Gentle Hike

My niece Emily, called a couple of days ago to ask if we were going on a hike over the weekend. Actually, we hadn't had any plan but since she was asking, we decided to create a hike for her.

After several map consultations and a drive to a trail head north of us, we decided on a trip up to Mud Lake. Other spots were still too wet or snow covered for a hike. While we've been on the Murphy Lake trail on other dates, we haven't been there this time of year, and even on the gentle side, it was still too snow covered. So Mud Lake it is.

The hike was good. Not too muddy but there were the "trail turned streambed" that I had expected. But overall, not as muddy as anticipated. I did spot some newly sprouted yellow woods violet. On my trip to Georgia, there were lots of these flowers, but here, it's early enough to take a real joy in the first blooms of the season. (I am calling these yellow woods violets but I'm not sure of the real name.) All I know is that this early in the year I'm just glad to get out.

Another Tiger Bomber Leaves the Trail

My AT Tiger Bomber group mate, Super Slacker, had to leave the trail. Her Trail Journal entries at: http://www.trailjournals.com/entry.cfm?id=216687 tell the tale. We all met on Tuesday the 8th in the evening at the Hiker Hostel to say hi to each other and catch up. Super Slacker was going to hit the trail early, much earlier than the rest of us were going to be able to get there. I spent the 9th and 10th, hoping we could catch up to her, as she was slack packing the trail and I was thinking we could catch her at some point. It turns out we missed her the 1st day as she was seriously injured and dropped out due to broken wrist.

I will miss her upbeat trail journal entries and beautiful pictures. I wish her and her husband, Apteryx, all the best in his quest to finish the CDT.

Day 4 - Neel's Gap (Saturday)

So it rained on and off all night. I was glad to be in the shelter. This morning my toes were severely protesting when I put my boots on. I retaped my left little toe before we set off about 0830. It was slow hiking up Blood Mountain. I finally made it to the top about 10am. The views from up on top were spectacular. We could see (I was with Sherpa and a fellow hiker, Low Impact) My feet didn't feel too bad coming up but it was even steeper and more rocky on the way down. Sure enough, by the time I got to Neel's Gap and the outfitter's, I was limping and near to tears. I had to tell Sherpa and the rest of the group that I was dropping out 2 days early. Sherpa was sad but understood. It's too bad really cause other than my toes, I feel pretty darn good. So, I got a ride from Neel's Gap back to the Hiker Hostel. Now I'm clean and dry and have a bed for the night.

While at Neel's Gap, Sherpa had a message on her phone. Tiger Bomb and Katahdin Kid were camped at Jerrod's Gap the night before and were going to try and catch up to us at Neel's Gap. Unfortunately, they hadn't arrived by the time I got my ride. I hope they can catch up to Sherpa. I'm sorry to have missed saying good bye. Now I'm doing my nasty laundry and I'll go out to dinner in Dahlonega some where.

I completed about 30 miles more of the AT over the last 4 days.

Day 3 - Woods Hole Shelter (Friday)

I was kind of tired yesterday even tho it was only an 8 mile hike. I have had to tape up both big and little toes at lunch time today. the left food toes had already developed blisters but I did catch the right ones before blisters. After I got my tent up, my chores done and I ate, I just laid on my sleeping bag to read. Like I said yesterday, I visited the bon fire briefly, then hit the hay. I woke up once to a brief shower and got up and felt all along both edges of my shelter to make sure everything was under cover and staying dry. Then right back into my bag and to sleep.

The morning was typical and Sherpa waited for me to get packed up. We hit the trail about 0820. today's plan is to go 12 miles to the Woods Hole shelter. It was a tough day. My toes hurt bad every down hill. A few miles from the shelter, I stopped at an unnamed gap with a stream. I soaked my feet (oh the bliss of icy cold water!) and put my shoes and socks back on. Then realized my right big toe hurt. OK, take out my pad, sit down and pull off boot and sock. Turns out the sock toe seam slipped down over the bottom edge of the tape and wore a hole in my toe. No wonder it hurt. So I dug out my sports tape and taped more of the toe. Two guys we've been seeing in the shelters, a father/son team, have been yo yo'ing on the trail with me all day. Sherpa pulled ahead after lunch. Anyway, they stopped at the stream too. The dad has a bad knee and the son, a bad ankle. I'm wondering if they'll drop out tomorrow an Neel's Gap. I may have to also due to the toes. I'll study the map for tomorrow's terrain.

I haven't seen Tiger Bomb or Katahdin Kid all day. Haven't heard from any of the passing hikers about them either. Hope they're OK>

Today I saw a couple of new flowers in addition to the last 2 day's list. One, a small bloom, daisy-like on a 3 inch tall plant. The other a yellow buttercup shaped bloom, also on a short plant. I also saw a black bird, about robin size, with orange breast and white dots on its wings. I'll have to look it up when I get home. (I've looked it up and the closest I can see in my copy of the North American Wildlife book is that it was a Rufous Sided Towhee). I got to Woods Hole just after 5pm. I think I was suffering from dehydration cause it's hotter than I'm used to (in the 70's all 3 days). We also did a lot of climbing today. I drank 3 liters of water on the trail but arrived at the shelter with headache and nausea. I sat and rested, finishing off my water before setting up for the night. I still haven't got an appetite but I manage to get supper down. We're all in the shelter tonight. Sherpa has been in contact via cell phone with her spouse, George. He's providing daily weather reports. How helpful is that! Anyway, we're crammed in here as tight as we can get it so as few as possible have to pack up wet tents.

Day 2 - Gooch Mountain

Last night, about 11pm, I woke up out of a sound sleep to very strange sounds. there was Hoo, Hoo, Hoo, then lots of yipping. I thought coyotes were in the area. I found out today the noise was barred owls. Sounded like a whole flock. Anyway, while I was trying to figure out what the noise was, the Rangers, apparently on night manuvoers, had a firefight going on with lots of small arms fire and grenades or some other cannon like sounds. Pretty busy till about midnight when all the animals decided to call it a night. Earlier in the evening, the "kids" staying in the Hawk Mountain shelter decided to have a bon fire. So I went up and hung out, chit chatting awhile. By 8:30pm I went to bed.

This morning I was up as soon as I could see without a light, about 7am. Some of the others were already up and tearing down their tents. I did the normal morning stuff, said hi to Tiger Bomb and Katahdin Kid, then Sherpa and I were on the trail by 0840. We hiked together pretty much all day tho she does hike faster than me and she pulled ahead after lunch. I don't mind, it's nice to have the trail to myself.

Today I spotted columbine budding, tho one plant had gotten to full bloom. Also red trilliums and a tree flowering with pink flowers. I got a picture of that one. See my MySpace page. http://www.myspace.com/312345632

Gooch Mountain shelter is pretty nice, quite a few tent sites and a 2 level shelter. Like Hawk Mountain shelter, bear cables are available to hang our food. Lots of hikers here tonight. The "Shelter Kids" are building another bon fire but I'm too tired to really participate. I was in my sleeping bag again by 8:30pm.

Springer Mountain to Hawk Mountain Shelter

I was up at 5:30 and the hostel had breadkfsast on at 0730. We were shuttled to the Springer Mt parking lot and finally got started at 10am. The parking lot is situated so that we have to climb .9 miles up Springer then follow our track back to the parking lot and on to the rest of the trail. Coming from the welcome center has a hiker coming up an approach trail, adding several steep miles to a hike that don't actually count toward the total AT milage. We skipped that part. Anyway, by 11am we were back at the parking lot where Karen left us and went on her way. We proceeded on and it was a warm, beautiful, sunshiny day. I heard lots of birds, saw a black butterfly with indigo on the back edge of its wings, yellow swallowtail butterflies, yellow and violet woods violets and a few white 8 petaled flowers that looked similar to daisys. I took a picture of one. This part of the trail is near an Army Ranger training base so there have been a few overhead blyby's of helicopters and rangers playing war games. Sherpa got to Hawk Mountain shelter first and come back along the trail to offer encouragement. I'm skipping the shelter and staying in my tent. It was late by the time Katahdin Kid got in. Larry (Shaft) had to drop out at the 3 Forks area due to back problems. He hitched a ride out. We're sad to see him go. At the shelter, a NYC guy, Red Eyes, has had stove failure so I'm lending him my stove to make his supper. There are 8 other hikers here besides us. Half of them are staying in the shelter, the rest are tenting. The Shelter Kids are gathering firewood for a campfire. I've made my food but I'm still not hungry. I guess I'll just choke it donw. I have to figure out how to hang my bear canister from the bear cables. I thought to put the cannister in my sleeping bag compression bag but it doesn't fit. Maybey the compression straps for my sleeping pad?

Getting to Springer

I left home about 0730 on Monday and reached wendy's house in shepardstown WVA about 1630. Sunsan (sherpa) arrived shortly after with her hubby George. We had a good dinner and caught up on the latest news and then George headed back to Harrisburg PA. Wendy took Denny (Katahdin Kid) to his house to meet his frind Larry who is coming with us. Denny and Larry are driving to the Hiker Hostel by themselves and Wendy, Karen and I are driving down in my car. We were all in bed by 10pm.

This morning we were up and out of the door by 0725. We had a great time driving down and chatting the whole way. It's just amazing how much we have in common. Anyway, we made pretty good time and got to the Hiker Hostel (hikerhostel.com) about 6:30pm. While Denny and Larry took off into Dahlonega for Mexican, the rest of stayed here and met Kathleen and Wally and Karen. Karen is up from Pensacola to see us off. Also, we got a call from Grasshopper to give us a good send off.

Anyway, breakfast is 0730 in the morning and we get shuttled at 0830. I guess by 9am we'll be on the trail. Hoooo HOOOOOO!!!

Ready to go

I've got everything ready to pack into my backpack for tomorrow's trip south. I'm stoked about getting to the start of the AT and hiking for a few days.

Middleburg Cliffs

It's been weeks since I've been out hiking. Something always seem to get in the way. However, I planned since last week to get out today and I got lucky. The weather was sunny and up to the 50's today. Anyway, my hiking friend Kathy, Randy and I went south to Schoharie County where there is little or no snow to do a hike. I really wanted to test out my new LLBean boots before my trip to Springer Mtn on Monday. Anyway, we met up and got to the trailhead about 0945 after spotting Kathy's car at the far end of the trail.

This trail is part of the Long Path, starting in NYC and ending at Thatcher Park in Albany. Kathy knew about this particular part of the trail from an earlier hike and let us in on it. Neither of us had a real trail map or guide. Just winging it. At anyrate, it's across the Valley from our previous hike of Vrooman's Nose. The initial part of the hike is actually in a housing development in Middleburg NY. Pretty cool. It is a little scary, doing a rock climb. I keep trying to "be one with the rock'. It makes it hard to get up and over, but I managed. Making it even harder, a pair of Turkey Buzzards were circling the site. Were they acutually anticipating the meal? The rest of the hike, while uphill, was pretty pleasant, especially for an early April day in upstate NY.

I can hardly wait to get to Springer Mountain.