Spring Break Hike 2008 ( 80.3 miles in 7.5 days )
INCOMPLETE JOURNAL – LAST THREE DAYS INCOMPLETE
Objective: To hike
with some friends and pick up from where we left off at the Keffer
Oak Tree in Virginia and head
north for seven days.
Day 0: Wednesday
4/18/2008 I arrived very late at Donna &
Jim’s. I stayed too late after school
tutoring students. I also dropped
paperwork off at a student’s home and had a parent conference then. I drove down Rt 206
and got lost in South Trenton. Rt. 206 just disappeared. When I arrived, Jim & Donna were all
smiles and waved off my apologizes about being
last. Ate a quick dinner and we jumped
into their car to do the “normal” all night drive down
to our destination.
Day 1: Thursday, 4/19/2007
Keffer Oak Tree 663.3 to Niday
Shelter 672.0 = 8.7 miles
We arrived in Daleville, VA
around 8:00 am. We parked the car at the dry cleaners. Homer (our source of local shuttling) met us
there and then dropped us off at the Keffer Oak Tree at
9:30 am. It was a pleasure listening to him talk about
the trail. He and his wife and two
children (8 & 11 years old at the time) did a thru-hike together in
2002. He’s a trail maintainer and an
avid AT hiker. He and his wife were
married at McAfee Knob and honeymooned on Tinker Cliffs. You just can’t get more focused on the trail
than that!
-
We arrived at VA630 at 9:50
and had a real good hike. There was a
steep climb at first and then straight away on the ridge. Then the ridge got fun – climbing. On and off light rain from
that point forward. We’re at the Niday Shelter. It’s 6:45 pm and we’ve already eaten and completed
our chores. I’m ready to go to bed.
-
Day 2: Friday, 4/20/2007
Niday Shelter 672.0 to Pickle Branch Shelter 681.9 = 9.9 miles
Up at 6:21 am. It rained real hard last night. I had my poncho rigged up in front of me (in
the shelter) to keep the rain from blowing on me. I should have brought my second short
sleeping pad. I wasn’t comfortable
sleeping. I was almost perfectly warm in
the sleeping bag.
-
Fire-juggler (Matthew) and Dynomyte
(Eric) are thru-hikers. I talked to both
for quite a while. Donna lit a fire
(real smoky) and cooked dinner. I got
water; it was a very steep walk. Another
thru-hiker pulled in (dark out). Nice
guy. Note: My steripen
has purified 8 liters
of water so far on a new set of Duracell AA batteries (4).
Hiked 9:00 am to 4:00 pm.
-
Day 3: Saturday, 4/21/2007
Pickle Branch Shelter 681.9 to John’s Spring Shelter 695.5 = 13.6 miles
Cool sites:
{ Devil’s Tooth }
We are at the Pickle Branch Shelter. Traveler (a retired doctor from Virginia)
snored more than I do, so I didn’t sleep very well. I had a great time in the shelter talking to
the thru-hikers. Traveler,
Dynomyte (Eric), and Alex (Rat Sandwich). Their experiences were so different and yet
the same as mine. They’re hiking in the
early Spring.
They’ve had water but not much warmth.
They haven’t seen much wildlife.
They have seen no bears. My
experience was limited water sources, lots of green, super hot weather and I’ve
seen 4 bears so far on the trail.
Different experiences and yet we all have the commonality of the trials
and tribulations of hiking: blisters, carrying a bunch of stuff on you back for
miles. The never
ending quest for food.
-
We got a late start.
It rained heavily late last night and it was still raining lightly when
we all set out. Donna & Jim
tented. The walk yesterday was nice and
we were in the shelter by 3:00 pm.
-
Day 4: Sunday, 4/22/2007
John’s Spring Shelter 695.5 to Lamberts Meadow Shelter 704.9 = 9.4 miles
We’re at John’s Spring Shelter. Yesterday was a tough one, 13 miles or so. Walking up Dragon’s Tooth was abit of an elevation climb.
The way down was very steep and required hands and feet. It was fun, but slow going. Some sections we could walk fast through,
some not. The trail has been really well
marked these past couple of days. We
walked through some corn fields – which was nice. The trail was re-routed around the last three peaks
before this shelter. I could easily see
the original trail going up and down them.
I got into the shelter last. I
was walking pretty slowly. I arrived
about an hour before dark. Some college
kids pulled in and set up tents. They
were camping for a final exam for a college class. They were real friendly and offered us
food. I had some BBQ potato chips AND A
HOT DOG! They offered smores, but I declined.
The hot dog was great in my butter herb noodle mix! I stayed in this shelter again with Alex and
Traveler, but I used my earplugs this time.
My only complaint is that I pulled a muscle in my neck when I
bandana-bathed in the shelter. It hurt
all night and hurts now. Oh well… Enough writing, I gotta
get the water going.
-
Arrived at Lambert Meadow Shelter at 4:02 pm. Hiked
in from Johns Spring Shelter. Today was a
good hike. We hiked through some misty
rain and on some ridges – it was cold. I
got to sit on the end of McAfee Knob – an experience that I’ve been looking
forward to for a long time. No
views. All socked in by a gray cloud. The hike up to Tinker Cliffs was a little
tough. The view was great up there. I could see hawks riding the updrafts. <A mouse just ran by me.> Two thru-hikers
just arrived, Jenny and Chris. Nice
kids. They gave me a banana nut
muffin. He’s carrying a hiking guitar.
-
I saw a bear today!
That makes it my 5th that I’ve seen on the AT. I couldn’t get a picture. It was too fast. It came onto the trail from the right and ran
ahead and then veered off to the left.
-
Day 5: Monday, 4/23/2007
Lamberts Meadow Shelter 704.9 to Daleville, VA
714.3 = 9.4 miles
Slept pretty well last night. My right ankle felt a tiny bit sore. My left leg did its normal “dead”/Charlie
horse thing (the whole leg). It did that
two nights ago too. I tried to take some
pictures of the deer feeding down by the stream (at the shelter), but I wasn’t
interested in taking pictures of deer until they were just barely in telephoto
range. There’s lots of deer in NJ. So taking pictures of deer is not a priority.
-
I think that I wrote about seeing the bear yesterday. It was
young and a little curious. It ran from
me, over the ridge to the left – just up ahead.
I walked for a while with my camera on, hoping for a picture. But I decided to turn my camera off. Of course that’s when it came over the ridge
to watch us from a distance. It just
stood there watching. Donna & Jim
were behind me. I turned to them and
asked them to be quite. I turned around,
the bear was still there, but by the time I got my camera turned back on the
bear ran off. Darn!
-
The brazen mouse in the shelter last night seemed to have
left my gear and food alone.
-
I hiked with Chris and Jenny all day today. Donna and Jim caught up to us at Hay
Rock. Chris and I climbed up it to see
the view. Jim climbed up too. I stuck with Chris and Jenny. They were fun to hike with because they were
young and silly. We came out of the
woods at 1:25 pm, right next to
where Donna and Jim parked the car.
Chris and Jenny went on about their business. I sat in the parking lot, absorbing the warm
sun and called Linda (my wife) and Janie (my sister) on my cell phone. Donna and Jim came along. We booked rooms at the Howard Johnson Express
Inn, cleaned up and then went out for dinner.
Rat-Sandwich and Traveler shared a room a couple of rooms down from us.
-
Day 6: Tuesday, 4/24/2007
Jennings Creek, VA
742.4 to Bobblets Gap Shelter 732.8 = 9.6 miles
INCOMPLETE JOURNAL ENTRY
Change in plans.
Instead of continuing to hike northbound, we will get shuttled to the
northernmost point and we will hike southbound back to where we are. This makes sense because we won’t have to
worry about whether we will have cell phone service to contact Homer (shuttle)
or if he has scheduling conflicts.
-
Homer dropped us off at Jennings Creek at 7:50 am and we hiked southbound to Bobblets Gap Shelter.
We arrived at the shelter at 2:10 pm. It’s way down in a
hollow. A real steep zig-zag down to the shelter. We spent some time thinking and discussing
about moving on. Nice day. I fell asleep until 3:00 pm. Both Jim
and I conked out while we were deciding whether to keep on hiking. That pretty much decided the issue. We decided to stay here.
-
I was up at 6:00 am
today. I had a good solid breakfast:
eggs, biscuits and gravy, waffles, orange juice.
-
Day 7: Wednesday, 4/25/2007
Bobblets Gap Shelter 732.8 to Fullhardt
Knob Shelter 719.3 = 13.5 miles
INCOMPLETE JOURNAL ENTRY
-
Day 8: Thursday, 4/26/2007
Fullhardt Knob Shelter 719.3 to Daleville,
VA 714.3 = 5.0 miles
INCOMPLETE JOURNAL ENTRY
-
Preparation: On 3/15/2008, I purchased a new pair of
boots for this hike. My feet took a
beating on the last hike. I crunched up
my toes on the declines. I lost the toe
nail from my big toe on my right foot. I
occasionally experience sharp twinges in the joints of my toes after that
hike. I don’t want to abuse my feet like
this again. So I bought a pair of Danner
Radical GTX 452 boots from Cabelas. My feet used to be size 10 ½ wide. Now my left foot is 11 ½ E and my right foot
is 12 E. My feet have been noticeably
different in size since my back injury, twenty years ago. That’s ok, I just don’t want to crunch up my
toes anymore.
I’m going to wear
these boots from now on to get my feet adjusted to the new boots. I might even go on a two or three day hike to
prepare for this hike. Maybe pick up
from where I left off at the north end of Greenwood Lake,
NY and head north.
I still have to
stitch up the sleeping bag that I purchased for this summer’s hike. And I have to stitch in straps to my poncho
so that I can use it for a rain-fly for my tent. This way I can leave the rain-fly at home to
save that weight. I also bought a much
better and heavier camera, an Olympus SP-550UZ and a
case for it. I noticed that although my
last two cameras had larger pixel resolutions, the quality of the pictures were
lower than my old Olympus camera ( C-3000
) which had a better lens. This camera
has both a larger pixel resolution and a much better zoom lens, but it does
weigh a whole lot more than the other cameras.
Still dealing with
my gut issues from my summer 2007 hike ( filename:
Hike05 ). So far I’ve given two stool
samples that came back negative for parasites and a third negative for guardiasis. I’ve
taken Tindamax ( 4 large
tablets, single dosage ) for guardiasis. Didn’t help. On 3/24/2008 ) I saw another doctor. He prescribed Flagyl
– I was given the generic Metronidazole 500mg, two tables
per day for 7 days. I had the joy of a
colonoscopy on 4/1/2008. That too came back negative. I’m healthy but with the symptoms of having a
parasite. So I’ve been “diagnoised” as having Irritable Bowel Syndrome; which
really is a label, not a diagnosis. All
of these issues came on during the last two weeks of my summer hike. Symptoms have improved since the
colonoscopy. After the big purge I’ve
flooded myself with probiotics. Lots of yogurt and healthy
bacteria pills.