Stephen and Kara Take a Hike

WE MADE IT!!!

2005-10-14T10:28:00.000-05:00

2,174 Miles

Summited on October 12, 2005

YES!!!

We had beautiful weather for nearly the entire last month of the trail, with a gorgeous summit-day. Mount Katahdin was a challenging finale to the journey, with about 4,000' vertical gain over the last five miles. Lots of hand-over-hand climbing became the order of the day...

...and getting to the top was a HUGE relief...

...so we clowned around on the sign awhile, playing Vogue photo-session. Kara took it particularly seriously.

.............

...More pictures later!

NH & ME pix!

2005-09-29T15:21:00.000-05:00

Yes!!!

The weather was gorgeous yesterday...

Canoe ferry across the Kennebec River

....while today it is POURING. And we heard that a tornado (!!!) touched down near here earlier today. Did we not manage to get out hiking? Oh darn!!!

SO, in the meantime, here's a bit of catching-up on photos.

The Whites

Between Mt Liberty and the Franconia Ridge

Here, Kara is applying the highly technical wind measurement device called the "Hand Wavometer". We estimate that the wind speed was approximately 50mph.

As an aside, she was also doing product limitation testing of her Hiking Kilt.

We did not document this with pictures.

Yes, we found the product failure parameters.

On 9/11, NH had a project to put flags on all of the 48 peaks over 4000'. It was a beautiful day, and a moving display.

Probably one of our most memorable nights out, and our only night 'cowboy-camping': sleeping out under the stars on Webster Cliffs with our (mummified in the pic) friend Poet. New moon, no humidity. More Milky Way and shooting stars than you can shake a Leki at. Just Wow.

...And the power fritzed out. So that's all the commenting & pix for today!

Caratunk, ME

2005-09-29T11:15:00.000-05:00

It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood...

Or at least it was yesterday. And it's supposed to be beautiful tomorrow.

Today: rain. And wind.

But they make us appreciate the sun! And yesterday was probably one of the prettiest days in Maine that we've experienced. Up at 5am (sort of), hiking by 6:45am, and 14 miles by 3pm in order to catch the canoe-ferry across the Kennebunk river. We figured that we could blitz it, catch the canoe before the 4pm daily deadline, get a quick hitch into town, resupply, and run for it and maybe get another four miles in for the day.

But we stopped for burgers. And kept stopping. And just couldn't help ourselves staying overnight at this great place with great burgers and great on-site microbrews, and a great hot tub to which they serve the aforementioned great microbrews. It was great.

And today it's raining. With strong storm warnings. Hmm.

We're currently discussing the enjoyment of hiking & putting up in the rain.

Oops. Looks like we're zeroing today! Peer pressure is amazing. But we've all promised not to let each other run up a hot-tub-bar tab like last night's.

It'll be great!

2005-09-23T07:47:00.000-05:00

2005-09-01T07:11:00.000-05:00

Hanover, NH

2005-08-26T13:50:00.000-05:00

Hurrah, another state!

Vermont is gone, long live Vermont. Such a terrific state it was... probably the greenest, lushest state since Virginia, with the best footing since southern PA, and the fewest bugs since the beginning of summer. Whenever that was.

We liked Vermont.

But on to bigger and higher mountains... they'll be the biggest since those in the Smokies, with supposedly some of the most beautiful views along the entire trail. And some of the steepest ascents and descents, too. Enough to challenge the sturdiest of knees. And feet.

Speaking of feet, mine are currently MUCH happier than a couple weeks ago. Really, this hiking this is much more fun when every step isn't accompanied by "Ow." I'm almost scared to leave Vermont... maybe if NH gets too bad, we'll subconsciously start the trail in the wrong direction one morning. And not notice 'til we're back in Vermont. The beginning of Vermont.

Just kidding.

Anyhoo, life is good. Just 160 miles to go until Maine!

2005-08-23T11:11:00.000-05:00

Dalton, Massachusetts

2005-08-10T14:30:00.000-05:00

It was just too nice here to not take a zero-day.

I've been back on the trail for five great days of hiking, and despite lots of cat-baths in streams, we're needing showers. Badly. And laundry.

We'd heard of a relatively new hiker hostel here in Dalton that isn't in the guidebook; it's at a local's home, and it includes not only shower, a bunk,and shuttles around town, it also includes *laundry*. For FREE! Hooray! All the SOBOs (south-bound thru hikers) that we've spoken to have absolutely raved about the place. It's a no-brainer.

My feet were aching (surprise, surprise), and we tried something new: sent Stephen ahead for the last eight miles into town so he can get us settled and get himself showered.

The reality turns out to be even better than the reports! Not only did The Birdcage have all of the above - for free - it comes with BEER. Wow. Just wow.

I show up about three hours after Stephen, and Rob picks me up at the gas station that he manages, drives me to his Birdcage, and hands me some clean extra clothes and shoos me into the shower. And then, HE DOES OUR LAUNDRY. Dang.

The Birdcage is a wonderfully comfortable place to kick back and relax, and we decided to take a day off - let my feet recuperate, yeah. We're depleting and replenishing the beer supply. Repeat until done.

And the question of the day was: Why? Why is he being so enormously nice to stinky hikers, above and beyond the call of duty???

"I can't stand the locals," says Rob, "Where else can you meet and talk to people from all different walks of life, help folks out, and party like when you were young?"

We asked him how he'd started doing this. Rob tells a story of a miserably wet day in 2001 when a grungy hiker walked up to his Shell station. Already wet, and very dejected-looking, the hiker watches the sky open up and start pouring on him again. He rounds his shoulders, lowers his head, and looks even more dejected than before. Shuffling up to the station, he asks Rob if there's anywhere in town to stay at a reasonable price. "No!", Rob laughs (this being the Berkshires). "Afraid not." The poor hiker looks like he's about to sink into the ground, and starts walking away. Rob decides to invite him in, and they both have a great time visiting. As the hikers leaves the next day, he asks Rob if he can tell other hikers about Rob. "Sure, why not."

Seventy hikers pop by that season.

Rob is now over the 1000 hiker mark, and seems to be loving it. Wow. Us hikers get really lucky sometimes - it's been a great pleasure to meet Rob and stay at his Birdcage. And now, looks like we might go take a dip in the swimming hole...

Oh yeah, the hiking's been fun, too.

Back to the Trail

2005-08-03T05:26:00.000-05:00

Woo-hoo! Back to the Trail!

Well my feet are feeling happier, and hopefully some smoother terrain and some snazzy new shoes will keep them happy.

I'll be rejoining Stephen in Salisbury CT, approximately 150mi from where I left him to fend for himself. We'll be near mile 1500, only about 1/3 of the way to go to Katahdin...

And I'll get all the dirt (ha ha) on the section that I missed, and plan to do after summiting Katahdin. Originally, Stephen had volunteered to re-do it and hike with me, but he said it was a grinder of a section and now he's down to 'mayyyybeeeee....' (just kidding, he says then)

So now I'm a clean, rested Pixie. That should be good for about, oh, half a day.

Greg & Kenket Come for a Visit

2005-07-26T11:17:00.000-05:00

On July 12th, Greg & Kenket diverted from their PA-UT drive to come hug us on the trail. Well, hug us after we showered, I suppose. A very good time was had.

How come Kenket's shirt looks like it's a snake that's trying to chomp Kara?

We took a nice visit to Yuengling Brewery - the nation's oldest - and got a personal tour thanks to Greg's gift of the gab. Even without having a single lager, I guess things were already getting a bit blurry.

Yuengling had a great Armed Services Support poster:

And some very cool stained glass and stern ladies above one of their vats:

Careful of the snake

2005-07-26T11:12:00.000-05:00

NOTICE

2005-07-26T11:06:00.000-05:00

Well, FOOEY!

2005-07-26T10:03:00.000-05:00

Breaktime for Pixie.

New Jersey is actually a great state in which to hike the AT - it's pretty (really!), it's not all exactly the same, and it's finally relatively not-rocky.

Unfortunately, the not-rocky part wasn't soon enough for me. After 200 miles of Rock Hell Trail, my feet started to need amputation. Soreness and plantar fascitis do not a fun walk make. Thus, I am cooling my heels for the next 10 days or so and rehabbing them to take on the last 700 miles of trail ASAP.

Dangit.

So Stephen is getting to enjoy a bit of solo hiking, while I putter around on the internet and read books here in Carlisle. (Of course, I'm spending lots of time pouting too. :-( ) But not to fear - soon it will be back to the trail for me!

Anyway, here's some beyoootiful examples of the Pennsylvania Rocks that deserve their evil reputation:

A short stretch of this kind of trail isn't bad, it's even fun, however 200 miles of it kinda does nasty, nasty things to one's feetsies.

By the end of PA, the trail register entries written by thru-hikers were almost exclusively rock-related. Here's our all-time favorite (with typed-out text, in case you can't read it in the pic):

("Peanut" writes..)
Dear Pennsylvania,
We need to talk. It's been a while, and I feel our relationship isn't the same as it was when we first met. I mean, I remember coming out of Maryland and meeting you. I said, "Hi Pennsylvania, I'm Peanut." You said "Hey, they call me 'PA'." Well you had me at "PA". I was immediately attracted to your rock hard body and your take-no-prisoners attitude. But time went on, and well, you really began to hurt me. You kept telling me you were sorry and that you wouldn't do it again, but you continued to hurt me. And others are talking. They say you're hurting them too. Well, PA, I just don't think I can do it anymore. I'm moving on. I haven't told you yet, but I'm seeing someone else. His name is New Jersey. He told me he'd going to treat me right, and I think I deserve that. Goodbye, PA. I will try hard to remember the good times. -Peanut
*Disclaimer: This letter is strictly for entertainment purposes only. Peanut fully appreciates every mile on the AT.
-----

Well that about covers it.

Pout.

2005-07-14T11:28:00.000-05:00

A couple more pictures

2005-07-02T22:56:00.000-05:00

...some last-minute pix before returning to the trail...

:Our current hiker-style:

and our newest stickers for our Nalgene bottles

(yes, the pink/straightjacket one is Kara's)

(and no, I haven't figured out how to get the formatting right yet. Pbbllfft.)

PICTURES!!!

2005-06-29T16:29:00.000-05:00

PICTURES!

Finally, the visual component of Stephen And Kara Take A Hike is IN.

We've added pix to a lot of the old posts, so if you're interested (DAD), page through the archives. You should be able to click on the pictures to bring up a full, life-sized version. Well maybe not that large, but largish.

Enjoy!

________________

Longhorns sitting in a field that you're about to hike across is rather disconcerting. But then, so is a copperhead snake curled up in the rafters of the shelter...

Pennsylvania has some great shelter advancements...

...and some beautiful butterflies.

Turtle, anyone?

...how 'bout a nifty orange salamander?

Sometimes the trail gets a little tricky...

...though Stephen knows how to relax.

Look! a BEAR! My, what big feet he has.

Here's how we recommend NOT to hang your hammocks.

And watch out for the trees, sometimes they have an appetite.

Don't forget to register!

...but make sure it's really a register box instead of a bird house before you pull it apart.

And when it's cold at night, Kara can curl up in her hammock with Birthday Wabbit!

Pulaskis dig GREAT catholes. Almost tempting to carry one along. Almost.

A cool morning curled up in the hammock

Time to HIKE!!

ps... Stephen has shorn the Mountain Man beard. Should have photos in another three months....

Carlisle, PA

2005-06-27T23:03:00.000-05:00

HALFWAY!!!

...more to follow soon...

...really...

Bears Den Hostel, Bluemont, VA

2005-06-16T10:02:00.000-05:00

Hm, good thing That Greg Guy reminded me that it's been awhile since the last update. Time flies when you're walking fast.

And fast (relatively speaking) it has been. At least until the last couple of days.. we've been hiking 15 to 20 miles per day, and Stephen has lost the final bit of his baby fat. Including mild dehydration, we weighed in at 139 (Kara) and 148 (Stephen) when we walked in here. Someone joked that I'd lost a small child, but Stephen had lost a relatively large one! Some large infusions of lemonade, plus an unexpected incredible tenderloin steak dinner, did add five pounds back to each of us, though.

However, evidently Stephen should stick with Lipton noodles. Or maybe he likes the hostel so much that he's faking a bit of a digestion issue so we can stick around an extra day... (just kidding, dear!)

*clip* Dang! this thing ate 2/3 of my post. Fooey!

Well, more to come soon. It's now 6/23/05, and we're taking a wee mid-hike break in Carlisle, PA. 1088 miles walked! Yow!

Daleville, VA

2005-05-25T11:06:00.000-05:00

And now, for a quick disjointed update. (With other hikers starting to stare over my shoulder, since I've monopolized this machine for the last 80 minutes - someone's going to poison my Ramens if I keep this up! Bad Pixie!)

The last week of hiking has been some of our absolute favorite trail to date. Beautiful, scenic, and actually has some flat spots and not just 20% grade. We've taken some excellent pix from McAfee Knob, which someday might actually get put on here.

HERE THEY ARE! (click pix for large view)

We have new packs, thanks to Granite Gear. I asked the vendor whether they had any packs they'd like demo'd on the AT, and he said YES!! I'll try to write more later, but so far we love our Latitude and Vapor Ki packs - and our max pack weight is now gone from 45lbs (Stephen) and 38lbs, to 30 and 28lbs. It makes a disgustingly huge difference. I feel like such a wimp. But now a happier, lighter wimp.

We're on our way to Waynesboro, VA where we should be in about 10-11 days. And we can't believe we've hiked over 700 miles now...

Um. Getting more death-stares. Okey dokey then... Love and hugs to everyone!

ps - Hey Jeb, when would you like to meet up? Would Pat like to come, too?
pps - Would anyone like to donate a PocketMail to us? We'll write more! Promise!

Food: An Odessey

2005-05-25T10:42:00.000-05:00

Town food.

Any town food.

Any food that is not Lipton noodles or Ramen soup.

The fantasies get stronger and stronger, almost as strong as dreams about hot showers.

We had heard of a restaurant in Catawba called "The Homeplace" since before our first step off Springer Mountain. The magical type of restaurant - All You Can Eat. AYCE. AYCE is the place, when you have hiking hunger.

And since our Gear Makeover at Trail Days (thank you GRANITE GEAR for our new packs!!!), we've been zipping along at heretofore unheard of speeds. At least, for us.

BUT, finding ourselves 40 miles out from Catawba on Friday morning, with Homeplace closed Mon-Wed, we had to do more than our old 10mi/day average. A lot more. HAD to.

So through some of the most BEAUTIFUL forest we've hiked through yet, we actually did our FIRST 20 MILE DAY. Hooray! (So some of the 20-year-olds have been doing that since Day 1. Every day. So what.) And it felt good.

And we did 15 miles on Saturday - more Hooray! - and then we did the 5 miles in to the road in the morning, hooking up with some friends to hitch a ride into town. Actually, we RAN down the trail the last 1/2 mile, giggling like idiots the whole way.

The first car we saw (a red Ford Taurus, I think), I smiled and stuck my thumb out, while saying to our friends, "I don't think they'll stop, the car's too small. He stopped, and we crammed 4 hikers and 4 packs into that thing. Giggling, of course.

And The Homeplace was good. Very good. Too good. We stuffed ourselves, and then ate more. It hurt, but we ate even more. And cursed AYCE.

But we loved it.

Finally, it was time to return to the Trail. As usual, the two girls went to the side of the road with our thumbs out, and the guys tried not to look quite so much like smelly hiker types. Bingo! Sort of - a Dodge Neon with two teenagers stopped, and offered to take us to the Trail for a few bucks gas money. What the heck, we figured.

A Dodge Neon.

A driver, a passenger, 4 smelly hikers, and 4 large smelly packs.

It was kind of like those old games of how many people you can fit in a VW. Smelled worse though. Maybe.

Stephen actually got in the back seat with three of us and two of the packs. Backwards. His knee was in my crotch, my knee was in his, and we were both praying that the teenagers would NOT want to show off and drive fast over curves...

And when we got out at the trailhead, one of the drivers saw me exit the car last, and with a very astonished look on his face, "I didn't know you were in there too!"

Ahh, town food trips. Getting there really is fun. The painful extended tummies are less fun.

We're already dreaming of the next one....

Pearisburg, VA

2005-05-18T09:06:00.000-05:00

Bland, VA

2005-05-06T15:23:00.000-05:00

Troutdale, VA

2005-04-29T21:01:00.000-05:00

Erwin to Damascus: Catching Up

2005-04-23T11:40:00.000-05:00

So our hands are getting these really cool, distinctive pole-strap tan lines. It's kind of neat. Stylish. Kind of says, "I'm homeless and hiking with expensive, ubiquitous Lekis, and I love it." Or something like that.

We stopped off for an evening of destinkifying our bodies and our clothes at Kincora Hostel about 40 miles back for Damascus. Having learned that we'd just missed an opportunity to join in the twice-a-week trail maintenance, we jerry-rigged our hiking to make the next one. One zero day, and a 10mi hiking day later, we enjoyed beating the tar out of some otherwise perfectly good plants and roots and rocks and suchwhat, and helped reroute a 100' section of trail that wanted rerouting. Wonderfully rewarding. And very fun!

(Bob's shirt says: Over What Hill?! Where? When? I Don't Remember Any Hill!)

We found some sassafrass root, played with a 4' black snake (more good pix), heaved old stumps out of the way, and put our Leki pole calluses to good use. And we're trying to get everyone to sign up for "Hardcore" trail maintenance after Trail Days here in Damascus (May 13-15): two days of bludgeoning hillside on the very beautiful Roan Mountain. Plus lasagne, pulled pork, and a ride back to wherever everyone is supposed to be hiking at the time. (At our rate, hopefully we'll be 200+mi up the Trail.) A good time will be had by all!

Hm, the library is about to close, so I'm down to last random thoughts rattling around inside my cabesa...
..The scenery has been beautiful. The area around here is known as some of the prettiest of the entire Trail.
..Burgers and beer are REALLY yummy after 57miles into town.
..Speaking of beer, Jeb, if you make an extra batch, you might make it a double if possible - there's some excited hikers out here that have offered to arrange their hiking schedule around your visit, if we let them. :-)
..Pain gremlins are somewhat assuaged by heavy application of Ibuprofen. (= hiker candy)
..Stephen has lost his girlish figure and is now swapping his girl's Osprey pack belt out for a spiffy guy's one.
..Trail Days will be excellent - we've been told to get there on Thursday for the best chances at free gear. Free is good.
..Pizza is really good too.

Ding! I think my time is up.
Cheerio! (ooh, Cheerios sound good, too... with lots of sugar...)

Damascus, VA

2005-04-23T11:22:00.000-05:00

Hooray, another state line!

Well, I have a half-hour before the library here closes, and all us hikers keep getting distracted from our journaling by talking about the weather.

We were really enjoying the summerish, tan-line inducing beauteous sunshine. Until TODAY. Today, we get lows in the 30's - and that's here at 1900'. And the next couple days take us back up over 5700'.

Methinks we will see quite the hiker pile-up here in fun little Damascus.

Don't get me wrong, we've survived and even enjoyed some downright chilly, snowy nights. And yet, we're looking at freezing rain...

(ahem, just discussing weather again... much peer pressure flying around for staying in town)

Ah, word is that tomorrow is supposed to be worse. Rain is OK, snow is OK, rain right at the freezing point is far less OK.

Funny, Stephen's foot developed a new and probably hiking-limiting pain today. Guess we're staying another night.....

Erwin, TN

2005-04-08T14:07:00.000-05:00

Not as good as Taco Tuesday at the Tustin Brewery, but Erwin Burrito's quesadillas and burritos sure were superb. Mmmmm!

Spring is starting to tease us - a couple of flowers here and there, robins yelling at us from the trees, another bear warning, etc etc. It's nice to see green, finally!

Jeb, we sure are looking forward to that beer!

Some beautiful views up on the ridgelines; and our knees are starting to get used to all this hiking (300miles later), although the pain gremlins are moving to our feet. Must be something about hiking 14mi for two days in a row. (yah, as we see folks streaking by, averaging 20mi/day. Yow.)

Actually, we have hope for our knees, hooray! We have both had knee problems in the past, and we're starting to think that they just needed rehab. We just needed to do this Stairmaster 2000 earlier. They're only cranky now, instead of debilitating. :-)

Gotta run - net access is at a premium today...

(to the tune of "Airborne Ranger":) I want to be a Trail Maintainer!
Etc.

PS - Congratulations to the Greater Harrisburg Sweet Adelines for winning the Regional competition - way to go!!

Hot Springs, NC

2005-04-02T11:25:00.000-05:00

Overlooking Hot Springs

(Kara's trying out her new sil-nylon rain wrap)

Ooooo, walnut pancakes with strawberry syrup....

Well, we're feeling refreshed after a zero day here in Hot Springs, NC. It's a very small town that the trail bisects - goes right down the main street past a terrific store, Bluff Mountain Outfitters (from which I am currently typing).

We stayed last night at Elmer's Sunnybank Inn, where the proprieter does gourmet vegetarian meals. Mmm.. the appetite has been slowly kicking in (although we hear the *real* appetite probably won't kick in for another month, at which time we will become veritable food vacuums). For those who haven't heard it, the joke goes: When a hiker sees an M&M dropped on the trail, if it's a day hiker, they'll pass it, if it's a section hiker, they'll pack it out, and if it's a thru hiker, they'll eat it. We're not at that stage yet, but we can feel it coming....

We had a few days of beautiful hot weather, and today it's raining (and snowing on the mountain, they say). Which is perfect, because we can test out some new gear! Yes, we continue to acquire more and MORE gear! Stephen has been oogling all the different alcohol stoves, so he finally got one. Nope, he didn't make a pepsi-can stove, he picked up the neato Trangia gadget (the mini-Trangia one, of course). Color him a happy camper.

And Kara? Well, Stephen always likes me looking kinda feminine, so I bought a skirt. Yeah, no kidding. Seriously, it's a hiking skirt (actually, you might notice that it's shown as a men's hiking kilt - there's no women's version). And about as important as Stephen's visual enjoyment is the (hopefully) easier usability of this garment. Details as events warrant. (Usability... yes, figure it out.) Oh yes, since the hot days were toasting my shoulders, I swapped out my long sleeve black roasting shirt for a lovely little short sleeve thingy. And it's pink, imagine that. (If I ever pick up a camera cable, maybe I'll try to upload some photos someday).

And coolest of cool, we have a new tent - the Tarptent! The Squall 2 is WAY bigger than the 4lb Windy River 1.5 person clostrophobia-inducing jobbie that we've been enjoying, and at 2lbs it nearly carries itself.

And though our packs are still feeling REALLY heavy, we just weighed them: including 7 days of food plus a liter of water, Stephen's pack weighs in at 48lbs, and Kara's is down to 38lbs (these feel really good on days 6 & 7, when they're 12lbs lighter!).

OK, it's time to hike!

Hi ho, hi ho, it's up the trail we go.....

Gatlinburg, TN & Great Smoky Mtns Natl Park

2005-03-26T11:18:00.000-05:00

We entered the Great Smoky Mountains National Park on a beautiful, sunny day - and got to enjoy our first WARM WEATHER (yay! shorts! yay!):

...though it was fairly short-lived.

We did get to enjoy some fantastic views, and hug some old-growth hemlocks. And the fenced-in shelters made us feel safe from bears. Sort of.

And the sunsets were beautiful...

Fontana Dam, NC

2005-03-21T11:42:00.000-05:00

At the Fontana Dam "Hilton" Shelter - one of the nicest, cleanest, convenientest shelters on the Trail.

Waiting around the flagpole at the Fontana Dam for a shuttle into town...

Cheers! ...Back at the Fontana Hilton with our friend DeepSea. A friendly section hiker had just filled our Nalgenes with Yuengling Lager, so we elevated him to Trail Angel status. :-)

Franklin, NORTH CAROLINA!

2005-03-13T20:41:00.000-05:00

Yay, our first state line! Over 100 miles hiked, two weeks on the trail (!! - doesn't feel like it), and almost no blisters.

Lots of snow, but little rain. (We like it this way.)

Here's the tree at the GA/NC border (Bly Gap):

Stephen says that Kara has started losing some weight. (Yay again) Guess where - and it's not off her butt.

We're resupplying here - food, a tent, and other sundry items have been sent ahead here to the post office by the MotherShip(tm) (thanks Elizabeth!!). Happily, we will be downsizing from the 10lb 4-season tent to the 4-lb 3-season tent. And lots of hot chocolate.

Completing this transition will be another purchase of a new sleeping bag, this time for Stephen... something roomier than Kara's little teeny mummy bag. It may weigh all of 4oz more, even.

But no Hennessey Hammocks yet. And yes, Greg, they do keep out the rain. Very well. But that's American rain; I can't tell you if they would work for the far more advanced English rain. But do have fun in the drear, and squeeze Kenket for us.

So far, we're having an absolute blast, and our appetites are finally beginning to match our exertions. We did some measurable damage to a lovely Chinese buffet tonight (we were thinking of you, Elizabeth), and we're actually eating all the oatmeal that we pack. Mmm.

We got a great tip from a couple of almost-finished Southbound hikers who had started in Maine on Sept 1, 2004 (yes, they hiked over the winter!): Drink water. Drink so much that you pee every half hour. They are doing eight (!!) liters per day... or so they say. In NH, another hiker had suggested that to eliminate their knee pain, they should drink scads of water, and do stretches. Seems to be working...

So we're trying it, and since our last resupply 5 days ago, we've run out of toilet paper on day 3. Correction: KARA ran out of toilet paper on day 3. Stephen doesn't seem to notice (most of the time). Luckily, we had some Wet Wipes that tided us over, so don't feel too sorry for us. And no, Kara says that leaves just aren't the same. So don't even go there.

Now in addition to the bears, we're told that they have wild boar issues out here. Mean little buggers that dig up the trail. Little is a perjorative term, as Stephen wishes to point out - they're around 300lbs. But they're nocturnal, and we're usually not. They're also from Britain (another great English import, thank you very much).

We're having a grand time leapfrogging on the trail with Eaglefoot, the Stepbrothers and Old Yeller, and several others who are currently in the lead a couple days up the trail. (Miles is way ahead of everyone, as far as we can tell.) And oh yes, we had two excellent camping nights with Brian and Ryan from Chambersburg, PA - a couple of the coolest guys on the trail. We had an amusing time trying to get some bear bags hung, from which Ryan earned his trail name, 'Sureshot'. But that's another story.

Time to sign out and go to sleep - it's midnight, hiker-time.

Until Fontana Dam, NC........

Hiawassee, GA

2005-03-09T11:17:00.000-05:00

Wow, 75 miles of walking!

Funny, we had been fantasizing about food. Now we're fantasizing about lightening our packs. So here we are in the library in Hiawassee, researching a good tent to swap our for our behemoth 4-season TNF Nebula. That's been a great tent, HOWEVER, it weighs 10+ lbs. Probably 15lbs after a wet night.

The guys that we had ended up camping a couple nights with were starting to have us drooling over their Tarptent. Hm, 10lbs Nebula, or 2lbs Tarptent. Now that Kara has a 10deg warm & cozy down sleeping bag (only 2lbs compared to the old 4lbs 20deg bag!), maybe we won't freeze to death in a 3-season tent! Who needs all those toes, anyway. They're just extra weight, you know.

Of course, Stephen is trying to convince the both of us that we could just switch to the Hennessey Hammocks now - instead of in May. Hm. Met a 20-ish girl who is using one, and hasn't turned into an ice cube yet. We shall see.

In the meantime. Lots of fun along the trail - beautiful vistas (no leaves yet), fun people, even all the crazy weather is really enjoyable. This is a great trip.

BTW, Elizabeth - we got the messages and packages - thanks!

We've sent half of our last maildrop on to Franklin, NC (we'll cross our first state line tomorrow!), and we'll take a leisurely pace and get there probably on Monday. The next two days are supposed to be mild-ish, then we might get snow again on Friday. Snow is quite fun to hike in, especially now that we've both got our Toe Teeth! (Thanks again, Elizabeth!)

Off to play with gear....

Neels Gap

2005-03-03T16:31:00.000-05:00

Next Stop: Neels Gap

2005-03-02T10:55:00.000-05:00

So we've had a nice little interlude here at the Hiker Hostel. While Stephen is getting back from Walmart (HH shuttles people into town), I've been finishing up my little commentaries here. Hope you liked them. (Please feel free to leave comments, we enjoy them!)

We're headed next for Neels Gap, and the Mountain Crossings outfitter, where we will pick up our first mail resupply. This one won't be too big; it's only about 3-4 days until our next one at the Hiawassee, GA post office. We'll probably tent somewhere tonight, then scale Blood Mountain (the AT's highest point in GA, over 4000'), and get into Mountain Crossings hopefully in the early afternoon tomorrow. And then it will probably be back to Audblogging....

I wish I had my USB cable for my camera with me; we have some fun pictures. Maybe we can pick one up, or have it sent in one of the maildrops. (I wish I'd been awake enough to find my camera when we captured the mice, but maybe next time...)

Speaking of maildrops, we want to say a big THANK YOU to Elizabeth, Stephen's mom. She is the Hero-Behind-the-Scenes who is shipping us our food boxes, helping us make sure our bills are still getting paid, and handling random emergencies. Elizabeth, you're WONDERFUL - thank you again!

Springer Shelter and the Dive-Bombing Mice

2005-03-02T10:06:00.000-05:00

On Sunday night, our first AT Shelter experience has set the pace. About in the middle of the pack to arrive for the night's stay, we scoped out some good floor space, tossed out our mats & bags, and settled in, getting to know Aleion and Andrew and Amanda.

Amanda mentioned how worried she was about the bears, so Stephen reassured her (they are rarely a problem, especially with a full shelter), and teased her that the mice were the biggest thing to worry about.

She didn't believe him.

Now, I've heard enough of Stephen's many shelter stories to know that yes, you get used to mice fairly easily. No biggie. It's one of the great things about sleeping in the mummy bag; you're completely enclosed except for your face or just your nose when it's cold, and you're relatively mouse-proof.

And it was a mousy night.

We heard them chittering and squeaking, then running across the floor next to our heads, then running across our heads (over the sleeping bags). Poor Amanda, she was rather freaked out by the whole thing. Every so often, Andrew could be heard whispering, 'are you okay? are you okay?'

Then, skitter-skitter-skitter-WHAM! something smacked RIGHT between our heads! A mouse had DIVE-BOMBED us!!! Stephen & I woke up, laughing our heads off. Luckily, it had gone for us instead of Amanda, who also got a laugh out of it. Good thing, too, since it happened several more times.

Finally, A & A realized that they'd forgotten to take their trail mix out of their pack, and it had become Mouse Delight. After Andrew finished dumping out his pack and ridding it of the rampant mice, we all settled back in, hoping that the mice would settle in, too...

Skitter-skitter... we hear the mice on Andrew's pack again. So we grab for our headlamps, hoping to scare them away, and we see one camped out right on top of the pack, just staring back at us. Somehow, my (Kara's) first instinct is to grab at the thing - just pure reflex action.

Oh my god, I CAUGHT IT!! I have this wriggling little mouse in my happy gloved hand. NOW what?? Well, first, we start laughing our heads off.

Next instinct: I run to the front of the shelter, and HUCK the thing as hard as I can.

A & A said that the moonlit mist made it look like the thing had a little glowing contrail behind it.

We are now giggling like crazy, trying to stifle some of the noise, since the four of us have somehow managed not to wake up the other five sleepers in the shelter, who have snored contentedly through the whole episode. It takes awhile, but we finally settle down and start snoozing again, then....

Skitter-skitter-skitter!

Headlamps on, we see another mouse on Andrew's pack. Grab! Miss! Grab! Miss! Grab! CATCH!! I've caught ANOTHER mouse!! OMIGOD!

And of course, this one follows the first, taking its first-ever flying lesson. We're laughing pretty hard, now...

And me, I'm just glad that they didn't pee in my hand. I'm definitely washing my gloves tomorrow.

In the morning, A & A & Stephen explain the night's gigglefest to our sheltermates (some heard us, but fell back asleep - they hadn't gotten dive-bombed), and they suggest changing Kara's trailname to Mouseslayer.

Hey look, I didn't kill them, I just ...relocated them. About 20 yards. So the Mouseslayer title is declined. Although, if three more mice follow the first two, Kara's trailname may be changed to Ace (another suggestion from the sheltermates, along with painting two little mice onto the side of the pack - two confirmed 'kills').

Well, we had originally planned to do more tenting rather than staying in the shelters, and this plan has now been reinforced. So maybe Kara won't get that Ace designation, oh darn.

Trail Names!

2005-03-02T09:50:00.000-05:00

Yes, we have found our trail names. Or they have found us. In the trail registers, we now get to be:

Pinedragon & Pixie

And it was pointed out to us that we are being terribly alliterative, as we are from Pennsylvania....

We had been agonizing about what they'd be, and it's a strange relief to have ones that 'feel' fairly right. It's funny, Stephen had been wanting to call me 'Woodsprite' or 'Sprite', or something similar, but Sprite is the name of one of the horses that we were taking riding lessons on over the last few months, and even though she's a cool horse, whatever-'Sprite' just didn't work for a trailname. (Our riding lessons were a blast - check out Bob & Gail's websites at Equine Equip and Triple Creek Farm - especially check out the military horse doing a really steep slide (no, Mom and Dad, we didn't do that).

Anyway, on our ride from the airport, Scott (Pilgrim) had mentioned a friend named Timberpixie. Aha! Pixie! That was what we were looking for. Hurrah! (Unless Kara gets renamed 'Ace' - see the Dive-Bombing Mice story.) And Stephen's name just came from a fairly natural cascade of trial-and-error. It just fits him.

(Hey Ket, any chance of a couple of sketches? *hugs*)

Some of the trailnames of current fellow hikers: Eaglefoot, Doc Holiday, Kiddo & Daddy-O (a father-son pair), Aleion, SteadyStep & QuickStep ("The Stepbrothers"), Old Yeller, Miles McDuff, Opah

Miles really deserves a quick mention. I told him that he's my hero, because he's 64, just had a open-heart bypass surgery last year, and had run a 4.5hour marathon the year before. In his marathon training, he had to overcome knee problems two or three times, and seems in general to just not let anything deter him. And, best of all, he has a GREAT attitude.

[Linda, you might be interested in this] A side note about his knee issues.. after the last rehab, someone recommended Glucosamine-Condroitin (sp?), and since he began taking it, his knee problems seem to have evaporated. We're definitely going to give it a try.

Keeping warm...

2005-03-02T09:39:00.000-05:00

After a beautiful hike up Springer Mountain, a fun stay at Springer Shelter (more later), and two more days hiking in light snowfall, we learned that Tuesday night's temperature was predicted to reach 12 degrees.

That's 12deg Fahrenheit. Not Celsius.

Now, we're prepared for cold (yay for goosedown booties!!), however 12deg is the not-fun side of cold.

Happily, a bit of trail magic connected us up with the owner of Hiker Hostel near Suches, GA - for a mere $15pp, we could be warm, showered, fed hot breakfast, and keep all our toes. Deal! We only had to tack on an extra 5mi of hiking for the day....

Which we gladly did (and it was a BEAUTIFUL day of hiking, and 12mi!). Pooped and chilly, we were picked up by the hosteliers, and whisked back to the aforementioned warm shower. And Dominoes delivered! Half a pizza each later, we klonked out and slept like rocks. Warm rocks.

Happily, the forecast is for warmer weather (and therefore more oatmeal, and fatter wallets).

Hi ho, hi ho, it's up the trail we go!

At Amicalola Lodge (mmm, bacon)

2005-02-27T09:57:00.000-05:00

With Pilgrim

Plaque on top of Springer Mountain

We go THATAWAY!!

At Amicalola Falls (not Elahrairah!)

2005-02-26T18:09:00.000-05:00

The 20 million boxes of food

Hair Yesterday, Gone Today!!

2005-02-23T11:38:00.000-05:00

Not us, just Kara's hair.

Kara's Trail Hair

Whee!

Audblog Test

2005-02-22T16:47:00.000-05:00

The Long Green Tunnel

2005-02-22T13:59:00.000-05:00

Welcome to Stephen & Kara's blogspot!

Here is where we will attempt to post hike updates at random intervals, for those who are perversely interested, or just wondering if we survived the bears.

Hike?

Yep, we're hiking the Appalachian Trail.

Some AT (Appalachian Trail) data:
Starts on Springer Mountain, Georgia - we're starting on 2/28/05 (our wedding anniversary!)
Ends on Katadin Mountain, Maine - we're aiming to finish around 9/15/05 (+ or - a month)
Length of approximately 2176 miles (yee haw!)
Hiking time of around 6 months.
More info: http://www.appalachiantrail.org/

Yes, Mom and Dad, it's very safe. Safer than walking out your door.

Why are we doing it?
Well, I've given up trying to answer this question. (this is Kara speaking) Basically, I've found that people either instinctively understand the lure of the Trail, or they don't. The former are easy, and just say 'cool! I wish I were doing it too!' The latter don't seem to grok it, no matter what we try to say. Probably our (my) fault, due to inability to poetically communicate the sense of wonder some of us get when out camping. Mea culpa, but not for lack of trying. Wish I could do better for ya folks, but perhaps I'll improve after I've done a thousand miles.

Part of gone-hiking is that we're in the woods. No, really. That generally means that we can't jump on the Internet or check messages or even use a real toilet on a daily basis. Sometimes not on a weekly one either. So we will be largely incommunicado for, well, the next six months.

So while we'll love to read comments to our posts (yes, really!), we may not respond to them for quite a while. A really long while. Maybe ever. But we'll probably enjoy reading them!

Speaking of not being near the internet, since there are a lot more easily accessible phones than computers in rural Appalachia, we're hoping to make Audblog work. Thus we will make available the dulcet tones of our wearied and famished voices, begging for care packages of cookies. Ha, just kidding. I just couldn't figure out a better way to keep a running journal so that worried family and friends (ok, mostly family) can know we're OK and stuff like that. And where to send us cookies.

Of course, if someone gets that wild hair to transcribe things, since reading seems easier than listening, well that's alright with us. Now Greg, if that someone is you, try not to make too much stuff up. Remember, keep the 'rents relatively worry-free. (And motivated to send cookies, etc etc.)

OK, off to set up audblog, and run around like a hiker with only four more days to prepare. Yowsa, flying down to Atlanta on Saturday. Ooh, gotta love those tummy-butterflies! (can we leave now? how bout now? how bout NOW?!)