Caminar

10-11-09 Katahdin

2009-10-14T20:22:00.000-07:00

Monson, Maine

2009-10-01T10:40:00.000-07:00

Made it to Monson yesterday, and heading out in just a few hours. We're about to hit the "100 Mile Wilderness" which is not really as remote as it sounds. ONLY 114 to go though! Ziggy and I are still just pluggin away at the miles but it really is starting to feel like we are on the home stretch. Talk to ya'll soon!

Stratton, Maine

2009-09-25T09:28:00.001-07:00

I'm just getting ready to leave Stratton, ME. Its 188 miles to Katahdin from here, so I should be done within 2 weeks! I've been hiking with my friend Ziggy for quite awhile, and we just keep pluggin away at these miles. Southern Maine has been TOUGH to say the least. Hope everyone reading this is doing well and I hope to see you all soon!

9-4-2009 Fri - About to hit the Whites!

2009-09-04T13:38:00.000-07:00

Just got to Glencliff, NH. Haven't had as much time as I would like to get this blog updated, I really wanna get all my pictures up and get all my entries in, but just can't find the time. Trying to get through the White Mtn's before it gets real cold, tomorrow I'm about to go over the first mountain above treeline (and above 4000ft), Mt Moosilauke. I've heard I'm entering one of the most beautiful sections, so I'm excited about that!

8-22-2009 Sat

2009-09-01T07:26:00.000-07:00

Start point: Bennington, VT
End point: Story Spring Shelter
miles hiked: 19
Views from the firetower atop Mt Glastenbury

me and Blink in the firetower

Kid Gore Shelter, stopped here for a break

8-21-2009 Fri

2009-08-31T12:13:00.000-07:00

Start point: Congdon Shelter
End point: Bennington, VT

miles hiked: 4.3

Blink was out first, then Beeman and Willow, then I finally made it out. When I got down to VT9 I caught up to Beeman and Willow. We only stood there for a minute or two and then a regional bus pulled up to drop someone off, so we were able to get a ride to town without having to hitch. I was just going to go into town to eat and re-supply, but after I got all my groceries it started pouring. I tried to wait it out but it was supposed to be raining all night. Just before I went in the grocery store a guy had told me he has space at his place for hikers if I knew anyone who needed a place to stay in town, so I headed over there. Turns out it was a couple named Arla and Chris who have a place right near downtown. They had a really nice barn/garage that Chris had made into his man room, with a pool table, dart board and couch, so thats where they let the hikers sleep. They are also nice enough to let us in their house to shower and Arla even set up the internet on her laptop and let me use that. Really great folks. Dah Wah He was there and he and I played pool and darts for a few hours while it rained. Beeman eventually showed up and stayed as well.

8-20-2009 Thur - Welcome to Vermud, er I mean Vermont!

2009-08-31T12:06:00.001-07:00

Start point: Sherman Brooks Primitive Campsite

End point: Congdon Shelter

miles hiked: 12.3

Slept in reeeallly late. I got up early but just decided to stay in my tent and went back to sleep. That went on till around 10am, then I sat there and read for awhile. Finally got out around noon. After a few miles of tough (well it was tough on me) climbs I passed into Vermont. Not a whole lot of excitement today other than that, finally made it to the shelter and hung out at the fire with Beeman and Willow again, as well as Blink. We all were on the opposite side of the creek from the shelter tenting out.

8-19-2009 Wed

2009-08-31T11:58:00.000-07:00

Start point: Cheshire, MA - St Mary of the Assumption Church

End point: Sherman Brooks Primitive Campsite

miles hiked: 16.4

Climbed Mt Greylock today, actually had some better weather today than the last time I climbed it. It was also waaay easier climbing it going northbound, further proof that going southbound is never good. When I got to North Adams I got a pizza at Dominos and took it to the park, got there just as it started raining. Luckily they had some covered areas in the playground, so I ate there and waited for it to stop. When I finally got to the campsite I found Beeman there, and he introduced me to his friend Willow. They had a little fire goin and we just sat around talking till dark.

8-18-2009 Tues

2009-08-21T19:16:00.000-07:00

Start point: Dalton, MA
End point: Cheshire, MA - St Mary of the Assumption Church
miles hiked: 9

Didn't leave Dalton, MA till late in the afternoon. When I got to Cheshire it was around 8pm and I went by the church hoping someone was around, it said in my guidebook you could stay there but must talk to the pastor first. Luckily someone was just leaving when I got there and I was able to talk to the pastor, he let me in the parish hall and showed me around. Only 1 other hiker was there so we each got our own little room. The pastor was very nice and I was amazed at how generous they were to let us stay there.

8-17-2009 Mon

2009-08-21T19:13:00.000-07:00

Didn't get back to Dalton till late, missed the early bus out of NYC so I had to wait there till 5pm when the next bus left.

8-15 & 8-16 - Sat and Sun

2009-08-21T19:11:00.000-07:00

Started feeling better Sat afternoon, and by Sun I felt back to normal. Had a great time at the wedding and it was really great to get to see my friends, alot of whom I hadn't seen in a really long time.

8-14-2009 Fri

2009-08-21T19:01:00.000-07:00

Well there is really no good time to get Lyme disease, but I got it right before my trip I had planned to the NYC area for my friends wedding, so basically the worst timing ever. Rob dropped me off at the bus stop in Pittsfield where I caught a bus to NYC, and my plan was to get to a clinic as soon as I got there. My friend Stacy (thanks Stacy!) helped me find a place and I was able to navigate the transit system to Hoboken, NJ to an urgent care clinic. They were great, got seen fairly quickly, the doctor told me what I already knew (yep, Lyme disease) and gave me a prescription for the antibiotic doxycycline.

8-13-2009 Thur

2009-08-21T18:46:00.000-07:00

Since I didn't hike yesterday I finally broke down and agreed to my first ever south-bound slack-plack. Lots of people do these all the time, I never have though, just seems weird to me. My whole hike is north, why would I do ANY miles southbound. But anyway, the premise is this; you get dropped off north of where you are, in this case 23 miles north of Dalton in North Adams, you leave your pack behind and with a small day-pack containing just some snacks and water you hike back to your starting location. Everyone loves it because you can really fly since you are carrying hardly any weight. The next day you get dropped off up in North Adams again and continue like normal from there.
I got about 5 miles into the hike, at which point I was at the top of Greylock Mtn, then called it quits. I felt terrible, had no energy and a pounding headache. Got a ride down the mountain from some kids and took a bus back to Dalton. Turns out I had a fever, and I was pretty certain all these were symptoms of Lyme disease. I had a pretty big red spot on my hip that showed up maybe a day ago, but up until then I was hoping it was just some kind of spider bite, or another insect, anything but a bite from a deer tick.

8-12-2009 Wed

2009-08-21T18:25:00.000-07:00

I was gonna hike out after I got my ipod charged, then it started raining. Then it kept raining off and on all day and I didn't feel like hiking out in the rain. Watched "Enemy at the Gates" and then we all went to the Misty Moonlight diner in Pittsfield, MA. They have an omelette called the Godzilla omelette, made with 12 eggs and 12 fillings, with home fries and toast. If you finish it in 30 mins you get a t-shirt that says you conquered the Godzilla omelette. No one was going to try it so I stepped to the plate. 30 mins later I left defeated, my ego badly brusied. I never would have accepted the challenge if I knew what I know now. That thing is huge, and to make things harder, everything in the omelette if freakin scorching hot! There is really no room to move things around and let it cool off because it takes up the whole plate. I took the leftovers home and it was a full breakfast the next morning. To give myself a little credit I think I ate about 3/4ths of it in 30 min.

8-11-2009 Tues

2009-08-21T18:11:00.000-07:00

Start point: Finerty Pond
End point: Dalton, MA (the Birdcage)
miles hiked: 15.9

Saw this cool bug near the pond as I was hiking out this morning. Looked like its stinger was at least an inch long, would NOT want any part of that.

Bald Top Mtn was not bald. Stopped at the Cookie Lady's house on Washington Mtn Road to eat lunch, didn't think I was gonna get any cookies because when I got there no one was home, then she showed up before I left and came out with some for me. Not alot to talk about till I got to Dalton, the Library there sucks. Tried to get on the internet before they closed but apparently they shut down the computers 30 mins before the actual library closes, which was just when I was getting there. This Library has some f'd up hours too, and I generally think the people who work there have nothing better to do than to make it hard for people to use the internet. I hope to give Rob a working computer with internet someday so no one will ever have to stop at that library again, and the old ladies who work there won't have any dirty hikers to yell at. Met Ice Man and Cattywampus that night, they are a cool couple.

8-10-2009 Mon

2009-08-21T18:01:00.000-07:00

Start point: Jerusalem Rd - Tyringham, MA
End point: Finerty Pond
miles hiked: 12.8

So I missed the 2.1 miles between Fernside Rd and Jerusalem Rd.. I was getting dropped off by Rob and he had already driven me 30 mins down here from Dalton, didn't want him having to bother trying to find this other little country road that none of us could really remember how to get to. Later that day I ended up re-hiking those miles I did in the dark between Goose Pond Rd and the cabin, so I figure I hiked the same amount of miles. Had lunch on the bank of Upper Goose Pond, that was nice. Beckett Mtn kicked my butt, I wanted to make it to the October Mtn Lean-to but it got dark so I just set up my tent near Finerty Pond.

8-9-2009 Sun

2009-08-21T17:53:00.000-07:00

We got a ride from a very nice couple back to MA, they dropped us off at the mall in Pittsfield. We saw the G.I. Joe movie and then decided to go to Dalton, MA. Rob Bird has a house there (the Birdhouse) and he takes in hikers, he actually picked us up at the mall as he was dropping off a van full of hikers so they could go hang out there for awhile. Talked to him about needing to get the miles done between Tyringham and Dalton and he offered to take me the next day! This is only the beginning of Rob's amazing generosity. Crashed on his couch that night, he had room for about 5 in his basement, lots of room in his garage/attic, about 4 can fit in the front room, etc, etc.. He can house alot of hikers..

8-7-2009 & 8-8-2009 - Fri and Sat

2009-08-21T17:37:00.000-07:00

We got up and hiked a few miles to US 20 where we got a ride to Lee, MA. This is where its gets complicated. We took a bus from Lee (DB just happened to be on the bus we got on, he was taking the bus to Willamstown, MA where a friend was picking him up and taking him to Bennington, VT) and then ended up riding to Willamstown and getting off with DB so we could get a ride to Bennington. At Bennington we split up with DB and me, Lion King and What took a regional bus to Rutland, VT (where the Long Trail Festival was). All told we made it 146 miles from Lee, MA to Rutland, VT for $9. The festival wasn't till Sat, but for $5 you could tent from Fri night till Sun afternoon, so thats what we did. Saw lots of folks I hadn't seen in a long time, and had a great time being in Vermont for my first time. The festival on Sat was fun, lots of good live music. I was able to get my trekking pole fixed from a Leki guy at the EMS (Eastern Mountain Sports) tent, and got a great pair of free wool socks from Keen. Having my pole fixed was worth the trip alone. Hanging out later in the day I got to hear one of the bands jamming out before their set, that was another highlight for me. All in all it was good to get off the trail for a few days but still be around hikers.

8-6-2009 Thur

2009-08-21T17:08:00.000-07:00

Start point: US 7 near Great Barrington - Dolls and Dwellings
End point: Fernside Rd
miles hiked: 17.3

Didn't get out as early as I wanted to, was trying to dry my shoes out and had alot of breakfast to eat (did some pan fried pancetta that I put on bagels, yum, made a mess of my cookware though). Not fifteen min after leaving I get to a spot on the trail that was impassable without getting your shoes wet. Great, glad I spent so much time getting them dry. I come across DB about 3 miles after that and he was not doing too good. Said he thought he might be done. Just wasn't having fun anymore. I totally understand, the weather had been shitty, the bugs had been really bad, and it just wears on ya. What I told him was this, its not gonna be fun all the time, its gonna be tough, but thats part of it, and you have to get through this to get to the good stuff. He also told me himself that he would kick himself if he quit after going this far, so I tried to remind him of that. He said he was gonna sit and think about things for awhile. When I got to the next shelter, the Tom Leonard Lean-to, he showed up and told me his plan. He was gonna get off the trail and go hang with some friends in VT for a few days and think about things, but he would probably be back early next week. I hiked on, got to Benedict Pond which was gorgeous, as were some other ponds in the area, then stopped at Mt Wilcox South Lean-to for lunch. There were some spots in the woods past there that were very serene, no sounds of anything but wind blowing the trees, not even any birds. When I got to Fernside Rd I came across Lion King and What, and to make a long story short decided to go with them to the Long Trail Festival in Vermont. We got off trail and walked down Fernside Rd toward Tyringham, MA where we eventually met a couple walking, they offered to give us a ride.

then:

Start point: Goose Pond Rd
End point: Upper Goose Pond Cabin
miles hiked: 3.2

We got a ride to Goose Pond Rd because we wanted to stay at the cabin but would have never made it without skipping that 7.5 miles between Fernside Rd and Goose Pond Rd. It was aleady dusk by the time we got to Goose Pond Rd, and we did those 3.2 miles to the cabin in the dark with our headlamps on. The Appalachian Mountain Club - Berkshire Chapter maintains the cabin and has a resident volunteer caretaker in the summer months (who makes pancakes every morning for the hikers who stay there).

8-5-2009 Wed

2009-08-21T16:53:00.000-07:00

Start point: Riga Lean-to
End point: US 7 near Great Barrington - Dolls and Dwellings
miles hiked: 13.5

Got out fairly early and got to the next shelter (just 1.2 miles away) where DB was. We climbed up Bear Mtn and then got to the Conn/Mass state line together. Right after getting into Mass you go through Sages Ravine, which is a very cool little area where the trail runs next to Sages Ravine Brook. The climb up Race Mtn then Mt. Everett was pretty tough. Met Dug-Out and Dizzy Bat around that area. Took a couple pics of Guilder Pond then it started raining, then poured for about 15 mins, just enough to soak me to the bone. Sat at The Hemlocks Lean-to and pondered how I could have missed the rain if I had just gotten there 10 min sooner. Came upon Dug-out and Dizzy Bat again near Elbow Trail and talked to them, they said they could give me a ride to Great Barrington to re-supply, so I hiked with them for most of the way to their car. They had started a thru hike, but decided around Maryland that they weren't gonna do the whole thing, and for the rest of the trip just do section hikes in each state. Can't blame em' for that. After I re-supplied they gave me a ride back to where the trail crosses US7, and there was a business there that lets hikers camp behind their store, so I tented there. DB showed up later. Got a great moon-rise over the mountain ridge that night.

8-4-2009 Tues

2009-08-21T16:36:00.000-07:00

Start point: Sharon Mtn Campsite
End point: Riga Lean-to
miles hiked: 17.4

Got out pretty early and did 3 miles down to US 7 where me and DB took a break by an auto shop with a soda machine out front. The trail was re-routed there because of road construction there were doing on a bridge over the Housatonic River. I was told by a sobo that I could still cross the bridge if I just went up and asked them, so thats what I did, and they let me cross. DB took the re-route. I walked a couple miles down the road to Falls Village where I just happened upon the library (wasn't in my guidebook), so I used the internet for awhile. Duckman, George and Logan, Alan and Magic were all around, said hi to them. Just north of town is an Iron Bridge over the Housatonic and the very impressive Great Falls that gives Falls Village its name. I've heard the falls are not impressive at all normally, but after all the rain we've been getting it was freakin ragin'. Some pretty spots near Prospect Mtn, then another drop down to US 44 and Conn 41 where the trail goes near Salisbury, CT. Then a climb up Lions Head, got a great sunset right after I climbed that. Decided to stop at Riga Lean-to instead of trying to go farther, it was a good choice. Lion King and What were there and we had a great time cracking each other up till it was time to sleep.

8-3-2009 Mon

2009-08-04T11:11:00.000-07:00

Start point: near Conn 341, Kent, CT
End point: Sharon Mtn Campsite
miles hiked: 18.1

Got packed up as quick as I could this morning, the mosquitoes attack you if you stop moving, so I was walking back and forth as I put my stuff up. At the first sunny spot I came to (Caleb's Peak) I hung out for awhile trying to get my shoes and socks to dry. DB passed me but I caught up to him at Stewart Hollow Brook Lean-to where we ate lunch. Had a 2nd lunch at Cornwall Bridge where I hiked 9/10ths of a mile into town to get a sandwich, and some more bug spray at the outfitter. Didn't get into camp till just after dark.

8-2-2009 Sun

2009-08-04T10:56:00.000-07:00

Start point: Wiley Shelter
End point: near Conn 341, Kent, CT
miles hiked: 14

Got out around 8am, passed into Connecticut after just a few miles. Ten Mile River was flowing like crazy, well over its bank. Started raining on me going up Schaghticoke Mtn and got worse as I was going up Mt Algo. Drenched again.. :( Schaghticoke Mtn was tough, 1000 ft climb in 1.7mi. Snapped one of my trekking poles going down Mt Algo, slipped on a wet rock. That pretty much ruined my already crappy day. Stopped to rest for a second and the mosquitoes still are biting me, in the rain. These little devils just don't let up. Walked into Kent and found DB at the laundromat, washed my clothes and waited for the rain to stop. Hiked out of Kent and found a good spot on the top of the ridge, found DB up there, he was already in his tent. Insane amounts of mosquitoes up there, actually everywhere since NJ, but these last few days they've gotten really bad. After getting in my tent they still just fly around all night, stalking me..

8-01-2009 Sat

2009-08-04T10:49:00.000-07:00

Start point: Morgan Stewart Shelter
End point: Wiley Shelter
miles hiked: 16.5

Slept in pretty late, even though it wasn't really raining anymore the trees were still dripping water for most of the morning. I was in the mindset that I wasn't going anywhere till I could leave dry. When I finally got up and out of my tent I found I was the last one there. Tried to dry some of my stuff, the sun was out but there was too much tree cover around the shelter to get anything properly dried. Near Nuclear Lake there were some nice sunny spots and I got everything completely dry (for now at least). Met a hiker named Cleancut doing Harpers Ferry, WV to Maine, hiked with him for the last 8 mi.

7-31-2009 Fri

2009-08-04T10:40:00.000-07:00

Start point: NY 301 Clarence Fahnestock State Park
End point: Morgan Stewart Shelter
miles hiked: 16

Got up early and ate, was just finishing packing up as it started to rain. A state park employee gave us a ride back to the trail. Then it starts pouring.. Got drenched right away. Continues for at least the next 4 miles. Had lunch at RPH Shelter, somber mood. Got soaked again after lunch. Walked .3 off the trail at NY 52 for some slices of pizza and then next door to the pizza shop I got a sandwich from the deli to take with me for dinner. Luckily the rain stopped so we hiked to the shelter and set up our tents.

7-30-2009 Thur

2009-08-04T10:26:00.000-07:00

Start point: Hemlock Spring Campsite
End point: NY 301 Clarence Fahnestock State Park
miles hiked: 16

It poured pretty hard last night so we were in no hurry to pack up all out wet stuff. I got out of camp a little before DB and made it to US 9/NY 403 where I stopped at a gas station/convenience store. The sun had come out so I dried my shoes and socks and ate a bunch of junk food for brunch. Me and DB probably ended up spending nearly 2 hrs there. Flatlander showed up so we talked to him for awhile. It got pretty humid again, and there were not very many good water sources, all the creeks don't look good. They don't look terrible, just not nice and clear like we're used to. We were talking about going to the state park because they let thru hikers tent out for free and use their facilities (hot showers). It was 1 mile off the trail but a couple from Brooklyn gave us a ride. They were staying there as well, really nice people (thanks Craig and Martha), ended up giving us some of their firewood they bought, and a couple of beers. After we got our tents set up a guy pulls up and as us if we were thru hikers, then offers us a ride to town for groceries. So we got to go the store in Cold Springs, NY (a ten mile round trip, thanks Steve!) He section hikes around the area and tries to help out thru hikers every year when they come through. Had alot of trouble keeping the fire going, but eventually got it going good enough to cook on. Hispanic neighbors at the next site over let me have some shampoo since I was out, they came back later and asked us if we needed anything else. Lots of hospitality today!

7-29-2009 Wed

2009-08-04T10:06:00.000-07:00

Start point: Surebridge Mtn
End point: Hemlock Springs Campsite
miles hiked: 17.5

Got out after packing up around 6:30am. Made it to Fingerboard Shelter where I found Dragonbreath packing up. Went down to Lake Tiorati where I got water and ate breakfast. Picked blueberries on Goshen Mtn. Passed by Willam Brien Memorial Shelter, a stone shelter built in 1933. Started raining on me just before I started climbing Bear Mtn, and soaked me by the time I was at the top. Passed through the Trailside Museum and Zoo, they have many native species including black bears (which I could not see, sleeping I guess), an eastern coyote, porcupine, bobcat, etc.. It was pretty sad, all the cages were really small (even for a zoo). Crossed the Bear Mtn bridge that goes over the Hudson River. No energy at all after that, rain and fog and some big climbs just sucked it out of me today. I picked a crappy tent location, it looked flat, but around dark when it started pouring again, all the rain just pooled up under my tent. The waterbed effect would be cool, however with that much rain there is no way to keep it from getting in, so it was kind of a miserable night.

7-28-2009 Tues

2009-08-04T09:56:00.000-07:00

Start point: Wildcat Shelter
End point: Surebridge Mtn
miles hiked: 13.2

Dragonbreath got out of camp 1st, then Zen, I was last. Tough day, like a mini-rollercoaster, just kept going up these mountains, coming right back down, then right back up another one, back to back to back. Hot day, sweat ALOT. There weren't hardly any good water sources, thank goodness 2 different sets of people left water caches at 2 different road crossings. Afer climbing Arden Mtn and coming down the other side I set up my tent because of thunder. Really did not feel like getting rained on. Of course then it cleared back up, so I re-packed my tent and continued on. Crossed over I-87 and into Harriman State Park, very beautiful. Funny how the landscape changes so drastically sometimes. Wanted to make it to Fingerboard Shelter, but it got dark so I just set up on a flat spot on the side of the trail.

7-27-2009 Mon

2009-08-04T09:42:00.000-07:00

Start point: Wawayanda Mtn
End point: Wildcat Shelter
miles hiked: 14.6

So yesterday I had just missed Dragonbreath, must have been about an hour behind him all day. I figured I'd take my time packing up this morn and he would prob catch up (right before the climb up Wawayanda Mtn he prob got a ride into Vernon, NJ and went to the church hostel). After waiting around for most of the morning I finally got up and left but hadn't got but 10ft when he yelled at me from behind. We stopped at the Wawayanda Shelter for lunch, then hiked a few more miles before crossing into New York. For the most part it was a pretty tough day, very humid which can really suck the energy out of you. At NY 17A we came across Y-Knot, Goodwill, Beeman, Jersey Girl and her husband Ron who was there with his truck, picking them all up from a slack-pack. They gave me and Dragonbreath a ride into Greenwood Lake where we went to Pizza Planet and had dinner. Got a ride back to the trail from a very nice lady (Ms Johansen from Iron Forge Inn). Hike a few more miles to Wildcat Shelter, I got there right at dark. Zen passed me on the way there, we both tented out in the shelter. The mosquitos were really bad so its nice to have your tent to use as a bug net.

7-26-2009 Sun

2009-08-04T09:29:00.000-07:00

Start point: Unionville, NY - the Outhouse, formerly "the Mayor's house"
End point: Wawayanda Mtn
miles hiked: 14.4

So I was taking my time getting ready and eventually Spoonman comes in from just going to the store, he said that Dragonbreath was just up there getting a sandwich. So I hike out and try to catch up to him, but never see him all day. I think I bought too much food, my pack was sooo freakin heavy. Made the day really tough. Stopped at Pochuck Mtn Shelter for lunch. The Pochuck Boardwalk was cool, it is a mile long boardwalk that goes between the Pochuck and Wawayanda Mountains, extending over a 3000-foot wide floodplain. My pinky toe blister still hurts, but its getting better. Found a nice flat spot to tent next to a creek on the north side of the mountain.

7-25-2009 Sat

2009-08-04T09:22:00.000-07:00

Took a zero at the Outhouse. Got a ride with the (former) Mayor to Sussex, NJ to re-supply. Spent most of the day just hanging out, working on my blog, napping and watched a little bit of The Hudsucker Proxy with Lion King. Decided to break my no-drinking thing and had a few beers. Alot of us just hung out talking after dinner.

7-24-2009 Fri

2009-07-25T09:29:00.000-07:00

Start point: on the Iris trail, High Point State Park
End point: Unionville, NY - the Outhouse, formerly "the Mayor's house"
miles hiked: 13.9

Wasn't in any hurry to get out early, I was anxious to get to the Mayor's house, but I knew I was gonna be hiking pretty slow because of those toe blisters. They did feel better today, the only real pain is on my left pinky toe, and it wasn't near as bad as yesterday. I stopped at the High Point State Park headquarters to get water and take a break. They have a huge monument to mark the highest point in NJ, 1803 feet.

The rest of the trail through NJ from this point runs right along the border of NJ/NY, but stays mostly on the NJ side. Got to Unionville right before a rainstorm blew in, so luckily I only got sprinkled on. The Outhouse is another one of those hostels everyone talks about and is anxious to get to. Dick started helping out hikers a couple years ago (he was the mayor of Unionville, NY for 10 years) and is nice enough to open up his home to hundreds of hikers a year. He gives you your first beer for free and the 2nd and 3rd are only .25 cents each. (Kinda bummed I'm not drinking till Aug 14th.) Feeds you dinner and breakfast and doesn't even charge, just takes donations. Met Miss Canada and Long Gun, and saw some folks I already knew: Spoonman, Many Names, Lion King, Flatlander, Boofer and Frankenfoot.

This swampy area was about a mile from Unionville, NY

7-23-2009 Thur

2009-07-25T09:10:00.000-07:00

Start point: near Rattlesnake Mtn
End point: on the Iris trail, High Point State Park
miles hiked: 14.5

It was getting pretty painful to walk by the end of the day yesterday and today wasn't any better. Decided I would do as many miles as I could today and then try and get to Unionville tomorrow. Got down to the Brink Rd Shelter where I was gonna take a break but it was mosquito central down there. Same thing yesterday, they've been tearin me up so far here in NJ. Got up to the next ridgeline and found Dragonbreath packing up. He had got off the trail in Delaware Water Gap because of back pain and decided if he was gonna take a week off to recuperate he might as well go home where he could relax. I talked to him a few days ago and that was partly why I'd been doing so many big mile days, trying to catch up so when he got back on I'd be in the same area. Well it was great to finally catch up, hadn't seen him since Harpers Ferry, WV, but it was bittersweet. His new shoes were giving him problems, the backs of his heels were completely tore up, the skin was just rubbed raw. He was gonna have to get off the trail for at least a day, maybe more to try and get those healed up. So I hiked with him to the next road, US 206 at Culvers Gap where he was gonna try and get a ride to a motel. I hiked on and hopefully he'll catch up to me in a few days. Stopped at the Gren Anderson Shelter for lunch and to stock up on water. The place I was gonna camp tonight had no water so I had to carry enough with me for tonight and tomorrow morning. After I found a place to set up camp I drained the blisters on my toes and put some neosporin on them.

7-22-2009 Wed

2009-07-25T08:56:00.000-07:00

Start point: Delaware Water Gap, PA
End point: near Rattlesnake Mtn
miles hiked: 22
Crossing into NJ
Went to the diner for breakfast and the SOBO's (Stumbles and Nico) let me join them. Had a power-nap after I got back to the church hostel then hiked out around 9am. Crossed the bridge over the Delaware River into NJ! The climb up was pretty nice, ran next to a creek for awhile then a real gradual climb up to Sunfish Pond, the southernmost glacial pond on the A.T. and one of the seven protected natural areas in NJ. It was one of the most beautiful areas I've seen recently.

Spent a good bit of time there just piddlin' around. Saw 7 snakes! 2 were babies, 1 baby garter snake and 1 baby water snake, another slightly bigger garter snake, and the others were all eastern black snakes

Found some good blueberry bushes that I snacked on for awhile. Stopped at the Mohican Outdoor Center for a sandwich and chips. A few of these pics are before I got to the Catfish Fire Tower, and a few of them are from the top of the tower.

Around that time I noticed the blisters forming on a few toes, so I walked in my flip-flops for awhile trying to let my feet dry out. Appearantly my feet did not appreciate doing 23 miles in the rain yesterday. Passed by Crater Lake, very pretty.

I wanted to make it to the Brink Rd Shelter but it was getting dark, so when I came across Boofer and Frankenfoot I just decided to camp with them.

7-21-2009 Tues

2009-07-25T08:33:00.000-07:00

Start point: Smith Gap Rd, the Stempa's House
End point: Delaware Water Gap, PA
miles hiked: 23.7

Linda gave me, George and Gracie a ride back up to the trail at 5:15am. She goes to a spin class real early and it was either get a super early start, or wait till 8 or 9am when John could give us a ride. I figured if I got on the trail that early I could take my time and still make it to Delaware Water Gap and basically be done with PA. After I passed the Leroy Smith Shelter it started raining on me. I'm thinking perfect, my last day in PA and I get crappy weather. There were some good views I passed by that would have been nice if not for the fog. I stopped at the Kirkridge shelter for a couple hours trying to wait out the worst of the rain. When I finally got to Delaware Water Gap I went to the Presbyterian Church of the Mountain Hostel, no bunks open but there was a space on the floor, at least it was indoors and out of the rain. Crow and I went to the pizza place for dinner. Met some SOBO's (southbounders) at the hostel, they are basically the first ones I've seen. This guy Kyle (Stumbles) was on a submarine in the Navy and he had some of the funniest military stories I've ever heard. Also met Glow-worm and Jim Dandy, and saw Jersey Girl, Boofer and Frankenfoot again. Picked up a new book; Skin Tight by Carl Hiaasen, so I started that tonight.

7-20-2009 Mon

2009-07-25T08:12:00.000-07:00

Start point: Bake Oven Knob Shelter
End point: Smith Gap Rd, the Stempa's House
miles hiked: 20.1

Me and Time Bomb hiked out pretty early.

When we got to PA 145 we decided we wanted to find a ride to Walnutport so we could have lunch at a buffet. The food at the chinese place we had planned on looked kinda sad, and the pizza place next door had a buffet with no pizza on it (meatloaf and hamburger helper with pasta?), so we hit up McDonalds. A couple gave us a ride back to the trail, and we made the climb out of Lehigh Gap during the hottest part of the day.

It was actually a pretty fun climb, and then we hiked through the Superfund site. This area of Blue Mtn was affected by nearly a century of zinc smelting in Palmerton, PA, and in 1982 the EPA put the affected area on the Superfund clean up list. "Revegation efforts are underway, and the mountain is slowly coming back to life."

Time Bomb's friend Michael was meeting him at the next road crossing and was getting on the trail to hike with him for a week, so we waited for him there, then they went into town to get Michael stocked up on food. After my climb out of Little Gap I had to bust a move to some Galactic

I told them I was hiking to the Stempa's, and they were gonna try and make it there as well. John "Mechanical Man" and Linda "Crayon Lady" Stempa live a mile off the trail and let hikers come to their house to get water and camp in their yard. They were home when I got there and were nice enough to let me take a shower in their house and gave me a soda. George and her dog Gracie were their, and later Crow, Time Bomb and his friend Michael showed up. They let those of us who wanted to stay in the garage sleep there,

and the others set up in the yard. Their kid and his friend were super hyper little guys and John was pretty high-energy himself. John and Linda have been helping hikers since at least the early 90's and were just all around great people. So great to find this kind of hospitality.

7-19-2009 Sun

2009-07-25T07:59:00.000-07:00

Start point: Allentown Hiking Club Shelter
End point: Bake Oven Knob Shelter
miles hiked: 10

So that day out of Port Clinton when I was having feet problems, I called up Time Bomb and asked him if he could pick me up some sock liners if he had a chance, they were a big help to me before when I was having issues with my shoes rubbing raw spots on my feet. I had gotten a voicemail from him yesterday saying he had them and if I wanted to slow down abit he could catch up and get them to me. So I stuck around the shelter and finished my book while waiting for him. We hiked out together after he got there and later stopped for lunch at a restaurant really close to the trail, Blue Mtn B&B. We split a dozen wings and I had a black and blue burger. Later that day we ran into Coldfeet and Checkpoint. We all made it to the campsite near Bake Oven Knob, along with Free Child and Bam Bam. Funny side note, my 2 hardest climbs of the day were both to get water. At the Allentown Shelter, it was at least 6/10ths of a mile roundtrip to get to the spring that was flowing good, and at Bake Oven Knob it was around the same distance or more to get to the 3rd spring, because the first 2 were dry.

7-18-2009 Sat

2009-07-25T07:51:00.000-07:00

Start point: Pocahontas Spring
End point: Allentown Hiking Club Shelter
miles hiked: 19.3

Hiked out around 10 or 11am, wasn't in much of a hurry because the sun had come out and I wanted to dry out my tent before I put it up, and was trying to dry out my shoes as much as I could. I was glad I stopped early last night, my heels felt ok today and wasn't painful to walk like it was yesterday. Made the climb up to the Pulpit and the Pinnacle, some of the best views in PA. Top 2 are from the Pulpit, the one with me is from the Pinnacle

Stopped at Eckville Shelter for water and decided to hike on to the next shelter. It was just me and Annunak at the shelter so we pretty much had the place to ourselves.

7-17-2009 Fri

2009-07-25T06:14:00.000-07:00

Start point: Port Clinton, PA
End point: Pocahontas Spring
miles hiked: 2.3

So Port Clinton is just a few miles away from Hamburg, PA, where the biggest Cabela's store in the country is. If you call them they will send a shuttle to pick you up from Port Clinton, so me and Time Bomb got picked up around 9:30am. He needed to buy new shoes and I needed new socks. We both did our shopping, I got some socks and ended up with a new shirt and new pants as well (got some great deals - $12 apeice), and he got his shoes. I was hoping on making my old shirt and pants last till Maine, but in Pine Grove Furnace State Park I accidentally left my zip-off pant legs, and my shirt was getting some holes in it (plus some funk just won't wash out). It was tough to throw them away though, I'd worn those for 1200 miles! Afterward we put a hurtin' on a Pizza Hut buffet, then walked at least a couple miles to the grocery store to re-supply. A family gave us a ride back to Cabela's and we got the shuttle back to Port Clinton. All that took a good while but I still wanted to hike out, Time Bomb was gonna stay there and get a room. It started raining on my climb out of Port Clinton, and before I new it the back of my heels were burning. I think it was the combination of doing those big miles the last few days and then when my shoes got soaked on the climb up it just aggravated the problem. I decided to stop as soon as I found a campsite so I wouldn't make the problem worse. Since it was still pretty early I read most of the evening, trying to finish this book I got from the Doyle: Sleepers.

7-16-2009 Thur

2009-07-24T21:34:00.000-07:00

Start point: 501 Shelter
End point: Port Clinton
miles hiked: 23.7
One of the odd things you see in the woods, a drinking cup box? nailed to a tree..
Me and Time Bomb made our early start as planned. Talked all day as we hiked. He is from Iowa but has made Minneapolis his new home. Him and his wife started the trail together but she got off the trail around Catawba, VA when she got sick (giardia). He was a great person to meet and just at the right time too, because I was kinda feeling kinda blue about leaving Shameless, Ziggy and Creep, and I was feeling like I'd never catch Dragonbreath since I got so far behind. Now that I'm writing this it really made me realize how much my friends out here mean to me. We're all kind of like a big support system subconsciously keeping each other going. It can be monotonous hiking miles and miles day after day, but with good friends around, to me it doesn't feel like that. When we got to Eagles Nest Shelter we took a long break, and eventually decided to make the push into Port Clinton. When we got to town the bar/grill/hotel had stopped serving food, but a really nice couple gave us a ride a couple miles up the road to Burger King, then back to town. Port Clinton allows hikers to use their town pavillon to camp under, so that was nice.

Gogonzola, Denali, Checkpoint and Coldfeet were there, as well as Beechucker. I made a big stink about BK screwing me over (no mayo!), everyone got a kick out of that.. ;)

7-15-2009 Wed

2009-07-24T21:16:00.000-07:00

Start point: Yellow Springs Village Site
End point: 501 Shelter
miles hiked: 22

Shameless came along just as I was getting done packing up. They had all camped about 3 miles back. Ziggy showed up next and we all hiked out seperately and met up again near Rausch Creek where we all had lunch. They were all talking about going to a motel with a pool today, but I really wanted to make some miles so I resisted the urge to join them. When I got to Swatara Bridge, right near where the trail runs under I-81 there was a college aged girl and a photographer taking somewhat risque photos. I talked to her and she had been doing modeling the last couple years, so that was kinda funny to me, I just ran across a photo shoot on the AT. Typical of what you'd imagine, hot girl, creepy looking dude with a camera. This 501 Shelter that I decided to try and make it to was pretty interesting, it is fully enclosed with a sunroof, a solar shower out back, a caretaker that lives in a house next to it, and talk of a pizza place that would deliver there. I found out the number of the pizza place from the register in the shelter before it and called, they only delivered till 9. It was 7:30, so I hauled ass and made it 4miles in an hour, basically speed walking (not easy with a 30+pound pack and rocky terrain). Got there in time, ate a whole 14inch medium with pepperoni and bell pepper. Lots of familiar faces staying there, Manimal had a guitar and played some tunes while everyone was sitting around the fire. He let me do my song and it actually came out better than it ever has. Me and Time Bomb talked some and made a plan to hike out together early the next morning. The caretaker was a nutjob, he had a gun holstered on his belt, wouldn't let anybody burn their pizza boxes (but said we could throw em in the street for all he cared, as long as it wasn't on park property), and before I got there I was told he was bragging about using mace on some hikers last year that broke the rules.

7-14-2009 Tues

2009-07-24T21:10:00.000-07:00

Start point: Clarks Ferry Shelter
End point: Yellow Springs Village Site
miles hiked: 19.7

Shameless made it out of camp first with me shortly behind. We all stopped at Peters Mtn Shelter for lunch. Big climb up Stony Mtn that I think kicked all our butts. Everyone was talking about going big miles today but I'm the only one that stuck to my guns and hiked on ahead. I ended up camping there alone but I didn't mind, it was a nice spot, the area used to be an old mining village that dated back to the 1800's. I made a huge fire and messed with it for a good while then read till I fell asleep.

7-13-2009 Mon

2009-07-24T21:04:00.000-07:00

Start point: Duncannon, PA
End point: Clarks Ferry Shelter
miles hiked: 4.5

I know, I know, 2 zeros and then I just hike 4 miles out of town!? I'm tellin ya, the Doyle has a very strong vortex. Shameless, Creep, Ziggy, Free Child, Hot Feet and I all camped out in and around the shelter, joking around the fire and glad to be back on the trail.

7-11 and 7-12-2009 Sat and Sun

2009-07-24T20:53:00.000-07:00

Well I had planned on taking a zero so I could get to hang out with Ziggy today. He didn't get in till around 3 or so. Me, Ziggy and Creep all ended up sharing a room so it was really cheap. Thats how I got sucked into the vortex and spent yet another zero there the next day. Breakfast across the street at the diner and dinner down the street at the pizza place, just a taste of small town PA..
Met LOTS of people over the weekend, Time Bomb, Free Child, Manimal, Aquafresh, Asop and Annunak just to name a few.. And me Ziggy, Creep, Shameless, Free Child and Hot Feet hung out alot. me and Ziggy's dance-off at the doyle

7-10-2009 Fri

2009-07-24T20:46:00.000-07:00

Start point: near Scott Farm
End point: Duncannon, PA
miles hiked: 15.8

Got a REAL early start, since I was camped in the middle of the trail I set my alarm for 5:30am so I could be up before anyone came along. Was pumped about getting to Duncannon today so I could check out the Doyle Hotel, a dump of a hotel that is almost legendary among thru-hikers. It is one of the original Anheuser-Busch hotels and is more than 100 years old. Got a great view of Duncannon from the mountain right before you descend into town.

Got there and Denali and Gorgonzola were there, I was hoping I'd catch them. They had gotten in yesterday but were taking a zero today. Met Coldfeet and Checkpoint, they had been hiking with them for awhile. Turns out the Doyle was a dump, but its an AWESOME dump, with alot of character, and characters..

7-9-2009 Thur

2009-07-24T20:36:00.000-07:00

Start point: north of Pole Steeple
End point: near Scott Farm
miles hiked: 25

Pretty uneventful day other than passing through Boiling Springs. A good bit of hiking through hedgerows and farmland. Through a land aquisition program they have taken most of the trail off the roads through this heavily developed area, but it still makes for a hot walk in the summer, limited shade means the sun gets to bake you. Did find quite a few wild berries today. When I got to US 11 I was gonna walk down and get some food, that ended up being about a 3 mile round trip for some Arby's (5 roast beef sandwiches for $5 though). My feet were burning by the time I got back to the trail, plus it was dark, so I hiked about another hour till I finally just found a flat spot on the trail and camped right there in the middle of it.

7-8-2009 Wed

2009-07-24T19:54:00.000-07:00

Start point: Birch Run Shelter
End point: north of Pole Steeple
miles hiked: 14
Ziggy showed up while I was packing up and eating. We hit the half-way point today (1089 miles) so to celebrate making it half way it is tradition to eat a half gallon of ice cream. I hiked ahead but promised I would wait for Ziggy to get there before I started the challenge. At Toms Run Shelters I stopped to do some push-ups (work up an appetite), and the floor of the shelter was so well varnished I tried some break-dancing as well (sad attempt, I know).

Got to the Pine Grove General Store in the State Park and Beechucker and Fish Sticks were there (not doing the challenge [lame]). They stuck around to watch me and Ziggy, we kind of made the challenge into a race between the 2 of us. They had Hershey's Ice Cream, which I'd never had before. We both got the Moose Tracks flavor, which was vanilla with pieces of fudge and little peanut butter cups in it. I finished (3500 calories later) in 20mins30secs, Ziggy shortly behind me at 22mins. We sat around and veg'd out for awhile (at least an hour), then both ate a burger and shared some fries (more food! what were we thinking). We then walked just a short way over to a beach they had made on the shore of a lake and sat around there for another 30 mins or so. Eventually got going and hiked till we found a good camp spot on the side of the trail. Made a really good fire, lots of very dry wood around the spot we had.

The old midpoint marker (mileage is wrong now)

7-7-2009 Tues

2009-07-11T16:14:00.000-07:00

Start point: Caledonia State Park
End point: Birch Run Shelter
miles hiked: 10

Waited around most of the morning for Ziggy. I had got ahead of him yesterday. He had been planning on going to the pool at Caledonia State park, and I was hoping he would convince me to go. He showed up around noon and even though they didn't have a diving board I made the decision to go. We hung out at the pool most of the day, and Fish Sticks showed up a few hours later and hung out too. I hiked out around 4pm and made it to Birch Run shortly before dark.

7-6-2009 Mon

2009-07-11T16:11:00.000-07:00

Start point: near Pen Mar County Park
End point: Caledonia State Park
miles hiked: 18

Crossed into Pennsylvania today! I guess I should add I got lost and did 4 miles of road walking. The trail crossed a country road and looked like it went directly into the woods on the other side of the road, but turns out that was not the right way. I could have gone back and tried to find the right trail, but stupidly (I'm stubborn) I just kept going and figured I'd hit it. Nope. Well I came out on another road and with a little help from my mom and google maps I just walked (tried to get a ride, no one would pick me up) the 4 miles to the state park. Once again, road walking sucks, hurts way worse than walking on the trail. Once I found the trail again I walked 3/10ths of a mile down US 30 to a pizza place only to find it already closed, so I walked another 4/10ths to a little general store. The quart of chocolate milk, 2 cans of soda, cheese and crackers, chips, and ice cream cookie sandwich brightened my day abit. Road walked back down to the state park and found a stealth site to camp for the night.

7-5-2009 Sun

2009-07-11T16:05:00.000-07:00

Start point: Ensign Cowall Shelter
End point: near Pen Mar County Park
miles hiked: 10

The big news today was making it to Pen Mar County Park where they have a Sun afternoon dance for seniors in the pavilion, with a live band. Ziggy was real excited about seeing old people dance, and I was hoping I could find a single lady to dance with. They also have a snack bar so we were banking on burgers and fries. I made it in time and did get a dance! We hung out later with Creep, Bone Lady, and Uncle Bivy Sack, stayed at the park and watched the sun set, then hiked just a little bit out of the park (no camping allowed there) and found a spot to spend the night.

7-4-2009 Sat

2009-07-11T16:01:00.000-07:00

Start point: Pine Knob Shelter
End point: Ensign Cowall Shelter
miles hiked: 8

When I woke up and went over to the shelter I found Ziggy there, he had just hiked in and stopped there for a snack. I didn't expect to see him so that was a nice surprise. We hiked together to the next shelter and celebrated the 4th by making a big fire.

7-3-2009 Fri

2009-07-11T14:55:00.000-07:00

Start point: Horsepen Branch
End point: Pine Knob Shelter
miles hiked: 10

My feet are killing me. I can't believe how much harder this is on your feet than the AT. Met some guys at the next campsite (Chisel Branch) and talked to them for awhile. They had come out to camp and relax during the 4th of July weekend. I got to Whites Ferry, which is the last ferry to still operate on the Potomac, getting vehicles across from Maryland to Virgina. I decided I was gonna try and get a ride across and then up to Point of Rocks, to skip about 15 miles ahead. The guys I rode with took me about a mile up to Hwy 15, then I got a ride from a really nice guy named Luke who ended up taking me to where the AT crosses over I-70. Thanks Luke! I decided that hiking all the way to Harpers Ferry on the C&O would be too painful on my feet and every day I'm on it my friends are getting farther and farther ahead of me. I hiked 35 miles of it and that was enough for me. It was a cool experience though, hiking from the Whitehouse to the woods. A 1/2 mile from where I got dropped off there was a restaurant called the Dogpatch Tavern, so I walked over there and got a sandwich and some nachos, met a hiker named Cleats. We both stopped at the Pine Knob Shelter for the night.

7-2-2009 Thur - the C & O Canal

2009-07-11T14:38:00.000-07:00

Start point: the Boathouse at Fletchers Cove
End point: Horsepen Branch
miles hiked: around 24

Got up super early and hiked out, made it to Great Falls around noon. The Potomac River narrows from nearly 1000 feet, just above the falls, to between 60 and 100 feet wide as it rushes through Mather Gorge, a short distance below the falls. All this was carved after the last ice age when the ocean levels dropped, forcing the Potomac to carve deeper into the rock in its path to the sea. Getting to see Great Falls has been one of the most impressive things to see, and only fifteen miles from the nations capital. After hiking another couple hours I realized this is alot harder on your feet than the Appalachian Trail. Its almost like road walking, I'm guessing this path is a blast to ride your bike down, but not so fun to hike. Lots of great views of the Potomac river along the way.

7-1-2009 Wed

2009-07-01T11:32:00.001-07:00

I'm sad to have to go, I was having a great time. I think Philly is pretty cool and I think my friends will enjoy living there. Its been great getting to spend some time with them, hopefully after my hike is done I can stop through again on my way south. Headed to D.C. later this afternoon.

Took the Chinatown Express back to D.C., met Chioma who I was sitting next to, it was good to meet you Chioma! When I got to D.C. I had missed the last train to Harpers Ferry so I decided to start walking the C & O Canal (Chesapeake and Ohio). It goes from D.C. to Cumberland, MD, 184.5 miles alongside the Potomac River the whole way. In 1971 Congress established it as a National Historic Park and opened the towpath next to the canal to hiking and bicycling. There are hiker-biker overnight campsites for tent camping at five mile intervals between mileposts 16.6 and 180. I had heard some fellow hikers talking about doing the hike from D.C. to Harpers Ferry (about 60 miles), so they gave me the idea, but wasn't sure if I was going to do it or not until today. I walked from the bus stop to the Whitehouse, stopped and had a few pints at a bar nearby, then headed to the start of the canal. At the beginning the towpath is on one side, then for abit there are path's on both sides, and basically I ended up on the wrong side (it was already dark at this point which might have had something to do with it). The side I was on took me up to the road (Canal Road) where there was no sidewalk, no shoulder, and being the stubborn hiker that I am I didn't wanna walk all the way back to the last bridge I passed to get on the other side. I finally made it to the Boathouse at Fletchers Cove where I found a spot on the bank of the Potomac to set up my tent. I thought I had such a great spot, then in the middle of the night I felt something wet.. Sat up and realized the river had risen and now half my tent was in the river! Luckily most of my stuff was in the front part of my tent which wasn't in the water yet, so I pulled everything up a good 10ft from the water and re-setup there. One of the more hilarious things thats happened to me out here.

6-30-2009 Tues

2009-07-01T11:23:00.000-07:00

Mostly we just hung around the house, relaxing. My time in Philly has consisted of eating alot of Philly Cheese Steaks, and sleeping. We went to the 2 most famous last night: Pat's & Geno's and got 1 philly cheesesteak from each, the consensus between me and John was that Pat's won. They didn't chop their meat up as much, and it was cooked better (had abit more flavor).
We had dinner at the house tonight, and shared a bottle of wine afterward

Later on we went to a few dive bars right around the corner, it was interesting to see some of south philly with some friends who just moved in the neighborhood.

6-29-2009 Mon - Philadelphia, PA

2009-07-01T10:39:00.000-07:00

John had to go to work, it was his 1st day on the job

so me and Jess hung out most of the day, we went to Sabrina's for breakfast, when I was waiting for the bus in D.C. a girl told me it was one of the best places for breakfast in Philly.

the french toast was incredible, it was made on Challah bread and it was the thickest slices of french toast I'ld ever seen.
Me and Jess had some representin' to do
Then we went back to get Malcom their dog, and headed to Fairmount Park.

Also nearby is the Waterworks, you know, like in Monopoly

And the Philadelphia Museum of Art is where the famous Rocky statue is

Here is some of central city, downtown Philly

The basement's in Philly have really low ceilings

That night we went to the Taproom, they had a ton of great microbrews on tap

6-28-2009 Sun - D.C. to Philly

2009-07-01T10:08:00.000-07:00

Me and Jacques went back to the Mall and hit up the Smithsonian National Gallery of Art today, it was amazing. We started in with Dutch and Flemish 16th and 17th century, then made our way through French 17th-19th centuries and Italian 13th-16th centuries, then around to a big collection of Italian Altarpieces and Religious Sculpture of the 1300's, finishing off with a bunch of heavy hitters: Poussin, Seurat, Cézanne, Gauguin, Van Gogh, Mary Cassatt, Edgar Degas, Claude Monet, Edouard Manet, Auguste Renoir. I have seen some famous paintings before, but nothing like this. It was amazing to get to see these paintings so close up. I want to go back sometime and spend a week at least seeing all the museums in D.C.
Only got to spend about 3hrs there and then I had to catch my bus. The Chinatown Express runs between D.C. and NY, the D.C. to Philly bus is only $15. My good friends John and Jess just moved to Philly a few days ago so I was going to see them. The only thing with the Chinatown Express is appearantly its not the most reliable. I waited till 8pm for a bus that was supposed to leave D.C. at 6pm. So I didn't get into Philly till close to 10:30pm. John and Jess picked me up and we just took it easy and caught up since it was so late.

6-27-2009 Sat - D.C.

2009-06-29T16:47:00.000-07:00

So I got up pretty early and packed up then had breakfast there on the river bank. It was probably ONE of the best spots I've camped out at on the AT.

Sand was nice and soft to sleep on, not too many bugs, and a huge river view to wake up with. Hung out at the ATC Visitors Center for awhile, the Appalachian Trail Conservancy headquarters are in Harpers Ferry. I got my picture taken for the album of 2009 hikers, they have photo albums of hikers from every year. Caught the Amtrak to Washington D.C., I'd been pretty excited about going since I've never been before.
Just arrived at Union Station, D.C.

My friend Jacques who I had met in Houston a few years ago is now living in Southern Maryland so he came up to meet me and hangout. This is our political handshake pose.
There was a Smithsonian Folklife Festival taking place on the grounds of the Mall in-between all the Smithsonian mueseum buildings so we wandered around that for abit
Sunset from the Mall
We went and hung out with one of Jacques' friends, Calvin, and we met some of Calvin's friends that he went to AU with.
We went to a get-together later and I met alot of cool locals
Me and Jacques took the metro back to the hotel, is was quite the adventure

Thought I'd get a shot of this guy throwing up in the metro station, really pissed his buddy off, but it was hilarious

6-26-2009 Fri

2009-06-26T13:19:00.000-07:00

Start point: near Va. 7, Va. 679, Snickers Gap

End point: Harpers Ferry, WV

miles hiked: 13.5

total miles hiked: 1007.2

Finally got out of VA!

Made it 1000 miles!

I apologize in advance for this picture, but Virginia really pissed me off this morning.

Harpers Ferry is situated at the confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah Rivers where Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia meet

The AT goes across the Potomac right here and continues down next to the C & O Canal and Potomac River for a few miles before climbing back up into the mountains
This is the view from where I set up camp just outside of town on the bank of the Potomac River

6-25-2009 Thur

2009-06-26T13:07:00.001-07:00

Start point: near turnoff to Dicks Dome Shelter

End point: near Va. 7, Va. 679, Snickers Gap

miles hiked: 18.9

Hiked with Antrack for awhile this morning, he was coming up the trail right as I was getting on, then ran into One-Step. At U.S. 50 I walked .8mi down to a restaurant called the Blue Skillet. Had a great meal: 2 pieces of texas toast smothered in made-to-order sausage gravy, homefries, 2 fried eggs and 2 pieces of bacon. Got an order of hand-cut fries which I used to soak up any remaining gravy. Had to walk he .8mi back to the trail which sucked, but when I got there and started up the trail there was some trail magic someone had just left:

I then started "the rollercoaster" which is a series of 10 ups and downs, all mountains under 2000ft elev. but still rather tough.

..with my mind on my money and my money on my mind

Got to Snickers Gap and went to the Horseshoe Curve Restaurant, where they had some live music. Pretty cool to stumble upon something like that, just a bunch of locals there but everyone was very friendly.

6-24-2009 Wed

2009-06-24T07:58:00.000-07:00

Start point: Front Royal, VA

End point: near turnoff to Dicks Dome Shelter

miles hiked: 15.3

Woke up pretty early and went to the supermarket, got a big breakfast of fruit, trail mix, O.J., chocolate milk and honey buns. Decided to stick around till the library opened at 10am, so till then I went to the park. Had a rare chance to do pull-ups on an actual pull-up bar:

Decided I'm gonna go get my beard trimmed, so figured I'd take a picture beforehand, this is the biggest my beard has ever been in my life. I was gonna see how big it would get if I didn't cut it once on the whole trip, but I don't like how it looks anymore (basically I think I'm more handsome with a trimmed beard).

After a stop by the barbershop:

I got a ride back to the trail from a sweet old lady, on the way we hit a goose that was crossing the road. Its 5 buddies survived but we hit the brakes and still couldn't avoid hitting the last one. All I could think was "thats dinner tonight, just stop and throw it in the trunk" but I didn't say anything. When I got to the Jim and Molly Denton Shelter for a break, Bubbles and Birdie were there and they told me there were some leftover trail magic beers in the spring, so that was a nice suprise.

I ended up hiking in the dark for a little over an hour, it was not fun. Too many bugs, they all fly right in your face going for your headlamp.

6-23-2009 Tues

2009-06-23T16:37:00.000-07:00

Start point: Gravel Springs Hut
End point: Front Royal, VA
miles hiked: 13.4

Got up and talked to Bluegrass, Dragonbreath and Antrack awhile this morning. I was the last one to leave, I like to do push-ups while I'm alone after everyone is gone because everyone kinda gives me a hard time about doing em', they are probably just jealous. Made it to U.S. 522 where I hitched a ride into Front Royal, VA. Now I'm out of the Shenahdoah's and just have about 30somethin more miles of Virginia, so I'm almost done with this state. Feels like I've been in VA for ages! Got some Taco Bell, hit up the library, saw Land of the Lost AND caught a midnight premiere of the new Transformers movie (sweet!). I thought Land of the Lost was pretty funny. The insect bite scene had me nearly rolling in the aisles. Found a spot to tent out in some woods near town.

6-22-2009 Mon

2009-06-23T16:18:00.000-07:00

Start point: Bryds Nest #3 Hut
End point: Gravel Springs Hut
miles hiked: 17.5

Nice, cool, almost nippy morning. Climbed Mary's Rock which was only a mile away from the hut. Really windy up there, felt great. Soon after that saw another bear, this one was right on the trail. When it hear me coming it started climbing the rocks going up the mountain.

Caught up to Dragonbreath and we hiked together to the Wayside and got burgers, fries and beers.

Since this was gonna be our last night in the Shenandoah National Park we packed out some beers with us and had a few on the way to the Hut.

Everyone there was tenting around the shelter (Bluegrass, Bubbles&Birdie, Nature, Dragonbreath), so I took this as another good time to set up my tent inside the shelter again. (Its nice to be able to have a little bug-free zone inside your tent, but under the cover of the shelter so you don't have to put on your rainfly.)

6-21-2009 Sun

2009-06-23T16:02:00.000-07:00

Start: Big Meadows Campground

End: Bryds Nest Hut #3

miles hiked: 14.4

We all went to the Wayside for breakfast. Wanted to hike naked today, its a tradition on the summer solstice, but too many families and day hikers in the park, they probably just wouldn't get it, and I definitley don't want a public exposure ticket. I did hike slightly naked for about 5min, but I think I'll leave those pics on my camera. After breakfast I started hiking, but just had no energy. Stopped at Rock Spring Hut and called some friends, took a nap, ate some snacks.

Climbed up

to the Stony Man Summit. Nice trails for most of the day, hiking along cliffs with good view spots

and its been really windy for the last couple days, so its been feeling great outside. Those breezes really cool you off. Me, Antrack, Nature, and Dragonbreath were the only ones at the Hut, so that was kinda neat, had it all to ourselves. Nature and I set out tents up in the hut, hadn't had a chance to do that since that 2nd shelter in Georgia.

Got a pretty good sunset even though it was partially obstructed by trees.

6-20-2009 Sat

2009-06-23T15:38:00.000-07:00

Start point: Hightop Mtn

End point: Big Meadows Campground

miles hiked: 20

The spot I had set up my tent last night was nice, but this morning I got swarmed by the bugs. Packed up as fast as I could and left. Not 20ft away there was a little overlook, so thats where I ate breakfast. It was too windy for the bugs to get me there. Was hiking by 7:15am so by 10am I had made some good miles. Around that time there was a huge rainstorm that blew in and I got drenched. Stopped at one to the PATC cabins are dried off under the porch.

It sucks when your shoes and socks get so wet you can literally squeeze the water out of them. Made it to the Bearfence Hut right as another rainstorm was passing by. Nature was there, and Dragonbreath got there right after me. We waited that one out, it passed by pretty quickly. After another 8mi I stopped at Big Meadows Lodge and got a burger and fries at the bar. Its kinda cool that the Shenandoah National Park has some Waysides and Lodge's that you can get food at, but it is kinda pricey. Found Dragonbreath and Nature again, they had decided to stay at one of the pay campgrounds, they had already bought a tent site before I got there. I was planning on hiking farther, but decided to stay, having hiked in wet shoes most of the day kinda took its toll. Had some beers with Dragonbreath, the first time I've had alcohol since May 28th.

6-19-2009 Fri

2009-06-23T15:20:00.001-07:00

Start point: Blackrock Hut

End point: Hightop Mtn

miles hiked: 22

Well I wanted to get out of camp early but I didn't end up leaving until a little after 9am. Had a snack near Loft Mtn, then hiked a few more miles and went to the campstore near the Loft Mtn Campground. Antrack was there, he was nice enough to share some extra food he had with me. It was great, I had 1 bagel left, and he gave me some cream cheese, avacado, and sprouts to put on it. Took alot of breaks, I wanted to try and do a marathon today (26.2 miles) but I just could not get motivated to hike that far. I'm gonna try and get up real early tomorrow so I can try to do alot of miles without having to rush at the end of the day (like I did today). I did 4 sets of 30 push-ups this morning, then 2 more sets of 30 later in the day. Also 30 crunches and 10 sit-ups.

This is near the top of Hightop Mtn

6-18-2009 Thur

2009-06-23T14:36:00.000-07:00

Start point: Rockfish Gap - Waynesboro, VA

End point: Blackrock Hut

miles hiked: 20

Finally got a decent shot of a deer on the trail

Me and Dragonbreath got up pretty early and went down to have some breakfast. Saw Phoenix Rising, who we hadn't seen since trail days. I went down to the library to use the internet some more before we left back to the trail at 10am. The 1st part of my day kinda sucked, there were lots of rocks on the trail and they were still pretty wet from all the rain yesterday. Very slippery, and I fell twice. After I caught up with Dragonbreath, we hiked together till we got to the turnoff for the 1st shelter, and had lunch there on the trail. Later in the day after I'd been hiking by myself for awhile I found a little stealth tent spot about 15ft off to the side of the trail. I was just sitting there taking a break and looking up some mileage in my book and a black bear just comes strolling up. I get up and move to the other side of the fallen tree I was sitting on and it comes right over and tries to steal my water bottle. I yell at it to drop my water bottle and it does, and then just slowly meanders away. It was lifting up rocks and branches and looking for stuff underneath, such a trip to be that close to a wild bear.

Got to the hut and it was packed! Dragonbreath had saved me a tent site thankfully, otherwise I probably would have ended up tenting on unlevel ground.

6-17-2009 Wed

2009-06-17T06:33:00.000-07:00

Well I wanted to get out of Waynesboro today and start hiking through the Shenandoah National Park, but its really nasty outside and they are predicting up to an inch of rain. Plus everyone I'm hiking with (Dragonbreath, Gorgonzola&Denali, Nature) was planning on staying today anyway, so its just as well.
So I ended up just hanging out, hit up the library quite abit, took a nap, went for a swim at the YMCA and then just took it easy the rest of the day. Hopefully I'll get on the trail before noon tomorrow.

Told my sister I'd post a pic of the patches I sewed on, the bottom 2 are the ones she got for me so I could represent Texas. (2 people have asked me "is that a rat?", btw)

6-16-2009 Tues

2009-06-16T22:57:00.000-07:00

Start point: Cedar Cliffs
End point: Rockfish Gap - Waynesboro, VA
miles hiked: 15
total miles hiked so far: 852.5

We all made it out of camp right around 8am today, I think everyone was pretty anxious to get to town. Early today it was kinda sprinkling and foggy, so it was a little slow going for me for the first couple hours, then I put it in high gear. Made 5.6miles to the shelter in 1 1/2 hrs, then did the 5 miles from the shelter to Rockfish Gap in another hour and 1/2. Got a ride to town from some trail angels (thanks Walt and Pat), picked up some Arby's and waited at the library till the Grace Lutheran Church opened at 5pm. They can hold about 15 hikers, its not really a hostel but they have internet, tv, and cots. Gorgonzola and Denali, Nature, Dragonbreath and I all ate dinner together at Ming's Chinese Buffet. All you can eat, you better believe I put a hurtin on em'. Raffle Queen ate with us too, and Antrack joined us later. Good stuff.
Only 155 more miles of Virginia!
Here's a pic of me taking a break in the fog:

6-15-2009 Mon

2009-06-16T22:44:00.000-07:00

Start point: The Priest
End point: Cedar Cliffs
miles hiked: 15

Got out of camp right around the same time as Gorgonzola and Denali. There is this blue blaze I had been planning on doing ever since I started called the Mau-Har trail, and they decided to do it as well. It is a steep, difficult route, but you go right next to a creek that has a ton of waterfalls and a couple swimming holes. It was a really pretty area, but the water was freezing!

I was able to get in all the way, but only for a second. We met back up with Dragonbreath and Nature when we got to the Maupin Field Shelter for lunch. There was a lookout about a mile before the Cedar Cliffs that had a good view:

This spot we had tonight to tent was great, right on the cliffs. Got there kinda late so didn't catch the actual sunset, but the sky was still really pretty. We can see the town lights in the valley down below in the distance.

6-14-2009 Sun

2009-06-16T21:49:00.001-07:00

Start point: Hog Camp Gap
End point: The Priest
miles hiked: 15

(Gives you an idea of what the campsite looked like, below is everyone sitting around waitin for breakfast.)

Great morning to just hang around. Scattered clouds and occasional breezes really made it the perfect temperature. Luscious made an awesome hash w/ roast beef, potatoes and veggies in the dutch oven, and Baltimore Jack made 3 huge batches of eggs scrambled w/peppers, sausage
and lots of cheese. Sat around until noon (had to stay for seconds of course), then said my thank yous to the organizers and Jack. I made good time to the Seeley-Woodworth Shelter for lunch, then afterward just had no energy.

Came across this tree growing on top of a boulder, it was hard to get a good picture of, but its was impressive how tall it was considering the whole root structure was above ground.

Climbed up to Spy Rock to check out the view, pretty cool spot. My action shot:

Got water at the Priest Shelter then went and found Dragonbreath and Nature about .2 farther up the trail. They found the good tenting spots near the cliffs of the priest, so I left my pack and went back to the Shelter to tell Gorgonzola and Denali to come up there. Antrack came along too. We had an amazing spot on the rocks to watch the sunset.

6-13-2009 Sat

2009-06-16T21:10:00.000-07:00

Start point: Brown Mtn Creek Shelter
End point: USFS 48, Hog Camp Gap
miles hiked: 8.1

(Sometimes the towns we re-supply in are not very close, so you gotta hitch in. Started playin around with my camera while we waited for a ride..)

Today I got up real early and read till Dragonbreath came down to my tent site and got me. I'm trying to finish this book "The Speed of Dark". Its pretty good so far, but its heavy so I need to read it and give it away.. Dragonbreath, Hotfeet and I got a ride into Buena Vista, VA to re-supply. We didn't get back to the trail till 5pm so going to Hog Camp Gap was our plan, not enough time to go much farther before dark. I took awhile to get over the 1st climb, then it dumped down rain on me. I did some good Lt Dan (Forrest Gump) impressions, yelling at the sky to rain harder on me. "C'mon, you call that rain, thats not rain! I want you to pour! Soak me to the bone!" It passed by quickly but there was alot of rain in a short amount of time. Got to see a pretty cool sunset on Cold Mtn:

There was a huge gathering at Hog Camp Gap. I got there late, but they had been there since thur. It was kinda like a party/hiker feed/trail magic. It was organized by some thru hikers from 99' who have been doing this in the same spot for the last 10 years, always around the same time in June. Lots of folks that we have been seeing the past couple weeks were there, and everyone was having a blast. Baltimore Jack was helping cook, and he always tries to make sure if you are hungry you get fed. I had a couple sodas, a burger, and some goose. They were cooking a cobbler in a dutch oven over the camp fire and it came out delicious. They also had one of the hand cranked ice cream makers and the ice cream was great as well. Met some new folks and had fun catching up with people I hadn't seen in awhile. Lots of people hiked in and then stayed extra days, and some people caught rides and skipped ahead to be there. I think hiking in on the last night was perfect.

6-12-2009 Fri

2009-06-16T20:51:00.000-07:00

Start point: Johns Hollow Shelter
End point: Brown Mtn Creek Shelter
miles hiked: 18.3

In between the 1st and 2nd big climbs I came across a rattlesnake right on the trail. This is the 1st time I think I've ever seen one in the wild. Didn't even rattle when I approached, if I hadn't been watching my step closely I would have stepped on it. Took some pics, left a note for my friends behind me to watch their step, and went around it. Had lunch at Punchbowl Shelter and talked to a south-bounder, Mudflap. Most of the rest of the day was easy, except when it started raining. I was still about 5.5 away from the shelter. Got soaked, but the only part I really minded was my feet, hate that soggy foot feeling when your socks and shoes get completely wet. Think my pack cover is done, its not keeping my pack dry anymore. I guess its better than nothing, but water is definitely getting in. The walk along Brown Mtn Creek is very beautiful (pictured above). There were not any tent sites left up by the shelter by the time I got there, but I found a nice flat one right next to the creek. It stopped raining well before I put up my tent, but once inside everything still felt clammy and damp. Read for just abit and let the creek sounds put me to sleep.

McAfee Knob

2009-06-16T15:23:00.001-07:00

McAfee Knob

the view from McAfee Knob
looking back toward McAfee Knob from the Tinker Cliffs

Action pics

2009-06-16T15:03:00.000-07:00

Grayson Highlands going up Hurricane Mtnbetween Gullion and Lynn Camp Creekthe rim of Burkes Garden a few miles north of Partnership

6-11-2009 Thur

2009-06-16T13:03:00.000-07:00

Start: Thunder Hill Shelter
End: Johns Hollow Shelter
miles hiked: 16.3

More easy hiking today, mostly downhill. Well I say easy, but do know, your feet ache after every mile, downhill especially. The one big climb was up High Cock Knob (insert joke here). We had lunch at Matts Creek Shelter and talked to Moose, he did Hardcore as well, he was on the Rock Crew this year. We descended all the way down to 680 ft and crossed over the James River on the James River Foot Bridge, the longest foot use only bridge on the AT. The last bit of trail was along a creek, so thats always a nice way to end your day. The Johns Hollow Shelter is right by the creek and it has a ton of space for tenting, one of the biggest flat areas I've seen near a shelter. It started raining as I was making dinner, but the rain and the creek were nice to go to sleep to. Bojangles, Hotfeet, Catfish, Poppins, and of course me and Dragonbreath all camped here tonight.

Here is the James River, the foot bridge is to the right of the train track bridge

My first glimpse of the James River

6-10-2009 Wed

2009-06-16T12:57:00.000-07:00

Start point: V.A. 614, Jennings Creek
End point: Thunder Hill Shelter
miles hiked: 14

It stormed quite abit last night, really close thunder and lightning a couple times that woke me up. The sun came out this morning though, so we all dried out our tents in the parking lot by the road before packing up. I took a picture because I thought it looked funny, all these hikers taking over a parking lot to dry stuff. Ziggy and Chatter showed up right before I was gonna leave, so I talked to them for awhile. Had a big hill to climb then had lunch at the Bryant Ridge Shelter. The woods right before you got to the shelter were really pretty. Lots of tall skinny trees and not alot of underbrush, made it look really spacious. Had a 2nd stop at the Cornelius Creek Shelter, talked to Gorgonzola and Denali some more. Nice hiking, even though it started raining abit after that. Apple Orchard Mtn had a nice view and crazy looking weather tower that looked like a giant soccer ball. Found a nice spot near the Thunder Hill Shelter to tent out.

view from Apple Orchard Mtn

6-9-2009 Tues

2009-06-16T12:48:00.000-07:00

Start point: Wilson Creek Shelter
End point: V.A. 614, Jennings Creek
miles hiked: 16.9

Got pretty good sleep on my new thermarest z-lite last night. Woke up really tired though, I think the heat really took it out of me yesterday. Talked to Gorgonzola and Denali before I left, found out from them my friend Skywalker had to get off the trail because of his ankle, so thats a bummer. Didn't get out till nearly 10am, so I hiked by myself today, but that was ok because it gave me a chance to listen to a playlist I had Ziggy make me. Pretty easy hiking along the Blue Ridge Parkway today, we'll be crossing back and forth over it for the next 100 miles. Got to Jennings Creek and set up my tent real quick so I could jump in the creek before the sun went down. Lil chilly, but very refreshing. Camped with Dragonbreath and Bojangles, then Gorgonzola and Denali showed up right when it started raining, about an hour before dark. Fell asleep to the rain.

6-8-2009 Mon

2009-06-16T12:27:00.000-07:00

Start point: U.S. 220/I-81 Interchange area - Daleville / Troutville, VA
End point: Wilson Creek Shelter
miles hiked: 11.2

After checkout at the hotel a former thru hiker (Crash Test Dummy) gave us a ride to the post office and then to the outfitter. I was able to get my thermarest problem fixed. They sent mine back to the manufacturer for me, and would have given me a replacement of the same, but I decided to go with a z-lite this time, which is one of the foam pads. After getting a couple things at Kroger's and a few dollar menu items at Wendy's, we didn't get on the trail till after noon. It was freakin hot. Was drenched in sweat after about 15 mins. Pretty big climb today, we made it up pretty fast considering. Caught up to Ziggy and hiked with him for abit. Lots of folks at the shelter tonight, too many to list. Bugs sucked today! All up in you face; these damn gnats love to try and get in your ears and eyes.

6-7-2009 Sun

2009-06-07T22:32:00.000-07:00

Start point: Lamberts Meadow campsite / Sawmill Run
End point: U.S. 220/I-81 Interchange area - Daleville / Troutville, VA
miles hiked: 9.1
total miles hiked: 718.6

Nice easy hike into town for another re-supply, re-charge. Me and Dragonbreath spilt a hotel room, did some laundry. He went to eat at a Mexican restaurant, I updated all these entries and got my food for next week at the good ole Dollar General. I got some Taco Bell for dinner, watched in disgust as the Lakers won another game. Now its real late so I gotta get to sleep. Hopefully I'll update again sooner than later this next time. Not sure what this river was, but this view was a few miles before you get to town.

6-6-2009 Sat - McAfee Knob

2009-06-07T22:22:00.000-07:00

Start point: Catawba, VA
End point: Lamberts Meadow campsite / Sawmill Run
miles hiked: 10.7

Everyone except me and Ziggy left at 9:30am when the store owner gave them a ride back to the trail. The sun had come out and we wanted our stuff to dry fully, and I was just not feeling like being in a hurry. Ziggy and I talked and hung out till around noon, Freebird (dark hair) and this girl called the Bird showed up, as well as Skipping Stones, Puddle Jumper and Wispy. By the time we got back on the trail it was 1pm. Today we hiked up to one of the most photographed spots on the trail, McAfee Knob, it was amazing. Considered to be one of the best views in Virginia. The Tinker Cliffs were awesome too. Me and Ziggy hiked together all day, and eventually got to the campsite where Dragonbreath was. This group of us: Dragonbreath, Chick Magnet, Bojangles, Phyllis and Nature have been at the same campsites for the last couple days so its kinda cool to keep having folks you know around. This has been one of my new favorite days, great weather, amazing views, good company and to end it a tentsite near a creek with sounds of water all night..

6-5-2009 Fri

2009-06-07T22:11:00.001-07:00

Start point: Pickle Branch Shelter
End point: Catawba, VA (Catawba Valley General Store)
miles hiked: 12.6

Dragon's Tooth was supposed to be the highlight today, a cool rocky outcropping, but I didn't even hike the .1mile out to it after climbing from the shelter (1,845 elev) up to it (3,020). Ugh. It was rain and fog so I knew what the view would look like. The driving force today was The Homeplace Restaurant, a southern style all you can eat that people have been talking about for days in anticipation. Nearly ran out of food so took a .4mile walk to the Catawba Grocery where we had lunch (a quart of chocolate milk, chips, 2 eggrolls and a pint of ice cream), before walking 6 more miles to the all you can eat for dinner. I know competitive eaters stretch their stomachs before a match, I was going for that tactic. We got set up at the Catawba General Store (another store that allows tenting out back), then Ziggy, Dragonbreath and I went to eat. Greatness! Fried Chicken, ham, and roast beef were the meats, then green beans, pinto beans, mac and cheese, mashed potatoes and gravy, buscuits, cole slaw, apple butter and sweet relish. They refilled whatever you emptied, and we left hurting. Seriously hurting. Oh yea, apple pie and ice cream for dessert. Top left is a picture of Ziggy taking a picture of the Homeplace
.This is Ziggy, me and Dragonbreath with full bellies

6-4-2009 Thur

2009-06-07T22:05:00.000-07:00

Start point: Sarver Hollow Shelter
End point: Pickle Branch Shelter
miles hiked: 16.1

Some really cool ridge hiking this morning, got some great views (pics above). Crossed the Eastern Continental Divide today, before that I came across a turtle who was also going northbound. Decided to try a method today where I cut the day in half (so I hiked 8mi), then set up my tent and slept for a couple hrs, then hiked the rest. I was able to sleep during the hottest part of the day, but then when I started hiking I caught the rain. Another shelter .3 off trail (doh) and a rainy night. Did find a nice flat spot though, so got some pretty decent sleep.

6-3-2009 Wed

2009-06-07T21:56:00.001-07:00

Start point: campsite near Wind Rock
End point: Sarver Hollow Shelter
miles hiked: 15.9

Hiked early again and got to the shelter and took a nap till Dragonbreath came along. We hiked along Laurel Creek for awhile and took the zip-line across to the Captains house where Treebeard and Dartanyan were hanging out. This guy the Captain was gone so we didn't get to meet him, but he lives right across the creek from the AT (made the zip-line across to his house)and helps out hikers alot, lets them hang out, use the internet, do laundry. We just stayed a few mins and moved on, tough day for me, pretty slow going after that. Keffer Oak was cool, its the 2nd biggest oak on the AT, girth is 18 feet, 3 inches. Sarver Hollow Shelter is .3miles off the trail, downhill, (which means .3 uphill tomorrow morn, whine) and the water source was even farther (bummer). Shelter was full and the tent sites nearby sucked, so I cowboy camped under the covered porch of the shelter. Keffer Oak

6-2-2009 Tues

2009-06-07T21:46:00.000-07:00

The view from Wind Rock

Start point: Symms Gap Meadow
End point: campsites near Wind Rock
miles hiked: 16.4

Lots of ferns today, some of the biggest I've ever seen. The view from Wind Rock was cool. Seems everyone is doing around the same miles right now so the campsite was packed. Had to search hard to find a flat spot to tent, ended up by myself up on a hill a hundred yards or so from where everyone else was. Didn't matter, started raining right before dark and didn't quit for some time. My thermarest is messed up, formed a big bubble so it doesn't inflate nice and flat anymore, its like it has a big freakin' goiter. Sucks, wish I would have just got a foam one like a z-lite.

Love it when I find those springs I can drink right out of.

Dragonbreath and One-Step on Wind Rock

6-1-2009 Mon

2009-06-07T21:32:00.000-07:00

Skipping Stones and Puddle JumperHiking near Rice Field Shelter

Start point: Pearisburg
End point: Symms Gap Meadow
miles hiked: 11.9

Me and Dragonbreath ate breakfast at a diner (Marsha's?), One-Step joined us, who we had met the other day. This time another huge one: 3 pancakes, a 2egg omelette with sausage, grn pepper and onion, hashbrowns and a buscuit. I've spent nearly 10 bucks on breakfast the last 2 days but it has been sooo goood. Sorry, I just love food these days, and talking about it.
The hike out was rough for me, leaving town you always seem to be doing a big climb, and you always have alot of food so you have a heavy pack = me sucking wind. We stopped at Rice Field Shelter for lunch, met Bojangles, and saw Big Camera, One-Step, Skipping Stones and Puddle Jumper. Hiked on to Symms Gap Meadow which was a nice spot to camp, kind of a treeless area so we got a great sunset. Skipping Stones&Puddle Jumper, Nature, Bojangles, Big Camera, One Step, and of course me and Dragonbreath were there. Oh yea, Minnesota Smith showed up, so I relocated, moved my tent well out of earshot from where he was.

Symms Gap Meadow

5-31-2009 - Zero in Pearisburg

2009-06-07T21:23:00.000-07:00

View from the Church Hostel

The bunk house (Holy Family Church hostel)

We were gonna hike out today, I even took down my tent and packed everything up, but we decided not to leave at some point in the morning. Some more folks I know showed up throughout the day, Skully, as well as Skipping Stones, Puddle Jumper, Top Hat and Duffy.
Dragonbreath, Chick Magnet and I made it to breakfast at the Friends and Family Restaurant. Chick Magnet and I ordered what was called "I want it all", sausage, bacon, ham, eggs, grits, homefries, buscuits and toast. Boy I love breakfast more than ever now. That waitress gave Dragonbreath some grief because she had to keep coming back because he kept ordering more food. Kinda just piddled around all day, which was pretty nice and relaxing.

5-30-2009 Sat

2009-06-07T21:03:00.000-07:00

Start point: Woods Hole Hostel
End point: Pearisburg (Holy Family Church Hostel)
miles hiked: 10.4

Every one of us signed up for breakfast, so it was a nice size family we had around the table this morning. The hostel owners were really nice and very friendly, made a great breakfast of eggs, sausage, home-made grits, biscuits, fruit preserves and fresh fruit. Saw Quaid putting tons of butter on his grits so I took his lead, he inadvertently showed me how to eat grits like a southern boy, lots of butter, salt and pepper. They are actually pretty good that way, I like them better than I ever thought I would. Hiked out last but caught up with everyone, and ended up hiking to Pearisburg with Lucky and Dah Wah He. Dragonbreath had skipped Woods Hole Hostel and gone on to the next shelter, so he got to town before us. Met up with him after we got set up at the church hostel. Pearisburg actually has a Super Wal-Mart, so it was nice to do some cheap shopping for food. Bought alot of fruit for dinner, 2 apples, an orange and a kiwi. Fruit weighs alot so I don't usually buy any to take with me, but its soo good after not having it for awhile. Saw some familiar faces at the church hostel (Mr Goat, Free, Robo, Patience, Ezra, Chick Magnet, Rooster) and met Big Camera.

looking through the tunnel of rhododendrons at Lucky climbing up to Angel's Rest (the top pic is of Pearisburg and the New River as seen from Angel's Rest)

5-29-2009 Fri

2009-06-07T18:01:00.000-07:00

Start point: Trents Grocery
End point: Woods Hole Hostel
miles hiked: 14

Got up super early (before 6am) and headed up to Dismal Creek Falls, which you get to on a blue-blazed trail, .3 miles off the AT. The rain from the past couple days made this creek swollen so the falls were ragin'. Hung out at the falls and ate breakfast. So my morning started off good, then the day kinda went south. I hadn't gotten very good sleep and wanted to nap, so I got down to what I think was the White Pine Horse Campground. (On the way there, the trail was getting overgrown and all these wet branches kept hitting me, annoying..) It was a semi dry spot where there was a big bare spot that the sun could get through, thats where I set up my tent to dry and took a nap. The sun had come out but it was only a joke, it started sprinkling again just when my stuff was almost dry. Hiked for another couple miles where I came up on Pig Pen, he had a topo map of the area and we talked about blue-blazing up this mountain we were about to have to climb. I managed to follow the blue blazes all the way up this creek filled path, and it turns out some of it used to be the old AT. I could see where the blazes on the trees had been white before and then painted blue. Was a tough climb, sometimes blue-blazes are shorter, but more difficult, so its kind of a catch 22 (especially in rain). Got to the Woods Hole Hostel, which I hadn't really planned on staying at, but my day had gotten kinda miserable so I figured I'd see if they had a bunk. Got there and they had tons of space. No hostel ever has this many empty bunks when its raining, whats the deal! Met a section hiker named Bellows, the owners were on a run to town so he gave me the run-down. What's nice is this hostel has been around a long time and has some cool history, plus they don't charge, just ask a suggested donation of $5 for the first night. Signed up for the home-made breakfast: $6.50. Skipping Stones and his wife Laura (now Puddle Jumper) showed up, they had gone to eat with the owners. Then Lucky, Dah Wah Heh and Quaid hiked in. So it was really cool to see old friends and be staying with everyone I know (with the exception of Bellows, and he turned out to be cool too).Theres always time for push-ups And these falls definitley represent

5-28-2009 Thur

2009-06-07T17:54:00.000-07:00

Start point: Helveys Mill Shelter
End point: Trents Grocery
miles hiked: 16.8

Most of us (me, Dragonbreath, Skully, Trampoline, Pig Pen, Quaid) made it to Trents Grocery which is a little store that offers tenting out back on a couple acres they have, as well as showers and laundry. I got there just before they closed, so I was able to get a cheeseburger and mozz. sticks. Quaid gave me some of his pizza, thanks Quaid! Rained off and on after dark. Stayed up
late talking to Pig Pen and Trampoline. This fawn was hanging out not even a foot off the trail.

5-27-2009 Wed - Back to the Trail

2009-06-07T17:43:00.000-07:00

Start point: Burkes Garden
End point: Helveys Mill Shelter
miles hiked: 17.8

Got a ride back to the trail from the farmer. Those last 3 days of not hiking helped alot, my blisters pretty much all healed up. Looking back at that last week, I should have took it easier, done less miles with those new shoes and I probably wouldn't have had as many problems. Live and learn.. Walked in fog and light rain to the first shelter I came to (Jenkins) where I found out from the register that Dragonbreath and Ziggy had just been there. They must have just left this morning a few hrs before I got there. Hiked most of the day in off and on rain, hoping I would catch up to them by the end of the day. Finally ran into Treebeard, Dartanyan and Ziggy so we talked for just abit. Got to the road where I got a ride to Bland, VA to re-supply, and after getting groceries went to Subway for a sandwich and found Dragonbreath and Capt D. Me and Dragonbreath got caught up, and hitched a ride back to the trail together and made it to Helveys Mill Shelter. Skully was there, as well as Ziggy, Treebeard, Dartanyan, and met some new folks, Trampoline, Quaid and Pig Pen.

5-26-2009 Tues - Farm Work Day 3

2009-06-07T17:32:00.000-07:00

Some neighbors came over and helped us de-worm the sheep, which consisted of us getting the sheep in the barn, then grabbing them one by one (easier said than done, those guys are strong and do not wanna cooperate), holding them still, holding their mouth open and squirting the de-worming liquid stuff into their mouth. Then you mark them to know which ones you've done. With that done, we finished up the fence, had some leftover spaghetti for dinner, watched a movie, and listened to music before bed. Well I had a little too much wine so I ended up passing out on the couch, but it was my last night, so we had to do it up. We worked pretty good together, and hopefully I will get to come back after my hike is done.

5-25-2009 Mon - Farm Work Day 2

2009-06-07T17:23:00.000-07:00

We started putting the fence up today. I learned how to use a come-along, which we used to tighten the fence before nailing it into place. We basically had to lay all the fence out along the row of new posts, then go along and tighten section by section (prob 15ft sections) nailing this fence into place. Its the kinda work that starts off not too bad, kinda easy, then gets tough real fast. Got pretty much half of the whole row of fence done before quittin time. Had spaghetti w/ meat sauce for dinner. Oh yea forgot about lunch, we used some leftovers of that chicken to make sandwiches with greens and avacado.

5-24-2009 Sun - Farm Work Day 1

2009-06-07T17:04:00.000-07:00

These next couple weeks of journals are gonna be pretty short. I didn't do any writing in my journals for a few weeks, just made some notes, so alot is just from memory...

Today we woke up and had a delicious breakfast before getting to work. Fried eggs, bacon, ham, beans, toast and some slices of tomato. Our project that we would be working on for the next few days is putting up a new fence. The farmers sheep kept getting out of the old fence, so adding a second fence should do the trick. The first step was putting more fence posts in. This wasn't really that hard, but rather dangerous work. We used a hydraulic fence post driver that hooks on to the back of a tractor to get these huge fence posts in the ground. If you kinda want an idea of what it looked like: http://www.munroeng.com/multisett_jpg.html
Got all the posts done which took up the whole day. We had dinner (whole chicken roasted with carrots, celery, onion and spices, and roasted potatoes) some wine and beer, and then to bed.

5-23-2009 Sat

2009-06-07T16:41:00.000-07:00

Start point: Lynn Camp Creek
End point: Burkes Garden
miles hiked: 9.2
The trail to the rim of Burkes Garden
Me and Ned woke up around the same time, got the fire re-started (it was a chilly morning) and ate breakfast together. Got packed up and left before him. Nice guy, he gave me a Mountain House dinner the other day, then a day or so after that gave me some really good specialty hot chocolate packets and some GinSting packets (honey, but used kind of like that power gel energy boost stuff). I was getting kinda low on food and he had extra. Sometimes its tough to get the whole food buying thing done right, sometimes you have too much, you get to the next re-supply town with extra, and sometimes not enough, so you are skimping trying to make it without feeling like you are starving. Today I knew I had a big climb, so I sat at a creek, filtered water and just drank till I had about 3 liters in me. It actually did seem to make the climb easier, didn't feel thirsty even though I sweat alot on the way up. For the past couple days I had been trying to decide whether or not I was gonna go down in Burkes Garden to work on a farm my friend had told me about, and today was the day I got there and had to decide. I made it to the rim of Burkes Garden, got to the Chestnut Knob Shelter and called some friends. I also got a voicemail from Dragonbreath, he was a few days behind me and was doing low mile days to try and take it easy, he was developing a shin splint, and didn't wanna make it worse. So that seemed perfect, I would work for a few days on the farm and give him a chance to catch up. I got to a road and just started walking down it with my vague directions to this farm. To make a long story short, I found it (never would have without luck, or fate :) Met the farmer, we talked and got to know each other, had dinner (cod filet with burre blanc sauce and rice), and went to sleep early (he let me stay in a room with THE most comfortable bed I've slept in on my trip).

almost stepped on this snake

Took these walking into Burkes Garden

5-22-2009 Fri

2009-06-07T16:32:00.000-07:00

Start point: Gullion (Little Brushy Mtn.)
End point: Lynn Camp Creek
miles hiked: 9.9

Got up around the same time as everyone else but I had to catch up on some journals so I was the last one out of camp. Got down to the creek and pumped some water, did some stretches, and 3 sets of 25 pushups. After a climp up Big Walker Mtn and back down the other side you go through some rolling pastures, which would have been kinda nice but it was darn hot. Soo much cooler in the shade of the woods. Came upon a spot near a river where they laid railroad ties to walk on as the trail, to keep from having to walk through the mud, however they end about 15 ft short. Tried to get around the edge without getting muddy, but it didn't work, so my new shoes were covered in mud. On a rainy day this wouldn't have bothered me, but its completely dry for the past week, this is just poor trail maintenance. I was pissed for the next few miles and about that time my burning toes just pissed me off more. Got to Knot Maul Branch Shelter, ate some snacks, took a short nap to cool off. Ned the Fed came along, met him a few days ago. He gave me some stuff called Jelly Toes that are kinda like little gel pads you put on your toes, says that ballerina's use them. They actually helped quite abit. We decided to go another mile or so down to Lynn Camp Creek. Set up our tents, made a good fire, ate, talked abit and went to sleep. Not one of my favorite days, getting new blisters suck.

5-21-2009 Thur

2009-06-07T16:24:00.001-07:00

Start point: Partnership Shelter
End point: Gullion (Little Brushy Mtn.)
miles hiked: 16.8

I got up in the middle of the night, moved out of the shelter and cowboy camped the rest of the night. This guy Minnesota Smith can snore like no other, I took 2 advil PM and he still woke me up after about 2 hrs of sleep. I was pissed to say the least. Got going after doing stretches and 70 push-ups (2sets 25, 1set 20). Caught up with the Man and Flatlander right before Chatfield Shelter and we all ate lunch there together. Matt from DC showed up and we hiked out together almost all the way to Atkins where we ate at a restaurant called the Barn. Every patron in the place was a hiker, so that was a kind of funny sight to see at a normal restaurant. We met Green Light and Blue Sky at the gas station across the street,

we all hiked on together and found a tent site on the top of a ridge.Green Light and Blue SkyMatt from DC

5-20-2009 Wed - Partnership Shelter Delievers

2009-05-25T19:29:00.000-07:00

Start point: Hurricane Mtn Shelter
End point: Partnership Shelter
miles hiked: 19.7

Got up early and headed out, made it to VA 650 by 10am or so. Thats the road to Troutdale, VA, where Gary (who I hung out with at the NOC) had told me to go and stop by Jerry's Kitchen for one of the best burgers near the trail. It's 2 miles down the road from the trail and I walked more than a mile before someone pulled over and asked if I needed a ride. They were still serving breakfast but that was fine with me, I wasn't in that much of a burger mood anyway. Legs showed up when I was finishing up so I we talked while he ate. Got a ride back to the trail from Gary, he was actually there working with Jerry shuttling hikers to the restaurant/store and back, to bring in more business. It was good to get to talk to him and I'll prob see him again. Got back to the trail and decided to take a nap, real food can either get you moving or put you in a coma.. Once I started hiking again Green Light and Blue Sky (met at Greasy Creek Friendly, they also did Hardcore Trail Crew) came up on me so we all hiked together for awhile and had lunch together at Trimpi Shelter. Matt from DC showed up while we ate. Hiked out with Green Light and Blue Sky and kept up with them for a good while then hiked the rest of the way with Matt from DC. The Partnership shelter is well known because it is close to the Mt Rogers visitors center and pizza places will deliver there. We got in around 8 so we had to hurry to get our orders in. Got a medium pizza and a small order of cheese fries, and split a Pepsi 2 liter w/Matt. Completely stuffed after finishing all that. Hung out with Matt, talked about The Chinese Study, vegetarianism, and eating healthy. While typing I just now realized the irony of that. ;)

5-19-2009 Tues - Back to Trail

2009-05-25T18:57:00.000-07:00

Start point: Massie Gap
End point: Hurricane Mtn Shelter
miles hiked: 13

I got a ride with Long Haul back to the trail today. First we dropped off Chatter, Smile Train, Buckeye and Wimbeldon at Elk Garden, then the blonde Freebird and Blacklist at Troutdale, and finally me back at Massie Gap where I left off. Not only did Long Haul give me a ride, he also mailed a package for me, offering to pay the postage. So many people going out of their way to help, still amazes me. What a beautiful day to get going again. In the 60's all day, some more of that perfect hiking weather. Hiked some more through Grayson Highlands and at one point I thought to myself, man, I could be happy hiking through this kind of terrain for a long time. Nice easy rolling hills, a little bit of forest, a little bit of prairie.

Stopped at Wise Shelfter to check the register, looks like Dragonbreath hasn't passed here yet so he must have took another day off to rest his leg. Stopped again at Old Orchard Shelter for lunch. Saw Chick Magnet again, and met a thru hiker named Ned the Fed. Got to Hurricane Mtn and stayed in the Shelter, it was me, Rooster, Pittsburgh, Legs and SpiceMan. I had met Rooster at Trail Days where we talked about Colorado.

5-18-2009 Mon - Kincora Hardcore Trail Crew

2009-05-18T21:15:00.000-07:00

On our way to the worksite we passed Round Bald and Jane Bald

(from left to right; Bark, Berry, Gorgonzola and Denali) Wow, what a great experience this has been. Today we worked re-routing some trail between Roan Mtn and Hump Mtn, which were some of those amazing bald mtn's I crossed over a few weeks back. Both days you provide your own breakfast and lunch but they feed you dinner. You carry 2 tools up to where the work site is. Both days I had a pulaski (combines an axe and a mattock) and a Rogue hoe (which is brand of hoe with a sharpened edge). It was about a 2-3 mile hike to the work site today, so that in itself was a little tough carrying these tools, your water and your lunch all the way up there. We also use pick-axes, mattock's, loppers and rock bars (huge steel pry bars). I have some good before and after pictures of trail we all made:

Also helped make some stone steps today. which was pretty cool. You have to find the right rock with a flat surface, pry it out of the ground, and get it set properly. Then more rocks to support around it. Afterward Bob showed me how to find ramps:

We had alot better dinner tonight, much more filling. Started with chicken noodle soup, then salad and spaghetti with a really meaty sauce, and some delish garlic bread.

altimore Jack does pretty much all of the cooking for the 2nd day, with the help of some hikers who woke up late and didn't make it to the work site. (hikers chowing down, me and Baltimore:)

These past 2 nights I've stayed at Laurel Creek Lodge in a cabin, Kincora Hostel gets really full during these days for Hardcore, because Bob Peoples sets it up, so alot of people stay there at his hostel. There are a few tent spots and some spots on the porch, but its only a few dollars more here. They have waaaay less of a line for the shower here and I wouldn't have been able to catch up on all these journals if I had't gotten to use the internet here. Last night it was me, the blonde Freebird, Redbeard and Otter who split a cabin, tonight same thing just no Otter. I'm beat, so off to bed. ;)

me, D-Con and Flying Porkchop

heres another shot of the trail crew hard at work: