I slept awful in the Springer Mountain shelter. There weren’t mice or anything (that I heard) – but it was the warmest night we spent on the trail, and I kept waking up. I unzipped my bag halfway on both sides – then I got too cold. Back and forth, all night long.

We had decided to get up before sunrise, to get an early start on the longest hike of the trip (8.8 miles from Springer Mountain; 9 miles from the shelter). Of course the blisters did not heal themselves overnight, but I didn’t feel too bad. We were up early enough to cook breakfast before the sun came up, and we ate during sunrise. Put my boots on and started walking.

One small complication was that we didn’t have a map or guide of any kind to this section of the trail. We were just walking. We walked through the recently burned-out section of the trail. It was crazy to be walking through an area that was on fire just days before (The Black Gap shelter was totally fine, by the way, contrary to the report of the hiker from Day 2). I thought a lot about how this forest was now changed forever – and wouldn’t look anything like what it used to for another 20 years. (Hopefully the same will be true of me after my thru hike!).

We walked past the Hike Inn trail, and saw a sign indicating we had five miles left. My feet started hurting (as expected) so I started doing the ZagShuffle(tm). We reached the boundary of the state park about 4.5 hours from when we started – the sign said average hiking time was 6 hours so I was feeling pretty good about myself. But man, the last mile through the state park facilities was a killer! When I saw the sign I thought I didn’t have far to go – but there was still more than a mile of hiking on pavement (and a few hundred stairs down to the falls) left.

I hobbled the entire last mile. I was so glad to get the truck and take my boots off! My feet had blistered again – blisters on top of blisters – and I did minor surgery on my feet again before delicately changing clothes by the side of the road and settling in for the 4 hour ride home.

P.S. A bottle of Fat Tire beer has never tasted so good!

• ShakeDown Hike: Lessons Learned

The plan for the third day was to summit Springer Mountain, and camp at the shelter there. It’s a moderately easy hike of 7.6 miles…moderately easy if you don’t have crazy blisters on your feet, that is. I woke up to blister on both heels and both balls of my feet, plus a few small ones on the toes. I felt a few hot spots on my feet the previous day, but didn’t want to stop and lose any momentum that I had. That was an awful decision. I had a hard time getting moleskin to stick to the blisters, and my duct tape was really un-sticky. After forcing myself to eat the rest of last night’s dinner for breakfast…I packed up and we headed out. I was feeling pretty good about my pack weight when I saw a guy carrying a pack that weight at least 100lbs – including a full size thermos and other heavy camping luxuries. There’s a saying I heard that says – the less your pack weighs, the more you like hiking. The more your pack weighs, the more you like camping. This dude definitely had a luxurious camping set up, but he was NOT having a good hike.

I hobbled along for 2.6 miles before getting to the Long Creek Falls area and deciding I *had* to do something about my feet. L. had waited patiently for me at Long Creek before taking off again. I found a log to sit on, dropped my pack, and looked at my feet. They were horrendous looking. Even though I had drained the blisters just a few hours earlier they were all puffed up again. I decided to try a method I had read about – where you sterilize a needle (fire) and thread (alcohol) and puncture all the way through the blister, then tie off the thread, which will then wick all the fluid out of the blister as you walk. (L. was not enthused about this idea when I told her about it earlier – but she wasn’t there to stop me). I couldn’t stand the thought of putting my boots back on, so I decided to hike in my crocs. They were surprisingly comfortable and while I wasn’t setting any speed records I was trucking along. I figured when L. saw the shape of my feet she might offer to hike the Approach Trail tomorrow by herself, and drive the truck to pick me up at the forest service road, but I made up my mind that I was going to hike the entire thing, even if she offered. What sort of a precedent would it set if I didn’t finish the practice hike?

I got slightly off-trail before the Stover Creek Shelter – went straight when I should have taken a sharp left – but figured it out pretty quick and got to the Stover Creek Shelter around 1:30pm. On the post announcing the shelter was a note from L. that said:

I plan to go as far as I can. If you don’t catch me tonight I’ll pick you up at FSR42 tomorrow (the one ~1 mile north of springer). See you then.

I was so mad! I knew I was going to make it to Springer – I had 4 hours before sundown and 2.3 miles to go. What did that mean, anyway “I plan to go as far as I can”. Was she going to stealth camp in the burned out part of the approach trail – the part where we didn’t have a map and couldn’t tell where the water sources were? That sounded like an awful idea. And why was she changing the plan all of a sudden? We had planned to stop at Springer for the night, so it wasn’t like we were running behind or absolutely needed to get to the truck ASAP. Oooh I was mad. I turned on my phone and texted her “I am going to catch up withj you”. Then turned my phone back off because I didn’t really want to talk with her, I just wanted to hike. The more I hiked the madder I got. If I couldn’t trust her to stick to the plan, then how were we going to hike the entire AT together? She was faster than me – true – but I will be in prime hiking shape soon enough and won’t have a problem keeping up with her long ass legs. Was she just going to leave me?

I decided that it didn’t matter. If she went ahead on her own I was going to hike the AT alone. Lots of people have done it that way and that even though I knew Emily wouldn’t be happy about it, she’d be okay with it eventually. And that I was still going to walk the approach trail back to the state park. If L. wouldn’t wait for me, I’d call someone to come pick me up.

I knew deep down that L. was just trying to help. That she knew how bad off my feet were, and she was probably trying to make it so the day tomorrow wasn’t so long. But my feelings were hurt because she obviously thought I wasn’t cut out for the hike, and that made me mad.

I have to admit, when I got to the Forest Service road I did see if there was anybody around. If there had been, I might have hitched a ride back to the State Park and slept in the back of L.’s truck. Wouldn’t *that* have been a surprise, huh? But I kept on trudging along in my blue crocs, one step at a time.

It’s a 0.9 mile hike from the FS road to the top of Springer, and the trail is full of rocks and roots. About 2:45 I turned on my phone to see if she had texted me back. She texted me “I’m here” with a pic on top of Springer by the plaque. I didn’t know if that meant she was going ahead with her crazy plan or if she was waiting for me on Springer. I kept walking. I got to the turnoff for the shelter and decided to keep going the 0.2 miles to the summit. When I rounded the corner to the top of Springer, and saw L. there, I was overjoyed. Seriously, I don’t think I’ve ever been so happy to see another person in my life. I caught her! I didn’t have to hike in the dark in the woods!

I think she was pretty happy to see me, too.

As it turns out, she thought it was a lot later than it actually was, which is why she left the note about going on. We decided to stay at Springer shelter for the night (as originally planned). We took our time setting up camp and making dinner…I had a super delicious couscous with tomato sauce and pepperoni and parmesan cheese (think I might be eating a LOT of pepperoni on this trip). As we were eating dinner and watching the sunset an owl flew down onto a branch about 10 yards away, clicked it’s beak at us a few times, stared at us for a minute or two, and then flew away. It was pretty neat.

• Day 4: Springer Mountain to Amicalola Falls State Park

Last Friday L. and I loaded up the packs, kissed our wives goodbye, and went on a 4-day shakedown hike. (A “shakedown hike” is just what it sounds like – we wanted to try out our new gear in real world hiking conditions). What better place to hike than the portion of the AT that we had already hiked. We parked at Amicalola Falls State Park, registered at the visitor center, and caught a shuttle to Woody Gap.

The adventure started there. The guy L. had called for the shuttle was scheduled for chemo treatment on our arrival day, so he sent his 75-year-old wife, Dixie. The first thing she said to us after “hello” was “do either of you get carsick?”. Upon hearing “no” she started talking – and didn’t stop until we had parked an hour later at Woody Gap. She had lots of stories about people she had shuttled. There were 40 year old “kids” who had planned a section hike with their dad, only to find out they couldn’t hack it. A man in a business suit carrying a suitcase. A man dressed as Jesus who carried a hollow cross (he kept all his food & supplies inside the cross). A man who called from Savannah, GA wanting a ride. That same man made it to Atlanta with his 85-pound pack, with a machete and “enough rope to tie up the Queen Mary”. When cautioned that he should save his cell phone battery for emergencies, he noted that he was just going to plug it up when he got to the shelter. (He spent one night in the woods and then called for a return shuttle the next day). She told stories of her best friend, whose 4th husband set aside $50,000 for a funeral. After he died, she spent $10,000 on a very nice funeral and then got herself a “face lift and a boob job”.

When we got to Woody Gap, Dixie was still talking. She pointed at the left side of the road. “You want to go that way, but the bathroom is on the other side of the road”. Thanks, Dixie. Your confidence in us is incredible. We set off (in the right direction) a few minutes later.
It is easy to see why people caution not to go too fast the first day. I was really excited to be out hiking – on the AT – and didn’t have any trouble keeping up with L.’s long legs. We made it to the Gooch Gap shelter pretty quickly – it’s only 4 miles or so – and set up camp. The Gooch Gap shelter is a double-decker shelter with a composting privy and a good water source nearby. We were the only people there, and took over the top level of the shelter as well as most of the picnic table. The shelter has a capacity of 12…I’m not sure how that is supposed to work, exactly. But – we had it pretty good. Slept in the shelter – no mice – and had a good night’s sleep.

I do have a little tiny problem called – I like to sleep in my warm and comfy sleeping bag until it is past time to get up. (I have this problem at home, too). It’s something I’m going to have to work on.

I knew this second day would be the hardest day – we were planning to get to Hawk Mountain Shelter – which crosses over Justus Mountain & Sassafras Mountain. I remembered Sassafras Mountain from our first trip – we were counting our steps, stopping to breathe at step 50, and continuing on in fog so think we could barely see 3 feet forward. I knew it was going to be a bitch. And I was ready.

Turns out – I really was ready. We stopped at the top of Justus and had a snack. Stopped at the top of Sassafras  and was pretty impressed with myself – it wasn’t as tough as I remembered. Dropped into Hightower Gap and saw some kids with brand new equipment at the road. Also saw a guy headed north, carrying a huge pack. Headed to Gatlinburg. He was out of water (and there wasn’t any until he got over Sassafras and Justus, so I gave him some of mine). Talked a bit about the fire on the approach trail – he said the shelter on the approach trail had been burned, and a SOBO thru hiker had gotten a fine for ignoring the trail closure. By the time I stopped talking with him, L. was long gone. And that’s when I ran smack into MotherFucker Mountain (not the official name). I was so excited to be done with Sassafras that I didn’t save any momentum for what came after.

I was really zapped by the time I got to the shelter. And I was pretty bummed that there were other people there – the shelter had already been claimed and there were a group of 3-4 boy scouts with adult supervision in tents. I went to get water and discovered that the SteriPen pre-filter doesn’t work so well when the water is at a trickle…luckily L. let me borrow her water scooper. We set up our tents and tried to eat supper. I was not at all hungry for butter & herb rice with edamame and carrots…ate a few spoonfuls and saved the rest for breakfast. Talked to Emily briefly and fell asleep.

I was determined to get up before L., but it didn’t work out. I woke up at 4am…still dark. 5am…stil dark. 6am…still dark. 6:30…still dark. Next thing I know it is 7:45 and L. is bringing me my food bag. Darn!

• Day 3: Hawk Mountain to Springer Mountain