength, and mindful living represent everything I value. Long before this, after he retired and for the most of the rest of his life, he walked two miles each day to stay healthy and active.

My motivation on the Appalachian Trail is more than wanting to accomplish an amazing, grandiose journey. More than wanting to see states I've yet to travel to in a way that allows me to connect with them, outside and in small towns that make me feel at home. And more than challenging myself to do something bigger than anything I've ever done. Its doing all of that with my grandpa in my heart, pushing me on. Taking one step toward being the larger than life, amazing person he's always been to me, the person I'd like to become.


That's my motivation for hiking the Appalachian Trail.


Bummin' Around
I got an ol' slouch hat,
got my roll on my shoulder
I'm as free as a breeze
an' do as I please,
just a bummin' around . . .

Gotta million friends,
I don't feel any older
I've got nothin' to lose
not even the blues,
just a bummin' around . . .

Whenever worries start
to botherin' me ( start botherin' me! )
I grab my coat, my ol' slouch hat,
hit the trail again,
you see . . .

I ain't got a dime,
don't care where I'm goin'
I'm as free as a breeze
an' do as I please,
just a bummin' around!