Other AT Thru Hikers

There is a friend of a friend named Bryant who's going to be doing a thru hike next year, starting a few days after I start. I'm old and slow, so he'll most likely be passing me well before I reach North Carolina. Here's a link to his Trail Journal Here's a link to Bryant's gear grams page.

Mountaineer Falls Shelter to Mountain Harbour

On Wednesday morning, my legs were sore and tired from my minimal hiking the previous two days. The weather forecast was for low to mid 50s, and 70% chance of rain. The temperature was good because fat men warm up quicker, especially when we exercise, so it was nice to have some external help keeping my core temperature at a safe level. There was a bit of a sprinkle at the start of the hike, and it was actually nice. Rock Fish looked at his guidebook to see what the elevation profile looked like between the shelter and 19E, which was my final destination, and he said that it was all downhill except for one "little bump." It wasn't a little bump to me. It was a climb of over 1100 feet in just under 3 miles. To a guy that has done as much hiking as him, that is probably just a little bump. I don't have that much experience, and it kinda sucked. During the hike, the winds picked up to what seemed like hurricane force levels on the top of the "little bump" and I heard trees breaking, falling, and coming apart every few minutes. The closest widow maker fell about 20 yards behind me near the top of one of the climbs, and I was too tired to even turn around and look. On the back side of the little bump, I probably had to step over 50 blown down trees of varying degrees. Anything from small branches to huge pine trees were laying across the trail, which made me really happy because when I'm tired, hungry, cold, and wet, there's nothing I like more than slowing down to step over a bunch of trees. Based on my previous days of travel and the distance ahead of me in the morning, I estimated my arrival at 19E to be between 12:00 and 1:00. As it turned out, I arrived at 12:30. I'm good. The walk back to Mountain Harbour was a short 0.3 miles down the road, and my Subaru was there, anxiously awaiting my arrival. The route back home took me through Pisgah National Forest, and it was foggy and rainy with bad visibility. As it turned out, my hiking speed was only slightly slower than my speed on the trail.

Moreland Gap Shelter to Mountaineer Falls shelter

When I woke up on Tuesday morning and got back on the trail, I stopped at the shelter to take a look inside to see what I missed. From what I understand, it was very similar to the other shelters on the trail. Looking back at the good sleep from the night before, it didn't really break my heart that I didn't quite make it to the shelter. The planned route was about 10 miles to the Mountaineer Falls shelter, and it was mostly downhill after an initial 200 foot climb. On the first day, my average speed was about 1.5 mph due to the hundreds of miles walking uphill, so that is the speed I used to estimate my hike to the next shelter. Initially, I thought that I wouldn't be there until about 4 pm or later, but I was sure that I would be there well before sunset. On day 1, I started off with 4 liters of water, and by the time I reached my first camping spot, I was down to about 1.5 liters. Thankfully, I found a stream crossing less than an hour after starting. I made a mistake that fortunately didn't end up biting me in the ass. Normally, a person would test out and practice using a piece of gear that he or she would be taking to the woods, especially a piece of gear that would help sustain life. I didn't do that with my water filter. However, it worked out, and couldn't have been more simple and efficient to use. I have a Platypus gravityworks 4 liter filter. While at a water source, it is a good idea to drink as much as possible before refilling water bottles or bladders. That will prevent the need for another water stop sooner than necessary. In the middle of the day, I reached FSR 293 a lot earlier than predicted, so I sat down, pulled out the stove and boiled some water for my Knorr chicken rice side dish. This was the first food of the day for me, and once it was cooked, it didn't last long. After that, I did what every fat man does after a hot meal. I napped. Upon waking up, I got loaded up and continued my walk. The Mountaineer Falls shelter is 4.8 miles from FSR 293, and it only took a couple of hours to arrive. Once I got there, I took off my wet hiking clothes and put on my dry polypropylene long johns. It was only 2 pm, but I was alone, and I had nothing to do, so I felt like my wife on a Saturday afternoon when she has no place to go- time for the jammies! The only thing missing was a glass of wine. I was by myself in the shelter in the early afternoon, and the only thing I had to look forward to was sleep at 8 pm, but that was almost 6 hours away. There was a paperback copy of "One Day" by David Nicholls which I started to read to pass the time. I was about one page into it when I heard somebody walking down the trail to the shelter. As it turned out, it was a guy with the trail name Jolly who was part of a group of 5 SOBO thru hikers. He and his father started in Maine in June, and they are predicting a total of 5 1/2 months on the trail when they reach Springer Mountain, GA. After he left, 2 of his hiking partners showed up about 20 minutes later, and we made some small talk while they signed the logbook and eventually headed out. The last member of the group that showed up was a guy with the trail name Rock Fish. He's obviously older than the other guys, and he seemed to have a lifetime of experience on the trail. He commented on my Gregory Baltoro backpack and said how much he likes his Gregory. His adventures are much more extensive than mine with his Gregory. He has more than 17,000 miles hiking with that particular backpack, and I was almost ashamed to tell him that I barely had 17 miles with mine. He and his group still had about 400 miles to their destination, and I only had about 9, so I took what I needed out of my food bag, and gave the rest to him to share with his group. After Rock Fish left, it was about 1/2 hour before sunset, so I heated up some more food, re hydrated, and waited for 8 pm so that I could go to sleep again. The shelter was a good place to sleep except that every time I rolled over in my sleep, my head bumped into one of the wall supports. I still had a great night's sleep and rolled out of my fart sack at about 7:30. After changing into my stinky, half-wet hiking clothes and refilling my water, it was time to head out for my last 9 miles of the trip.

Dennis Cove to Moreland Gap Shelter 16 NOV 15

In preparation for my upcoming AT hike, I have been looking at all the videos on YouTube, reading all the blogs, and looking at AWOL's AT Guide. Much of my gear has been purchased, and much of my plan has been completed, but before this week, I had yet to actually step foot on any trail marked by white blazes. Much of the AT in NC, TN, and VA is about 4 to 4 1/2 hours from me, so there is plenty of trail available for hiking if I am willing to make the drive. After a bit of research, I decided to drive to Roan Mountain, TN to park and catch a shuttle to a starting point about 24 miles away, and hike back to my car. The people at Mountain Harbour were more than accommodating when it came to providing parking and a shuttle. They also have a hostel, a B&B, and a general store for anybody who may end up on 19E in Tennessee on a hike. The shuttle dropped me off at Dennis Cove just past 1 pm, and since it was only a 1.3 mile hike in the opposite direction to Laurel Falls, I decided to make the trip. The hike down was pretty steep, and the hike up was even steeper. The round trip to the falls and back was just over an hour. I talked to some hippie kids from Florida in the parking lot for a few minutes, then I headed across the street to start my 5.8 mile trip to Moreland Gap Shelter. Just across the road, I ran into a real life Tennessee mountain man, and we talked for a bit about the local area. As it turns out, he grew up in that area, and he showed me in the open field where his family used to plant their corn, potatoes, and where his grandmother's garden used to be. He has been walking through these mountains hunting and living for 78 years. That day, he was out on the mountains looking for wild honeybee hives, but it turned out that it was too cold, so the bees weren't out flying. After our conversation, I was finally on my way just before 3. With sunset coming at about 5, it was important to keep a brisk, steady pace to make it to the shelter before dark. The first 3 miles was all uphill, with an elevation gain of about 1500 feet. That isn't a big deal if a hiker is in shape, experienced, and has plenty of time before sunset. None of those things applied to me. My trip seemed to be walk 50 feet, stop to catch my breath and rest my legs, and repeat. At one point I just took off my backpack and sat down for about ten minutes while shoving a Clif bar into my face. If I wasn't walking, I wasn't going to reach the shelter, so I eventually got up and continued up the damn mountain. 5 pm was quickly approaching, so I started going over my options in my head. My first option was to just hike until reaching the shelter. Option two was to hike until dark and set up camp for the night. Option three was to bust out the headlamp and hike until a certain time. I went with option three, sort of. At about 5:15 I started using the headlamp and decided to hike until 5:30. At 5:30, I bumped the time up until 6:00 because I felt OK, and there was enough light for me to safely hike. 6 finally rolled around, and still no shelter, so I found a decent spot on the side of the trail that was flat, and cowboy camped for the night. I slept great until 2:47 in the morning when a deer decided to come by to see what was going on. I could see her in the light of my headlamp about 15 yards away, just frolicking like deer do. She's lucky that I didn't have my bow with me. The sun finally woke me up around 7 in the morning, and I crawled out of my sleeping bag and started packing up. When looking around to see what the area looked like in the daylight, I saw it. Just about 75 yards farther down the trail was the Moreland Gap shelter. Yep. Had I kept walking for another minute, I would have found it. Since it didn't rain, it was all good.

Training

35-40 pound backpack on hikes. Up to 12 miles on flat trail, 5 or 6 on moderate terrain with some good ups and downs and stairs.

29 FEB 16

I'm hoping to get on the trail