Apparently there are those who feel our chastisement of the  sheriff’s department was unjust. While I am certain that he was just doing his job, I guess I just miss Mayberry a little bit. It would be nice to live in a world where you can still trust someone enough to pick them up and give them a ride. Being out here on the trail almost feels like a trip back in time because of how people look out for one another, care for one another, and trust each other. I hope when we get back that we can be those types of people for life.

Speaking of trips back in time, let me tell you about our lovely day today. It was one of those days that you wish you could bottle up and pull out when the car won’t start, the traffic is horrible, or you stub your toe on the washing machine! It was just awesome!

We woke up to a cloudless sky and temps in the 30’s. Things quickly warmed up to perfect hiking weather of around 55-60 degrees. After a hearty breakfast of 5 packs of peach flavored instant oatmeal, we tore down the tent and headed out. Our goal for the day was around 14 miles but we also wanted to take enough breaks to enjoy the weather and keep our feet fresh. Our first stop was at a spring a mile or so from our campsite for some water, and our next stop was Iron Mt. Shelter, although the mountain part was a bit of a misnomer, as it was really just a high part in the ridge we hiked on all day. We rested there for 30 minutes or so, had a snack, and decided to push for the next paved road before our lunch break. That as around 4.5 miles and we handled that pretty quickly and easily. The entire day was largely rolling hills of the top of a ridge. It was our easiest hiking day of the entire trip. Once we crossed the road, TN 91, we came to a huge meadow of at least 200-300 acres of nothing but green grass! It was like a huge welcome sign for a nap, which is what we promptly took after a hearty lunch of crackers, cheese, summer sausage, and nutty bars! We packed up and headed out around 3 to do the final 5 miles for the day. We arrived at Double Spring sheltet after about and hour or so and chatted with 5 Stones, NoCar, and Bananas. NoCar and 5 Stones are 2 retired guys who met somewhere in GA and have been hiking together. They are really nice guys and NoCar (short for North Carolina) is a dead ringer for John Locke off of the television show Lost! I kept wanting to ask him what was in that stupid hatch! While we were sitting there, our friends Aaron and Neta and Jinx, who we thought were miles ahead of us, came strolling up. It was great to see them and we had to give them a hard time when we found out they were whimps and had stayed in hostels 2 of the last 3 nights (they are tenting next to us and I just read it to them and gave them a good chuckle). We thought about staying at the shelter but wanted to get a few more miles in before we stopped (Jinx the dog is snoring like a banshee right now!). The hiker manual showed 2 good tent sites in the next 2 miles and we planned to stay at one of those. However, once we left the shelter, we discovered that the Forest Service had done a controlled burn over several thousand acres of woods, including both of the nice grassy spots where we had intended to camp. The whole woods smelled like a Kingsford charcoal factory (or at least how I think it would smell). So, we opted to hike down to US421 and pitch our tents in the woods near the road. I think our total for the day was right around 15 miles. Our site is a nice spot, except for the occasional passing car and the occasional occupant of the occasional passing car who occasionally yells something at our tents! Apparently there isn’t much else to do in the booming town of Shady Valley, TN!

Our tentative plans for tomorrow are to hike around 13 miles and stay just outside of Damascus, VA so we can walk into town early on Friday for a good AYCE breakfast! We’re also really looking forward to our visit with the Camerons this weekend. Speaking of visits, if you’re heading our way, just let us know and we’d love to bum a free ride…err…I mean we’d love to see you! Take care and God bless.

Oh to hike, or not to hike? That was the question of the morning for Joe and me.  Waking up in a nice warm bed at the Braemar Castle Hostel  in Hampton, TN made it more difficult for us to want to set foot on the trail this morning. With only 12 miles on our agenda for the day we decided to take it easy and hang out at the hostel until about noon. Even then we hated to leave. After contemplating whether we would take a zero we both knew it was time for us to suck it up and hit trail.  Not knowing how we were going to get back to the trailhead(a 1.8 mile distance from town) we had no choice but to simply start walking down the road towards the trail. With our thumbs held out to try hitching a ride we were passed by a ton of cars and even more pick up trucks. About a mile into our attempt we heard the sound we were hoping for. A vehicle was slowing down behind us! Hoping to turn and see a friendly local happy to take us wherever we wanted to go, we actually found that it was a partially annoyed policeman, lights flashing, stopping to tell us that hitch hiking was illegal in the state of Tennessee. We both felt bad about breaking the law and headed on, thumbs down, thankful that we live in a world that protects speeding motorists from crazy hiker trash like us.  After the cop drove off we saw a home that was waving a confederate flag nice and high for all the world to see.  We find it very interesting that we have laws that protect racists, but doesn’t allow us scary hikers to try to catch a ride into town or back to the trail. Somedays I am more proud to be an American than others.  Well I’m getting tired so I will let Joe finish the blog that covers the rest of our day. I am still having more than enough fun and feel blessed everyday I wake up to hike some more of this beautiful trail.

Okay, it’s boring old Joe again. Aside from the cop and the flag, the only other interesting thing about our walk from town was the church sign with words misspelled. Thankfully spelling isn’t a prerequisite for getting to Heaven! We hit the trail at around 12:30 and did the first few easy miles relatively fast. We took a short break at Watauga Lake shelter and also when we got across the dam. The sun was shining and made it seem warmr than the low 50’s we were hiking through so we stopped along a little road for a snack and a short siesta! What a great day for hiking! Afterward we did our only real climb of the day, about 1800 ft., and found ourselves on top of a ridge, which is where e stayed for the next 7 miles. We ran into another guy from Indiana called Blues Traveler and chatted with him for a bit. He lives in South Bend but grew up in Princeton. He’s a really nice retired fellow and we hope to bump into him some more.

Tonight we are camped in a great spot on top of the ridge, overlooking the lights of Elizabethton. It is supposed to drop below freezing by morning so we had dinner as quickly as possible, sat around the fire, and headed to bed right before dark. All told, with the road walk, I think we did around 13 miles today. Tomorrow we are shooting for around 12-#13 again and are really enjoying the chance to slow down, take more breaks, and enjoy the beautiful spring weather. Hope you are well and we’ll talk to you again soon.

Jeanne - We got your message but unfortunately we won’t be off the trail again until into Virginia. Sorry we couldn’t synch up but we’ll look forward to seeing you all soon.

Bruce - We are shooting for Damascus sometime before noon on Friday. What is your time frame?

Trail Journal for April 1, 2008 … some fog on the mountain, a privy!, and some more nasty blisters!

Episode 11 on YouTube

If you read the blog yesterday, then you know things started sunny and ended rainy. Today was basically the reverse. We woke up this morning a little before 7 to the sound of rain beating off the rain fly of the tent. Actually we woke up several times in the night to the same sound, as it poured most of the night. We knew that we had about 7.5 miles to get to Watauga Lake and that we had to be there by 1. So, as the rain was pelting down, we tried to figure the last possible moment we could leave and still make it on time. We figured that with breaks, we could make it if we left a little before 9. Around 8:15 there was a break in the downpour and we hopped out of the tent, took our food down from the bear bag, tore down the tent, stuffed all of our soaking wet stuff into our bags, threw on our rain skilts, and headed north. The temperature had dropped several degrees overnight and the drizzle kept things pretty chilly. The first mile or so hugged the creek and was fairly easy hiking. After that we started on a steep and steady uphill of around 1800 feet. Since you work harder on the uphills you also sweat more and that prompted us both to quickly stop and take off our rain jackets to keep from overheating. A couple minutes after that, as you can of course expect, the rain went from a drizzle to a really hard and steady downpour! The entire hike up the mountain, and most of the way down, we walked through a pretty heavy rain storm. As a result, the time that we had allowed for to make stops was spent just hiking as fast as we could. The entire woods above around 2200 feet was covered in clouds/fog anyway so there wouldn’t have been anything worth looking at if we had decided to stop. There were a couple interesting things of note though. The first was what appeared to be a huge piece of white Tyvek weatherproofing that had blown off the side of a house. Upon closer inspection though, since it was just a few feet from the trail, we discovered it was actually a piece of Tyvek covering some hapless hiker who decided the rain was a bit too much and opted to lay next to the trail wrapped up like a big burrito! We stifled a few snickers and headed on. The second item of interest was a box turtle slowly making his was south toward Springer Mt. Actually, we were fairly certain that wasn’t his final destination but he was directly in the middle of the trail and couldn’t have looked more determined to make the hike even if he’d had a pack on his back. Incidentally he was carrying his own tent! After wishing him the very best of luck, we continued down off of the mountain that we had just climbed. We reached the parking lot where we were to meet Mel’s parents by around 11:30, which meant we made 7.5 miles in a little under 3 hours. That was a pretty stinking quick pace for our little legs but when the rain was as cold as today, there really wasn’t much choice but to keep moving. The only place to get out of the wind was a restroom at the park by the lake and we set up camp in the women’s side! It wasn’t the Hilton, but it kept the wind and rain away and gave us a place to put on dry clothes, have a snack, and boil some water for hot tea. Yes, we drank hot tea that we prepared inside a public restroom next to a public beach area. What’s so weird about that?

Mel’s parents and sister, Heather, showed up around 12:30 just as we were chatting with a fellow hiker named Sight. We felt bad leaving him in the rain, but a warm car and a hot meal were calling! We drove the short 2 miles to Hampton, TN and stopped by Brown’s Supermarket, where the owner is also the owner of the Braemar Castle Hostel. He wasn’t in so one of the ladies there walked us the two blocks to the hostel and showed us where we’d be staying. The “castle” is actually an old building built by the Pittsburg Lumber Company and then abandoned when they left town. Sutton Brown, the owner, has been fixing the place up and letting hikers stay here for years. We got settled and headed down the street to Quarterbacks BBQ. Mel had the pulled pork platter and I had the cheese fries, house salad, and the “pig”nic platter that is supposed to feed 3 or 4 people. Don’t worry, I’m not the world’s biggest fatty, as we still had plenty leftover to bring back to the hostel. Not only was the food great, the ole father-in-law sprang for the check! “Thanks again for that, and the coffee and movie too!”

After lunch we headed to the town internet café and coffee shop, which consisted of two computers with a comfy couch and chair. However, since we weren’t using the internet, we didn’t get access to the couch either. We settled for some old folding type chairs, but were still glad to be inside and out of the rain. Next we headed back to the hostel, took showers, andheaded to Johnson City for resupply and a movie. The movie was the Dr. Suess classic “Horton Hears a Who.” It was a fun little flick and, more than anything, gave us the chance to visit a little more with family. On the way back to Hampton, the sun actually made an appearance for a few minutes, which was a welcome sight. Once back at the hostel, we said our goodbyes, had hugs all around, and then set out sorting our food and doing our laundry. Tonight it is in the 30’s and snowing in the mountains. By Wednesday it is supposed to be in the 80’s again. What a crazy time of year for weather.

Finally, I’ll give you a health update. We are both feeling pretty good after our short day and counting ourselves blessed with good health, as others around us are dropping like flies. Mel has some lingering soreness in her knees and I just discovered today that my right big toe is constantly a little bit numb! Crazy huh? Oh well, at least if I stub it I won’t feel as much pain. We hope everything is great wherever you are and look forward to hearing from anyone who’d like to comment.

One more thing: Thanks Uncle Joey and Aunt Deb for your generous gift! It was a huge blessing and God bless you both for your generous hearts!

Lest you think that Melissa and I are arguing out here on the trail, as apparently some people believe, nothing could be further from the truth. We are absolutely loving our time together out here and couldn’t be happier. God has blessed us with a relationship where we actually like each other and everyday out here seems like a holiday! Hope that dispells any crazy rumors.

So I guess the best thing is to not tell your our plans for the next day, as we never seem to follow them! We did indeed do 15.5 miles today, and a few more to boot! Here’s how it all went down:

After a decent night of sleep, considering how crowded amd stinky the shelter was, we rolled out of bed around 7:30 and started breakfast. That typically consists of 4 or 5 packs of oatmeal and a thing of Pop-Tarts to share. Lately though, since we made the mistake of getting our Pop-Tarts at the Dollar General and they taste like someone injected them with cherry flavored paste, just like that nerdy kid in art class used to eat, we’ve been limited to just the oatmeal. This morning was a rare treat though because our friend FreeBird gave us a pack of blueberry ones…and there was much rejoicing! Once done with breakfast we started to put our boots on and my beautiful wife discovered that a mouse had apparently decided her sock would make great bedding for his nest and had chewed several holes in it over the course of the night. By the way, hiking socks like those are 18 bucks a pair. She was ecstatic! She also discovered, as she moved her boot, that a Brown Recluse spider had been hanging out and being his little reclusive self under said boot. That was cause for much more rejoicing from Mel as I’m sure you can imagine. Once the spider was dispatched (read “squashed flat”), we got dressed and headed out. This morning we purposefully stopped every 3 miles or so in an attempt to rest our feet a little more than the past couple days. Our first stop was at Laurel Creek, where Mel decided to do a little wading, and only hopped out after we checked the hiker book and discovered the stream was contaminated! Now her feet are glowing a lovely shade of green. The second stop was Hardcore Cascades, a very steep and rocky section of the creek that someone apparently felt was a little more menacing than we did. I soaked my feet for a while and we enjoyed the sunshine (okay, her feet aren’t really green).

It was a good thing we enjoyed the sunshine, because that was the last we saw of it for the rest of the day. As we were heading toward our lunch stop, 9 miles in at Moreland Gap shelter, it started to lightly rain on us. The rain picked up during lunch and we rested there for an hour or so and talked with Retread, Brown Bag, and a new guy headed south named Biff. We also flipflopped all day with two other couples, but I’m not sure about their names. We can remember Sunkist, Aggie, and another name that is not appropriate for this family show! I’ll just say it sounds like Kitty Forecast. You can probably figure it out from there! We can’t remember the 4th guy’s trail name, but his real name is Ian. Anyway, Ian and Sunkist are hiking with the two beagles. Both are very cute, but enjoy rolling in the mud entirely too much. They both also share a sleeping bag with Sunkist. Not a good combination!

Okay, on with the day. We left the shelter in a light rain, which quickly increased to a very steady, very soaking rain, and walked the final 6 miles down to SR 50. The temperature was just warm enough to hike without a jacket on and still be able to enjoy the rain. In spite of being drenched all afternoon, it was really quite nice. Since we are meeting Mom and Dad B tomorrow, we were planning on staying at a hiker hostel 0.2 miles off of the trail, getting up early, and doing the 10 miles in to Watauga Lake. But after we walked to the hostel, we discovered that they were full (here’s where we start hiking more than we planned). So, we walked the 0.2 back to the trail and decided we’d camp along the creek that was adjacent to the AT. However, after checking the map, we realized the next shelter was only 1.9 miles farther. We opted for it and started on what we thought would be a nice leisurely 2 mile hike to end the day. It ended up being like thousands of tiny little lumberjacks repeatedly stabbing us with their axes on the bottoms of our feet! The trail took us a couple hundred feet above the creek and then backtracked down the side of a cliff and over a boulder field. Apparently the goal was for all AT hikers to experience Laurel Falls because the descent down slick and rocky staircases took us right to the base of the falls. Let me tell you, I’ve seen a lot of waterfalls in my day, and this was just another one of them. It could have been the time of day that we saw it, or the fact that we were so tired, but we were both just a little annoyed about having to do all that work for so little payoff. It was sorta like dressing up for a blind date and having it be your cousin Linda. A lot of work goes into getting into a situation that really wasn’t worth the effort in the first place! Anywho, we took a quick picture and trudged on to find our shelter. Once we arrived, after gaining all of the elevation we’d lost to see the lovely falls, we discovered that the shelter was already full. I thought Melissa was going to molt into a dragon and chew someone’s head off with one bite! She was tired of hiking and nothing would change that. Since it is still illegal to kill people and take their shelter spots here in Tennessee, we opted for the only logical thing. We just kept hiking. It was only another half mile or so before we found the spot we have now and we quickly set up our tent by the river and made dinner. All told I think we did around 18 miles today. That means we only have 7 to go before we meet her folks tomorrow. Hope you all are doing we and know that we miss seeing everyone back home. Drop us a line if you get the chance, except for you Todd. I’d like to never see you again! Ha!

Shelters full of people stink in ways you can only imagine! We are spending the night @ Mountaineer Shelter along with 9 other people and 2 dogs. It is a big shelter but with all of the sweaty boots, clothes, and people it makes for a pretty ripe scent!

After a long day yesterday, we had planned for something a little shorter but as we started looking at the map it made the most sense to push another 17.5 miles to make it here today. We got up and out by a little after 9 and got some of our best views of the entire trail as we went up and over Little Hump and Hump Moutains. Both are bald on top and had amazing views of the surrounding mountains and the rapidly moving clouds overhead. We took a lot of pictures and made quick work of the first 4 miles. As we came down the back side of Hump Mountain we discovered that it wasn’t just used for a pretty view. It is also a grazing area for a small herd of longhorn cattle. They were lazilly eating and lying directly across the trail so we opted to detour around them instead of risk getting charged by horns that would make any Texas rancher proud. We did get some great pics, but as I was moving in close to the biggest steer in the group (with a spread on his horns of over 5 feet) he sprang to his feet and started snorting, shaking his head, and swishing his tail. We took that as our cue to leave and made a hasty exit!

A few miles later we stopped at Cherry Orchard shelter for lunch and chatted with Firesocks and Butterfly Moon. Butterfly Moon has a pure white German Shepherd named Luna, who spent her time lying around the shelter eating pretzels! They were killing time until the steakhouse at the next road crossing opened. There was a menu in the shelter and it was all we could do to avoid heading there oursselves after we saw what they had to offer. We held out though and continued on up the trail.

About 2 miles after crossing Highway 19 we came to a meadow filled with wildflowers that seemed to stretch on forever. The trail went steeply uphill through the meadow and we both opted for the plan of putting our heads down, singing a song to ourselves, and seeing how quickly we could get to the top. The top came quick enough, but little did we know that in the midst of our head down singing, we had both missed a 90 degree turn in the trail. 45 minutes and a mile or so of wandering and wondering later, we realized our error and headed off in the right direction. Oh well, 390 miles and only 1 wrong turn isn’t too bad! We had around 6.5 miles after our little direction fiasco and we made fairly short work on them. We finally got to the shelter at around 7:30 and were glad to rest our sore and tired feet. We are hoping for around 15.5 tomorrow and then on to meet Mel’s parents the next day. That’s all we’ve got for today. We’re both very tired and looking forward to a good night’s sleep. Talk to you again tomorrow and give someone a compliment today that you wouldn’t normally. Who knows, it might be the best thing they’ve heard in months!

Trail Journal from March 31, 2008 … a rainy campsite overrun by weekenders and a wrap-up from the tent.

Episode 10 on YouTube