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Friday, April 29, 2011
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Sorry!
So we have been out of internet service for awhile. So the last two posts are ones that I wrote but have been saving till I got service. Hope you enjoy!
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Sobo for a day!
(Title explanation: sobo means south bound hiker, nobo means north bound hiker)
So we went to the Standing bear hostel and planned on stopping for a quick snack, maybe lunch, and then keep moving. But it was so wonderful there we all fell in love. The other girl we are hiking with already decided she was gonna stay the night there but the rest of us were just gonna pass through. After hanging round for a little bit we found out that the next night they were throwing a huge party. They had 50 pounds of pork they were smoking for over 24 hours, along with tons of other food. That convinced two more in our group to stay. They were just going to take a zero and meet up with us at the next town. Most of us were dragging our feet when it came time to leave (all but austin) and no one really wanted to leave. But then I came up with the worlds best idea :)
I came up with the plan to have the hostel slack-pack us up the trail and make it back in time for dinner. So what I mean by slack-packing is we stayed the night at the hostel that night and in the morning we toke enough food and water to get us through the day but left all our other gear. Then we had them drive us 20 miles up the trail and we hiked south the rest of the day until we made it back to the hostel for the party. Then the next day they took us back to where we started the day before and went north. One of our friends however pulled a muscle in his leg so he skipped that day and took our pack into hot spring so we were able to slack-pack the next day too.
The top of Austin's pack detaches and so does his wasteband and it turns into a nice small day-pack. Everyone else just wore their empty packs but we were able to fit all our stuff in a tiny little waste pack that austin wore. Lucky me, I didn't have to carry anything :) we tried to switch off during the day but even the little pack made me hike slower so I lost pack privileges. Hiking without our packs was a blast tho! We were practically frolicking through the woods, it felt so good. We were able to hike the 20 miles soo much faster then our normal hiking speed, it didn't hurt that we were actually running down the hills. Everyone at the hostel was so impressed to see us so soon. They figured we be back around 6 or 7, we showed up at 3.
The party that night was amazing. Wonderful food! They even had a bluegrass band come and play. The next morning they dropped us off at the gap. Two of our friends asked them to take them straight to hot springs because they got hurt and weren't feeling up to the 14 mile hike that day. But the great thing was they took our packs into hot springs so we got to slack pack again!
In town we stayed at the oldest running hostel on the trial run by the original owner. The house was built in 1875 and was soo amazing. The man that run it was named elmer and he had two guys working for him. Every night and morning they cooked a huge gourmet vegetarian meal for everyone (for an extra charge) we only ate there for breakfast because the two nights we stayed there we had other plans for dinner. A friend we have made on the trail named, Chuck-town, had a bunch of his friends meet him in town. They got a cabin and invited all of us to come hang out or stay if we wanted. They made us a huge spaghetti dinner one night but we stayed the night in the hostel. The next day we were planning on leaving but most of us didn't feel well so we decided to stay an extra day and make it two zero days instead of one. We hung out at the outfitters cause austin was interested in getting a new pack. I wanted to ask the guy helping ask a question about my pack so I brought it in to show him. After looking at both of us with our packs he said in his opinion im the one that was in need for a new pack. So he fitted me for a new one and it was amazing how much better it felt! I didn't want to spend the money but my friend phlegm said is its going to make ever step for the next 1800 miles that much better then it was well worth it. And he was right. Later that afternoon Chuck-town picked us up and took us back to the cabin and they had a huge cook out with burgers, hotdogs, corn-on-the-cob and much more. We had a great time and hit the trail the next morning.
So we went to the Standing bear hostel and planned on stopping for a quick snack, maybe lunch, and then keep moving. But it was so wonderful there we all fell in love. The other girl we are hiking with already decided she was gonna stay the night there but the rest of us were just gonna pass through. After hanging round for a little bit we found out that the next night they were throwing a huge party. They had 50 pounds of pork they were smoking for over 24 hours, along with tons of other food. That convinced two more in our group to stay. They were just going to take a zero and meet up with us at the next town. Most of us were dragging our feet when it came time to leave (all but austin) and no one really wanted to leave. But then I came up with the worlds best idea :)
I came up with the plan to have the hostel slack-pack us up the trail and make it back in time for dinner. So what I mean by slack-packing is we stayed the night at the hostel that night and in the morning we toke enough food and water to get us through the day but left all our other gear. Then we had them drive us 20 miles up the trail and we hiked south the rest of the day until we made it back to the hostel for the party. Then the next day they took us back to where we started the day before and went north. One of our friends however pulled a muscle in his leg so he skipped that day and took our pack into hot spring so we were able to slack-pack the next day too.
The top of Austin's pack detaches and so does his wasteband and it turns into a nice small day-pack. Everyone else just wore their empty packs but we were able to fit all our stuff in a tiny little waste pack that austin wore. Lucky me, I didn't have to carry anything :) we tried to switch off during the day but even the little pack made me hike slower so I lost pack privileges. Hiking without our packs was a blast tho! We were practically frolicking through the woods, it felt so good. We were able to hike the 20 miles soo much faster then our normal hiking speed, it didn't hurt that we were actually running down the hills. Everyone at the hostel was so impressed to see us so soon. They figured we be back around 6 or 7, we showed up at 3.
The party that night was amazing. Wonderful food! They even had a bluegrass band come and play. The next morning they dropped us off at the gap. Two of our friends asked them to take them straight to hot springs because they got hurt and weren't feeling up to the 14 mile hike that day. But the great thing was they took our packs into hot springs so we got to slack pack again!
In town we stayed at the oldest running hostel on the trial run by the original owner. The house was built in 1875 and was soo amazing. The man that run it was named elmer and he had two guys working for him. Every night and morning they cooked a huge gourmet vegetarian meal for everyone (for an extra charge) we only ate there for breakfast because the two nights we stayed there we had other plans for dinner. A friend we have made on the trail named, Chuck-town, had a bunch of his friends meet him in town. They got a cabin and invited all of us to come hang out or stay if we wanted. They made us a huge spaghetti dinner one night but we stayed the night in the hostel. The next day we were planning on leaving but most of us didn't feel well so we decided to stay an extra day and make it two zero days instead of one. We hung out at the outfitters cause austin was interested in getting a new pack. I wanted to ask the guy helping ask a question about my pack so I brought it in to show him. After looking at both of us with our packs he said in his opinion im the one that was in need for a new pack. So he fitted me for a new one and it was amazing how much better it felt! I didn't want to spend the money but my friend phlegm said is its going to make ever step for the next 1800 miles that much better then it was well worth it. And he was right. Later that afternoon Chuck-town picked us up and took us back to the cabin and they had a huge cook out with burgers, hotdogs, corn-on-the-cob and much more. We had a great time and hit the trail the next morning.
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Farewell Smokies
Sunday we hiked back in from our night in town. We were planning on going 15 miles but after 10 hard miles we decided to call it a short day. Austin wasn't feeling the best so we cut the day short. The next day we planned on hiking 13 miles but when we all stopped for our midmorning snack (a must on the trail) we all got to talking and the boys decided it would be fun to try to push on past our original goal and make it a 20 mile day. Our biggest day up to that point was 14 and change and that was a hard day. I didn't want to at all at first but I was convinced to give it a shot. It was mostly downhill coming down out of the smokies, but it was a hard day. It turned out being a wonderful idea because the shelter we plane on going to was going to be full for the night and the one we ended up at had room to spare.
We got in late but still had daylight to cook and relax. Right at dusk one of the guys that was staying with us came over the hill and said there was a bear. The bear was across the ravine so we all went to go look. It took awhile to see it cause it was getting dark but we did see the shadow of a pretty big bear when smaller cubs. Once it started moving we all went and got in the shelter which conveniently had a bear cage on it. One guy wanted to sleep in his tent out of the sheeter but ended up moving into the shelter at about 10 after everyone had gone to bed and he woke up with the bears right outside his tent.
Today we only plan on going 10.5 total but there was a wonderful hostel off the trail called standing bear. We decided to stop there and buy some snack/lunch. But before me and austin made it out of the smokies we had to have one more bit of excitement. We were less then a tenth of a mile from the gap that ended the smokies when a black bear ran out of the woods and across the trail about 30 feet in front of us. As soon as austin saw it he started yelling "hey bear" to scare it off. It was a smaller bear, maybe 100 lbs, we were thinking a cub. So of course made us more nervous and we looked around for momma bear. We walked very slow and when we didn't see anything we hurried on through.
Now we are resting at standing bear farm eating our fill of food in the most beautiful relaxing place. (See pictures) we should be able to make it to our next town by the weekend!
We got in late but still had daylight to cook and relax. Right at dusk one of the guys that was staying with us came over the hill and said there was a bear. The bear was across the ravine so we all went to go look. It took awhile to see it cause it was getting dark but we did see the shadow of a pretty big bear when smaller cubs. Once it started moving we all went and got in the shelter which conveniently had a bear cage on it. One guy wanted to sleep in his tent out of the sheeter but ended up moving into the shelter at about 10 after everyone had gone to bed and he woke up with the bears right outside his tent.
Today we only plan on going 10.5 total but there was a wonderful hostel off the trail called standing bear. We decided to stop there and buy some snack/lunch. But before me and austin made it out of the smokies we had to have one more bit of excitement. We were less then a tenth of a mile from the gap that ended the smokies when a black bear ran out of the woods and across the trail about 30 feet in front of us. As soon as austin saw it he started yelling "hey bear" to scare it off. It was a smaller bear, maybe 100 lbs, we were thinking a cub. So of course made us more nervous and we looked around for momma bear. We walked very slow and when we didn't see anything we hurried on through.
Now we are resting at standing bear farm eating our fill of food in the most beautiful relaxing place. (See pictures) we should be able to make it to our next town by the weekend!
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Sunday, April 17, 2011
Clingman's and beastly burgers!!
Next day we waited around while everyone ekes got up and left in the rain. By the time we left it was still windy but the sun came out and it was beautiful!! We all agreed that was our prettiest hike yet. The smokies are just amazing. We also peeked the highest point on the trail, clingmans dome. The picture is of all of us on top of the tower (left to right- almost there, gravity, jana, phlegm, me, and austin) we heard the rain was coming again tonight and the shelter we were planning on staying at was going to be full, and we were running low on food and we were all starving (the main though hiker problem, can never carry enough food) so we got a ride into town when we made it into the pass and got a cheap room, more groceries, and the biggest burgers in the world! (See photos, one is austin the other is gravity)
But the rain came through lastnight and now we are figuring out how to get back out there this morning! More adventures to come :)
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Saturday, April 16, 2011
Beautiful Smokies!
The plan was to hike into the smokies two days ago, but we stayed at someone's apartment that one of our trail friends knows the night before. There were four of us total (me, austin, phlegm, and almost there) and we all got ready to go in the morning and drove the hour back to the trail. It had been raining all morning and the temperature had really dropped. When we got to the trail we all got out of the car and it wasn't a full minute before we all decided it was too miserable to hike. That's just not the welcome we want from the smokies. the guy who was driving us around (almost there's friend named grey fox who hiked the trail in 06) wanted to do some trail magic by picking some hikers we passed on the road and taking them into town. So the four of us decided to walk down to the visitor's center and knock off some trail for the day. Grey fox met up with us and we ended up walking all the way across the dam and to where the trial goes back up into the woods. It was a good mile and a half. When we walked back we were all so miserably cold and wet and so happy that that was all we were doing for the day.
The next day we hiked up into the smoky mountains. It was a beautiful day! The four of us had a great day. We hiked up into a pass and the whole ground was covered with tiny wild flowers. It looked like snow covering the ground. They have been with us off and on through today. Lastnight we met up with a couple of our friends we met awhile ago and we hiked with they today. So our group of four has turned into a group of six. One of the guys named gravity is hiking with a backpacking guitar. So we are currently laying in the grass field near the shelter we are staying at tonight listening to gravity sing and play while we watch the sunset. It doesn't get better then this.
Lastnight we stayed at Mollie's ridge shelter lastnight and tonight we are at Derek's nob shelter. It is suppose to storm tonight so we might only do a short day tomorrow. It is a good possibility we could see some snow. But right now we are just relaxing and loving life. :)
The next day we hiked up into the smoky mountains. It was a beautiful day! The four of us had a great day. We hiked up into a pass and the whole ground was covered with tiny wild flowers. It looked like snow covering the ground. They have been with us off and on through today. Lastnight we met up with a couple of our friends we met awhile ago and we hiked with they today. So our group of four has turned into a group of six. One of the guys named gravity is hiking with a backpacking guitar. So we are currently laying in the grass field near the shelter we are staying at tonight listening to gravity sing and play while we watch the sunset. It doesn't get better then this.
Lastnight we stayed at Mollie's ridge shelter lastnight and tonight we are at Derek's nob shelter. It is suppose to storm tonight so we might only do a short day tomorrow. It is a good possibility we could see some snow. But right now we are just relaxing and loving life. :)
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Monday, April 11, 2011
Adventure time :)
So we thought we were just gonna pop into town and resupply then hike out to the shelter tonight.... and we did that... but then one of our trail friends, who lives in North Carolina, said he had a friend that was gonna pick him up from the shelter and gonna stay at his house and invited us to come. So three of us went with him and went out for pizza and are crashing at his house. O the wonders of ac and a shower. :)
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Big days
Sorry I haven't been able to update everyone in awhile. We have had a few big days in a row. We stayed at the wesser shelter which is like 6 miles outside of the NOC. It is pretty much a gearstore a general store and a restaurant right on the trail. Apparently it is a big spot for whitewater rafting. We decided we wanted to make it there early so we booked it down there mountain. We made it in 2 hours, which is really fast! So we were able to stay there and hang out for awhile. We got the biggest hamburgers ever. It was soo amazing. After lunch we made the big climb out of the NOC. That was about 7 miles up a mountain to the next shelter. The first part of the day we did so fast but the second part took us twice as long. And of course when we got to the shelter our friends convinced us to go another 1.2 miles up to the very top and sleep on the bald. It was gorgeous!! But it was a big day.
The next day we did another 14 miles to cable gap shelter. Two big days in a row was alot for us but today we only hiked in 5.5 miles to the road. Then it was about 2 miles into the town to resupply. There were 6 of us walking down the road so we weren't hopeful to get a ride. Surprisingly a guy in a truck stopped and got all of us. Which was wonderful cause it was a looong way uphill. But everything is sooo expensive in Fontana for our resupply. We lucked out and had a maildrop here. But all of our friends paid over 80 bucks on food for the smokies.
Starting tomorrow we will be officially in the smoke mountains and we wont be able to get more food until we are out. We also have alot of rules about camping when we are in the smokies. But we are looking forward to some long hard and beautiful days ahead!
The next day we did another 14 miles to cable gap shelter. Two big days in a row was alot for us but today we only hiked in 5.5 miles to the road. Then it was about 2 miles into the town to resupply. There were 6 of us walking down the road so we weren't hopeful to get a ride. Surprisingly a guy in a truck stopped and got all of us. Which was wonderful cause it was a looong way uphill. But everything is sooo expensive in Fontana for our resupply. We lucked out and had a maildrop here. But all of our friends paid over 80 bucks on food for the smokies.
Starting tomorrow we will be officially in the smoke mountains and we wont be able to get more food until we are out. We also have alot of rules about camping when we are in the smokies. But we are looking forward to some long hard and beautiful days ahead!
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Friday, April 8, 2011
Wonderful people
Had a great time the past few days. The weather has actually been pretty. Its been a little hot and today was a little overcast but we didn't get rain luckily.
A few days ago when we went into town we called a hotel for the free shuttle the book said they offered. They told us they were on their way to come pick us up. It wasn't until we were checking in for a room that they told us it would be $20 for the shuttle. We didn't want to make a scene so we just paid it but we told everyone about it. The next morning we got the real free shuttle back to the trail and the guy driving was the owner of that hotel and 3 or 4 others. So after we got off I told him what happened and he was not pleased. He put the bus in park to get out and "figure this out" he took down my name and address and all the information we could tell him about the guy who charged us. He ended up just opening his wallet and giving us a 20. He knew that $20 wasn't alot to him but it was alot to us. He was a very nice man who really cared about hikers.
We have met some other really awesome people hiking the trail so far. Within the past 2 days we have had trail magic at 3 different places. Yesterday a guy and his 3 grandsons were giving out burgers, bbq, chips, snickers, drinks, muffins, fruit... you name it they had it. And we met them right before lunch. We didn't have to much longer (we thought) so we stayed there for almost 2 hours talking to the guy. Today we came to a spot on the trail were someone had left fruit and sweets for the hikers. And we past another guy handing out gateraid.
We have also made some good friends so far but two of them I wants to mention are Cargo and Chuck-town. I want everyone to go check out Chuck-towns webpage. Its on facebook just type in "blazin for boobies" He told us that his better half died of breast cancer last year and that's why he is hiking the trail. So go check out his site and see what he is all about. He is a great guy.
And probably the toughest guy on the trail has to be Cargo. Two weeks before he left for the trail he fell off a horse and tore his calf muscle. He has been hiking on crutches for the past few weeks. He did say it is healing and he is more hiking with crutches now whereas before he was definably on them. His trail name is cargo because he has rigged his crutches to have places to carry tons of stuff like his water. And I thought I was having a rough time hiking.
Well we are still happy and feeling better everyday. Thank you guys for leaving comments! We love reading them. Staying in lesser shelter tonight and heading to sassafras shelter tomorrow. Gonna be a long day!
Ps. Mom the shoe thing worked like a charm. Haven't had a problem since. Thank you!
A few days ago when we went into town we called a hotel for the free shuttle the book said they offered. They told us they were on their way to come pick us up. It wasn't until we were checking in for a room that they told us it would be $20 for the shuttle. We didn't want to make a scene so we just paid it but we told everyone about it. The next morning we got the real free shuttle back to the trail and the guy driving was the owner of that hotel and 3 or 4 others. So after we got off I told him what happened and he was not pleased. He put the bus in park to get out and "figure this out" he took down my name and address and all the information we could tell him about the guy who charged us. He ended up just opening his wallet and giving us a 20. He knew that $20 wasn't alot to him but it was alot to us. He was a very nice man who really cared about hikers.
We have met some other really awesome people hiking the trail so far. Within the past 2 days we have had trail magic at 3 different places. Yesterday a guy and his 3 grandsons were giving out burgers, bbq, chips, snickers, drinks, muffins, fruit... you name it they had it. And we met them right before lunch. We didn't have to much longer (we thought) so we stayed there for almost 2 hours talking to the guy. Today we came to a spot on the trail were someone had left fruit and sweets for the hikers. And we past another guy handing out gateraid.
We have also made some good friends so far but two of them I wants to mention are Cargo and Chuck-town. I want everyone to go check out Chuck-towns webpage. Its on facebook just type in "blazin for boobies" He told us that his better half died of breast cancer last year and that's why he is hiking the trail. So go check out his site and see what he is all about. He is a great guy.
And probably the toughest guy on the trail has to be Cargo. Two weeks before he left for the trail he fell off a horse and tore his calf muscle. He has been hiking on crutches for the past few weeks. He did say it is healing and he is more hiking with crutches now whereas before he was definably on them. His trail name is cargo because he has rigged his crutches to have places to carry tons of stuff like his water. And I thought I was having a rough time hiking.
Well we are still happy and feeling better everyday. Thank you guys for leaving comments! We love reading them. Staying in lesser shelter tonight and heading to sassafras shelter tomorrow. Gonna be a long day!
Ps. Mom the shoe thing worked like a charm. Haven't had a problem since. Thank you!
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Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Survived the storm
So today turned out pretty well. We did 12 miles the last two days, so today we took it easy and only did 6.8. Since we weren't going far we got a really late start to give it a chance to warm up. Everything is harder to do when its frozen outside. Our bearbag line was frozen to the tree... our food bags were coated in ice... The worst part about lastnight was the shelter we stayed in. We got all the way there and found out they had recently built a new shelter cause the old one was so bad. That would be great except the new shelter was totally full by the time we got there. So guess who stayed in the rundown old shelter.. It was the smallest shelter we have seen yet, a good chunk of the floor was missing, and a bunch of the boards for the walls were missing. We ended up fitting four of us and one dog in there. When the rain hit it was sooo hard! The wind blew in the rain pretty quick and we scrambled to get our tent our and spread the fly out over us. It worked decently well. There was a leak above the guy next to me and we found out in the morning that he spent a good part of the night standing in the corner to keep warm. By morning rain turned into ice and snow. Now we are at a much nicer shelter and a bunch of the guys are getting a fire together cause the wind is COLD on the top of the mt we peaked today. Hopefully tonight will be nicer :)
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Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Update
Just wanted everyone to know we made it through the storm. Just woke up to lots of ice and little snow. Fill you in later!
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Monday, April 4, 2011
Finally in NC!!!
Well hopefully we will be in town in the next few days and get our next mail drop. And for those of you keeping track at home, we have now hiked a total of 91.8 miles on the AT. Many more to go!
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Saturday, April 2, 2011
Sad news
So we had to come off the trail yesterday. My knee was hurting so bad that we had to come off and take a break. We spent a long time trying to decide if we should keep going cause neither one of us wanted to stop. But we figured it was better to take a one day break then get so hurt we had to stop all together. We actually ended up meeting up with all of our trail friends in town. We didn't even mean to! As we were checking into the motel that all came out of the room next door! They all hit the trail again today cause yesterday was their zero day (meaning they hiked zero miles) We took today as our zero day and one guy stayed behind with us cause his blisters and knees weren't ready for the trail today. We hated taking a day off so early but we figured we needed to do it now when we were hurting and still getting into shape. And after a day of ibuprofen and ice for my knee I think im feeling much better. We hit the trail again at 9:30. Pray for my knee!
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