Journal Entries

12 March 2019 - Hiked 4.3 miles to Woody Gap on the AT, then 2 miles on GA Highway 60 to restock supplies and spend the night in a real bed.

Our goal in these early days of AT thru-hiking is to limit our miles to an average of 6 to 8 miles per day, before later increasing to an overall average of 14 miles per day.

We witnessed another thru-hiker abandon the trail today. We are now seeing as many day hikers and section hikers as thru-hikers.

We started the day in long pants, but zipped off the legs and shed outer layers down to tee-shirts before lunch time. Sunny and beautiful overall...

12 March - Lunch time atop Ramrock Moutain mile 19

11 March 2019 - Hiked 7.6 miles to Gooch Moutain Shelter in cold, wind-blown rain for much of the day.

This time of year, there are about ten thru-hikers per day starting from the southern ending of the AT. That we know of (there may be more) five of the approximately ten thru-hikers who started the same day as us have already quit their thru-hike attempt. Four who quit are men and one was a woman. Most who quit seemed to have never before hiked on steep mountain trails carrying a heavy backpack in inclement weather.

The views were fantastic today, despite the cold rain. Here at high elevation, we are expecting below freezing temperatures tonight. That means extra things in our sleeping bags to keep them from freezing (water purification filter, phones, and other luxuries).

With only one bar of phone service the past two nights, uploading photos has consistently timed-out/failed. Thus only text updates are happening until we next have a strong phone signal somewhere in the next few days.

10 March 2019 - Camping adjacent to the Hawk Mountain Shelter

Hiked 8.1 miles today, plus a mile to the southern terminus of the AT. Lots of thru-hikers were northbound on the trail today. There was a little rain in the morning, but by the afternoon it was time for no jackets and shorts. Overall it was a great first day of hiking.

We saw our first thru-hiker quit the trail. He was from New York and fell twice during the approach trail to the mile zero start. He was trying to hike without trekking poles and his one wooden hiking stick slipped on the wet rocks on trail during the rain. His left knee was bleeding quite a bit and he said he believed he was going to need stitches, and that he had decided his thru-hike attempt was over. He caught a shuttle ride off the trail at mile one.

The oldest thru-hiker hiker at our shelter campground was “Gigi” from Indiana. She’s 70 years old and her husband was born in Decatur Illinois, our hometown. Other thru hikers are from Michigan, Chicago, Ohio, Louisiana, Florida and elsewhere.

Just after 6 PM, a hiker started yelling, “Help, Help, Fire!” Instantly, at least ten hikers ran to her tent with bottles of water and doused the burning leaves at the entrance of her tent. Dry leaves had blown up against her gas stove and caught fire, trapping her in her tent. She said now she now knows not to cook just outside her tent door and also to not cook on the ground near dry leaves on a windy day. Fortunately her tent was unharmed.

We ate mashed potatoes and something similar to Rice-A-Roni for dinner, yummy :-).

Mile Zero - Our first steps on the AppalachianTrail

Received our AT hiker tags (numbers 693 and 694) at the Amicalola Falls Visitor’s Center. Spending the night in the Amicalola Falls Lodge before starting northbound tomorrow morning, 10 March 2019.

3/1 I am headedfrom Neels Gap Hostel (pictured) to Low Gap Shelter which is about a 12 mile hike. We’ve already seen some folks drop out. A couple in their 50’s didn’t think the trail would be so hard and dropped at Neels Gap. Around 8:30 last night a young man stumbled into the hostel in bad shape. He’d been hiking in the dark for a few hours. He was dehydrated and vomiting. We gave him Gatorade and some leftover pizza. He seems like a nice kid but you never who will keep going another day. Today and 3/15 are the busiest start days on the AT. Someone said that 60 people were starting today. That’s unofficial because when you register it doesn’t mean that you’ll start on that day. Still, that is a lot of hikers setting out in this journey. I do hope that since we are one week ahead it won’t get too crowded or that we’ll be competing for tent sets, hostel bunks or a place at the shelter.

It is finally raining. Freezing rain forecasted for the northern counties and so I am off this morning in search of a gullywasher. If there is one piece of gear that I am still on the fence about it is The Packa. I love the concept but it's twice as heavy as say the OR Helium rain jacket. I will return in about 6 hours either loving it or hating it.

http://www.thepacka.com/

A few curious people have asked, “What's up with the Gumby thing?" Well, there is a story in that. When I was young, I had a Gumby companion and it went everywhere with me. I was on a camping trip with my Father and I made Gumby a raft and set him down in a fast-moving river. Some accounts were that it was a Class V and based on other events that I can remember more clearly from my childhood, I would say this is accurate. As Gumby was swept from my hands, my father took chase but couldn’t keep up with Gumby and his raft. He was gone. Lost forever. To help ease the pain, my family has gifted me many Gumby items over the years including ties, socks, key chains, snuff boxes, handkerchiefs, etc. So, I suppose the name is a fitting tribute to my brave Gumby friend.

This is the first entry in a new journal that I will use to document the places I'll visit, the people I meet and any thoughts or aspirations that I'd like to share as I trek northbound along the 2100 mile footpath known as the Appalachian Trail. I'll begin my hike on February 25 at Springer Mountain, GA. I'll travel to Atlanta and meet Donnie and his wife Mary (photo attached) at the North Springs MARTA station. Our first stop will be at Amicalola State Park to sign-in and pick up my Thru-Hiker Badge before heading up the fire road to the Springer Mtn parking lot. From there, I'll hike back to the plaque at the southern terminus , sign the registry, and depending on the time, stay at the Springer Mountain Shelter or push on to Stover Mountain about 3 miles to the north. I do remind myself that these are just plans. As the poet Robert Burns wrote, "the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry" and so to hike to a rigid schedule would likely dilute the experience and allow all that is new and unknown to go unnoticed.