NC/TN Border

Sorry it's been a little while!  I made it through Erwin, TN, staying at Uncle Johnny's hostel, putting on about 8 pounds on sodas and all you can eat pizza buffets, and having no computer access.  I've been adventuring since I left Hot Springs - nothing seems to have gone how I expected it to.  I have been low on energy from an increase in allergies with everything blooming, but I've still been doing good miles.  I've been hitching to cafes and hiking extra miles to hostels for real meals, to skip my seemingly endless supply of Ramen noodles and Knorr pasta sides.  I've slept in two barns since Hot Springs, one had
been converted to a shelter on the trail in the '80s and the other was an old pig barn behind a cafe a couple miles off the trail with tons and tons of junk in it.  A storm was coming so I figured if I could hitch into the cafe before it came, someone would certainly feel sorry for me and I'd find shelter of some sort.  They call it Yogi-ing out here, or putting yourself in a situation to get something from someone without really asking - like sitting around in a parking lot full of people for awhile, hoping they'll give you something to eat.  It's pretty hoboish.  Well four of us cleared out enough space to put our tents on the dirt floor of this old barn behind the cafe and we were sheltered from the storm that did hit pretty hard.

And I got lost.  I have talked endlessly about the impossibility of getting lost on the trail - you just follow a path marked by white blazes to Maine, how hard could it be?  Well, I take it back.  I went a good 2.5 miles out of the way, at least, before I ate my pride and turned around.  This is what I wrote on April 14th...

Hiking's a lot like driving sometimes. Your body does all the work but your brain shuts off.  Minutes and miles pass without realization. Your poles churn away like pistons in an engine. You try to think about things, but nothing significant ever really materializes. You hum a song or try to think of lyrics to a song - you think about a lot of random stuff. Your pole tips add to the lines on either sides of the trail, done by previous hikers, like oil streaks on the road. My body feels like a machine most days, and some days I drag for hours, not getting anywhere as time freezes.

I woke up tired and I was out of it all day - no energy. I didn't feel like hiking and I was lazy all day, dragging behind everyone else and stopping whenever I got an opportunity. I made it to a shelter 10 miles away and sat there for an hour, not wanting to go on. But I did go on, past 300 miles for the trip and I got lost.  There was a crossing that I took a wrong turn at. I remembered thinking the trail didn't look very well maintained, but there were a lot of footprints and pole marks so I didn't think twice. The path began to widen and it turn into an old road. I started to become skeptical. I realized I hadn't seen a whit blaze in awhile. I walked at least another mile out of stupidity and stubbornness - I was going steeply down a mountain and the last thing I wanted to do was turn around and go back up. Finally, after hiking for well over an hour I realized it definitely wasn't right and I needed to turn around. It was getting dark and I needed to get water and find a place to camp on the actual trail.

All's well that ends well. I made it back to the trail and set up camp, got water, cooked dinner, hung a bear bag, and changed out of my hiking clothes all before it got dark.  So to finish my analogy that hiking is very much like driving a car - you hike along semi-coherent for miles, with your brain halfway turned off it's easy to miss a turn and end up in a town named Enigma - right mom?

I made it to Elk Park, NC Thursday and have taken two full days off the trail with Pauline. It has been incredible to see her and rest up all of my aches and eat real food and sleep in a soft bed next to her. I'm about to head back out and it sucks. I miss her already and it feels like I've been off the trail for so long. But I'm excited too, to make progress and get back out there. I'll be hiking with a brand new group, and hopefully I can catch back up with my old group soon enough.  It's hard to take significant breaks on the trail but I definitely loved every second of this one - it was totally worth it. We went into Boone, NC and had a really nice, romantic dinner.  She beat me at pool, too, I must be getting rusty out here :)

Pauline and I went to Grandfather Mountain and the mile-high swinging bridge

I plan to be in Damascus, VA in about 4 or 5 days.  I'm super excited to get into Virginia, and for flatter terrain and wild ponies. A huge chunk of the trail is in Virginia, so I'll be there for quite some time, but I look forward to the change of scenery. I get to see my mom and the Horns in Draper, just outside of Bland, VA, which I'm really looking forward to! I'm equipped with my ipod now and I got to see Pauline. I'm energized, I have been able to recharge. See yall in Damascus!

Hot Springs!

There are a lot of different types of people out here hiking the Appalachian Trail.  There are those out for just the day and those hiking for multiple days, doing sections of the trail.  I met a hiker, Gizmo, who considers himself a LASHER (long-ass section hiker), has done nearly half of the trail and was hiking from Springer through the Smokies this spring.  During this time of the year though, the majority of the people out here are thru-hikers, attempting to make it all the way to Katahdin in Maine.  I'm a NOBO, or northbounder, but I'll run into SOBOs as well later on.  There are also pretty legitimate HOBOs out here, too - people who were homeless before and will be homeless after hiking.  This one guy out here is nearly 30 and he said he's never paid rent in his adult life.  He hiked the PCT last year, is hiking the AT this year, and crashes on friends couches and cooks them meals in between.  There are a lot of these nomadic type people out here.

There are people who trained ridiculously hard before coming out here with p90x, shakedown section hikes, cross-country skiing, eating all of the right foods.  And there are also people who put on loads of weight and were complete couch potatoes, claiming they would lose weight out here anyways.  Some were in Boy Scouts and some have never set up a tent in their life.  There is a guy who weighed in at way over 300 lbs and already has lost 50 lbs and there is a guy who started out weighing 127 lbs and is afraid he won't exist by the end of this.  There are those who like to talk gear all night and those who like to smoke weed.  There is an 80-something year old named Cimarron and teenage kids hiking the trail.  Some people hike from shelter to shelter, usually about 5 to 7 miles, and some have already done 30-mile days.  There are a lot of different types of people.

But we all have the same goal - to reach Katahdin.  And we're all experiencing the same things - aches and pains, and rains, and hunger.  I've hiked 271 miles so far and I'm taking my second zero day so here in Hot Springs, NC - so named because of the natural mineral springs which I will be relaxing in later.  I was told yesterday by one of the employees at Elmers Inn that it used to be named Warm Springs, but that the name needed to be more appealing, kind of like Great Wraps instead of Good Wraps.  I made it out of the Smokies alive and experienced an incredible range of temperatures and weather.  It snowed on the first night and 3 days after I was hiking in snow and ice, I was sweating and swearing up steep mountains in 85 degrees.  I've lost about 10 pounds already, but I think it will start to level off a little bit.  At least I hope it will.  I'm feeling a lot stronger but the heat has been difficult.

I stayed at Standing Bear Farm Hostel three nights ago and it was such a cool, relaxed place.  The owner, Curtis, has a complex of buildings in his backyard - a bunkhouse, showerhouse, kitchen area, and a resupply shed.  It's all on the honor system - you write down what you take out of the shed and put your money in an envelope.  The next night I camped on top of Max Patch with about 20 others and saw an amazing sunset and sunrise.  Look up pictures of Max Patch if you get the chance - it's beautiful.  It's a big bald probably two football fields or more of green grass on top of a hill.  I hiked 19.8 miles to get into Hot Springs yesterday and I'm just resting up before heading back out tomorrow.

Standing Bear Hostel

Max Patch

 

 I feel like at this point in my trip I've got a pretty good sense for what to expect for the whole thing.  I've experienced bitter colds and scorching heat and hunger - oh man the hunger.  But I'm still out here and I'm still loving it.  I've met so many really great people, and this revolving community is so supportive.  We're all very different and I probably don't have much in common with a good number of people out here, but we are all hiking to Katahdin and that in itself makes us all pretty much the same.  Age doesn't matter. Druggies, hippies, hobos, rocket scientists, video game programmers, students, nurses, people in gap years or just retired - we're all the same.

Smokies

The sky lifted and a sliver of blue finally shown ahead.  The sun peeked out of a blanket of dark, storm clouds and illuminated the snow on the branches and ground.  It was my second day in the Smokies and I had been crunching in a couple inches of snow for hours - my glasses fogging up and my breath visible all around me.  24 hours earlier I was in shorts and a t-shirt, heading out of Fontana Dam in 75 degree weather.  I had planned to hike 15 miles but stopped 3 miles shy at the first shelter to grab safety from the storm. The last 1.5 miles were a sprint up the mountain as I saw thunder and lightning flying towards me.  I fell asleep to torrential rains and heavy winds beating down on the shelter roof, only a foot away from my head.  I kept thinking - please don't collapse on me.  I awoke to below freezing temperatures and two inches of snow on the ground.  The vast weather changes chilled me to the bone, but man was it beautiful!

On my third day in the Smokies I reached Clingman's Dome, and the hike up was surreal - hiking along a thin ridge, higher than any other peak around.  I kept going up and up to the top of the world it seemed like.  The trees became evergreens and the fresh smell in the air was incredible.  A couple tenths from the top, the trail turned to a paved road and the serenity completely vanished.  Hundreds of overweight tourists were plodding up to the walkway at the top.  The views were amazing up there - complete 360 views for hundreds of miles, but it was all out of context. It felt artificial being up there like I was looking from a skyscrapper - amazing nonetheless, but something was definitely missing.  I ended up doing 18 miles in the slush and ice and made it to Gatlinburg, TN in the afternoon - happy to have a warm shower and a cozy bed. 

I know the last post was a bit of a downer and I appologize, but I wanted to keep everyone as in-tune with my trip as possible.  I have been doing a lot better since I left Fontana - my knees are feeling better, though still sore, and my spirits have been higher.  This is what I want to accomplish and as long as I keep moving forward I know good things will come.  Thank you so much for the kind words of encouragement from everyone.  I hit the 200 mile mark yesterday, with 204.7 officially hiked.  I've got about two more days in the Smokies and then probably five days to Hot Springs.  I'm feeling energized and excited to get back out there.  Here a video and me and my buddy from England, Mayo.  I wanted to upload some more videos, but the computer's not cooperating.

Strugglin

I've been pushing hard lately and my body's starting to feel worn out.  With anything I think there are re-evaluation phases and I feel like I'm in one of those right now.  I'm homesick, I miss my girlfriend and I hurt a lot.  I hobble out of my sleeping bag every morning in the freezing cold and walk like I'm sixty years older for an hour or two after my knees loosen up a little.  The views are amazing, but amazingly all very much the same.  I'm currently in Fontana Village and it's a complete dead zone for cell service, which is most definitely what I look forward to most about being in civilization.  I'm about to head out into the Smokies tomorrow, and the terrain and weather is intimidating.  I just want the Smokies behind me.  I need to figure out if hiking the whole trail is something of utmost importance to me.  I've been out of my comfort zone for over two weeks now, and I am surviving but I'm missing everything about what my life was.

I feel like my body aches will always be there and that it will just be something I will have to deal with.  I know the terrain will ease after the Smokies and especially once I get into Virginia, so I have that to look forward to.  The weather will warm up and I can get rid of some of this weight I have to carry on my back too, which will be nice.  It will get easier.

I knew these rough patches would come, and I figured that I would have to deal with all of these things that I'm dealing with.  So at least I anticipated it.  I will be hitting the highest point on the entire Appalachian Trail in three days, Clingmans Dome, and after that, its all down hill from there, haha, right?

And even though I am struggling a bit, I'm proud of myself for being out here and putting one foot in front of the other.  Every day is an accomplishment.  I'll see yall after the Smokies probably! Love yall

-Towns

Made it to NC!

I made it to North Carolina through the rain and fog.  I've seen my first real taste of bad weather since Hiawassee, with it raining hard two of the three nights.  The days have been filled with lots of cold fog, but I've stayed dry and I've remained in good spirits.  Hiawassee seemed to spread the group I was hiking with out - a couple guys still a day ahead of me and a few behind me, but it's been a welcomed change of new faces and personalities.  Last night me and this other guy got our bear bags stuck up in a tree and we uprooted this huge tree in the process of getting the bags down.  It was scary as the tree came down towards us but then hilarious to recount the events.  I shared the shelter with Pakka from Germany (now Timber after last nights events) and Deva, two incredibly awesome people.  I was starting to feel a little tied down to the group before Hiawassee, so these last few days have allowed me to go my own way a little bit.  The freedom has been nice and the company has remained amazing.

I've completed over 100 miles on the Appalachian Trail and it has been tough.  I knew the first couple weeks were going to be hard, but it's been even harder than I thought it would be.  My knees are in constant pain and I miss my life back home a lot, but this is what I've always wanted and I'm enjoying it immensely.  I get in an auto-pilot trance when I'm hiking a lot, dotted with thoughts about people in my life, my future and what my next McDonalds order will be.  Miles pass without even realizing it out here and the life is pretty simple.  Like I said in my last post, it really makes you appreciate everything so much.

Yesterday I hiked up Standing Indian Mountain and saw a view of mountains peaking out of a vast sea of fog for miles and miles.  I quickly dipped down into that fog and for hours I was cold and could only see 10 feet or so in front of me.  By the end of the day, I was out of the sea and summiting the hardest mountain I've climbed yet, Albert Mountain.  The climb was a rock scramble - super steep, hand over hand, looking for white blazes on rocks instead of trees.  But the view at the top was unbelievable.  After days of being in the fog I could see all of North Carolina I felt like.

I've only done about 5 percent of the entire Appalachian Trail but I feel encouraged and accomplished.  All of the support from everyone has been truly amazing.  It inspires me every morning to get out and hike and every evening if I'm feeling lonely.  So, thank you! Thank you! I love yall a lot.  Now off to do some relaxing in Franklin!  Oh and everyone's been calling me Towns out here.  I pushed an extra 4 miles to get to Hiawassee and while I love being outdoors, getting to the towns is always super exciting.  So, in the tradition of trail names on the AT, Towns it is.

First Zero

I'm sitting in a glorious hotel bed at the Holiday Inn Express in Hiawassee, GA with Pauline next to me.  It's the end of my first zero day on the trail (no hiking), and it was one of the better days I can remember.  The trail has this really amazing way of making you appreciate everything; a cold drink becomes heavenly, a shower makes you feel like a million bucks, and every second spent with your girlfriend or talking to family members really matters and is cherished. 

I hiked an extra 3.5 miles than my clan had planned to do, and hitched a ride into Hiawassee last night.  I stayed at the Hiawassee Inn, an incredibly seedy, absolutely wonderful room with a shower and a television and a mirror to smile real big into.  It was awesome.  I didn't know what to do first.  I paced the room and turned on the bathroom light - should I take a shower?  I crossed back and threw my pack on the bed and turned the tv on.  And then I ripped out my phone and called Pauline and my parents.  It was sensory overload after only being in the woods for 6 nights.  I had a great night - piggin out on Subway and drinking soda after soda, watching basketball and talking on the phone.  It was all a rush of civilization to the head and I couldn't wait to wake up to spend the day with Pauline.

After yesterday's 13 miles, I have now hiked 67.5 total miles and I have less than 9 miles left to do in Georgia.  I met up with a group on my 3rd day and have stayed pretty consistently right with them.  There's a Sri Lankan named Denham, a British fellow who goes by the trail name "Mayo", a frat kid from Illinois named Adam, an enthusiatic 19 year-old named Ben, and we recently met up with the tattooed Blue Eyes, and Sweet Pea.  It's been great to travel with a group and the sense of community out here is everything I hoped it would be.  The mileage is becoming easier as the terrain is becoming more difficult.  I have developed a real steady, comfortable pace, and can I feel myself getting stronger.  My knees have been sore but I think it's going to be that way for a little while at least, and I'm okay with that.

It's storming pretty bad out there and I hope that it clears up before I have to head back out tomorrow.  It feels like a restart almost, and I hope that my body appreciated the rest.  I should be getting into Franklin, NC Wed. or Thurs. of this week.  See yall up the trail!

First Four Days

Well here I am at Neels Gap on Day 4.  I've been writing a lot everyday and I'll do my best to sum up what feels like has already been an adventure.  There has been something to contend with every day so far.  Day 1 I started after 1 pm from the base of the falls at Amicalola State Park. It was over 80 degrees and the climb was ridiculously hard.  I started cramping up in both thighs a couple miles in and they would tighten up every couple hundred feet for the rest of the day.  I ended up going 7.3 miles on the 8.8 mile approach trail and called it a night at Black Gap Shelter.  I drank as much water as I could, fearful of cramping the next day.  I spent the night with a 300 pound kid from Ohio, named Justin, who was thru-hiking as well. 

I woke up early on Sunday and hiked the 1.5 miles up to the official start on Springer.  I was able to get texts out and even able to get Pauline on the phone.  It lifted my spirits tremendously to be able to talk to her.  I was on cloud 9.  I left Springer with an easy 4.5 miles down hill and I flew through it.  I was ecstatic.  I ended up passing Justin and haven't seen him since.  I went about 13.9 miles for the day, 12.4 on the offical AT, and camped on top of Justus Mtn.  I was feeling good about my day and happy to be testing out my Tarptent.  I hadn't really slept the first night, so I was exhausted and fell asleep fairly easily.  I woke up at about 4:30am with it raining!  My Tarptent was keeping me dry.  Huge relief.  I hit the trail on Day 3 early, before the sun had come up.  Hiking in the pitch black with just my headlamp was scary; each little noise made me think there was an animal nearby.  I could have sworn I hear a bear growl.  My mind was playing tricks.

Day 3 went great, and I caught up to a huge group of thru-hikers that had stayed at the shelter a few miles ahead.  I was treated to my first bit of trail magic at Woody Gap, when a dad of another thru-hiker brought us iced cold cokes and candy bars.  Heaven in my mouth.  I ended up going about 15 miles for the day and camped with the rest of the crew at Slaughter Creek, just before Blood Mtn. 

Here I am on Day 4, happy as can be.  I got 3 burgers for free and showered and did laundry and resupplied for the next 3 or 4 days.  I'm happy to be with a group and were talking about going a few miles further today and camping somewhere beyond Neels.  Charging up the phone now and bought some Body Glide for the chafing in between my legs.  Life is fantastic.

Keep the texts and calls and comments coming!  Its so great to hear from yall.