1000 miles!

We have walked a thousand miles.  My shoes were wrecked.  I picked up a new pair today in Frederick, Maryland.  We took a zero day here today having hiked 12 miles yesterday into Harper's Ferry, WV where we were picked up by my Mom's cousin Nancy and her husband Happy.  They have been more than hospitable.  We took showers, did laundry, ate home-cooked food, they took us to see the fireworks on the inner harbor in Baltimore and then we ate ice cream. A lot of ice cream.  Today we reminisced with more of the family around another great meal and then they showed us around historic Frederick and shared some local history which Happy knows quite a bit about.  The Civil War had some major battles fought nearby. Walking the trail, we will be passing by some hills that if they could speak, would have some stories to tell.

So in the past hundred or so miles, we walked the length of Shenandoah Nat'l Park.  It wasn't very challenging hiking, but it was hot. And there was little water to cool off in.  The trail parallels Skyline Drive through the park.  This would be a fun road to drive, or cycle.  It isn't all that fun to walk on in the hot sun when, say, a 7 mile section of the trail is closed due to an active forest fire and no one will stop to offer you a ride because they are all tourists and the only satisfaction you can derive from the detour is walking on top of short, rock walls built by the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps) camps during the Great Depression.  I love rock walls.  The CCC camp workers did an excellent job and 80 years later the walls still look great.  We have seen other rock walls in the woods and I expect we will see more on up through New England.  These were most likely property dividing walls.  Some are just long piles of stones.  Other walls are lovely examples of stacked rock, with no mortar, yet they stand firm for hundreds of years.  ...back to Shenandoah.  The forest isn't all that impressive there, indeed they have information boards telling of how Shenandoah is a "recycled" forest having been farmland or logged just prior to it becoming a Nat'l Park.  As soon as we left the park we noticed that the trees became taller again. That being said, there are animals in the park, mostly bears.  We saw 8 bears in the park. All were close.  None were afraid of us.  This is quite different from the bears we have encountered outside the park.  All bears outside park boundaries must know that there is a chance you could be a licensed hunter.  Knowing this they figure that it is harder to hit a moving target and they run away.  Bears in the park seem to be aware of the stiff penalty any human would face for harassing the wildlife.  They act as though our presence were simply an annoyance, especially because we weren't tossing them any food (which I'm sure more than a few tourists do).  One bear simply wouldn't get out of our way on the trail.  We yelled and clapped and banged our trekking poles together.  We took pictures and then made a short video of us walking behind him to encourage him to get going.  Check it out here....   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0AyhDtjHF4M
Oh, and Butch saw a Bobcat.  I didn't see it because I was hiking a ways behind her.  I have never seen a Bobcat in the wild.  She made eye contact with it, and evidently for some time, as she tells it. She didn't take out the camera because she knew that if she had, it would have run off.  So they just looked into each others eyes until the cat got bored and trotted off.  I'm wicked jealous. 

We experienced some weather in addition to the fires and bears and lack of water.  This weather knocked down lots of trees and some folks in this part of the country are still without power.  Many trees fell across the trail.  Lots of little branches littered the trail and so we made a game of trying to clear them using only our trekking poles.  This takes some understanding of physics to do in a way that doesn't look to awkward, doesn't use too much effort, actually removes the branch from the trail and does so without slowing your forward progress.  We prided ourselves on our 'trail maintenance'.  Thankfully no trees or large branches fell on our tent.  This is a risk taken by anyone who sleeps in the woods with a thin sheet of nylon separating your face from everything above. As we heard the storm coming and were grabbing our stuff and diving into the tent, I looked up and was reassured to see in the flashing strobe of lightning that the trees overhead were alive and looked like they could withstand a good breeze. 

I promised to post some pictures of people.  Here are some...

Ole Virginny

We are 856 miles in.            Stopping here in Waynesboro, VA to eat some mega Chinese Buffet, grab a few supplies and hang out with the trail crew in the park down by the river.  Waynesboro is a hiker-friendly town.  By that I mean that the YMCA offers free showers and tenting, there is an outhouse by the picnic area, there are no signs saying that we can't consume beer in the park, the Chinese Buffet is under $10 and off the chains, and there is a list of phone numbers of local people (trail angels) that are willing to pick up hikers from the trailhead and help you around town.  A gentleman named Walter, who has hiked a fair bit of the AT, sections of the Continental Divide Trail, and thru-hiked the Pacific Crest Trail, was having lunch at the same cafe as us today and offered to drive Butch and I to Wal-mart to pick up a few things.  He brought us back and dropped us at a Barber shop where Butch continues to live up to her name. 

 It has been warm lately and her hair was starting to 'fro' out a bit, so she trimmed it back, # 2 guard on the clipper, to keep cool.  We have been taking advantage of every stream and river crossing.  A quick dip in some cool mountain water and the trail seems less tiresome.  We had been hearing down south that Virginia was easy.  Flat. Boring at times. Lies.  It has continued to be up and down.  Big ups and big downs.  They call the feelings hikers get here the "Virginia Blues", and it knocks lots of people off the trail.  It is just that we go diagonally through the entire state for more than 500 miles that makes it seem never-ending.  The shoes wear out, wallet wears thin and yet the trail goes on.  A number of trail friends have run out of money or energy and reluctantly headed home.  Some have banded together and with the use of cars, have taken turns shuttling each other up the trail so that they can hike sections without carrying a pack.  This is called Slack-packing.   

It is sort of a way of cheating, but truly you are still hiking the trail. It does allow for more miles in a day and so some do it.  We haven't.  We are sort of  'purists' in that we are hiking it all and carrying all of our stuff. The next semi-cheating way up the trail is called Aqua-blazing.  We follow white blazes on the trees all the way up the trail. Side trails are marked with blue blazes, other trails are yellow blazes, guys following girls up the trail are said to be pink blazing, and when you and a bunch of friends load up a canoe with beer and meat and float past a hundred or so miles of trail you are then Aqua-blazing.  As fun as it sounds, we are gonna walk.

A river trip is a whole other trip for another time and we are looking forward to Shenandoah! The other morning we came down from a nice shelter on a mountain called The Priest. It was about 3000 ft down to a river in about 3 miles. Not a bad way to start your day. The trail then goes back up at about the same angle. It just so happened that there was a sign at the foot bridge that stated in sharpie on cardboard that there was a hiker feed to the right. A guy named Milo and a girl named Yinz had thru-hiked last year and were down by the river with a grill and a cooler. They were frying up eggs and handing out pulled pork sandwiches with coleslaw, cucumber-tomato salad, cookies and locally brewed pale-ale in cans! We partook of their generosity and then took a dip in the river. Milo said that since he finished the trail all he has wanted to do is provide "trail magic". It magically made our morning better and sent us up the hill with our bellies full and our heads buzzing. Again, the fun is the people you meet out here that make the trip worthwhile. No doubt there will be a sense of accomplishment when we reach Mt. Katahdin. We will have challenged our bodies and tested our determination, but the things we will remember most fondly are the folks we meet out here. We have been trying to take more photos of people. So many panoramas fill the camera and don't show the humor or characters we come across. I was blogging at the library today when the internet there went totally down. Next time i'll put up some pics of our crazy trail crew! Keep watching. Happy trails

722 miles

We haven't been near any computers lately and haven't turned on the phone much either. We have been taking lots of good photos but they are all currently stored on the camera and this blog is coming atcha via the phone. Next time we get access to a computer I promise to throw up some pics.
We passed through the Grayson Highlands State Park back a ways. It is a lovely zone where dwarf trees both deciduous and needle-bearing give way to open space with grassy meadows surrounding gray rock outcroppings. It is a quite surreal landscape that goes on like this, up, over and along ridges interspersed with small herds of wild ponies!  The horses were introduced in the sixties to help keep the bald meadow areas along the ridge open.  Elk used to roam in great herds through the Appalachians having this effect.  In some areas Elk are being reintroduced.  The ponies are small. They vary in color and are some of the most beautiful horses I've seen; brown with blond mane and tail, splotchy, spotted and splattered looking.  They are fairly used to people and know that hikers mean sweaty arms and legs to lick, and though you aren't supposed to feed them, perhaps an oatmeal or granola treat.  We hiked only a short distance on the day we passed through Grayson Highlands, petting the ponies, eating snacks on boulders with sweeping views.
The time is flying. We have met lots of people now and continue to meet new ones and run into others we met previously. It really is all about the people. The views aren't all that different.  The solitude of being in the woods is nice yet sharing stories around a campfire with folks who are out here for the same reasons you are is a real treasure.  Just last night a friend of ours said as it was getting late around the fire, "Ya'll need to go to bed. I need to get some sleep and I have a serious case of FOMO".  We all kind of looked at him questioningly. He smiled and said Fear Of Missing Out.
It is easy to get caught up in the social scene, to wait for friends to catch up or find an excuse to rest your feet for a day.  We stayed the night at a shelter that was near a Forest Service Ranger Station. This place had it all!  There was a shower, a sink out back for washing clothes and a clothes-line, a real 'standard government issue' type outhouse, a pond for swimming, and the place was two stories and all log.  A short walk across the parking lot meant you could use a phone on the outside of the Ranger Station to make local calls, more specifically to order pizza and have it delivered!  There was one kid who it was rumored had been at the shelter for almost a week!
Another neat place we camped was called The Captain's. The Captain was gone for the weekend while we were there, but he has set up a zip-line with a seat so you can sail over the creek from the AT to his backyard. He has a big fire pit, tables, clothes line and lots of flat space to pitch a tent. He is another "trail angel" who enjoys people and helping hikers on their journey.
There are some restaurants just off the trail that cater to hikers. In Atkins we each ate a 16oz. "Hiker burger" with Bacon and cheese. Butch ate all her fries too, and then we had dessert! So much for her vegetarianism.  At the Home Place Restaurant in Catawba you can choose to have 2 or 3 meats. Everything else is included and comes family style to your table. It is all-you-can-eat and felt like thanksgiving.  Made it a bit uncomfortable to put the pack back on.
Butch has finally had enough "barefoot" hiking in her Five-finger shoes. She just bought a pair of nice, normal shoes. I think this will help us move a little faster and her feet won't be as sore when we stop at night. So now we need to keep moving. We'll see y'all up the trail!

Damascus, VA. State #4

We are in Damascus, VA...again. We left the trail Friday before last at hwy 19E and hitched north to Damascus to attend Trail Days, the biggest hiker festival of the summer. The AT runs right through Damascus, a very small town. It is one of only a handful of towns that the trail runs directly through. It is very "hiker friendly", and Trail Days is their big event. There are vendors, music, industry reps, affiliated organizations and loads of hikers. They have a parade where the entire town arms themselves to the teeth with squirt guns and water balloons and lets loose on the marchers. "Miss Trail Days" was a young girl in a nice dress, riding on the back of a brand new covertible down Main St. She was trying to wave, but was busy ducking balloons and dodging streams of water, her makeup running down her face. The picture I posted of the beginning of the parade shows nothing of the chaos that ensued. And speaking of chaos, "Tent City" after dark is a party in the woods (just out of town behind the baseball fields) like I've not seen. People come from up and down the east coast. Some are people who have thru-hiked in the past, others are section hikers who enjoy getting out, some come for the party and talk about hiking, and then there is the minority "us", the people spending this whole season walking together on this path. Needless to say, we had a blast! We found a ride back to where we left the trail, and after a night in a lovely hostel with the most amazing breakfast ever, we got back on. It has been a lovely section of trail, with not as much steep up and down. The forecast is for more ridge-top cruising! It feels like summer now, the bugs are out and biting. We saw a bear last night just before dark and two (well, I saw two) the day before! They all ran. We like that. We came past a shelter the other day where the ground was littered with flakes of flint, not like the other rock around; evidence of stone tool making. On the path down to a spring from the shelter I found an arrowhead in the middle of the trail! No doubt this particular level spot along a ridge, with water nearby, has made an excellent campsite for eons. It was the heart of the Cherokee nation not long ago. We have been meeting lots of cool folks too! We stayed a night at Kincora, a hostel run for 16 years by a guy named Bob Peoples. He charges a suggested donation of $5 per person. He reluctantly upped it to that this year from $4, due to rising gas prices. Bob is a "trail angel" and his reputation precedes him. He organizes volunteers and oversees the largest trail building projects on the AT. Word is that he and Chuck Norris are friends, but Chuck doesn't like to spar with him. In March he hosted the 19,000th hiker to stay at his place. We will walk today, some more. Don't know just where we will be or what we will see. That is what it's all about!

Wildlife!

Hey ya'll! It has officially been a month on the trail.  We are starting to feel like woodland creatures.  We smell like them, we drink from the same water sources and we all poop in the woods. On several occasions when we have stopped in towns, we have filled our water bottles with what tasted like good water from a municipal source.  Pack that water about a mile up the trail and it tastes more like a municipal swimming pool.  It is promptly replaced with filtered spring water!
It is the simple things that we appreciate out here; a hot meal, the next shelter with a privy, junk food.  Included in a recent maildrop from Butch's folks were some Dum-dums lollipops her Dad thought we would enjoy. Sometimes when we are pounding out some miles, it is the thought that soon we can have another Dum-dum...and what if it's Mystery Flavor!!  ...that keeps us going. The idea of Mexican food fueled our foot steps to Erwin, TN.   ...that and the fact that we had walked 16.5 miles in the rain to earn it.  I feel insatiable. We cannot eat too much. When in town, we try.  As we are blogging here in the lobby of the Super8, the talk amongst our fellow "storm-dodgers" is of all-you-can-eat pizza buffets and which one is closer walking distance.  Thank goodness that folks down south truly appreciate a good AYCE restaurant!
We haven't seen a bear yet, though they are around.  The ass-end of a wild hog disappeared into the brush before the camera came out.  Here are some photos of the other creatures we have run into (without stepping on) on the trail.

Small world, long trail!

We rolled into the town of Hot Springs, NC, intent on soaking our bones in some hot water. We headed straight to the springs. It wasn't what we expected. Turns out you rent a hot tub at an hourly rate. Prices vary according to how many people per tub. When we asked about showering we were told that there are no showers. The thought of getting into a tub of mineral water without rinsing off a weeks worth of wandering in the woods simply wasn't appealing. We went and got a coffee and picked up a couple packages that Butch's Mom had sent to the local outfitter to hold for us. One package was full of food, some stuff we had pre-packaged, and lots of other stuff her Mom figured we would like such as Snicker's, chocolate-fudge things and Oatmeal Cream Pies! The other package contained some new Vibram Five-fingers shoes for Butch! She has been toughening up her feet, strengthening her ankles, hiking practically barefoot! Her feet have swelled and grown and the old pair needed to be cut open to let the toes out. The new ones are a size bigger! We were debating whether or not to stay in town for the night when we got a phone call from Butch's good friend Misty Dawn, who happened to be visiting her hometown in Tennessee. She had driven about 4 hours to come hang out with us, and was ten minutes away! That settled it, we were staying. Another trail friend of ours named "2/3" was up for sharing a room so the four of us rented out a nice place above the Spring Creek Tavern. Misty took us for a drive, because cruising in a car is a luxury we no longer take for granted. We drove way up in the hills and walked up to Max Patch, which is probably the coolest place the Appalachian Trail has taken us thus far. It is a stunning 'bald', meaning no trees to block the view. Historically these balds had been favorite spots of the Native Americans, and later those with grazing animals. We had enjoyed lunch up there the day before, lounging on the green grass, and now we were soaking up a surreal sunset with 360 degree views of hills, with hills in the back, and the hills behind those. We made it back to town, but too late to purchase dinner, anywhere nearby. The bartender downstairs persuaded us to have some beers or she was going to close down for the night. She offered us some guacamole and chips and salsa which we promptly demolished. The bartender was really friendly and talkative and I got the feeling I had met her before. Butch and I had been in Asheville, NC (32 miles away) about a year and a half ago, for one night. We had gone into a bar downtown for one beer. It was crowded and we were seated on the corner of the bar in the back of the place. Butch struck up a conversation with an older couple next to her, and I got to talking with this local girl who had just gotten off work and came in for a beer. She told me about how her family had been here for many generations, even her last name was that of a nearby town. She was really friendly and talkative and when Butch and I left we bid farewell to her and the older couple, glad we had all met. I thought that our bartender now was this girl and I told Butch and Misty. They thought I was nuts. So casually I asked the bartender if she was from around here, and if her family was from here. Indeed she said she was 8th generation. I then told her the story of having talked to a girl at a bar in Asheville with the last name of a nearby town...  It was her! Tiny, tiny, totally small world, and the more places you go, the smaller it gets. Gives me the feeling we're in the right spot!

Lil' Smokies

We made it over Clingman's Dome yesterday, in the heart of Great Smoky Mountains Nat'l Park.  It is the highest point on the Appalachian Trail, just a little taller than Mt. Washington up in New Hampshire. I guess that means it's all downhill from here!  The view from the top of the spiral, concrete viewing platform was impressive.  We were able to see peaks in the distance that we had traversed a week ago!  The forest changed as we climbed from fully leafed out deciduous forest of tall trees to a more stunted growth, just budding out, to a totally coniferous forest, lush with moss.  We made it to Newfound Gap, where the only road cuts through the smokies, and were almost immediately offered a ride down to Gatlinburg.  We needed to come into town to resupply our food and we wanted to experience the true American feel of this good ole southern tourist trap. We took advantage of the free samples at the Ole Smoky Moonshine Distillery.  We tried every flavor and can highly recommend the blackberry and apple pie!  We hadn't eaten much on the trail yesterday in anticipation of a big meal in town.  The moonshine on an empty stomach really hit the spot, but thankfully was followed up with a big Mexican meal and then ice cream.  We have both lost weight. I feel like I could just eat without stopping, but carrying lots of food isn't fun, so we take advantage of the gluttonous possibilities in town.  As I write this I am staring at an empty plate where previously stood a triple stack of pancakes, a clean skillet that had held a real pile, and Butch is putting the finishing moves on a side order of grits.

We are going to take the trolley down the road and check out the ceramics facilities at the Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, buy some trail food at the Whole Earth Grocery, and head back to the woods.  Next stop is Hot Springs, NC, where we will be looking to soak!

The rest of this post was written a couple days ago up in the hills, but the battery on the phone died before it got published...

We had long day of hiking to get deep into Great Smoky Nat'l Park, but are ahead of the crowd and sprawled out nicely with the top bunk area of a solid stone shelter all to ourselves!  We left this morning from Fontana Dam, the tallest slab of concrete this side of the Rockies designed to retain that most precious resource - fresh water.  It felt darn good on the old feet when we got down to Fontana Reservoir.  Butch and I both had sore feet coming down to it and decided to take our time and go barefoot the last two miles down to the water.  There happened to be a marina right there and we each got a can of Dr. Pepper and sat on the dock, soaking our feet in the amazingly clear, cold water.

We stayed at the "Fontana Hilton" last night! That is the name given to the shelter near the dam as it has bathrooms with running water and even free showers!!  Pretty nice digs as far as trail standards go. Though shelters can be nice to stay in when they aren't too crowded, and you have to stay at the shelters in the Nat'l Park, I more prefer sleeping in a setting like we had the night before last.  Just down a side trail to water from Cody Gap was the perfect little tent spot, a level pad of pine needles positioned inside a ring of pine trees in an otherwise mostly deciduous forest.  Two small streams trickled by not fifteen feet from each side of the tent before meeting up just below.  The sky was clear, rainfly off, a waxing moon shining brightly through the mesh ceiling of the tent.  The stillness of the night gave a feeling of depth as we lay 80 feet below the canopy, submerged in the forest.