On-Trail Update No. 3

Day: 34     A.T. Miles: 339.9

Howdy, everyone.  I'm chilling at Uncle Johnny's Hostel in Erwin, Tennessee, enjoying a pint-sized PBR and some good R&R.  Since I have been unable to keep up-to-date with my journal entries, and because I don't think that will be improving anytime soon, I have decided to change up the format of my posts a bit.  Instead of posting an entry for each day, I will instead be summarizing different sections of the trail in each post.  I will highlight what I think is the interesting information - good views, significant weather patterns, people, life on the trail - while omitting all the redundant information (my feet hurt, I climbed lots of mountains today, etc.).  This way, I might be able to post updates more frequently (keyword: might) and I can refrain from spending three hours of each nero or zero sitting at a library computer.  Plus, I think most readers will find the new format easier to read and more entertaining.  Since I left off in the middle of the Smokies, I will finish that segment with daily journals, and I will begin posting in the new format upon my exit (or escape) from the national park.  Also, a word about pictures: after failing repeatedly to find a computer that is compatible with my camera (probably since I am a Mac user), I decided to mail my full memory card home to my parents who have agreed to upload my pictures to my Flikr account (thanks, Mom!).  Once they are on Flikr, I should be able to post pictures to the blog without difficulty.

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3/15/11     Day 24     Miles: 12.9
Weather and trail conditions VERY nasty for the first half of the day.  Rain, snow, sleet, and high winds.  Cold, but temperatures just above freezing so the trail was an ankle-deep slushy, muddy river.  After lunch the precipitation stopped, the trail was a bit drier, and we dropped in elevation enough to get out of most of the snow.  Still not sure how far Guido Blanco and J.T. Hill are behind us.  Staying at Cosby Knob Shelter with Face, Delaware Dave, Treebeard, and Stormsong.  Got a fire going.  It feels nice after some of the nastiest weather of the trip.  Leaving the Smokies tomorrow!!!  It really is BEAUTIFUL here, but conditions on the trail have been rough, and it will be nice to get away from the crowds and snow and back onto some solid ground where we can push mileage.  The Smokies have been a big landmark in the distance since the start of the trail.  Now that they're almost done, one thing is looming in my mind: Virginia.  Almost exactly halfway there.  Heading into hostel tomorrow.  Looking forward to some real food and dry socks (my feet have been soaking wet all day for six straight days).  Honestly, I don't really care that much about taking a shower.  I stopped caring about being dirty a while back.  I just want food.  Rationing food takes a lot of will power - most thru-hikers I have talked to agree that at any given time they could open their food bag and keep eating till there is nothing left.  You really never stop being hungry out here.  Have I mentioned that yet?  I am HUNGRY!!!


3/16/11     Day 25     Miles: 10.4
Quick, easy day today.  Did last 8 miles to Davenport Gap rd which marks the end of the 72 A.T. miles inside Great Smoky Mountains National Park.  I am very happy to be out and check them off the list.  We then continued 2.4 miles to Standing Bear Farm hiker hostel.  Needed food after crossing the Smokies without resupply, plus I heard good things about the hostel. so I decided to stay the night and head back out in the morning.  I am aiming to be in Hot Springs (where my bounce box is waiting) by early morning of the 19th (P.O. is open 8:30-10:30 AM on Saturday).  I hope to nero and update the blog there if the library is open.  At hostel: Face, Guido and Hill (did 14 + 18 milers to catch up), Treebeard, Stormsong, Delaware Dave, Cosmic John, Victus, Space Cowboy, and Young-Un (met the last three at a shelter a few nights ago).  I feel like everyone is really starting to bond.  We are even sharing food!  Woah!  This is a big deal for thru-hikers, who usually guard their food bags like a bear guards her cubs.  Everyone has many of the same acquaintances and experiences.  News is passed up and down the trail through fellow hikers, hostel operators, and shelter registers.  Life on the trail is becoming more and more fun everyday.  It is hard to find fresh produce/healthy food here.  For dinner I ate a 9-piece chicken tenders meal, fries, a biscuit, a microwave chimichanga, a banana, a large bag of chips with Tabasco sauce, oreos with peanut butter, and a slice of pizza.  I washed my socks on a traditional washboard.  Picked up a copy of The Fellowship of the Ring at the free book exchange here; I'm looking forward to reading it for the first time in ten years.

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After staying the night at Standing Bear Farm, the whole group woke up early for a quick three-day hike into Hot Springs, where most of us were planning to take a nero.  We started out the morning right: everyone pitched in some money for food, and Stormsong

The next day was much of the same - beautiful weather, beautiful hiking.  I learned that instant grits are disgusting.  We camped that night three miles outside of Hot Springs with the intent of reaching town early the next morning.  That night was probably the worst twelve hour period of my entire life.  I woke up at 12:30 in the morning with the most painful stomach cramps of my entire life.  It felt like my entire abdomen was caught in an ever-tightening vise.  Eventually the pain became so severe that I resorted to sticking my hand down my throat to induce vomiting.  I did that twice in an hour and a half or so without relief before I began vomiting and dry heaving uncontrollably, which lasted for the rest of the night.  To make things worse, the cramps were coupled with severe shifting hot and cold spells: within minutes, I went from burning hot to shivering cold and back again.  Since I was vomiting so frequently and was too weak to keep crawling in and out of my tent repeatedly, I spent the majority of the night lying on the ground in the fetal position out in the woods next to a pile of my own puke.  It was bad.  And if that wasn't bad enough, it started raining on me while I was lying out in the woods.  I wanted to wait until sunrise to head into town, but at 5:30 I couldn't wait any longer.  Delaware Dave insisted on hiking with me into town, and he even carried a few of my heaviest items to make the hike easier.  By the light of his headlamp and my micro LED that I held in my mouth (I had inconveniently left my headlamp in the shelter the previous night), we hiked slowly through the dark - me stopping when necessary to throw up - until we finally reached Hot Springs in the meager light of the early morning.  I sat outside the medical clinic until it opened.  They weren't sure exactly what was wrong, but they gave me two bags of IV fluids to replace what I had lost and a shot in the butt to keep me from vomiting.  I stayed there until noon.  At some point while I was at the clinic (the shot they gave me knocked me out pretty well), Victus, Space Cowboy, and Young-Un stopped by to see me.  They had heard through the grapevine that I was sick and wanted to see how I was doing before hitting the trail that afternoon.  This was quite touching to me, as we had only seen each other on two previous occasions.  It was just one more example of the strong bond that thru-hikers share.  We look out for each other.  After leaving the clinic, I checked into the Sunnybank Inn, located in a beautiful historic Victorian house built in 1875.  For my fellow musicologists out there: this was the very house in which Cecil Sharpe (in 1916) recorded over sixty songs sung by Mrs. Jane Gentry, many of which were included in his English Folk Songs of the Southern Appalachians.  The shot and IV fluids helped immensely, and I continued to improve for the remainder of the day, but I decided to take an additional zero day in town to fully recover.  Face, Guido, Hill, Treebeard, and Stormsong pushed on after one night in town, but Delaware Dave really enjoyed the Inn and decided to stick around for an extra night.