Spring

4/11/2013

Spring caught up to us thru- hikers today April 11th in Erwin Tennessee. It is 9 am in the morning and already at least 75 degrees. Today.......can you believe it? .......will be our 6th day of sunny.....hot.....weather in a row... Pass out the sunscreen!
I have been hearing lots of birds in the morning, seeing deer, a wild Turkey , lots of chipmunks and other critters. The ants, bees
wasps, mosquitoes and a few flies and black flies are out.  Down here..... in town the leaves are opening up on the trees and the grass is green. Spring has come to Tennessee!   I am not sick....nock on wood.

Erwin Tennessee

4/11/2013

Erwin Tennessee

Walked all over Erwin and met everyone.
Talked about the weather........what a tough, tough winter it has been..... how nice it is today.....how lucky we all are not to be in Minnesota.
And we all talked about our knees.......our torn cartilage.....our knee straps .....our knee bands.....our knee braces.  And how soon surgical repair or replacement, will come.  Everybody....... everywhere... in Erwin...... has bad knees.  We noted that all of our bad knees predicted thunderstorms for this evening,  and how lucky all of us hikers are that we will be down here tonight.  Down here..... when the wind begins to blow.......... and the rain....... and the lightning come up there....
way above....up there.  Lucky indeed.

The last thing......truly, the very last thing any hiker wants to do...... when he gets down....down off the most recent mountain,  and into town......is to walk ....to walk anywhere at all.  When up on top, a hiker is always anticipating town, just two more big climbs .... or two more days of climbs....or two more hours....... And then we start going down....and its down.....down...... into town.
A hiker will wait hours, hours..... for a shuttle pick up,  rather than hoof it a mile into town.  Hikers only walk the trail.....where it counts.   They are not at all happy about wearing out their feet and knees, where it does not count....... in town.
Yet, when you do get into town, it seems as if every motel, every hostel.....every place for the penniless, or the hard core,  to pitch a tent....and especially, every plush resort room and Tourist Cabin...... is up at the top of a hill.  Yes.  That is your room....the one way, way the hell up there....... at the top of the hill.  They put them up there,  I know it...... to give the tourists a feel for the mountains, a bit of down home mountain flavor.
Hikers look up to the cabin,  they have just rented,  and ask management if there is free shuttle service up to there?   Or, if the town has taxi service?   The proprietors laugh happily, at what they believe to be hiker humor.  They have no notion that we are seriously seeking a way to get to that shower, that bed...... without walking up one more damn hill!
 Erwin stinks as a thru hiker town.  Every hiker journal ever wrtten says so.  And every hiker stops there in spite of the warnings.   Because we have to eat.  Because we suppose we really should get a shower after six days....in case we get hit by a car, and have to go to the hospital.  And because....well because all of our dirty, wet, socks stink so bad, that even we.... real hikers .... are hanging them on the outsides of our packs.  Because they smell so bad.....so really, really bad.
Erwin stinks because you have to walk all over,  to get anywhere.  But at least Erwin is flat, flat easy miles with no pack.
First I met Tom,  the shuttle driver, (I had to walk back up the darn hill,  that I just hiked down,  part way,  to get phone service,  so I could call him) who offered me a six pack of beer.  I said no thanks, that I drank up my lifetime supply,  a long time ago.  He laughed and said "me too, a rider gave it to me this morning.  Just trying to give it to someone."   Then we talked about the weather,  and his friend the dentist hiker, who used every sanitary technique possible, and then got clobbered by the virus. ( I won't meet my friend "Chin Music" myself,  for awhile. )  I asked the cost of the ride.....resisted the urge to say, "Are you kidding me?" when the cost was about 1/3 of what I expected.   Paid him for the ride, and for tomorrow's ride, and tipped him for both.  I am beginning to learn a bit about the South......Southern Hospitality, Southern Honor, and how business is done here.

My friend,  Tom,  dropped me at the Post Office....... where I spent 10 minutes boxing up my cold weather clothes, and 40 minutes chatting with the two women clerks.  One of them had the gift of gab (yes....yes,  I knew you were gonna say that....I really did) and a great movie quality...... Southern drawl.  She was great.   I promised her,  and the silent one,  that I was headed straight to the motel, to shower and do laundry,  that no one, in addition to themselves, would be subjected to my 6 days on the trail, in the same clothes, aroma.

"Why sweetheart........ You don't even smell at all!  Sugar,  it's those hikers in June and July.....Ohhh my!  Sugar Pie, its those hikers in July, that really stink.....not you Darlin'......Honey.....  Why, you don't even smell at all.  Y'all enjoy yourself in Erwin now, Sunshine......  And take care of your knees." 

My pack felt lighter.  And my feet and knees were happier.
Then I started the trek toward the Super 8, where I had talked the manager into letting me occupy the room, a couple of hours early.
Stopped in a McDonalds. (I had hit McDonalds in Franklin,Ga. too.)  I have not eaten fast food in years....years.  But years don't matter to hikers....miles matter.  Why walk by any place that has food, when it is right there....right on the way?  So I ate a chicken sandwich, a fruit smoothie, and two giant Cokes.  They have free refills at McDonalds.   I called my motel friend and told him I would be a little late,  as I was having a snack at McDonalds.
Showered, and headed back about a mile to do laundry.   Met the woman at the food part of a gas station....talked to a trucker...and another hiker with her laundry.  Spoke in depth with the mechanic at a different auto repair shop.  His knee brace was on the outside of his pants.  He said, over time, being a mechanic wears out your knees..  His doctor says he needs replacement.  He is 61..... a youngster I told him.
 Met the lady at the laundrimat; 60's, and watching a cable hunting show.  They were huntin' gaters somewhere.  I could not see the television screen,  but I could see that she was into it.
Then I met the guy across the street, resting his knees in the sun, on his porch.
Met a guy and two women at Walgreens, where I bought 14 Snickers bars and 6 giant 4.25 ounce Hersheys Dark chocolate bars. And a bunch of snacks, for my room.  Then I bought orange juice from my friend at the gas station.  Then I stopped back at McDonalds, and ordered a double Mac and Cheese....... plus a Southern style chicken sandwich, to hold me over till I got my two bags of snacks back to my room
Then I met the motel proprietor's wife.   And now I am resting my feet..... and hoping the rain my knees know is coming....comes tonight....before Tom gets here tomorrow, and I start to hike up that big hill.

A Real Hiker Plague

4/11/2013


A Real Hiker Plague


Where is everybody?   Where the hell is everybody?   We are a group of six people who have stayed at the same campsite/shelter every night for four days now....(we don't all hike together... but we do all stop for the day at the same place) and we have only seen 1 other thru hiker on the trail.........one! This is erie......downright spooky.   Usually, I am passed by about 10 people every day.......sometimes more.  We have only seen one other thru hiker.....in more than 4 days!  There are just no people on this trail.
It is a Star Trek Episode come to life. Kirk, Spock,Scotty, Chekov,Ovhura,  and the rest of the landing crew have just beamed down to the planet and find it deserted......signs of humanity everywhere,  but no people.  We had stopped at a shelter to rest and get water on Saturday,  and saw warning signs, two hand written notices...... one for hikers arriving from either direction....warning fellow hikers to stay away from the shelters, and tables because everyone that had stayed there was sick.  Of course,  we checked it out.  And there was puke all over the place....puke....puke....yes, and more
puke.
Every shelter was piled high with puke....a regular vomit fest which instantly made me think of the Barforama, at the Blueberry Pie eating contest, portrayed in the movie "Stand By Me".  Simply put,  people had been heaving their guts out at every shelter.  But there were no people at any of the shelters!   A viral plague had come down apon the thru-hikers,  the likes of which has not been seen. Now there were no thru-hikers, just the 6 of us,  and "Maverick" who had zoomed on bye. Then "Oz" got violently sick,  right after supper and we five who still were not stricken, watched and listened.....and hoped we would not be next.  The next day "Oz" was still sick,  but is young and strong , so we all kept going.  That night "Oz" felt a little better .
Earlier that sunny warm day,  I came across a kid from the film crew. (They are making an AT Movie).  He was laid out on the side of a steep hill....... wrapped in a space blanket....the contents of his pack laying all about the hillside.  There was a small box of Rice Krispies laying on that hillside......a strong choice of hiker fare,  I thought....and wondered if he had any milk.  Jeez a cold glass of milk would be great right now!
Where was I?  Oh yeah.....puke and vomit and barf.....piled up everywhere.  Be careful not to step in it.....sit in it.....just look out.....it's everywhere.  By text,  and day hikers,  we were warned to stay away from the hostels.  The Puke Plague is piling up hikers all along the AT, Hot Springs
behind us,  and in Erwin ahead of us.  We are surrounded by puke.  
I stayed a bit above Erwin last night,  in my tent.  I  saw a friend...."Wolfgang"....the second hiker in 5 days to pass.  "Wolfgang" had slept between me and "Whistle", the night of the Ice Storm.  "Whistle",  as noted earlier was the first stricken, and she had heaved all night,  the night of the Ice Storm .
"Wolfgang" said he was sick two days,  but better now, that he thought a lot of people were getting better.  Then he passed on bye.  Last night,  two hikers came by my impromptu campsite,  in the dark , wearing headlamps.  They had been sick....were better...and had done an amazing 25 miles yesterday.  They are again......... on their way to Maine.

Day after Ice Storm

the third picture is the middle of the trail going uphill.......good luck with that!

These pics are all just before Davenport Gap......which marks the Northern end of the AT through the Great Smokey Mountains

the river is the Pigeon River at Davenport Gap

Frogs

4/6/2013

Frogs

I have placed my bet on frogs!  Hundreds of thousands of frogs, raining down on us from above.  The majority of my fellow Thru Hikers in this shelter are going with locusts....... millions and millions of swarming, buzzing locusts....... locusts so thick that they darken the sky.......and blot out the trail ahead of us.
We are all contemplating the weather.  Trying to anticipate the next pestilence that will surely come tomorrow, or the next day for sure.  There are 8 of us.  We have found shelter from the ice storm, that is pouring down outside.  It is a six person shelter..... a tiny low one with large cracks.  Okay.  There are gaping holes between the log scraps used to throw it together, decades ago.
I was the first here....... hours ago now.  Hell..... I have been here since around 11AM this morning.  I decided that I was simply too wet....... soaked under my raincoat from sweat and moisture seeping through.... wet even on my thighs and butt through my rain pants...... and through my Smartwool.  And too cold to make it ten more miles to the next shelter.
I have only traveled 5 miles today..... five miles after packing up my wet tent in the rain, and moving North.  I knew that I needed to stay here, in spite of the wind blasting directly into the open Southern side...... and the sleet too.   I tried to knock the ice off the handle and bristles of the broom, that some day hiker, or weekender, had carried up here and left.
I sweep as much ice, as I can, off the sleeping platform.  Wow.  There are 3 inch gaps in parts of this platform..... perfect places to drop and lose valuables.
As I lay out my air mattress, my bag, and my quilt, in the least windblown corner, a mouse skitters across the top log of the wall...... drops down to the next log...... and so on until we are looking eye to eye.  Mice in the middle of the day!  Mice..... not even waiting for darkness.  Not good.  I try to send him to heaven with a closed fist..... but he is too fast.  I hang my pack and rain gear on a cord hanging from the entrance beam.  That cord, and all of the others hanging from the beam, run through plastic.... from cut off plastic bottle ends..... or metal from fuel canisters with holes punched in them for the cord to run through.  They are small versions of the cones used to stop squirrels from getting to bird seed,  or the cones on the poles of Wood Duck Houses to protect the eggs from raccoons.  These, found hanging in many shelters, are an attempt to keep the mice from rappelling down the string and getting to the pack.
Then I take off my wet Smartwool top.   Put on both of my dry jackets.  Then put my wet top back on over the jackets.... and climb into, the sleeping bag like, quilt.... which I worked into my bag with my feet.  
Two thirds of the way into the bag, I pour water and slush into my pot..... use a dry match to fire up my stove.... and block the wind as best I can with my heavy duty kitchen trash bag, my water bottle...... and my cold hands. It takes forever, but in time,  the water finally produces a boil....well close enough....and I dump the contents of a Mountain House into the pot.  Eat a hot meal and warm up .
"Wolfgang" joins me at the shelter.  We introduce ourselves and gab for hours.  Then "Maverick" arrives.  And finally "Hot Dog","Whistle", "Clever Girl".....(three women).....and "Dumptruck", and "Apollo,".... all five of whom travel together.... come aboard.  I know all of them.  Four of them were part of the mob of us who weathered the Smoky Mountains blizzard together, back at Mollies Ridge Shelter.
"Apollo" puts his tarp across the opening to cut the wind.  "Hot Dog" hangs her hammock at the front, just inside the tarp,  and the other seven of us squeeze into the six spaces on the wooden sleeping platform.  A few other hikers stop into our nest looking for space....finding only the chance to warm up and rest for a while.
The freezing rain is heavy and the weight of the ice on the trees causes many to crash down.  Some are really big ones.  After one really loud crash, close by outside.... our discussion of frogs and locusts is temporarily set aside, while we debate whether we will all die if one of those trees comes down on the shelter, or only the person directly beneath.
The back wall is leaking by my head....but only a little water is running down the board under my air mattress......the rest of it is freezing before it can get my bag wet.  All I have to do is keep my mattress and bag away from the sharp edges of the wire fencing that is stapled to the lowest log in the wall.  Maybe the fencing keeps the mice from eating the log?  It is dark now, and I can hear a mouse munching his way through someone's food bag. ( Mine, it turned out)
A big limb crashes onto the tin roof, and we all sit up in our bags.
"Whistle" will get sick later, and spend the night heaving her guts out, while "Hot Dog" and "Clever Girl" comfort her.  Most of us have our earplugs in..... so I do not know that Whistle is ill.  I just spend the night wondering what the hell three crazy women are chatting about, intermittently.....all night long.  
But before that,  we all place our bets on what would come next.  And I am sure..... absolutely certain.......that it will be frogs......thousands and thousands of frogs!

Davenport Gap

4/6/2013


The pink flowers on the little Cherry? Tree were just North of Interstate Highway 40 at Davenport Gap.
Spring keeps trying...... but every day that I see flowers in the mountains,  the next day it snows,  or we get an ice storm.