Drinking My Dinner

May 11.  Frozen!  We tried our new 45 degree sleeping bags last night and it got cold!  I woke up in the middle of the night and put on just about every layer of clothing I have in order to stay warm.  I didn't get much sleep, the interesting news is that tonight may even be colder!

We hiked on for the day and I took the lead.  I was on spider web patrol.  When we hike early in the morning and no one else has been down the trail yet to clear away the spider webs from the night before it becomes our job.  You get pretty used to hiking on with the feeling of spider webs all over your face, in your eyelashes, on your arms, and in your hair.  You only stop to clean them off when you hit a big one, if you stopped everytime you hit any webs you'd never make it to Maine!

Along the way I noticed a small green inch worm hanging off the side of my shorts.  I stopped to take him off and put him on a tree and when I pulled his body his legs hung on really tight and I broke him in half!  I know...I felt bad too, but he shouldn't have tried to hold on so hard!

We found some trail magic left at a road crossing from a group of school kids.  We eventually caught up with more than 30 sixth graders out for a day hike.  We hiked along in their line until their teacher noticed us and had all the kids stand off to the side and let us pass.  We had lunch with the group at Bryant Ridge Shelter, one of the biggest and nicest shelters we have seen on the AT so far.  As we ate our Slim Jims, trail mix, and protein bars the kids were pulling out apples, sandwiches, and snacks.  Meat said "I wonder if any of them would want to trade lunches".  After lunch we heard one of the girls tell her teacher "We talked to the thru-hikers" and he said "And they talked back?"  We had fun being around the group, they had a lot of energy and were enjoying the hike!  One of the kids in the group had fallen and cut his knee pretty bad.  They had him bandaged up and two teachers took turns carrying him, and he was a big kid!  He didn't look in that bad of shape to me and I think I would have just told him to walk it off...good thing I'm not a teacher!  On a side note at one point during lunch the teacher told the kids to all put away their cell phones...since when does a 6th grader need a cell phone!?

For lunch today I tried the Kilimanjaro (Flosser) method to eating couscous, more like drinking my dinner.  I poured it all in a water bottle and let it soak as I walked for an hour.  When I stopped to take a break I tipped the bottle back and let gravity bring the couscous to me.  Yum-Oh!  It actually worked pretty well and may be in my meal plans in the future!

Random Trail Thought:  If a rabbit's foot is good luck for a human, what kind of foot is good luck for the rabbit?

We stopped at the next shelter for a break and I took a moment to use the privy.  The privys on the trail are very diverse.  Some are just a raised wooden platform with a white plastic toilet out in the open, very open.  Others are actual outhouses, completely closed in with little airflow or light.  I prefer them right in the middle...privacy but light and airy.  The privy today was closed in but did have a lot of light due to a roof made of one big plastic skylight.  The only problem was the swarm of flies the size of dimes and nickels.  I was doing my business when a fly the size of a Canadian quarter flew straight up out of the hole and pelted me on the left side of my behind.  It scared me so much that I jumped up, wondering what was down there!  The fly must have been a little surprised too, it did a few circles and flew off and I sat back down, a little more cautious.  One thing is for sure, everything is an experience on the trail, even using a privy.

It will probably be another cold night so I have my tent set up with the rain fly very close down to the ground to keep the breeze out.  I have my emergency blanket under me and ready to pull over me like a blanket.  Since I have a torso sleeping pad now my feet go on my backpack, but tonight I have it positioned so my feet can go in my backpack and I even put the rain cover on the pack for extra warmth.  I am wearing all of my clothes except for my hiking shirt, a few pairs of socks, and my second pair of underwear.  If it gets too cold I think I'll just wake up and start hiking, but it should't be that bad!

Moving To Ultralight

May 10.  Woke up in a hotel in Daleville for the 3rd day in a row...time to get back on the trail!  Although I wished we had left town a day earlier it was raining pretty hard yesterday and my Grandpa Clemens put it in perspective with an email that said "school kids have snow days and hikers have rain days".  Makes sense to me!  We had breakfast with Flossermanjaro and around 9 AM Meat and I said bye to Sarvis and hit the trail.  We started out strong...we had 3 days of food and we had both downsized our gear quite a bit.  On the way out of town we passed some other hikers and one guy said "Tarzan!  How did you get your pack so small?"  Now that's what I like to hear!  At the first shelter we came to we met an older Asian guy hiking and soon learned that at 70 years old, the retired doctor took off to hike the Appalachian Trail.  A few miles back coming down Dragon's Tooth trail he fell and broke his knee.  That was 6 years ago.  Now he is 76 years old and back on the AT to finish his hike.  He was small in stature but big in a personality and his positive attitude and his story was pretty inspiring!  We hiked on and stopped at another shelter for dinner and sat at the table with a hiker from Ohio.  Today was his first day back on the trail for a section hike and we shared trail stories and talked for a long time.  Both gentlemen we met on the trail today were a lot of fun to talk with and it was a great reminder of why we are on this trek!  After dinner Meat and I decided to push on for a few more miles.  When we finally found a flat place to camp we had hiked a total of 23 miles.  Earlier in the afternoon Meat made the comment that today could be our biggest mileage hike on a day leaving town.  It turned out to be one of our biggest mileage days so far, even with a food resupply in town!  It was really due to our decision to only carry 3 days of food, that keeps the pack light, and because we both dropped our total pack weight.

My pack felt amazing today and it really got me thinking more about going ultralight.  I reduced my gear and volume so much that the roll top on my backpack goes down a few inches below the top of my frame sheet.  My ULA Catalyst pack can hold up to something like 65 or 70 liters and I am sure I will be looking for a lighter pack with less capacity soon.  Below is a photo of my gear laid out on the bed in Daleville.  Starting in the top left is my emergency blanket, my guide book, camp shoes, food bag (green), and sleeping bag and clothes (gray and yellow).  In the next row my journal and electronic chargers, my blue pack rain cover, red bandana and red hat, gray and yellow sleeping pad, and tent.  On the bottom row is water bottles, rope, water treatment and hand sanitizer, camera and tripod, medical kit, rain coat, and the all important toilet paper.  And that's it!  I am still trying to get rid of more items I can live without...we will see!

Flosser's Firsts

Meat and I really enjoyed hiking 700 miles with Brian Sarvis, aka Flosser, aka Kilimanjaro.  I won't mention his age, but if Abe Lincoln was talking about Flossermanjaro-AT he would say "6 score" and something years ago...  What I mean is Flosser has been around the block a time or two and he has had a lot of adventures in his life but during our 2 months of hiking together Meat and I were able to share a few "firsts" with Flosser...

Flosser's Firsts: Ho-Ho's
Ding-Dongs
Oatmeal Cream Cookies
Pretty much anything from Hostess or Little Debbie's, which is surprising to me. After being around kids as the Superintendent of the school system one would think that he may have tried more "kids" snacks. When I was a kid that's all I wanted, Little Debbies snacks. When I was an older kid in college that's all I ever ate (just kidding Mom, I had a well balanced diet all 4 years of college!)
Snack Pack Pudding
Blowing Snot Rockets (he got really good at the Simko technique!) Breakfast at the Huddle House
An all you can eat KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken)
The Cracker Barrel
Shin Splints (not something he wanted to try, but just a product of hiking 700 miles in 2 months)
Sugar Sodas (Well, he had those before, but that was probably 30 years ago...and for me 30 years is a lifetime!)

What I learned from Flosser

How to tie a Bowline Knot (which I call the rabbit hole and the tree knot)
How to tie a Half Hitch Knot (which I call the "in case I messed up the rabbit and tree knot our food bags won't fall" knot)
How to drink half of everything in the first swig
How to drink your dinners on the trail, going without a cook stove and eating all of our food cold
How to meet someone at KFC and then completely forget who they are 15 minutes later when they give us a ride to our hotel
How to use iodine to treat our drinking water

There were a lot of fun times with Flossermanjaro-AT in the past two months and we are sad to see him go! Also, I know in the last week of hiking Flosser got a new trail name, Kilimanjaro, but I had already started the "Flosser's Firsts" blog, and Flosser's Firsts sounds better than Kilimanjaro's Firsts. Kilimanjaro is headed back to Santa Barbara for a summer full of adventures, a shower every day, and a comfortable bed to sleep in. I wonder if he will miss walking everyday, not showering for a week at a time, and sleeping on the ground.

We'll be looking forward to seeing Kilimanjaro when he comes back to hike with us in a few months!

2 Months and 722 Miles

May 7.  We woke up after it had rained all night and luckily it stopped raining so we could pack our wet gear...but we were heading into town today so life was good!  We hiked across ridges and downhill for a few hours.  Yesterday the trek up to McAfee Knob was nice and I enjoyed the views from the top but later in the day as we wound around the ridge we came to the Tinker Cliffs and we walked along huge rock cliffs for about a mile and I really liked that part of the day best. Today we crossed a few sections of trails with TONS of cicadas hanging in the trees.  I mean swarms.  The trail was full of holes in the ground where the bugs had crawled out and up the plants and trees.  The trees were better decorated with cicadas and shells than most Christmas trees in December.  It was pretty crazy!  Coming into Daleville, VA we are officially 722 miles into our hike, making progress!  We hit town around 11 AM and stopped to pick up some packages and headed to McDonald's for first lunch.  One package was from our buddy Chaos who gave us a hitch up to Newfound Gap in the Smoky Mountains.  He sent us some snacks as well as McDonald's and Subway gift cards!  We both had a Big Mac meal and sat and used the wireless internet on our phones until 1 PM when we had second lunch, a 20 piece McNugget each.  After the lunches we walked back to the hotel and checked in.  We walked down to the local outfitter store and I bought the Klymit X-Lite sleeping pad, a 6.1 ounce torso air pad, one of the lightest sleep systems on the market.  This will replace the 20-plus ounce Big Agnes Air Core pad I have been carrying.  My new sleeping bag for warm weather arrived as well.  I traded out my Marmot Sawtooth down 15 degree sleeping bag (3 lbs) for the Big Agnes Pitchpine down 45 degree sleeping bag, 1 pound 2 ounces.  I shipped the heavier gear home along with my hiking long pants, long shirt, gloves, and a few dry bags and other random items.  All together I sent home around 6 or 7 pounds of gear and replaced it with about a pound and a half, getting lighter!  We stopped by the grocery store and headed back to the hotel.  Meat went with a big group of hikers to get BBQ but I bought a salad and fruit from the grocery store and ate that at the hotel. 

May 8.  Today is 2 months from the first day on the trail!  A lot has changed in my hiking style, my backpack and gear, and my comfort on the trail.  Things are moving along and in 2 months of walking we have covered over 700 miles!  Flosser, now going by the trail name KILIMANJARO, made it to town shortly before 11 AM and we headed over to the Cracker Barrell for lunch.  We had a geat meal and spent some time relaxing in the rocking chairs on the front patio and headed back to the hotel.  Yesterday Meat and another hiker bought Lafuma Extreme 600 sleeping bags from the outfitter store, 20 percent off...$65!  This is a 45 degree sleeping bag like the Pitchpine I just got the day before...but it is synthetic material, has a full length zipper and the mummy bag hood, all for only 2 ounces more than the Big Agnes, and the Lafuma compresses down quite a bit smaller!  Although the Pitchpine down sleeping bag is probably more robust and would last longer and keep me a bit warmer, this economical bag was too good to pass up.  I bought myself a new sleeping bag and for the second day in a row walked to the post office to mail home a sleeping bag.  On the way there a guy named Richard stopped and picked me up and took me to the post office and waited for me and drove me a mile back to the hotel.  We got to talking and he said he got interested in the AT last year through Trail Journals and blogs and this year decided to see what he could do to help out hikers.  Throughout the rest of the day Richard was driving back and forth from the hotel to the post office to the grocery store and all over town hauling hikers and gear.  A real trail angel, thanks Richard! For dinner we walked over to Three Little Pigs BBQ and had some great food and drinks! We highly recommend this spot if you are ever near Daleville! It was a fun last dinner with Flossermanjaro-AT and tomorrow Meat and I will hit the trail and he will head home to Santa Barbara.

May 9. Woke up in the hotel...and what a hotel! It is another one of those trail hotels that most people would just pass by and never consider stopping for the night...but it does the job for us! We had breakfast and got packed...I sure am ready to get back on the trail and get in my tent! After a night or two in a hotel my tent seems comfortable, safe, and normal. We tried filling our water bottles at the hotel but the water there tasted so bad. It's funny that I can't wait to get back in the mountains and drink water from the springs and streams rather than the city treated water. But then again, in every day life people pay a dollar a bottle for "mountain spring" water and on the trail we get it for free on a daily basis with the water coming right out of the rocks on the sides of mountains.

On a side note...the straw hat with the visor in the brim I picked up a few days ago is already in a hiker box...it wasn't as "cool" as I thought it would be.  It ended up holding the heat on my head and blocking the breeze from my face, which was a bad combination.  I liked the hat, but maybe it would have been better off the trail. 

What's In My Backpack...

Just thought I should post an update about my pack and what I am carrying...I attached a photo of my pack, and here is what is in it!
Inside - a trash compactor bag...I use this as added rain protection.  In rain we use a pack cover, but the water also runs down the back of my raincoat next to the back of my pack so the trash bag helps keep my stuff dry even if the water soaks my backpack.
From the bottom up:  The Big Agnes Air Core sleeping pad is folded and is laid flat on the bottom of the pack.  Next is my sleeping bag, inside a compression dry bag to make sure my down sleeping bag does not get wet.  Next is my clothes dry bag, laying in a flat layer.  This has my 2nd pair of socks (unless they stink, then they hang on the outside of the pack), my sleeping tights and shirt, my long zip off pants, long sleeve shirt, Montbell jacket, hat and gloves, and my 2nd pair of underwear.  My headlamp is often packed in my clothes dry bag.  Then I have my maps and journal and electronic gear for my camera and phone in a plastic aLOKSAK inside a dry bag to make sure it nothing gets wet.  That lays flat on the clothes.  Next is a layer of tent gear.  I got rid of the stuff sacks so my tent body, rain fly, and footprint are all folded in a layer as long as they are not wet.  Last is my food bag and rain coat...they are placed at the top because I've found that my pack feels better with the heavier stuff up higher.  The top of the pack is then rolled down and strapped shut.
Outside back mesh pocket:  The large mesh pocket on the back holds important things like my emergency medical kit, my mesh top camp shoes, the all important toilet paper, 40 feet of rope, the rain cover for the backpack, and typically the 2 snacks and my lunch for the day and my toothbrush. 
Outside side pockets:  Each pocket has a water bottle, I am currently carrying one Gatorade and one Poweraid bottle.  My maps also slip in the pocket along with my bandana, snacks, my hat, or other items I may need easy access to while walking.  My tent poles are also attached to the outside of the back pocket.
Hipbelt pockets:  One side has my camera and Joby tripod for the camera.  That pocket also has my thermometer attached to the zipper.  The other side has my Leatherman knife, water treatment (used to be iodine, now Aquamira), sunsceen, hand sanitizer, and cell phone in another aLOKSAK to keep it dry.
That is pretty much it!  Things are changing though...I got my new sleeping bag today which is 2 lbs lighter and much smaller than my winter bag.  I also sent home lots of clothes I didn't need and picked up a much smaller sleeping pad.  It will take a few days but I will soon have a new structure to my backpack, much lighter!

From 3 Amigos To 2...

May 2.  After spending all day yesterday in town for a zero day we were ready to get back on the trail.  Meat needed to do a few more things in town and Flosser was ready to hit the trail.  Flosser was going to reduce his mileage and speed to help let his leg heal so from here on Meat and I were going to push ahead and Flosser was going to enjoy the last 90 miles of his hike.  Flosser thanked us for letting him tag along and we thanked him for joining us.  Hugs all around and he took off.  Meat and I left shortly before noon and after a very tough climb up a mountain with the temp in the 80's we came across Flosser taking a break.  We talked for a bit and then he thanked us for letting him tag along and we thanked him for joining us.  Hugs all around and we took off.  We hiked a few miles on and Meat and I stopped for a break in a shelter to get out of the afternoon heat.  Not long after Flosser made his way in and we all sat and talked for a bit.  Then Flosser thanked us for letting him tag along and we thanked him for joining us.  Hugs all around and we took off.  a few miles later Meat and I stopped by a campsite to get water from the creek.  Before we packed up and left Flosser came in and filled water as well.  Then Flosser thanked us for letting him tag along and we thanked him for joining us.  Hugs all around and we took off.  This was the last meetup of a long day of goodbye because Flosser ended up stopping for the day and Meat and I pushed on several more miles.  We had a big problem with ticks today as Meat and I both found 3 or 4 of them crawling on our legs during the hike.  All in all a good day, left town right before lunch and hiked 13.5 miles.  We are going to miss Flosser for sure, we had a lot of fun with him the last 600 miles and we won't be the complete "3 Amigos" until he comes back to hike with us later this summer.  Thanks for the fun times Flosser!  Thanks for letting him come hike with us Ann!

May 3.  Last night was warm!  I slept on top of my 15 degree sleeping bag most of the night.  I am looking forward to my 45 degree sleeping bag that is being delivered to the next town!  The night was pretty quiet, no wind, but Meat and I both thought we heard things moving around outside of our tents.  I thought I heard something big crack or crash and then roll down the hill behind us...I laid there wide awake and listened to something I thought was breathing, first close to my tent, then further away.  I figured at least it was leaving and fell back asleep.  Meat and I woke up around 6:15 and left camp a little after 7 so we could get an early start for a hot day.  This was supposed to be the hottest day of the week so we intended to take and afternoon break to get out of the heat.  We hiked and put down some really good miles even in the heat and some tough hill climbs.  By about 4 PM we had already hiked 18 miles and stopped to take a break at the shelter.  There we found some of our hiking friends and spent a few hours talking about the PCT, the Florida Trail, and other trails in California and out west.  We waited out a few rain clouds and some sprinkles and around 6:30 Meat and I moved on to camp by a stream about a mile down the trail.  It was a 19 mile day in some intense heat and we were pretty happy with it!

May 4.  We woke up early today and hit the trail by a little after 7.  By 8 we were already completely drenched in sweat...it was going to be another hot day.  We hiked up over a hill and through several pastures and farms and then back up another mountain.  It was a hot afternoon and we were hiking along a ridge line with large rocks and I stopped to check out a long line of ants marching off somewhere.  I followed the line across a few sticks, over the trail, and up a big flat rock.  The path of ants lead right up to a dark corner of a rock ledge and then right under something with stripes and scales...our first rattle snake.  We weren't sure at first, but as we got more interested in it the snake shifted a bit and brought out its rattle and gave us the warning.  We watched it for awhile along with several other hikers behind us.  Soon the snake seemed to get tired of the attention and pictures and it started moving around, that's when I decided it was probably time to move on.  I heard rattle snakes can shoot out and strike at quite a distance and I didn't want to be there for that.  About 5 minutes up the trail we passed an area that smelled like a dead animal and saw a rattle snake dead under a rock beside the trail.  Although this one was dead that was two of them in close proximity...Meat kindly offered to let me lead the way, just in case there were more.  What a nice guy!  We stopped for an hour or 2 to have dinner and rest at a shelter and then with some friends at a campsite by the river and then Meat and I pushed on up the next mountain and made it to the top just before dark, a little after 8 PM.  On the way up we spooked several deer and they took off running down the side of the mountain and it sounded like a few nights ago when I heard something rolling down the mountain behind my tent.  It was probably deer the other night too, but something else must have been out there to spook them.  It was a long day, 21.5 miles, and we were ready to get to bed!

May 5. We woke up a little later, still tired from the tough uphill the night before, but also glad that was out of the way! It was so warm that Meat left his rain fly half way off his tent and I left my tent door open for more airflow. During the night I heard some rain falling on my tent and quickly closed my door. A few seconds later I heard Meat get up quickly and pop out of his tent and pull the fly back over it. Luckily we camped on the top of a ridge and even though it rained on through the night the morning breeze helped dry the gear a bit before we packed it away. We walked on towards the Dragon's Tooth, a stone monolith, but by the time we got there clouds were pulling in fast and we passed by quickly to get down the mountain before the rain. The trail down was the toughest we've had yet and a section of the AT that I really don't like, especially when it is wet. It was a rock scramble with sections of rock faces that I pretty much had to slide down and try not to fall forward. I did slip and fall back a few times on the slick rocks. The plan we had for the day was to hike some big miles and get to The Home Place for dinner, a very well know all you can eat family style restaurant just off the trail. The rocks had taken us some time to get over and as we sat on a log and ate our lunch in the rain Meat and I quickly changed our plans to hiking an hour more to the 4 Pines Hostel since we could get out of the rain, take a shower, and get a free ride up the road to The Home Place...perfect! We came off the trail and onto the road in the drizzling rain and had to walk 0.3 miles to the hostel. The owner of the hostel passed us in his truck but couldn't pick us up because it was full and in the short time it took to walk the rest of the way the skies opened and we showed up dripping wet. We took showers and joined the first group of hikers for dinner. The Home Place was happening and very busy being a Saturday evening, and the local Prom night. Our clothes didn't smell the best but we had at least showered, which I am sure everyone else appreciated. We all enjoyed the 3 meat family style dining...beef, chicken, ham, potatoes, veggies, dessert, tea, lemonade, and more! Easily one of the best meals on the trail for sure! We went back to the hostel, which is really just a 3 bay garage with old couches, cots, and lawn chairs to sleep on. We stopped and picked up some bottles of Corona to celebrate Cinco de Mayo and enjoyed hanging out with a great group of about 15 hikers. May 6. We woke up in the garage, packed our bags and hit the trail. Before climbing back up into the mountains we had to cross a pasture with cows in it. They were standing right on the trail and they were big! A few of them were big and had horns, which really made Meat nervous. They all chomped grass and eyed us as we passed and I have a great video of Meat freaking out and running through them to get by! We survived and made our way up to McAfees Knob for lunch. It was a little overcast but at least not too hot and Meat and I relaxed for a bit. After a pretty long lunch we moved on. Somewhere in the woods we came to an area with lots of locust. It sounded like summertime in Indiana. We hiked until about 8 PM and got within a few miles of town. The rain started as soon as we got in our tents...but no worries, town tomorrow, a Trail Friday!

Torrential Downpours and Flash Floods

April 26.  We left the hotel around 9 AM but made sure to stick around to get the latest local weather forecast first.  The TV anchor said "Severe thunderstorms, torrential downpours, and high winds expected this morning..."  Click, time to go hiking!  Not even a mile in the storms started.  Lightening, rolling crashes of thunder, and torrential downpours.  The rain was really coming down and we were soaked!  Pretty quickly the trails turned into water ways and rushing streams.  Most of the time there was no way to avoid the rushing water.  We found a washed out stream crossing that was so flooded that when we crossed the water covered our ankles and flooded our shoes.  Gore-Tex is decently good at keeping the water out of my shoes...it is fantastic at keeping the water in my shoes!  For most of the day I walked with so much water in my shoes that it sloshed up over the top of my foot with every step.  The storms stopped by noon and the rest of the hike was still soggy, but more comfortable.  We came to a river crossing where the trail uses a automobile bridge to cross but so much rain had come down that the river had risen to almost a foot over the road.  The water rushed over the bridge and made white caps on the other side.  None of us really wanted to cross it but the AT was on the other side.  Luckily a nice older lady came out from her farm house and let us know how to get around the river.  We had to walk a mile or so around on some roads but we caught back up with the trail on the other side.  Some other hikers said they waded in to check it when they passed but most turned back when it got thigh or waist deep.  We all decided that following the white blazes may not be worth risking your life in flood waters.  As we walked around the bulging river we heard some loud cracks and crashes and looked in the water to see a whole tree floating down river and breaking things off the river banks on either side.  Had we tried to cross and seen that coming towards us it would have been over!  We made the 12 mile hike to the shelter to find several other hikers setting up for the night and drying out.  I dried my socks by the fire and got them a bit too toasty and that night my tent smelled like burnt hiker socks...not a good smell.  I doubt that we will see this scent in the Yankee Candle lineup anytime soon.

April 27.  It poured rain last night!  I woke up and remember thinking it was the hardest rain I've heard in the tent so far.  I woke up warm and dry in the morning...another successful night for the Big Agnes Fly Creek UL1 tent!  We hiked out from the shelter and through a valley and crossed a few flooded streams and successfully kept our feet dry.  We hiked 2,000 feet up to a mountain ridge line and started hiking the ridge trail.  We had been looking forward to some ridge line trails, nice and flat...we thought.  It turned out to be rocky and a little bit of up, then a little down...a little up, then a little down.  It didn't take long to realize that a lot of a little is still A LOT!  We felt pretty worn out really fast.  At one point two hawks were soaring overhead for a mile or so and Ryan commented that the hawks must be thinking "They smell like they are dead, but they keep on moving, I don't get it!"  I thought maybe they were stalking us as prey thinking "They keep moving slower and slower.  Eventually they will fall over and die!"  We crossed a huge section of an old rock slide.  While crossing the rocks we could hear the sound of a rushing mountain stream but we could see no water because it was all flying down the slopes under the rocks, a pretty incredible experience.  When we are hiking near the 4,000 foot level there is still very little action going on.  Some grass and smaller plants are starting to grow, but there are very few leaves on the trees.  Once we get closer to the 3,000 foot level and below spring is in full swing and flowers are starting to bloom and the leaves are coming out.  It is interesting to see the difference in elevation vegetation every day on our hikes.  We started hiking today around 8 AM and pulled into camp around 7 PM, a great day and a good 19 miles behind us!

April 28.  Woke up a little later today and got on the trail.  Flosser's legs were hurting him quite a bit yesterday and 5 miles into the hike today he thought he better find a way into town to visit a clinic.  Just then a white pickup truck came up the mountain road and we waved it down and Flosser hitched a ride to town.  He said he'd get his legs checked out and lay low for a few days and meet us at our next resupply stop.  After that Meat and I pumped out 19 more miles in just under 7 hours.  The last 10 miles we did in 3 hours flat.  The trail was a ridge line and a little better than the previous day's trail, but still, 24 miles was a tough day and our longest hike yet!  We made it to the shelter to find a bunch of our hiking buddies and one SOBO,  a southbound hiker.  He was a weird one.  At first I thought he was just awkward, but as the night went on he talked about the Nazi Party, North Korean soldiers, ninjas on the AT, and he spent a good 20 minutes showing Meat how to channel his "inner rage" to be a more productive fighter or something.  By the time I went to bed I told Meat that I wished I could lock my tent...interesting night and interesting stories!

April 29.  Woke up early and got moving.  We stopped a few miles in and hiked a half a mile along a country road to a grocery store.  It turned out to be a gas station but that was quite alright and we each bought a soda, a chili dog, and a tall beer.  I also finally found a straw hat with a green tinted visor in the brim like the one my Great Grandpa Watson used to wear and I bought it!  I told the guys I was looking for it since we started the hike and now just over 600 miles in Meat spotted it in the store for me.  The hot dogs took and extraordinarily long time for some pretty ordinary tasting dogs, but we can't find them on the trail very often and it hit the spot.  We sat outside at a picnic table and ate our food and had our drinks.  The weather was amazing and it felt like any old lazy Sunday in the country.  It would have been a great place to take a nap but we had to get back to work and back to the trail.  We hiked on through some flat trails for awhile then we shot up a steep 1,500 feet in 90 degree sunshine.  It turned into a really hot day on the trail and Meat and I were both exhausted.  We finally pulled into the shelter just after 7 PM and made it in the sleeping bags as the sun went down.  We were the only 2 people there!  The day was 22.5 miles on the trail, 23.5 miles counting the store.  The day before that was 24 miles and before that 19 miles.  Needless to say, after 65 plus miles in 3 days Meat and I are looking forward to town tomorrow, a shower, clean clothes, relaxing, and the Pizza Hut All You Can Eat lunch buffet!  Tomorrow is a "Trail Friday"!  HAPPY FRIDAY!  

April 30.  We woke up before 6 AM and packed our bags and started hiking.  We were on a mission...Pizza Hut buffet for lunch!  We hiked a fast 8.5 miles in under 3 hours and made it to town and the hotel to take much needed showers.  We put on our least smelly clothes and headed down to the buffet.  After totally filling ourselves with pizza we stopped and did our laundry and headed back to the hotel.  We relaxed all afternoon and had some good Mexican food for dinner.  The hotel we were staying in was like most of the others we've been in...economical.  these hotels are perfect for hikers, but most other people would probably not stay there.  And, like most of the other hotels we have stayed in, this one seemed to have a high number of rooms that are long term occupancy...like people live here like living in an apartment complex.  It is hard to explain, but these small mountain towns are interesting places to visit!  We are planning to take one zero day, a day with no hiking, and then get back on the trail on Wednesday.