Friday to Monday, April 5-8th

Friday 4-5 to Monday 4-8

We left the NOC (Nantahala Outdoor Center) on Friday 4-5 and hit the trail. We had 8 miles of climbing up hill. It was really rough; it would flatten out for a little bit and then kick back up hill again. I was hoping to stop at the first shelter 7 miles in, but Kevin (trail name Grape Lightning) and Cody wanted to go another mile up hill and stay at a campsite there. I compromised and we went the last mile. It was steep and muddy, there was ice on the sides of the trail from an ice storm the day before but we finally made it. We crested the mountain and came out on Cheoah Bald. It was absolutely gorgeous. It was a near panoramic view and we got to watch the sunset and sunrise from there. We met Mr. Rogers, Rainbow Bright, Old Boy and Greer at the campsite. They are near our age and pretty cool. We don't know their real names, but that's the way it goes on the trail. We made a campfire after watching the sunset, we sat there and talked about the trail and why we were there. The things we talked about with them reminded us of hanging out and talking with our friend Ryan Clark. We talked about what we do in "real life" and how being on the trail really shows you how trivial "real life" off the trail is. Being on the AT, we decided, is like taking a step back 1,000 years. We don't worry about missing our favorite TV shows, running late for work, paying electric bills, or getting the newest iPhone. Our minds are occupied during a day of hiking with thoughts of a higher quality. When we're not thinking about our daily hiking goal, where we can fill up our water bottles, or when we will stop for snacks we have all the time in the world to think about other things. Mr. Rogers said as he was hiking the other day he could see a city down below the mountain and thought about the people in it. He thought about how most people are so caught up in the day to day grind and monotony (go to work, eat dinner, watch TV, go to sleep, repeat day after day)  that they've forgotten what it's really like to truly enjoy life and live it to the fullest. He was absolutely right. Most people are so caught up with things that really don't matter, like catching the newest episode of Storage Wars or watching a basketball game, that they can't even remember what they ate for lunch the day before. People go through the motions but turn themselves off mentally and dumb down their thoughts with things that are meaningless in the grand scheme of things. It's really sad. People actually talk about things that matter on the trail. We don't ask stupid questions that we already know the answer to, we ask real questions and give real answers. If you pass someone on the trail and say, "how are you?" No one says, "fine!" They say, "well it has been a tough day, I fell today and hurt my ankle. I thought about quitting on that last climb and threw my trekking poles down and started yelling." or they say, "I've never been better, this weather is amazing and I feel great!" I like to think that life off the trail isn't "real life" but that life on the trail is how "real life" should be. We sat on Cheoah Bald and the sky was full of stars, the brightest stars ever. Greer, who is easily excited and has an incredible amount of enthusiasm for the way the world and universe works, yelled and jumped up and pointed when he saw a shooting star, which startled all of us. The next morning I slept in, I woke up and started eating breakfast and packing up my stuff. About 40 minutes went by and I still hadn't seen Cody. Finally he came back by the tent and was super happy and in a great mood. He'd been sitting on a cliff alone for about 45 minutes listening to his iPod and staring at the mountains below. He was grinning and said he'd found his zen. We packed up everything and headed out on Saturday 4-6. We took our time leaving because it was such a great spot. We hiked 8 miles on Saturday to Brown Fork Gap shelter. Before BFG shelter we had to climb the infamous "Jacob's Ladder". It was 500 feet in a 1/2 mile. STRAIGHT UP!! It was brutal. I'd go about 25 feet and have to stop for a second and then start again. That was a hard climb. Once we thought it was done and it had flattened out, we walked awhile more and then we had round 2. We finally cruised into the shelter, set up the tent and ate dinner. We met some other people at the shelter that night. We met The Conversation and Triton. They thru-hiked in 2011 and had come back and did trail magic near the road earlier in the day. They decided to hike in to the shelter and camp for the night afterward for old times sake. Triton was probably in his mid-thirties and was a professor at U of L (I think) and The Conversation was probably mid-twenties and was a Geologist. They had given a Warrior Hiker, Jeff (aka Clown Car), a ride to Fontana earlier in the day because he had hurt his ankle. They filled us in on that, and then told lots of stories from their thru-hike. They decided we both needed trail names before we entered the Smoky Mountains. Triton decided the gender inappropriate name, "Larry Bird" was good for me since I'm from

Indiana. Then he named Cody "Sargent Magic Johnson" and decided together we could be "Team Showtime". We're still undecided on this, haha! We also met St. Croix at that shelter. He's a late twenties(ish) welder from Minnesota who decided since the economy sucks and everyone's trying to climb the ladder but no one's getting anywhere he might as well come hike the AT now. We met Yukon, twenty something from Knoxville, who was really cool too. We also met Boy Scout there. That's not his trail name, he never introduced himself but that's what Cody and I call him. He came hiking up to the shelter with his shirt tucked in, a giant knife on his massive leather belt that has a huuuge metal Boy Scout belt buckle on it. He was...different. The next morning Sunday 4-7, I woke up and found him popping his foot blisters with a giant safety pin at the shelter. Yuck! With well wishes from Conversation and Triton we head out from the shelter. We've got 12 solid miles to our next stop at Fontana Dam. We make great time for most of the day. We have a couple big climbs, but nothing too major. We stopped to filter water at Cable Gap shelter and ran into Old Boy and Greer. They saw a small bear bag that had been snagged in a tree and was stuck. They were hoping it was filled with money and tried climbing the tree to no avail. They finally lassoed it with their bear rope and got it down. They jumped around and high fived each other over their success. They opened it and it was filled with rocks. This didn't bother them, they were still just as happy with their success after about 20 minutes of trying. It was good afternoon entertainment. After a good laugh we continue on our way.  We make it to the top of what we think is our final climb and can see Fontana lake and dam and stop for lunch. We get excited that we're so close. It was really a mental fake out and we kept winding around and down mountains, then back up. At one point we were passed the lake only to wind back around 5 miles of down hill. At this point the down hill climbs are nearly as bad as the up hills because it really hurts our knees and ankles. We finally make it to the lake and call for a shuttle to the lodge to pick up Cody's food resupply. We end up staying at the lodge because they have good hiker rates and the Warrior Hikers food resupply hadn't arrived yet. We take showers in our room and stuff our faces with cheeseburgers and diablo mussels appetizer....heavenly! The Warrior Hikers hang out at the bar for quite awhile and many become inebriated. Today, Monday 4-8, a few are nursing their hangovers. We took the shuttle down to the dam for a little sight seeing. It was pretty cool but the visitor center doesn't open until May. We did some laundry today and picked up some ham, cheese and a loaf of bread to avoid spending more money at the only restaurant here. We are looking forward to going to actual towns instead of these places that have monopolies on everything, one restaurant with high prices, one "general store" with $4 bricks of cheese and $5 packages of ham. Ridiculous!! The Warrior Hike food resupply came today and we are heading out tomorrow. 1 mile down the trail we will enter the Smoky Mountains. We have a good climb tomorrow over 10 miles to the nearest shelter. In the Smoky Mountains you have to stay in a shelter, unless someone has it reserved, in which case you get kicked out and have to stay in your tent near the shelter. It's a little odd and most of us aren't looking forward to it. Most of us plan on tenting near the shelters. Should be in Gatlinburg by Thursday! 

April 3rd and 4th at Nantahala Outdoor Center (NOC)

We took a zero day on the third, the Warrior Hike guys went white water rafting. They seemed to have had a blast. I decided not to go since I'm still fighting this sinus infection/cough and figured the 40 degree water wouldn't be good for me. The guys went to a VFW stop in Andrews NC. Cody decided to hang back with me this time; we had dinner again at River's End restaurant. NOC is nice but since it's 13 miles from Bryson City they have a pretty good monopoly going here. There's one restaurant and an outfitter and "general store" (sodas are $2 each, juice is almost $3 for a regular bottle!!) We haven't been too impressed with this place over all. Apparently the men's restroom and showers haven't been cleaned for days. Someone puked in the men's room and it has just been sitting there, apparently there are band-aids in the shower drains too. The women's restroom and showers aren't as bad, it isn't clean but just has soap and hair all over the place. Our room is in a bunk house and has two sets of bunk beds. Cody and I have one and Steve and Kevin (both former marines) have the other. We woke up to the sound of pouring rain on the corrugated metal roof this morning. After some discussion I decided Cody and I would just pay $20 each and stay again tonight. Everyone else planned on leaving for the trail again (with the exception of Gary, Liz and Joelle because they arrived late last night) but eventually decided it wasn't worth it to be wet and cold. It's been pretty much a non-stop downpour today and the temperature dropped a lot too. I'm glad we ended up staying, much better to be bored staring at each other while being dry and warm instead of being on the side of a mountain in a tent being wet and cold staring at each other. The River's End restaurant is playing the movie Deliverance tonight and having free hot dogs and burgers; at least we will have something to do later. It doesn't start until 8...8:45 or so is my new bedtime so I hope I can stay awake to watch it. It's funny how quickly we've adapted to this sleep schedule. When the sun is up, we are up. When the sun is down, we are down. It's a running joke among hikers that 9 or 10pm is known as "hiker midnight". We will be heading out tomorrow for sure. We've got a 7 mile hike that's all up hill, but at least it won't be in the rain. We're looking forward to getting into the Smoky Mountains in a few days and hopefully renting a cabin in Gatlinburg for our next zero day(s)!!

Pictures! Mountains, trail magic and more!

March 29th through April 2nd

3-29 and 3-30

We got off the trail and found some trail magic at the road. Trail magic is people who set up camp and give trail weary hikers food/drinks, these people are called trail angels and for good reason. They gave us beer, water and bananas. They probably would have given us the shirts off their back if we'd asked for it. We waited awhile in the rain and the bus to town pulls up. The bus is driven by Ron Haven, he owns the Budget Inn in Hiawassee GA and Franklin NC. He also owns the Sapphire Inn and Three Eagles Outfitter in Franklin. Ron also drives the Franklin hiker shuttle and is the "honest, hardworking Republican" City Commissioner for that county (or so the advertisement in the shuttle read).  Ron is quite a character, full of stories and jokes but always willing to help anyway he can. He was the host of Hiker Bash that weekend as well. Franklin was a cute little town, it had a great view of the mountains and a super nice outfitter, Outdoor 76. I was able to find new boots at Outdoor 76. They were incredibly thorough and took about 30 or so minutes measuring and having me try different types of boots. Great shop and I highly recommend it to anyone passing through Franklin. We had dinner one night at Vito's Pizza. Amazing pizza and wings. Vito himself gave us rides home after the restaurant closed. He had to make a few trips but was happy to help. The normal rules of the road didn't seem to apply in Franklin, or any rules really. Ron's shuttle had people standing, one guy almost fell out the emergency exit in the back and Vito loaded people into the back of his hatchback and said, "if we get pulled over say we're delivering pizzas!" The Warrior Hike guys got quilts made by the Smoky Mountains Quilt Works ladies that were presented to them at the American Legion. They were beautiful quilts and each warrior hiker got to pick the one they wanted and they were personalized for them. Our second, and last night in Franklin was Hiker Bash. It was pretty tame when we got there so Cody, Gary, myself and two other Warrior Hikers, Steph and Dick, had some margaritas across the street at a Mexican restaurant. We went back to Hiker Bash and it was in full swing. Our new trail friend, Joe Cool, was pretty wasted singing on the mic and beer pong was in full swing. I had a beer but I'm not out here to party; it was pretty funny watching all the drunk people though. 

Sunday 3-31

This  morning we went to Sally and Don's house for Easter morning breakfast. They are part of the Nantahala hiking club and the American Legion. They were incredibly nice and the breakfast was great. I was feeling under the weather and they immediately offered to let me stay there in their spare room within about 2 minutes of meeting me. I decided to tough it out and we hit the trail. It was rough but about 6.5 miles down the trail we see a bright pink plastic Easter egg laying on a rock next to a stream, it says, "Please open!" I have Cody pick it up and inside there's a piece of paper that says, "Trail magic this way!!" We got excited and kept hiking. Soon we come down a hill and there's a cardboard box filled with oranges and on the box it has an arrow pointing to the left and says, " trail magic!" We obviously follow the sign and soon we come upon a glorious sight. There's a group of around 10 people with two campfires, tarps up to block the rain that will inevitably start pouring. As soon as we get there we're presented with hot dogs and burgers, beer, water, and soda. That is amazing, right? It gets better. Next we find out that they're making us Easter dinner!!! Ham, green beans, mashed potatoes, hard boiled eggs and some lemon cake stuff. It was amazing. They cooked 24lbs of potatoes and two hams! Most of us decided to camp there. I ate and took a 4 hour nap in the tent while it rained. I woke up, ate again then went to bed by 9 while everyone else partied. While I was awake I got to enjoy one of the trail angels playing guitar. He played some Neil Young (Heat of Gold) and then one of our German trail friends, Fresh Coke,( yes, the one from before at the shelter who was in his tighty whiteys peeing in the 15 degree weather) whipped out his harmonica and started playing along.  By the time dinner was over there were probably around 40 hikes at this spot. What had started as a few tents had become a tent city! It was a great way to meet people and see those we had already met along the way. We have a few notoriously noisy and, um, how should I say this, "Rambunctious" warrior hikers. We, and I'm assuming everyone else trying to sleep, were awoken multiple times to yelling and hooting and other noises typically produced by college freshman at their first frat party throughout the night. Overall, not a bad way to spend an evening! 

Monday 4-1

The next morning our trail angels who cooked us dinner made us breakfast too! Eggs, bacon, raspberry pastries and hot coffee! It turns out that these trail angels thru-hiked the AT last year and all met there from their different states to do trail magic. They call themselves the Sunshine Gang! Their trail names were Styxx, Double Back, Blacktop, Papa bear, Big Bear, Camel, 410, Psycho and that's all we can remember. A few were from Kokomo Indiana, pretty random. Cody and I left after breakfast. We were trying to make good time so we could make it to town early the next day so I could see a doctor so we hike 14 miles that day to Tellico Gap. It was a looooong day!! 

Tuesday 4-2

We woke up in Tellico Gap with 8 miles to the Nantahala Outdoor Center near Bryson City where we're staying for 2 nights. It was a long 8 miles, but by 9:15 we'd climbed a huge mountain with an amazing panoramic view. It was by far the best view we've seen. Minus a few ups and downs, the rest of the 6.5 remaining miles were downhill. Parts were very steep and rough on the knees. We tried our best to get here ASAP with hope of making it to a doctor. When we arrived we found out the nearest doctor is 33 miles away. I'm hoping a good night of sleep will do the trick, if not, we will be paying for a shuttle and taking an extra day off. Pretty sure it's just a sinus infection, but we're being precautions so it doesn't turn into something worse. Tomorrow is kayaking day at NOC (Nantahala Outdoor Center) at 11am. Hopefully I'm feeling up to it, but it may not be wise since the water will be really cold. We will be leaving again Thursday and heading toward Fontana Dam. We should be near Gatlinburg in a little over a week. 

March 26-28th

Tuesday 3-26

We left the always classy Hiawassee Budget Inn and headed for Dick's Creek. We got a late start since the shuttles to the trailhead were full so we finally started hiking at 12:30pm. We only hiked 5 miles to Plum Orchard and called it a day. We stayed in a shelter there. It was a 3 level one that held 16 people. We were pretty cold overall that night but we survived. We shared the shelter with 16 people total, and more who camped nearby. 4 of our shelter mates were German. Two speak great English and the other two, not so much. Either way they were all super nice. It was almost dark and very cold, everyone was in their sleeping bags and all of a sudden one of the Germans who doesn't speak much English hops out of his sleeping bag to go pee. He's sleeping on the highest level of the shelter so he has to climb down a ladder. The funny part is that he's in his tiny little briefs so everyone in the shelter starts giggling and thinks he's crazy for going out there with hardly any clothes on. His friend hears everyone laughing and his response is, "Vee argh Zerhman!" (We are German) like it's normal for them to frolic about in the snow and 13 degree weather in nothing but undies. It was pretty funny to slap happy hikers. Not a huge fan of sleeping in shelters personally. It's usually crowded, noisy and most have mice in them but overall that stay wasn't bad. 

Wednesday 3-27 

We left Plum Orchard Shelter and had a decent hike to the North Carolina/Georgia border. Crossed into NC with many of our shelter mates from the night before hooting and hollering as each person crossed into NC. The first climb in NC was AWFUL. It was snow covered, icy, windy and STRAIGHT up. We huffed and we puffed and I thought my legs were going to fall off but we finally got to the top. By the time we reached Muskrat Creek Shelter, 7 miles from the start, I was done for. We set up our tent and laid down. We didn't feel like cooking since we had a late lunch so we ate tuna, some hickory farms cheddar cheese I brought from home and a powerbar. We called it a day after that. Pretty uneventful. We separated from Gary and Liz yesterday morning and didn't see them again that day. 

Thursday 3-28 

Woke up and left Muskrat Creek. It was so cold and our boots were wet from melting snow/slush/mud that they were frozen solid when we put them on. Not a great way to start the day with frozen toes. Once we got moving we finally warmed up. The last few days we've dealt with snow but today was snow and LOTS of ice. Tricky downhill descents are made more difficult when the snow and melt water refreezes at night making parts of the trail a solid sheet of ice. It was slow going this morning with lots of near falls. We climbed up Standing Indian Mountain today and stopped for lunch at the top. It was a 1,000 ft climb in about 2 miles and was pretty easy. Our guidebook says there is a view at the top, but we were disappointed because it was mainly covered in trees. We had about 5 people stop and join us for lunch. Spider was one guy's trail name, but I didn't catch the others. We kept on hiking and made it to Carter Gap Shelter and set up the tent a little before it. We did 13 miles today. I have a very sore ankle and some lovely blisters from hiking with wet feet. Tomorrow we have about 12.5 miles and then we will hitch hike into Franklin NC (10 miles off the trail). Warrior Hike has hotel rooms for us tomorrow night and Saturday night. We are going into town for Hiker Bash, a festival for thru-hikers put on by the town. We are looking forward to showers, washing our clothes and warm beds! This is our last cold night in the tent for awhile. I will also be buying new boots/trail running shoes in town....and a new rain jacket since the zippers don't work on mine. Still haven't caught up with Liz and Gary but we will see them tomorrow in Franklin I'm sure or maybe on the trail before we get to Old 64. 

Heading back to the trail!

We've been stuck in town for multiple days now. The weather is terrible and cold. Our gear is rated for around 25 degrees and warmer, it has been around 13 degrees with the wind chill in town...even colder up in the mountains. We've heard of multiple people being rescued off the mountains in the last few days. Yesterday part of the Warrior Hikers went out and ended up coming back into town last night, their water bottles were frozen and they had some wind burn from exposure. Today we've heard there are about 3-4 inches of snow and that there are also pretty deep snow drifts. We're heading out today and hopefully the weather will be better tomorrow. We have cabin fever pretty bad and Hiawassee isn't the most entertaining town. I would personally prefer sitting it out for another night, but that's not what the group consensus is and the Budget Inn in Hiawassee is pretty shady. We're hoping to arrive in Franklin NC on Friday or Saturday for Hiker Bash. Send warm thoughts our way and enjoy your warm beds for us tonight!