Heading to GA

Goodbye home, goodbye dogs, goodbye indoor plumbing, goodbye shower, goodbye deodorant. I'll see all of you again in a few months.

Tomorrow is the Day

Tomorrow morning, I will be leaving home for my hike. Mostly everything is done and ready except for a few things on my honey-do list and actually packing my backpack. We'll probably leave Raeford around noon and spend 5 or 6 hours driving to Gainesville, GA where we'll be staying at the 6 star Motel 6. It's called that because it has a 6 star rating, right? Saturday morning, we'll head to Amicalola where I'll check in at the visitors' center, then start walking. My plan is to complete the approach trail and pitch my tent near the shelter 0.2 miles past the Springer Mountain trail head. There's a privy there, so I can get rid of Saturday's Waffle House breakfast before I start hiking Sunday. It's hard to plan out exactly how far I'll be hiking each day, but a rough estimate will have me at Neel Gap on about day 4 where I'll pick up my first mail drop. It would be awesome to start out doing 20 mile days, but that isn't going to happen. 8 or so miles per day will keep me happy until I get my trail legs under me. Hopefully, my average miles per day will be up to 15 or so after a couple weeks. My plan is to take a long lunch every day and try to nap for a bit before heading out for the afternoon's miles. Tonight's dinner, being my last here for a long time, is going to be a good one. I got the brisket on the smoker early this morning, and we'll be chowing down at about 7 tonight. I might as well go all out for my last meal at home.

I'm Chomping at the Bit!

I have been looking at YouTube videos from last year's thru hikers to get myself pumped up for my hike, and a bunch of 2016 hikers' pages have popped up. We're getting close. Lots of people are talking about starting in the middle of February, and a few have already started. In order to get with the kids out there, I started a new YouTube channel to document my journey. As of right now, there are only two videos for your viewing pleasure, but there will be plenty more in the future. There is an iPhone app that I downloaded that will allow me to post videos straight to my YouTube channel, and I will give updates whenever there is adequate cell phone or WiFi service. Once I am off the trail, there will be opportunity for me to edit, then upload some good videos to my channel. CLICK HERE FOR A LINK TO MY YOUTUBE CHANNEL.

Follow Me

I got myself a SPOT rat tracker, so everybody can see where I am, and how slowly I am going. It'll also help locate my remains after a bear Leo-rapes me and kills me. Here you go.

Happy New Year. I'm 60 Days Out

60 is probably more days than I actually have. Happy new year, and happy trails. I hope to see some or all of you out there.

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.