Nan's 2014 Appalachian Trail Journal

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April 9, 2014

Hi, here is a progress report of our Appalachian Trail hike, if you are interested.

If you receive this more than once, please let me know and I will delete the duplicate email address. If you wish not to receive this or any further email about my hike, please let me know and I will remove you from the list.

Carolyn and I have an online journal at www.trailjournals.com/Freckles. It will probably be written from Freckles' (Carolyn's) viewpoint because it is her online journal while these emails will be written by me. The next update will possibly be sent from Pete Oswald's computer.

3/30 - After a cold windy night of little sleep camping at Plum Nelly Campground, Pete, Carolyn, Rich and I had a delicious breakfast at the IHop. I was surprised. Everything was hot and well done. Crisp bacon and a black berry crepe. Um! Um! Than we set off for the trail. Up the mountain on a rough gravel muddy road into a wonderland of hoar frost. It was cold and windy on the summit of Springer Mtn when we were signing in on the trail log.

There were lots of other hikers and family members there to send them off on their adventure. When we were getting our rain gear together Carolyn aka Freckles discovered there were two pair of rain pants and no jacket in the package of frog togs she had just bought. Rich, her husband said he would stop at a Walmart and get her a jacket, which he would than drop at Neels Gap 30+ miles up the trail. He had planned to drop a box there anyway with our resupply items. So after fair wells given we were off.

We camped at Hawk Mtn shelter area and counted 35+ tents along with a rowdy group of young people set up in the shelter with their bottles of Jim Beam and bongs. We prepared for a cold night. In the 30's.

I make our departure sound smooth. I won't mention the many hours of sorting and resorting and food prep, etc, etc. I am here in my tent writing and hoping all the prep will pay off in a relaxed trip. Of course when I sat down to write I realized I did not have a writing implement. Darn, I was sure I had packed one. I found it the next day in my food bag. Just where you would look first.

We made 10 miles today including the 1 mile to and 1 mile from the terminus at Springer summit. The pack felt pretty heavy, but not too bad.

Dinner tonight was Tia noodles with dried fruit and almonds in curry sauce.

3/31 - Out of Hawk Mt Shelter at 9:30 for a 7.7 mile day. Warm and sunny. We met Osprey who will be 74 in Aug. He will be heading for ME also. We also met two very nice young gals from Germany. Tonya and Tina, here after they will be called T&T. Tonya will be hiking for 4 months hoping to get to Harpers Ferry and Tina will be on the trail for 6 months hoping for Katahdin. Also hiking with Hydro and his daughter-in-law, who will be dropping off the trail at Neels Gap. Hydro is shooting for ME. Lots of othesr, but we have been talking to these 4 the most.

Spent the night at Gooce Shelter.

4/1 - April Fool's day. Must be a fool to tackle the GA hills again. I remember saying after the first time I would not hike GA again, but here I am. I was really dragging butt today. The Drag part of the Drag'n fly name. Camping at Lance Creek, the last area that camping is permitted before a 7 mile bear canister required area. There is a $1,000 fine, being enforced, for camping without a bear canister. Today is Betsy Grahams birthday. Freckles and I called her from the top of Ramrock Mt to sing Happy Birthday. Got into camp early because #1 I was tried and #2 I needed to put some seam seal on the seams of my new tent before we got rain. The tent is new and so far I hate it. The floor surface is very slippery and the ground cloth is even slipperier, and of course, the ground is not level. All I do is skate around all night. It is hard to get a good night's sleep. I am going to try putting some seam seal stripes on the floor to get a little traction. Tomorrow is a 7 mile day over Blood Mt elev 4461 and into Neels Gap. There is an outfitter there where newbie backpackers swap out equipment for lighter weight gear. They also decide that all those things they thought they could not live without they really can.

4/2 - Up and over Blood Mt today. Another nice sunny clear day. Up at 5:00 because Hydro was camping right beside me and was up packing. He thought he was being soooooo quite. So, since I was awake, I just got up got up also. Was on the trail at first light. Got into Neels Gap around 1:00, took a hot shower and did some laundry. Headed out to do another 2 or 3 miles. Had planned to camp closer to Neels Gap but could not find the water source so had to keep going until we could find a spring. Left Hydro and T&T behind at Neels Gap. Hydro to take a zero day and get a pack shake down. He is carry 60+ lbs and the girls to get a good night's sleep at the hostel. That very seldom happens at a hostel. I think sleeping in my tent is better even with the slippery floor. The seam seal did help some. Hope they catch up with us, because I am really enjoying their company and we make a good hiking group.

Freckles asked the German girl's what her sir name, Dolde, meant in German and found out it meant Jackass. Tonya did say it could mean something else in another region. Freckles was not impressed.

The new tent set up is going better although it has been pretty windy every night and the tent is like a kite.

Picked up resupply boxes at Neels Gap as planned. Freckles' husband, Rich, had gone shopping for what was to be a rain jacket. When Freckles opened the box she discovered he had bought her another pair of rain pants. Now she had 3 pair of rain pants and no jacket. Maybe we can cut the crotch out of one of the pants and she could put her head thru the crotch and her arms in the leg openings.

Camped at Swain Gap with Bandana Bill and what I think was a psuedo Dr. They were both very strange.

4/3 - Camped at Low Gap, mile mark 43.2. Camp areas still pretty full. There was trail magic at Tesnatee Gap, GA 348. Had an orange and banana. Um Um

4/4 - Up at 5:00. The owls where making a big racket. I think it was a turf war. So we packed up and got on the trail as soon as it was light. About 7:00. Everyone that had iPhones was saying they were seeing a large rain system approaching so we were shooting to get to Blue Mt Shelter, mile mark 50.5 to wait out the storm. Got there around 11:30. Relaxed, ate, drank tea and chatted with the other folk. One young woman ask me to smell her to see if she stank. Ugh. No storm or rain so we headed out for Rocky Mt camping area at mile mark 54.3. T&T where there along with Slow Leak (I'm not sure where that name came from. Can only guess as he is not a young man) and John a section hiker from NM.

Very windy, but no rain as of 7:10 when I am writing this. Site very unlevel and rocky. Another night of "Slip Sliding Away".

Tomorrow will be a tough day. Up to the top of Rocky Mt, 4017, down to Indian Grave gap 3113, up Tray Mt 4430 down to Addis Gap 3113, up Kelly Knob to 4171 for about a 12 mile day. Trying to eat all my food so I don't have to carry it.

4/5 - It was 32 degrees when I got up this morning. The wind blew all night. We did not make it over Kelly yesterday. Got there too late in the afternoon and I was tired, so we camped at Sassafras Gap. Lots of people camping. T&T, Skip, FedEx (both of men we have been hiking and camping close to) and then along came Hydro, with a pack 15 lbs lighter. We were glad to see everyone. There were a bunch of new people, but I didn't get all the names. There was a nice young couple from OR who met while they were in the Army. They were both in the airborne. She was a tiny little thing, maybe 5'4" at most 120 lbs. She said when she was packed up with equipment she weight 230 lbs. so it was more like falling out of the plane than jumping.

Finally a level camp site. Hip Hip Hurray. Maybe a good night's sleep. I made a campfire this evening for the first time. Mainly to burn the garbage some careless hiker had left in the fire pit. Good bear bait. The fire did feel good as the temp was dropping again and the wind was picking up.

4/6 - Very windy night so in spite of the level tent site not much sleep. The new tent does not have a flap that seals the door and does not pitch flat to the ground so the wind pretty much just comes whistling thru all night. Another night I was glad for my 15 degree sleeping bag.

Last night we hung our food bags using the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) method. I first saw this method on a hike in PA last April, used by Bert Martin when we were hiking the Laurel Ridge Trail in PA. I had forgotten how to do it, but Tina (one of the T&Ts) had watched a video and learned to do it. T&T were concerned about bear as there are no bear in Germany. Tonya said one did wander over from Austria one time but someone shot it. Anyhow this PCT method does not involve tying off to another tree after you hang the food over a branch. Instead a stick is tied to the end of the rope that has been treaded through a carbineer. This prevents the food bags from dropping too low between the branch. The thinking being if you tie the rope to a tree to keep the bags up out of reach of the bears they will untie it and lower the bags. Who knew bear where so clever? Anyway back to our misadventure.

It was a cold and windy night.

When we got up in the morning the bags where all tangled and we could not get them lowered. So much for out smarting the bear. It was still dark and we could not see how to get the darn things untangled. So clever Freckles taped a knife to the end of her extended hiking pool and got Hydro (he is very tall) to reach up and cut the line. We tried to catch the bags but of course didn't so there was a big clatter. I think the other campers were glad when we finally got going at about 6:30.

We needed an early start to catch the 11:00 shuttle into Hiawassee and had 6.5 miles to go. Going to spend the night at the Budget Inn for a shower, some laundry and a resupply. Oh and also ice cream and a good breakfast of eggs, bacon and home fries.

4/7 - In Hiawassee had a great breakfast. It was very rainy last night and this morning so glad to be off the trail for a day in the dry. We plan to stay again tonight and get back on tomorrow morning with a 9:00 shuttle. Next stop Franklin after 3 nights and 47 miles. Hydro just stopped by to make plans to meet up for dinner with him and Skip and Slow Leak.

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