Halloween

DONE!!!

in costume

Day 137

Today I had a nice easy hike planned followed by a nap then a full moonlight night hike to fontana. Last night was the actual full moon but the sky was cloudy when I went to bed. It cleared up in the middle of the night so I'm sure Trashcan had a great full moon hike when he left at 4:30. The hiking today was amazing. Perfectly blue skies with not a cloud in sight. When I got to thunderhead mountain I saw this:

as I settled down fire lunch I heard some people singing on the next mountain top. It seems that is rocky top which is a fight song for the university of tennessee. So some tenn fans were up there celebrating their win. Which worked out for me since they hooked me up with food. Here are a few more pics from rocky top:



When I got to the shelter where I planned my nap there were already people there. I should have just gone and set my tent up but tried and failed to nap. So I didn't get to sleep till 8 which meant I didn't go night hiking at 9:30.

Day 141

Got up late this morning cause of how cold it was. That was fine since I had a really short day planned into franklin. On my way there I ran into a trail maintainer that offered me a ride into town. He also showed me a neat little cave that was an old mica mine. I should have hiked on but there was a very slim chance if snow so I decided to stay in town.

Day 140

I got another late start as seems to be the norm these days. I was only doing an easy 17 today so that was no big deal. What was an issue was the weather. I don't think it got above 40 all day and there was a 10+ mph wind. It was very chilly. The initial climb out if the valley was back to the easy switchbacks and I made good time. At the top there was a lookout tower with great 360° views. From there it was a simple ridge walk to Mike's shelter. I decided I had to spend the night at the shelter that ended mike's hike.

Day 139

Got up fairly early so I would have more time at the NOC. Trooper and #2 were already up and finishing breakfast. The hike was fairly uneventful but there was actually a steep hill. For the first time since nh my calves were burning. At the top was a nice open field with a great view of the nantahala river valley. When I got to the NOC it was packed. It seems there is a train that brings in tourists and almost none of them were staying. I ended up having a entire bunkhouse to myself.

Day 138

My full moon hike worked sorta. I ended up staying at the shelter until 4 am instead of hiking on at 10 pm. The folks in the shelter I was trying to nap at tried to let me sleep but with 6 of them there and the sun still up it wasn't going to happen. When I got going it was really nice. The moon was bright enough for me to follow the trail but not bright enough to avoid the obstacles so I had to use my headlamp. When I made it to fontana the local resort offers a shuttle to their store and restaurants. It took them an hour and a half to get me. I was freezing the whole time. There was a breeze coming off the lake which made it really cold. Once got up to the resort I did my resupply and had a nice lunch. It was only 1 so I got a ride back to the trail and hiked on. I eventually reached a camp spot where there were other sobos! I had met trooper and#2 up in the shenandoahs when they were slack packing. We hung out talked story, it was nice having company.

50 miles left

In georgia with 50 miles left. I'll try to fill out the rest of the days shortly. I should have more time since I have 4 days to do the 50 miles in.

Day 136

After getting sporadic amounts of sleep due to the very loud snoring I got up at 5 am and started hiking. It was very much still night and even though it was a full moon there was too much cloud cover for it to do more than show the outline of the trail. Which was a good thing cause about a half hour before first light my headlamp ran out of batteries. I was up on a very narrow knifes edge ridge with 1000 ft drops on each side with no light except a little moon glow through the clouds. I think that was the most dangerous thing I've done on this trip. It was still very pretty and I had wanted to do a full moon hike during the trip but I am going to try it again sunday when there are no clouds and I have a headlamp. The main reason I kept hiking is so I could make it to gatlingburg where I had a box waiting with my rain jacket. I made it to newfound gap which was where I could get a hitch to town by 9:50 but had no luck getting a hitch. There were literally hundreds of people up there and not a single one gave me a ride. The post office closed at 11 so I just told them to mail my jacket back and hiked on. I was done with the smokies. I just didn't want to deal with all the people. Still it was a fairly nice overcast day and I had a great 360° view from clingmans dome along with a constant stream of tourists. I hiked the nice graded paved half mile 300 ft. approach path the tourists had to hike to get to the visitors center thinking it might have hot food. It didn't. I did get some replacement batteries there so it wasn't a total waste of my time. It was also amusing breezeing past the tourists on the way back up without really trying while they were panting and stopping due to how hard it was for them to be walking and not driving. Yes I'm still a but mad a not getting a ride down to town from people like this. I eventually get to a shelter feeling like a badass southbounder having dusted everyone I saw and did 24+ over the tallest mountain on the trail. Then Trashcan walks in. He had just done 38. Ego = crushed. Just goes to show that there is always someone out there bigger, badder, faster than you.

Day 135

After getting up early to say bye to Grommet who had to catch an 8 am shuttle I hiked up into the smokies. I was a very unhappy man. The day was starting out just like the whites. Nothing but cold and clouds. I very angrily hiked the 2500 feet and 4.5 miles up into the smokies in and hour and fifteen min. Entirely to my surprise when I got to the top it was the opposite of the whites. Instead of hiking into the clouds I had hiked above them. There was a fire tower at the top of the mountain where I got some great 360° views of the tips of the smokies jutting out of the clouds like islands in a sea of white. The rest of the day was a nice easy ridge walk in the sun. Very much not what I was expecting.

Day 134

Woke up to a beautiful misty day. Not wet enough to get my tent wet but enough to keep me from having a view on max patch. It was supposed to have great views of the smokies. I lazed around in my tent for a bit and heard someone walk by around 8. Figuring it was one of the folks from the packed shelter from the night before I pretended I was still asleep. Turns out it was an '09 hiker, Grommet, that was out for a few days to start getting her trail legs back in preparation for a pct hike next spring. When I caught up to her we hiked and chatted the rest of the day. It was really nice having company again. Turns out the government had just reopened and I could legally hike though the smokies. So all the weeks of worry were of no point. I wasn't really worried since I had heard from other sobos that the rangers were ignoring through hikers and only kicking out cars and weekenders. But it was still nice to have my 20$ pointless scrap of paper.

Day 133

Head a great day heading out of hot springs. I had planned on doing a fairly short 14 mile day but when I got to the shelter it was only 4 so I decided to hike the 5 miles to the next one. The shelter was a big 10 person style with lots of tent sites and it was full. When I got there I just didn't feel like dealing with that many people. So I hiked another mile to the base of max patch mountain. Definitely the right call I had a beautiful sunset.

Day 130

Was a chilly and wet morning. Which was unfortunate since I was going over big bald mtn. It was supposed to have some nice views. There were some bird watchers up there catching and tagging birds. Not much happened the trail was fairly crowded I guess a lot of people wanted to go help with the bird tagging.

Day 129

Got dropped off at Erwin and saw hatterfox again. Didn't think I'd see him again but it seems he yellow blazed to erwin. Can't blame him after his 4000+ miles this year. The day was rather nice. I was just doing an easy hike today. Saw the section hikers that hooked me up with beer one last time.

Day 128

What a small world we live in. That or I'm being stalked. Rob offered to slack me down to erwin and let me stay another night but he was having one of his old 2009 hikers come stay with him for the weekend. The hike was an easy 20 miles without a pack. With some nice views on the way. I ran into the beer magic section hikers again and they said they'd have more beer stashed for me tomorrow. When we got back to Rob's place his old hiker were there. Turns out I had met the guy before. When I did my zero up at the 501 shelter a guy showed up who was driving to college. Now 3 months later the same guy shows up! Was a very cool coincidence.

Day 131

Today made up for the poor views of the last few days. I got some great views on big butt mountain. The highlight though was walking along firescale ridge. The ridge was a half scramble made interesting by the damp from last nights rain. It was fairly easy since there were stairs on all the parts that might have been difficult. Right after the ridge there was supposed to be a firetower but I didn't see the side trail. The rest of the hike was fairly uneventful except for all the hunters and their dogs running around looking for bears. I did receive some trail magic again when I ran into some trail maintainers that had hiked firescale and gave me some chips and took my trash.

Day 132

I just had to do an easy 11 miles into hot springs with most of that being downhill. The day started out foggy so I didn't get to see the view from the firetower, but it cleared up for my approach to hot springs so I got some nice views of the local river. The place I was staying in town was known for its gourmet cooked vegetarian meals. Unfortunately since I was the only one staying the weren't cooking dinner tonight. They did say they would do breakfast tomorrow though. I picked a bad day to goto the hot springs Tuesdays they give a 50% discount to the locals so it was booked by the time I tried to go there.

Day 127

I got up late, well I got up at 7 but didn't leave my sleeping bag till 930. That was fine since I was only planning on hiking 17 miles. I didn't even do that much. Unlike yesterday there was no views today, it was foggy and overcast all day. When I was 2 miles from the shelter I was going to stay at I ran into a guy doing trail magic. Surprisingly it was a guy I had met back up in dalton ma. He had told me to keep an eye out for his van down here in tn and there it was. It seems he used to run a hiker hostel in dalton before moving down here, one I had heard of along with him before, and was now giving trail magic out and offering a place to stay for hikers. I took him up on his offer and am glad I did. The guys name is rob bird and is just a super nice guy, chain smokes but I can put up with that for a free warm bed, hot shower and clean clothes.

Day 126

What a great day. It was a bit chilly sleeping in the hostel by myself but the breakfast was amazing. I got a ride down to roan and picked up my 15° bag from the post office and mailed my other one home. I also got some gloves but that was it for winter/fall gear that I wasn't already carrying. After resupply I finally got on the trail at 11. No big deal I only had to do 14 to get to the roan mtn shelter, the highest one on the trail. The hike up to the ridge leading to roan was long but well switchbacked. So I got to the top if the first mountain, humpback, which happened to be a bald so I was treated to 360° views with perfect blue skies as far as the eye could see. This scene repeated itself 5 more times that day. It was fantastic. Along the way I stopped off at the only privy for 150 miles south of damascus just because it was there. Roan mtn shelter is the highest shelter on the trail wiry two stories and four walls. It was rather nice and stayed warm even though it was in the 30s. Earlier in the day I had passed the section hikers from the hostel and they told me they had stashed a beer for me at a parking lot right before the shelter.

Day 125

The weather was perfect. Taking the zero was the right choice. To make up for it I decided to do a 25 into Roan. I had some great views on the way. When I got to Roan I stayed at another hostel. I had heard this one has the best breakfast on the trail. I was the only one in the hostel but there was a pair of section hikers that I had passed on the trail staying on the BandB. When I got to the hostel they handed me a beer, very nice people.

Day 124

While not a hurricane the weather was cold and wet. I just couldn't get motivated to go hike in it when I could hang out and listen to stories told by bob peoples all day. So I took a zero.

Day 123

Thanks to the long day yesterday I had a nice simple 18 mile day to get to a hostel. I planned to hit a hostel since the remnants of hurricane karen was supposed to roll in tonight. The 18 miles was easy, beautiful, and annoying at the same time. The annoying part was the hardest part of the day was a stupid 7 mile hike up over a 1700 ft. pointless up and down at the end of the day.
The pretty part was the lake, dam, morning view, and waterfall.
I hadn't planned on staying at bob peoples place, I just wanted to stop by and say hi before going to a different hostel that sold ice cream. When I got to bob's place there was a guy there, fat chap, helping bob out. Chap had been the caretaker at the hikers welcome in nh just south if the whites. He told me that an old hiker had stocked the fridge with free pizza and ice cream. That plus free shower and laundry and a $6 a night donation and I decided to stay. Right at dark hatterfox hiked in and I threw the last free pizza into the oven for him.

Day 122

I had planned to do a 24 mile hike to a spring with an established campsite. The hike was easy and tiring at the same time. The trail was nice dirt the whole way. But it was full of pudding. I'd go up 100-200 feet and then back down. All day long. After about 21 miles I reached a nice apple tree ate a couple apples and drank the rest of my water. That was a mistake. The spring I had planned to camp at was dry. That meant I had to hike 3.5 more miles to get to the next water source. By the time I got there it was full dark and I was tired. Luckily there was a section hiker there who gave me a liter. I then had to hike .3 miles down a very steep hill to get water. On the bright side I was at a shelter with a very nice view.

Day 121

I don't think I mentioned it before but my left foot had been hurting badly for a few days now. Part of the reason I took a zero was to give the foot a chance to feel better. It didn't so I went to the local clinic to get it looked at. The nurse wasn't able to determine if it was a strain or broken so she sent me off to the next town to get an x-ray. Which was a problem since it was twelve miles away. After debating for a while I finally said screw it and decided to hike on. I had already done 100 miles on it so it wasn't going to stop me. On the way out of town I ran into rj's father. It seems rj had just reached town and they came over to see him. They were staying at the town I needed to goto to get the x-ray done.So I got a ride there with them. After getting the x-ray done they even drove me back to damascus. It took a few hours for the clinic to get the results but luckily it turns out it was just a strain. It was now 5 pm but I didn't want to spend another night on town so I hiked out. I did five miles up to the ridge and called it a day.

Day 120

I took a zero today. Not much exciting hung out around town. Had to switch hostels since three place I stayed last night is closed while the owner goes to a wedding. The local outfitter, Mount Rogers outfitters, did some surgery to my bag. The frame had poked through the fabric of the pack. The outfitter see a patch over it. Rest of the day was lounging around and doing blog updates.

Day 119

Today was the day. I got up at 6 and hiked my first marathon, actually 27.8 (maybe there was a reroute so I don't know how much was lost but it was less than a mile so marathon accomplished), into the town of damascus. Damascus is an infamous hiker town that holds a huge party every year for the nobos. They love hikers in the town. The hike to town was uneventful. Lots of nice easy trail with stretches of hiking along a bike path so it was even nicely graded and groomed. One of the first people I met in town handed me a token I could take to the local bar and get a beer for a buck. It seems va won't let you give beer away for free so they have to charge a buck. I like damascus already and only been in town for 10 minutes.

Day 118

What an amazing day. Perfect weather while hiking over one of the nicest spots on the trail, grayson highlands. My plan was to do a nice easy day to wise shelter which was right before the highlands than go over them in the morning with the sun rising. That didn't work out. There were signs everywhere saying wise shelter had a very aggressive bear. I had heard that the bear had been caught but didn't run into anyone all day that could confirm or deny that. So once I got to wise shelter, 500 mile left point btw, and it was only 5 and there was only 5 miles to the next shelter I decided to just push on. I had some fantastic views up there with the evening light. The ponies which the highlands are famous for completely ignored me. But I did get some good pictures of some friendly baby cows. I made it to the shelter right at dark and there was only two other people there. This was another reason I had planned to start at wise the shelter I spent the night at is only 1 mile from mt. rogers which is virgina's highest point so it's usually very busy.

Day 117

Today was going to be a nice easy day after a quick run into town. The town has a bus that runs three times a day up to the shelter. So I got on the early bus resupplied and hiked 10 miles to the next shelter. On the bus was another hiker I hadn't met before, hatterfox, that was doing a yo-yo. He had started in january summited on june 13th and was hiking back to springer.

Day 116

After surviving the night all alone at the darth maul shelter I got up super early, 6 am, so I could make the hike to Atkins where the barn resturant was serving a sunday buffet between 11-2. The hike was easy and uneventful and I covered the 14 miles by 1230. After eating a filing but dissapointing lunch I decided I had enough time to make it to the partnership shelter which is supposed to be one of the nicest shelters on the trail. Along the way I got treated to a beautiful view.

The shelter didn't disappoint. It's a huge two story deal with a shower and hot water. Also the main reason I wanted to make it here was to complete my trifecta of staying at shelters where you can order pizza from. I wasn't even hungry but it had to be done.

Day 115

Started the day out with a nice hike up a hill chatting with JJ. After a bit he started to fall further and further behind. I didn't think much of it since he had wanted to make it to the barn in the morning with me. That change once I got on top of chestnut knob. It was gorgeous. Half bald with a shelter on it. I knew jj was going to stop here based on his new philosophy. The next three miles of hiking was just as nice. Walking along an old orchard with perfect views of the east. I kept hiking cause I really wanted to make it to atkins and the barn for the all you can eat sunday buffet. I had planned to hike to a camp spot rather than a shelter since I had to make the barn by 1, but the last shelter, knot maul shelter, had been given the nick name darth maul shelter so I had to let the geek in me win and camp there.

Day 114

Due to rj needing to goto atkins for a maildrop I knew today would be our last day hiking together. The trail was a typical va trail, nice and easy with few views. At the end if the day I had a surprise. JJ who I has first run into in maine then again in pa was sitting on a bridge by a pretty little stream. I hadn't expected to see him again since he had been doing 25+ when I last saw him. It seems all those long days finally wore him out and he decided that he wasn't getting the full trail experience since he was just blazing past it so fast. We hiked to the jenkins shelter that had appearantly had an aggressive bear during the nobo season but wasn't an issue now. I hung my stuff from a tree just to be safe.

Day 113

My plan was to do an easy 21 to the next shelter but rj was feeling the strain and was talking about stopping early at what was supposed to be a beautiful waterfall with some nice tent sites. The trail was extremely easy and rather boring. It was very well maintained and had some great rhodandrum tunnels but that was it. Rj had such an easy time with the trail as well that he ended up hiking to the shelter as well.

Day 112

We had a nice short day planned. 10 miles south of pearisburg was a must visit hostel in the trail called the Woods Hole Hostel. The hike there was as easy as it sounds with some ok views to boot. The hostel is on a small farm that is known for is local organic delicious meals. You can choose to opt out and rj was planning on doing that to save some cash but after hearing what's for dinner he changed his mind and opted in for dinner and breakfast. The meal was everything it was hyped up to be.

Day 111

We had a nice easy 20 mile hike to Pearisburg lined up for the day and for once it actually was nice and easy. We started out hiking through an old farm medow lined with all kinds of trees, in particular there were some really delicious apple trees.

 After a while we hit another mountain top with a meadow with some great views.

There was even a shelter up on that hill.

The final mile into Pearisburg was by far the worst maintained stretch of the trail. It was completely overgrown and had parts where it was easier to bushwack our way around the trail then to hike on it.
Once we made it into Pearisburg we stopped off at the local mexican restaurant for dinner while waiting to hear back from the town's church hostel. The guide book says it closes in late September and was 3 miles away so we didn't want to walk there to find out it was closed. We ended up not hearing back from them so we just split a room at the local motel. Which actually worked out well since the manager there did our laundry for us for free.

Day 110

The day started out overcast but we got really nice later. Even being overcast there were some good views.

Although I had to climb over a gap that was a bit to much for RJ to get them

A bit later in the day I saw this very delicately balanced tree hanging across the trail.

I have no idea how it managed to land in such a position but it seemed stable enough. 

The day cleared up so we got some really nice views.

Toward the end of the day we headed to a local trail angel's place which you had to ride a zipline across a stream to get to. 

I did it all wrong. It seems there was a clip you were supposed to attach your pack to rather then wear it across like I did.

  Ah well I made it across without falling but I had some close calls.

We decided to hike to the next shelter rather then stay at the trail angels since RJ couldn't find a convenient place to setup his hammock.

Day 109

We woke up to a nice dry day and decided to do what on paper looked like an easy 23 mile day. The guy who makes the guide book needs to add some way to show how good/bad each section of trail is. Our easy 23 miles had us doing 5 miles walking on sideways sloping granite, with nice views

 but really hurts the feet.
Then later in the day we were hiking along some rocky almost scree rock for 4 miles. Which again really hurts the feet and slows us down a lot. Toward the end of the day we got to the Keefer oak, which is the 2nd largest oak on the trail. Here is a picture of the two big oaks, the Dover oak up in NY and the Keefer oak with my pack and poles as a size reference.

 Keefer Oak

Dover Oak

Day 108

After hitting the local outfitters to find RJ a new sleeping bag, his old one was a 40 degree bag and it's been below 40's several times and we have the higher peaks ahead of us. We got back on the trail to another foggy and wet day.

That made going up the "dreaded" dragon's tooth more interesting. The dragon's tooth is a fairly steep scramble over some granite that the NoBos had warned us about as being a dangerous and scary spot that we needed to watch out for. I'll grant them that it was an actual scramble but there were so many foot and hand holds that even in the pouring rain it was easy. Unfortunately due to the weather I didn't take the .1 side trail to see the fog obscuring the dragon's tooth itself or take any pictures of the water climb. Due to the late start, rocky and wet trail and cold weather we decided to call it a day after 12 miles at the first shelter.

Day 107

We woke up to a very foggy day.

Which was really unfortunate since we were going up over McAfee's Knob. McAfee's Knob is one of the prettier and most photographed spots on the trail. Its got this great overlook that makes it look like you are standing on a rock in the sky. Unfortunately due to the fog I missed that overlook. I went to the one right before it and took this fun picture 

Then hiked on cause I didn't want to waste my time looking at fog at the iconic spot. In my defense I didn't know it was the iconic spot at the time. At the bottom of the hill RJ's family was there waiting for us. They took us to a local legendary restaurant called the homeplace which has an AYCE southern style dinner. It was delicious. After that they put us up in a motel room. It was so nice getting a hot shower and clean laundry again. 

Day 106

On to Daleville, civilization and the real sign I was in the south... Bojangles. Bojangles is a chain chicken fast food joint that is only in the south. They make some excellent chicken, biscuits, fries and true southern style sweet tea. On my way into town I ran into this little guy who scurried up a tree when it saw me. I think it's a raccoon but could never get a good enough look to properly identify it.

After pigging out on Bojangles and resupplying RJ and I decided to hike on to the next shelter which was only 10 more miles over flat or medowy terrain.

Day 105

RJ and I decided to do a 21 mile day to set ourselves up for a hike into Daleville tommorrow. There were a lot of really nice views... from the blue ridge parkway. I don't think we had a view all day that wasn't on one of the road overlooks. Either way they were still very pretty. Here are a couple of them

There was a very neat section of the trail right next to the road where you can see the old school construction they had to do to get the blue ridge parkway up and over some of these mountains.

Day 104

From Glasgow I had a 24.8 mile day to hike to catch up with RJ. Luckily getting a hitch out of town was much easier than in. I think that had more to do with the time of day since I caught a ride into and out of town by guys heading to/from work. First things first I got to cross the "longest foot-use only bridge on AT"

with some great views of the James River.

In fact there were great views all day long. I had lunch at the Thunder Ridge Overlook.

Next up was a walk through the Guillotine

Then I got to climb up Apple Orchard mountain where the FAA had some weird tower that was shaped like a giant soccer ball.

At the end of the night I caught back up to RJ so it all worked out timing wise.

Day 103

After the long day yesterday I had a nice easy 10 mile hike to Glasgow where I would resupply and spend the day. It was yet another beautiful day and I got to see an owl chilling in a tree on my way to town.

I had very bad luck getting a ride into town. I got to the road around 12:30 and didn't get a hitch into town until 3:30. It didn't help that there was a minor thunderstorm that rolled through and got me and everything around a little wet. Glasgow was a cool very hiker friendly town, they have a little shelter setup with hot showers that hikers can stay in. Unfortunately I got there on a monday when both the restaurant and convenience store grill were closed. So I got to eat a pair of hotdogs for dinner instead of at an Italian restaurant.

Day 102

Wow I hadn't realized how far back it was since I last updated this. I've had really bad reception lately and have had other priorities when hitting towns. I know excuses excuses. Either way I'll do my best to get caught up now.
RJ had packed enough food for him to hike to Daleville without needing a resupply. I was feeling weaker then him so I had planned on resupplying at Glasgow. In order to make the timing work so I could keep hiking with RJ I decided to do a 21 mile day and head to Glasgow tommorrow while RJ just did a 16 today and an 18 tommorrow. This would just leave me 3 miles behind him after a town stay and resupply. Hiking out of the shelter I noticed something that I had missed the previous night... a hornets nest right next to the trail

 They were still sleeping or frozen since it was freezing again last night. The day turned into a perfect hiking weather and up on Cold mountain it was actually rather nice and I got some really nice views.

RJ and I split up at the next shelter which was a really pretty one right next to a stream. I had planned on only doing a 21 mile day and camping at a reservoir, but when I got there there were signs everywhere saying no camping. So I hiked on to the next shelter.