New photos

I finally got the new photos online and have put them into two sets. Click on the photos to view the entire sets. The first set is of the trip down with the stop at Jack Daniels and the rain day spent with my(Mike's) parents.

The second set is pretty much the rest of the memory card and takes us from the start of the trail through to Gatlinburg and the day spent at Dollywood.

I tried to keep them all in order, but some may have gotten out of order while uploading. I'll see if I can sort through them in the coming days. In the mean time you can tell by the name of the file where it should be in the order. Also, note that I had to scale the pictures by about 50% resolution and compress them a little so that they stayed in my upload limit. If anybody would like the full size version of any photo please let me know and I can either post it somewhere or Email it to you.

Hiker Friendly Towns

Another trail town. This one is pretty sweet but spread out! I am in Waynesboro and a few days early! Do not worry friends and family joining me on the trail, I am ahead of schedule right now, but the wedding is putting me right back on schedule. I am going to try to move up my greyhound departure from this town, but am not sure if it will work or not! I may just show up at the bus stop tomorrow morning and see if they will take my May 27 ticket! Waynesboro, VA is a wonderful little place full of friendly people. However, the town itself is spread out a bit and hard to get around! So, I am thinking I will make it to Ann Arbor a little earlier and play around there. We will see what happens.
So, in regards to the trail, I spent an evening by myself in a shelter while people were off for Trail Days and it renewed my sense of self! I hiked the next day and caught up with the people I was talking to outside my hotel in Pearisburg and stayed in a shelter with them. Met up with Montana for dinner in Daleville, where I attempted to find internet connection and make Ann Arbor travel arrangements. Not a Hiker Friendly town! While pushing through from Daleville to Waynesboro, I met Hardcore Hiker and she and I created an itinerary for the next few days push into Waynesboro. So, we actually ended up pushing each other into Waynesboro as we were looking forward to the pancake challenge. Both of us failed miserably, but I do know that I truly do not like pancakes. Almost 9 pancakes was enough for me, but I did get my moneys worth! Met a hiker named Mad Cow who helped push us into Waynesboro as well! He was entertaining and made the day pass by quickly! Hardcore has been a great person to hike with and would actually be someone I could probably hike the rest of the trail with if it weren't for all the other people I am looking forward to meeting up with along the trail (i.e., renee&david, millie, susan, my aunts, my husband, and my mommy).
Trail life has been grand again and I am renewed with my love of the journey! I feel more secure with myself and am looking forward to my future adventures! Take care and love to all!

Virginia Blues / Bipolar Day

So, the Virginia Blues hit this lone little hiker back towards the middle of May! It was an odd sort of day. I started out from a shelter where I had spent the previous night with a southbound flip flop hiker who shared his trail knowledge of where I was headed. The morning was a little long and wore me down as I miscalculated the distance by 2 miles. When I got to the shelter for lunch, I did a little dance around on some blue blaze trails trying to find water before returning to the trail where I had come from. After a good break and removal of my superfeet insoles, I was ready for another 15miles up a ridgeline. I was not looking forward to climbing up the ridge in the heat of the day, so the clouds came along and gave me reprieve from the sun! Then, as I approached the top of the ridge, the thunder began. I was in my own little patch of sunshine as I traversed the ridge heading towards the storm cloud. The raindrops began and I started singing various rain related songs. As I moved along, I found myself singing and dancing in the rain. My life felt grand at that moment and the rain never came down very hard on me. I passed up a free bunk house offering a shower and phone use to keep moving towards Pearisburg, VA. At the last shelter before Pearisburg, I met a new group of thru-hikers and learned they were headed to the same campsite I was planning on for the night. After chatting with them during their dinner, I set off again for the campsite. About 10minutes after leaving them, I began crying nonstop. I tried to think happy thoughts and sing again, but the only songs that came to my mind were ones that made me think of my husband. I tried not to think of "my husband," but even thinking his name made me cry hard! At that point, I was determined to get off the trail and be done with this insanity! I just wanted to be normal! So, on I plugged into Pearisburg, VA arriving in the dark to a hotel only 1/4 mile off the trail. Once securely in my room, I broke down into tears again. After collecting myself a little, I called my husband but he was running. So, I called my mommy and let it all out! Only 3days earlier, I had been telling my mother how great things were on the trail! She was the one who told me there would be days like that day! It was a great help to just talk to familiar people and hear a friendly voice.
The next day, I got done what I needed to do in town and then sat infront of my hotel room and met a few more hikers who were procrastinating from getting on the trail. There were other hikers around who were meeting family, friends, or heading back to Damascus, VA for Trail Days. As I watched those people, I got sad and would have to retreat into my room for a quick cry! After a while, I just stayed in my room occasionally looking out my door to see if anyone I knew was coming into the hotel. No luck!
Finally, it was time for me to head back out on the trail, and I was ready to bolt. I was suppose to do only 7miles to the first shelter that day, but I was going stir crazy in the hotel room the night before and ended up with a 19mile day instead! Throughout the day, I would think of my husband and again bawl like a big old baby. Was I really going to make it all the way to Maine? In Pearisburg, my husband had told me he would not pick me up from the airport nor let me in the house if I were to return at this point. I joked that I would find my way around his not letting me in, but knew in my heart I would be way too disappointed in myself for not finishing my journey. So, here I was back on the trail a mess and crossing tons of roads hoping nobody would catch me crying. That night, I was not alone and that was a good thing for my emotional rollercoaster ride. I met some section hikers who had too much food and thus helped fill my belly and raise my spirits. That evening, I joked about rearranging my schedule to fit theirs so I could be fed every night they were out. Unfortunately, one of the guy's watch alarm went off at 5am and I was really looking forward to sleeping in the next morning. So, I took off on the trail alone the next day wondering what I would discover!

Moving right along

It has been awhile since I've posted. That is mostly because that hasn't been any major news recently, but also because I've been lazy. I have heard from Kasey via the phone a couple of times since she hit Virginia. She has backed off her mileage a little so that she doesn't overshoot the bus stop she needs to hit for her trip back to Michigan for Dana's wedding. Many of the other thru hikers deserted the trail the other week to head down to Trail Days in Damascus. Kasey decided not to go and was left a little lonely for a few days. She had been hiking with and around a pretty solid group of friends for so long this loneliness hit her as a bit of a shock. That coupled with her slower pace and I think that she started to get bored out there. After the trip to Michigan she'll be picking up my mom who plans to hike with her for up to a couple of weeks. Completing most if not all of Shenandoah National Park. Keep looking this week as I'm hoping to get some more pictures posted to the flickr site. I'll post a notice with some samples here when they are ready. Mike

New State

Well, It has been an adventure since the last post! Where was I last? Oh yeah! Erwin, TN! So, we left there in cloudy skies with a chill in the air! It got sunnier as we moved on during the day but not real warm! Good day for hiking! It was a somewhat short day since we got going a little later in the day! Also, we were trying to save ourselves for the next day when we would shoot for 22miles over Roan High Knob!

Roan High Knob is another high point along the trail! It sits at 6200ft or so! Due to the snow we waited out in Erwin, the knob was slushy and icy. It was kind of interesting, but I did it in my shorts, which means I am either real tough or real ignorant! Based on how I felt by the time I made it to Overmountain Shelter, I would say I am ignorant. I was so cold and tired all I could do was just stare at the place. Of course it did not help that we got there to find about 20people already in the barn shelter and they had put up their tents inside the shelter! We knew of about 10more people coming to the shelter that night and Montana and I had to squeeze into a spot between a couple of tents. When Pied Piper showed up, we squeezed him in as well! It was tight sleeping that night, but at least we were warm! We used Pied Piper's tarp to cover our bags and that helped hold in the heat! The shelter was neat other than the people who had to sprawl all over! The other downer of the shelter was these guys who were section hikers and decided to wake up in the morning after snoring all night and smoke first a cigarette and then some marijuana! Annoying jerks! I left rather quickly that morning!

Upon my departure from Overmountain Shelter, I had some more balds to cross. Oh that reminds me of the day before crossing out of Carver's Gap! We crossed 2 balds there and about blew away! I was walking slanted and had to make sure I had at least 3 points of contact at all times! Yes! Trekking poles are becoming my friends! It was crazy and a lot of work! Anyway, the next day as I was crossing yet a few more balds, I was passed by Montana and happened to look behind me and get scared by the big black cloud chasing me! Montana and I decided to head for Roan and get lunch while we watched the storm pass. We found information on Buck's Place just a mile off the trail! We headed there and took a 3 hour break for lunch! It was great! We then got back on the trail and hiked another 8-10miles before setting up camp!

From there, we headed into Dennis Cove Road where we planned to do our resupply and stay over night! One night turned into 2 nights due to us being afraid of a little rain! Actually, we woke up in the morning to heavy rain and decided just to rest before pushing ourselves into Damascus in 2 days! It was a nice relaxing location at the Laurel Fork Lodge where we had a cabin to ourselves. Some people I had been playing leapfrog with from the beginning moved to Laurel Fork Lodge from Kencora Hostel! It was neat to hang out and chat with them! So, it all worked out well!

The rain did not let up for the following day and we headed out anyway! Laurel Fork gorge area was really neat! We enjoyed our hiking that day! It was a bit of a change compared to everything we had seen up to that point! We are getting tired of people telling us about the trail and them being wrong in our book. Maybe us western-ers are just use to more challenging things, who knows! We did 24miles that day and thought we would have the shelter to ourselves. It ended up being 5 of us in a shelter that holds 8, so it wasn't too bad! Got cold during the evening though! Wonderful terrain as we found we had done about a 3-3.5mile pace for the day!

So, I am in Damascus, VA! Pretty exciting to be in yet another state! Not exactly as I imagined the town, but it is quaint all the same. They are preparing for Trail Days here in a week. I do not plan on returning for the celebration. It sounds like a big party with a bunch of hikers drinking! Get enough of that on the trail at certain stops as it is these days! We will see how things are going at that point though! Montana and I pushed 26miles yesterday and got into Damascus around 5pm. It was a quick day and we were not as tired as we have been on other 20mile days! Again, the terrain was conducive to the pace! Last night, we had italian for dinner and then walked all over town as though we had been in town for days! It was crazy! Looking to head out tomorrow depending on our moods. We do have another night in our little hostel location if we so desire. I think we are both ready to go though. It will be a late start and we hope to have a good breakfast first. Then we are going to slow down the pace to try not to burn out through Virginia. It is going to be a long hike, but we have enjoyed it so far!

I hope all is well along the home front. I am thinking of everyone constantly! Looking for post cards to send but nothing much here in Damascus, VA. Thank you mommy for the drops along the way! I helped feed a local guy today with the cheese crackers. Maybe Montana will send me the photo he took of me with my new townie friend. Today, I also helped a head start school put together a sand and water table. Most places allow you a work for stay type deal! The school offered me lunch but it was scarey looking food, so I kindly declined! It gave me something to do on my day off the trail! Anyway, take care all! Like I said, I think of everyone often and love everyone lots!

Of course, my thoughts are always on my husband. I hope you are doing well my love and taking good care of yourself! I look forward to when I get to see you and hug you and just plain cuddle with you! There isn't anyone out here to cuddle with...mostly because I am not THAT close with the people out here! I love you lots my beautiful beaming beacon of god light!