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So we're back in the ATC center in Harpers Ferry, WV about to get our photos taken for the class of 2009 thru- hikers' register. Last night we stayed at the Northgate Inn in Charlestown WV, and plan on staying there again tonight so that we can get some decent sleep for our hiker tommorow. It looks like the Maryland Challenge, or 4 state challenge (crossing through four states in a day) is going to be about 44-47 miles depending on whether we decide to push to the first shelter in PA, or just crash on the border. Either way I think we're going to be on trail at about 5am and getting in to camp maybe around 8pm (that's a total guess, I have no clue how long 44 miles takes to hike). Oh yeah, in the register we are the 694,695 and 695th thru-hikers to reach Harpers Ferry this year, although that includes section hikers and a few folks that we know yellow-blazed from Damascus where we last passed them (shame). Apparently we still have some hurdles to climb though since about 337 northbounders made it all the way yesterday. Still, I'm pretty psyched to have 50% odds against us at this point and not 80% against us when we started in Georgia. Surprisingly, the time has flown by, and the miles have gone even quicker.
The Shanandoahs were a very different experience for us since it included about 100 miles of trail with several wayside food kiosks, gas stations and day tourists. The trail also interesects with the road 23 times and follows alongside it for several miles. Actually aside from being satiated all time from the fresh wayside burgers, the Shanandoahs were not our favorite hiking. Most of the best views are actually roadside and not on the trail (which is normally 20 feet to one side of the road). However we did get to see 11 bear in the Shanandoahs and a crazy amount of very people friendly deer (or at least not people phobic). Actually one deer near camp our third night in was trying to pick a fight with stew, but realized it was probably a bad choice (we're often hungry). We also had our first 30 mile day in the range and we were actually able to celebrate with some nice cold beer hiked in from the Skyline drive parkway at the end of the day. Our last night in the Shanandoahs after the 30 mile day was possibly our oddest yet. When coming into camp for the evening we discovered we had a cute shelter cat (Mufasa) to drive away the mice. The cat looked well fed (probably from hikers) and clean, so we all thought it was great, until the cat died later that night next to stewy's head. We have not idea why, possibly a snake bite. Either way, it made for an odd breakfast the next day when I had to dispose of it, but we honored the cat by changing the shelter's name from Gravel Springs Hut to Mufasa Springs Hut. RIP mufasa.
Right after the Shanandoahs we met up with Stews parents Mr. and Mrs. Stewy at Front Royal where we were able to resupply mostly off of the extra food we brought with us to Stews relatives house in Georgia (Thanks for bringing it up to NC!)
Apparently, Virginia is not only for lovers, but also for TONS of black berries and raspberries. The last 150 miles of the state (especially the last 50) had enough berries to pick them on the fly while hiking. Snacks hav never been better.
Currently we are headed off to the outfitter for some new shoes for Stew since the ones he has right now are the bane of his existance and to try out my new superfeet insoles which hopefully I won't have to duct tape every day to keep from wearing through. Thanks for the package mom! Also, that spam is going to be the cats pajamas after a month of noodles.
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Monday, July 20, 2009
Virginia...CHECK!
This is just a quick location update, but we went over the infamous viginia "rollercoaster" this morning (actually not really that bad at all, just viewless and annoying) and got into Harpers Ferry West Virginia a little before 2pm. Although we were not always hiking together today, all of us decided to run the last few miles after seeing the "Harpers Ferry National Park" sign. Now we're sitting cool in the ATC headquarters and probably off to some kind (any kind) of food! I will post up tommorow during our zero day about the rest of Virginia and what we've done in town.
PS: I wouldn't worry too much about low sodium (even though we sweat rediculously). Each one of those ramen packets has about a 1/3 daily value and 3 of those is usually a dinner. I'm pretty sure we get about 500% of the normal intake.
PS: I wouldn't worry too much about low sodium (even though we sweat rediculously). Each one of those ramen packets has about a 1/3 daily value and 3 of those is usually a dinner. I'm pretty sure we get about 500% of the normal intake.
Monday, July 13, 2009
Journey to Waynes World!
hey everyone!
Sorry I have not been able to post in a while. Most of the towns we have been through in the past couple weeks are lucky to even have a post office within hitching distance of the trail. We have had a lot of "gas station ressupplies" which is actually alright since we have discovered a tastey 50 cent hunny bun treat that packs a whopping 680 calories. Our lunches these days consist of mostly pastries, gold fish and GORP since they actually are more calorie rich than ther expensive clif bar brand counterpart.
Anyway, our walk through Virginia has been mostly sunny with some very warm days. We were told they were in the 90's, but it hard to tell when you just sweat all the time as a normal part of the day. We've been rained on three times this entire state, some of which we had to walk through some nasty thunderstorms, but that is still about 2.5 less weeks of rain that we experienced through GA, N.C, and T.N. I think Virgnia has easily been our most enjoyable hiking yet. Despite the rumors from old thru hikers though, Virginia is very much NOT flat. Especially over the last three days we have seen some climbs that could give the whie mountains a run for their money (two days ago we had hiked a range that was only slightly less vertical change than the N.H. presidential range in the same distance). Early on there was certainly a lot more field walking which was nice since we spent most of the time in N.C and Georgia walking through tunnels of endless rodadendrons. The Grayson highlands were absolutely beautiful and we spent most of the time goofing around with wild ferrel ponies and cows (caution ponies DO bite). After that we spent most of early central virginia in viewless ridgeline walks (but easy) and this past week the terrain has been much more difficult with some significant rock scrambles (our boots have certainly noticed that change).
Another change in our planning has come in the form of all you can eat diners, which are what we plan our town trips around now so that we can keep our calorie intake high (stew and I lost a bit more weight, Jeff is a couple pounds less than Hot Springs). Our mileage has significantly jumped up however, and most days this week we have been averaging 24-27 miles a day. At the foot of the Shanandoahs in Waynesboro, VA we hope to average about the same milage (maybe more since the terrain is easy) and hopefully be in Front Royal in 4 days and in Harpers Ferry in about 6 days total (the 1,000 mile mark). From there we go through 41 miles of Maryland and we're hoping to do the "Maryland Challenge" by pushing through the state all in one day, so that we cross through three states to P.A. The first town in P.A. is also called Waynesboro, so we will be dubbing this section the Journey to Waynes World: Northern Edition.
The virginia bears have been much more scarce but existant, and the deer here seem to not mind our presence at all. For some reason though, the squirells here are paranoid as hell and take off running even if your quite far away (still can't figure out why). We have run into a few more large snakes since Damascus, but not really any more Rattlers to speak of.
In health news, we are all doing a bit better than before. Stew's shins seem to be slowly returning to normal (he is hiking 25 miles a day) and Jeff and I are in good health. Really the only persistant problem seems to be the foot pain the comes from hiking all the time in very bloated feet. In short I'm very gald we have our flip flops for camp when the swelling is at its peak. However, this is something we came to expect and is very common with thru-hikers, especially ones that make it this far.
It's really great to hear from all of you and don't hesistate to give us updates on what is happening back at home. We all miss our friends and family very much. Our first planned zero day should be in Harpers Ferry, and then again some time after Pennsylvania (New York?). It's crazy to be finally seeing the end of this continent (of virginia) very soon. It still seems like we just arrived in Abingdon.
Last night I think we came our closest to hobo-dom when we camped out behind the YMCA in town in our poncho-tarp shanties (it felt pretty sweet). Since we got in we have managed to hit up a reluctant all you can eat chinese resturant (I'm not sure they knew what they were in for) and a small town AYCE pancake diner which was excellent. Also, I'm not sure how many pictures I'll be able to upload on this tiny library computer, but I'm going to try and post up as many as I can while we are in town.
By the way, what's with all the B-list celebrities dying off this month. It's so odd to be out on the trail for this whole time than hear a random boy scout leader tell us of Billy Mays' death and other people we forgot to keep tabs on. Despite Americas loss however, we must press on. See you guys in hopefully less than a week!
Sorry I have not been able to post in a while. Most of the towns we have been through in the past couple weeks are lucky to even have a post office within hitching distance of the trail. We have had a lot of "gas station ressupplies" which is actually alright since we have discovered a tastey 50 cent hunny bun treat that packs a whopping 680 calories. Our lunches these days consist of mostly pastries, gold fish and GORP since they actually are more calorie rich than ther expensive clif bar brand counterpart.
Anyway, our walk through Virginia has been mostly sunny with some very warm days. We were told they were in the 90's, but it hard to tell when you just sweat all the time as a normal part of the day. We've been rained on three times this entire state, some of which we had to walk through some nasty thunderstorms, but that is still about 2.5 less weeks of rain that we experienced through GA, N.C, and T.N. I think Virgnia has easily been our most enjoyable hiking yet. Despite the rumors from old thru hikers though, Virginia is very much NOT flat. Especially over the last three days we have seen some climbs that could give the whie mountains a run for their money (two days ago we had hiked a range that was only slightly less vertical change than the N.H. presidential range in the same distance). Early on there was certainly a lot more field walking which was nice since we spent most of the time in N.C and Georgia walking through tunnels of endless rodadendrons. The Grayson highlands were absolutely beautiful and we spent most of the time goofing around with wild ferrel ponies and cows (caution ponies DO bite). After that we spent most of early central virginia in viewless ridgeline walks (but easy) and this past week the terrain has been much more difficult with some significant rock scrambles (our boots have certainly noticed that change).
Another change in our planning has come in the form of all you can eat diners, which are what we plan our town trips around now so that we can keep our calorie intake high (stew and I lost a bit more weight, Jeff is a couple pounds less than Hot Springs). Our mileage has significantly jumped up however, and most days this week we have been averaging 24-27 miles a day. At the foot of the Shanandoahs in Waynesboro, VA we hope to average about the same milage (maybe more since the terrain is easy) and hopefully be in Front Royal in 4 days and in Harpers Ferry in about 6 days total (the 1,000 mile mark). From there we go through 41 miles of Maryland and we're hoping to do the "Maryland Challenge" by pushing through the state all in one day, so that we cross through three states to P.A. The first town in P.A. is also called Waynesboro, so we will be dubbing this section the Journey to Waynes World: Northern Edition.
The virginia bears have been much more scarce but existant, and the deer here seem to not mind our presence at all. For some reason though, the squirells here are paranoid as hell and take off running even if your quite far away (still can't figure out why). We have run into a few more large snakes since Damascus, but not really any more Rattlers to speak of.
In health news, we are all doing a bit better than before. Stew's shins seem to be slowly returning to normal (he is hiking 25 miles a day) and Jeff and I are in good health. Really the only persistant problem seems to be the foot pain the comes from hiking all the time in very bloated feet. In short I'm very gald we have our flip flops for camp when the swelling is at its peak. However, this is something we came to expect and is very common with thru-hikers, especially ones that make it this far.
It's really great to hear from all of you and don't hesistate to give us updates on what is happening back at home. We all miss our friends and family very much. Our first planned zero day should be in Harpers Ferry, and then again some time after Pennsylvania (New York?). It's crazy to be finally seeing the end of this continent (of virginia) very soon. It still seems like we just arrived in Abingdon.
Last night I think we came our closest to hobo-dom when we camped out behind the YMCA in town in our poncho-tarp shanties (it felt pretty sweet). Since we got in we have managed to hit up a reluctant all you can eat chinese resturant (I'm not sure they knew what they were in for) and a small town AYCE pancake diner which was excellent. Also, I'm not sure how many pictures I'll be able to upload on this tiny library computer, but I'm going to try and post up as many as I can while we are in town.
By the way, what's with all the B-list celebrities dying off this month. It's so odd to be out on the trail for this whole time than hear a random boy scout leader tell us of Billy Mays' death and other people we forgot to keep tabs on. Despite Americas loss however, we must press on. See you guys in hopefully less than a week!
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Virginia!!!!!
Hey everyone!
We just got into Damascus, Va. today and strolled in with style with our first 26 mile day. Although the town is much smaller than we thought (Damascus is kind of "the mecca" for trail destinations behind harpers ferry of course), but it was a sight for sore eyes. Before we even got into town a man offered us a lift to wherever we needed to go, but ew already had a ride covered for once. We're now in Abbingdon, Va with Allyssa, lauren and Zhel and could not thank them enough for treating us to dinner, beds, showers, and a hot tub! I think this is one of the very few days we are actually going to sleep with full bellys (especially since we had two pizzas in town before being picked up). Our schedule is somewhat tentative right now, but we're probably going to take a "nero" nine mile day out of town to the next shelter or treat ourselves to a zero day near the border. In a couple days we should be climbing the two tallest peaks in the state and will be resupplying in Marion, Va and possibly Bland or Bastian (Bland doesn't sounds exciting).
In other news Stew got to see a Eastern Dimondback snake up close and personal when it was crossing the trail, but it didn't give us any trouble so we walked on passed it. Stew hopes to get new boots at the outfitters tommorow and hopefully this will help some of the repeated blister problems he's been having. I'm not sure what the next close thing is to looks forward to since we have not even started to look at this massive state as our next goal, but I guess Harpers Ferry will do for now. Also, for some reason the entirety of the south along the trail is not only usually dry, but lacking in Rootbeer floats. This I think is probably our newest short term goal (we've been searching since NC).
Its great to hear from so many people back at home and excellent to see our family members watching our progress and giving us so much encouragement. We can't thank everyone enough.
Lastly, to our trail friends from New jersey, you guys have an easy hike past Irwin for the most part. Pond flats is a bit long, but after that it turns to Gravy until the state line. Hope to see you all soon. I'm sure Jake is itching to up the miles anyway :)
Oh yeah, more pictures are up from the last bits of NC and TN. There should be a bunch from Stew's camera as well starting from Springer Mt.
We just got into Damascus, Va. today and strolled in with style with our first 26 mile day. Although the town is much smaller than we thought (Damascus is kind of "the mecca" for trail destinations behind harpers ferry of course), but it was a sight for sore eyes. Before we even got into town a man offered us a lift to wherever we needed to go, but ew already had a ride covered for once. We're now in Abbingdon, Va with Allyssa, lauren and Zhel and could not thank them enough for treating us to dinner, beds, showers, and a hot tub! I think this is one of the very few days we are actually going to sleep with full bellys (especially since we had two pizzas in town before being picked up). Our schedule is somewhat tentative right now, but we're probably going to take a "nero" nine mile day out of town to the next shelter or treat ourselves to a zero day near the border. In a couple days we should be climbing the two tallest peaks in the state and will be resupplying in Marion, Va and possibly Bland or Bastian (Bland doesn't sounds exciting).
In other news Stew got to see a Eastern Dimondback snake up close and personal when it was crossing the trail, but it didn't give us any trouble so we walked on passed it. Stew hopes to get new boots at the outfitters tommorow and hopefully this will help some of the repeated blister problems he's been having. I'm not sure what the next close thing is to looks forward to since we have not even started to look at this massive state as our next goal, but I guess Harpers Ferry will do for now. Also, for some reason the entirety of the south along the trail is not only usually dry, but lacking in Rootbeer floats. This I think is probably our newest short term goal (we've been searching since NC).
Its great to hear from so many people back at home and excellent to see our family members watching our progress and giving us so much encouragement. We can't thank everyone enough.
Lastly, to our trail friends from New jersey, you guys have an easy hike past Irwin for the most part. Pond flats is a bit long, but after that it turns to Gravy until the state line. Hope to see you all soon. I'm sure Jake is itching to up the miles anyway :)
Oh yeah, more pictures are up from the last bits of NC and TN. There should be a bunch from Stew's camera as well starting from Springer Mt.
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Tennessee and ONLY Tennessee
So the trail does this funky thing where it just fools you into thinking you are across the TN/NC state line, but then you cross a highway that says welcome to TN and then you go back into NC for half of a day and you're not sure what state you are even in when you sleep. Even so, it looks like we're still planning on being in Damascus, VA on the 24th of June. The last couple nights have been a little rough with the weather. Every time we check in the radio in the morning or hit up a town we have been getting tornado and thunderstorm warnings (which I guess explains why we were sleeping in temporary ponds a few nights ago outside a shelter).
However, last night we w're determined to be comfortable after our week of wet so we wrapped our tarps around the entrance to the shelter and built a fire inside our fort. We had about 6 lines of clothing going with our friends from New Jersey and we stayed dry and warm the whole night despite some really nasty weather outside; double rations of food helped alot (thank you so much Alden, Jimmy, and Emily for the care package it was a huge hit with our trailmates too. I think our only fualt outside of Hotsprings was shopping for food before going to the post office. We had about 6 days of food for 2.5 (heavy packs). Right now we're in Irwin, TN at the Holidayinn Express washing all of our clothes by hand (the machine is broken) and drying them using the AC in the room (which is making the room smell lovely). Eric, I will try and give you a date for when we will be near Harpers Ferry, West Vriginia which is the closest part of the trail to you (by Maryland), but it should be something around 25 days from when we hit Damascus assuming we average about 20 miles a day.
We're all very exicted for Vriginia for many reasons: Dunkin Donuts, some semblance of the north, and it is another state. We are also excited to see what the heck it looks like. It seems like we have heard just about every trait imaginable about the state of Vriginia as far as terrain goes ranging from "the hardest part" to "boring as hell" to "it's like a day hike man".
The next week or so should be fairly tough since we are going over our last 6,000 footer till Mt. Washington and it doesn't look too friendly (w'ere also 4 miles behind our original plan), but we are hoping the rest in the hotel tonight will do us some good when we set out.
Lastly, forgive my spelling. This is the latest I have been awake for non-mice/weather/lumpy ground/too wet/ some random old weekender with a mean snore realated reason. Tonight we're living it up with a six pack for the group, more food and reruns of "True Lies" with the Governator.
Oh yeah, in Hot Springs we weighed ourselves and compared to our starting weight: Sew lost 7 pounds, I lost about 5 and somehow Jeff gained two pounds (what?). So we're actually doing a lot better than we had expected in that arena. I think the 10 items on the value menu at Wendys today with the pizza will probably help stem that problem until the next town.
PS: To the Left of the posts is a link to our friend's blog and our trail photo's so far on the trail. Enjoy!
However, last night we w're determined to be comfortable after our week of wet so we wrapped our tarps around the entrance to the shelter and built a fire inside our fort. We had about 6 lines of clothing going with our friends from New Jersey and we stayed dry and warm the whole night despite some really nasty weather outside; double rations of food helped alot (thank you so much Alden, Jimmy, and Emily for the care package it was a huge hit with our trailmates too. I think our only fualt outside of Hotsprings was shopping for food before going to the post office. We had about 6 days of food for 2.5 (heavy packs). Right now we're in Irwin, TN at the Holidayinn Express washing all of our clothes by hand (the machine is broken) and drying them using the AC in the room (which is making the room smell lovely). Eric, I will try and give you a date for when we will be near Harpers Ferry, West Vriginia which is the closest part of the trail to you (by Maryland), but it should be something around 25 days from when we hit Damascus assuming we average about 20 miles a day.
We're all very exicted for Vriginia for many reasons: Dunkin Donuts, some semblance of the north, and it is another state. We are also excited to see what the heck it looks like. It seems like we have heard just about every trait imaginable about the state of Vriginia as far as terrain goes ranging from "the hardest part" to "boring as hell" to "it's like a day hike man".
The next week or so should be fairly tough since we are going over our last 6,000 footer till Mt. Washington and it doesn't look too friendly (w'ere also 4 miles behind our original plan), but we are hoping the rest in the hotel tonight will do us some good when we set out.
Lastly, forgive my spelling. This is the latest I have been awake for non-mice/weather/lumpy ground/too wet/ some random old weekender with a mean snore realated reason. Tonight we're living it up with a six pack for the group, more food and reruns of "True Lies" with the Governator.
Oh yeah, in Hot Springs we weighed ourselves and compared to our starting weight: Sew lost 7 pounds, I lost about 5 and somehow Jeff gained two pounds (what?). So we're actually doing a lot better than we had expected in that arena. I think the 10 items on the value menu at Wendys today with the pizza will probably help stem that problem until the next town.
PS: To the Left of the posts is a link to our friend's blog and our trail photo's so far on the trail. Enjoy!
Monday, June 15, 2009
North Carolina and Tennessee!
Yo folks!
It's really great to hear from all of you! Especially after starting our third week!
Sorry I havn't been able to update as much as I would like to. A lot of our town visits have been quick stops for food and more food. We stayed in a motel in Franklin, N.C. for a night after a few days of knee pain I was having for the last 50 miles or so, and was told to stay in Franklin for 3-4 days for an MRI. Since that was clearly not an option we hiked out 5 miles for our first zero day in the woods. I can't explain how odd it is to stand still for a day when all you've been doing is walking. After that we did our first 18 mile day and have been doing between 18 and 24 mile days since. The knee brace I picked up seems to be working well and I hope to be off of it in a few days (we'll see after the few 22 mile days). The smokey mountains were cloudy for most of our trip and then turned quickly to driving rain and hail the moment we reached the Clingman's Dome Tower (very epic). Unfortunately Jeff was the only one to see a single bear cub in camp despite the numerous horror stories from the Smokey shelters. Since then we've been cruising through the N.C. and TN border and should be in Damascus, V.A. within 9-10 days (12 miles from Abbington). We've been leap frogging with some other thru-hikers from Jersey the past week or so and are just starting to catch up to a lot of other thru-hikers moving through. It seems we've lost most of our prehike weight, but everyone is doing well. We're about to get our care packages from the post office and are REALLY excited for it (as well as Diner food). Alden, Craig and Emily, we'll be in touch with you as soon as we get cell reception again about Abbington. We're thinking about setting up some sort of short hike when we see you. We should be in the town of Erwin, T.N. in three days so we'll hopefully be in touch soon again. Alright its post office and food time.
BYE for now guys!
P.S.- I'm sending our pictures to Rachael to either post up or set up a link. The libraries here won't let us upload them. Thanks again Rachael for helping us out. I hope they came out O.K.
It's really great to hear from all of you! Especially after starting our third week!
Sorry I havn't been able to update as much as I would like to. A lot of our town visits have been quick stops for food and more food. We stayed in a motel in Franklin, N.C. for a night after a few days of knee pain I was having for the last 50 miles or so, and was told to stay in Franklin for 3-4 days for an MRI. Since that was clearly not an option we hiked out 5 miles for our first zero day in the woods. I can't explain how odd it is to stand still for a day when all you've been doing is walking. After that we did our first 18 mile day and have been doing between 18 and 24 mile days since. The knee brace I picked up seems to be working well and I hope to be off of it in a few days (we'll see after the few 22 mile days). The smokey mountains were cloudy for most of our trip and then turned quickly to driving rain and hail the moment we reached the Clingman's Dome Tower (very epic). Unfortunately Jeff was the only one to see a single bear cub in camp despite the numerous horror stories from the Smokey shelters. Since then we've been cruising through the N.C. and TN border and should be in Damascus, V.A. within 9-10 days (12 miles from Abbington). We've been leap frogging with some other thru-hikers from Jersey the past week or so and are just starting to catch up to a lot of other thru-hikers moving through. It seems we've lost most of our prehike weight, but everyone is doing well. We're about to get our care packages from the post office and are REALLY excited for it (as well as Diner food). Alden, Craig and Emily, we'll be in touch with you as soon as we get cell reception again about Abbington. We're thinking about setting up some sort of short hike when we see you. We should be in the town of Erwin, T.N. in three days so we'll hopefully be in touch soon again. Alright its post office and food time.
BYE for now guys!
P.S.- I'm sending our pictures to Rachael to either post up or set up a link. The libraries here won't let us upload them. Thanks again Rachael for helping us out. I hope they came out O.K.
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