Meditations on Appalachia

I am no longer an Appalachian Trail hiker, but an Appalachian Trail Survivor. Snowed last night, about four inches in the gap where I stayed at Standing Bear Farm, but hiking back up the mountains the drifts got up to 12″ with an average of 8″. It snowed periodically throughout the day, too. Very long hike, so many uphills and even slower in the snow. My back / sholders are killing me. I can barely tilt my head down. I’m at Roaring Forks Shelter, but it was quite full by the time I rolled in so I had to pitch my tent in the snow. I built a windwall about it which is working pretty well. This will be a real test of my gear. It’s 23 degress out, and unfortunately some of my clothes are still wet. But that’s not the survival part. Our second big mountain with a bald on top was called Max Patch.
First let me define a southern bald: a natural clearing on top of a mountain, different from being above timber line like in New England. A bald often has posts every ten yards or so to mark the trail, which is comical in the daylight but life saving in the fog.
Now, I’ve done some stupid things in my life, and i’ve done some crazy things, but I have never been so scared in my life as when I was crossing max patch. The climb up to it was near vertical, the snow drifts were up to my waist, and there were no blazes in sight so I wasn’t even sure I was on the trail. And I knew I was the last person for the day going over; no one was coming up behind me to help. The wind was aweful, almost blew me over. Got to the top but couldn’t see anything but a post in the distance so I went towards it. As I did another post would appear. The wind was so bad I had to hold my hat on, so I was only using one hiking pole. I thought I was going to lose my fingers; I only had those flimsy black gloves. I was breathing so hard, like the opposite of hyperventilating. I just wanted to lie down and take a nap and wait for the storm to pass, but I took that as a sign of hypothermal deleeium and pressed on. Miraculously the sky cleared for a second and I could see the four guys ahead of me. Rolling Stone was really nice and waited at the edge of the woods for me, the patch must have been half a mile across at least. I’m crying right now thinking about it. I really thought I could die here, but kept telling myself ‘no, I will survive, I must keep walking, don’t stop. Don’t die’. I think I was in shock.

So I talked to the ridge runner ranger and we decided to officially rename the Great Smoky Mountains the Great Shitty Mountains.  Woke up this morning at Mt. Collins shelter and the fire pit lake out front was frozen over.  Dropped down to 27 degrees last night.  Today was actually nice though.  Got into Newfound Gap and was able to yogi two days of food faster than I was able to yogi a ride to Gatlinburg so I pushed on.  Hope I didn’t screw my ASU registration.

Things I’ve lost so far:

1. Rope, replaced from hardware store
2. Bagliner, found and returned by Burning Man
3. Hat, found and returned by Burning Man
4. Knife, found hidden in my rain paint leg while doing laundry

Sometimes while hiking I think I’d rather be at home with my friends, or making art, or doing a residency, or working, but then I remember that I’m out here becasue I tried to do all those things and it didn’t work out or I couldn’t afford it, and that makes the next half mile easier.

Direct from my journal:
9am – 3pm —– 7.7 today / 141.8 total
No rain today, thought there might be when I had my lunch on top of swim bald, but no, it was snow. Snow! Got into sassafras gap shelter a mile later and decided to stay since it would be warmer than tenting. Supposed to be clear tonight, but… Might be good, this way I’ll know if I need to pick up any more warm gear in Fontana. Looking at doing a long day tomorrow, 15mi.
This mountain today was the first one where I’d look up and think I was near the top, but then i’d get there only to realize I had more to go. This must have happened 5 times on the same mountain. Now, I’m familiar with this because that’s how the mountains are in New Hampshire. The amazing thing was that none of the mountains in Georgia were like that, on those when you thought you were close to the top, you were.
Another strange thing I’ve noticed is mountain popping. It’s feignt, like when you have one window down in a car, and goes pop-pop-pop-pupupupupupu. The shelters in NC are a lot nicer than the ones in GA since they have tables, but they don’t sleep as many people.

Hiking in the rain is miserable.

I can’t believe how much I think about the nos when i’ve come all this way to get rid of them. I guess I’m worried about getting a job in Arizona when I’m done hiking. It’s funny how easily my mind thinks about the future or the past, but how hard it is to think about this moment!

The mountains do the strangest thing right as the sun sets. The wind suddenly picks up for a few minutes then stops. It’s like the sky or forest is inhaling . It’s amazing.

Here’s a photo of miss Jannett, Hoosier, Single Speed, and Doc.

I’ve been hiking around the past few days with some really cool cats: Single Speed, Hurrying Hoosier, Slag Line, Doc, Pancake, and Fruit Booter. The first three have pretty similar paces so they walk together, but the rest of us spread out along the trail. Hurrying Hoosier as a trail journal going too.

I’ve been in Franklin for over 24 hours now, and I’ve got over 12 hours to go waiting for my mail drops. My first zero day, and maybe my last, sitting around sucks. But Miss Jannett, the lady that runs the hostel I’m staying at is awesome. Oh well, back at in tommorrow. I figure I’m four or five days from the smokies, oh boy!

A quick gear update after a night and day of rain.

1) The marmot mica is an excellent rain jacket.

2) I need to seam seal my tent again.

3) Because of the angles of my tent, the bottom of my down bag gets wet from touching the tent sides. This is really bad.

4) Etowah gear mitten shells are the worst piece of gear I’ve ever had. My hands were wet after 15 minutes of use. I can’t believe the guys at Walasi recommended these, they are horrible. AVOID.

I’ve been having the strangest dreams out here in the woods. And so vivid, more vivid than any dream I’ve ever had at home. I think it’s because it’s so hard to sleep out here. I have no idea how much sleep I’m getting, all I know is that I go to bed as soon as it’s dark and I get up about a half hour after it’s first light. So technically that should be like ten hours of sleep these days. In reality it feels like I’m up the entire night. I can’t seem to stay in one position for more than half an hour before some part of my body cramps up or falls asleep and I have to move again. Supposedly if you put all the little bits and piece of sleep together it adds up to six or eight hours, sure doesn’t feel like it. You’d think it’d be easier to sleep after hiking twelve miles, but no. Anyway I think that’s why the dreams are so vivid, I keep waking up a going back to sleep. The weird part is that they always happen in the area I’m sleeping and with the people I’ve talked to that day. Sometimes Aimee or Alison gets thrown in, but otherwise it’s pretty local.

The other weird thing that happens is that after thinking all day while I’m hiking, I get into camp and sit down to write here or in my journal and can’t remember a damned thing I was thinking about. There’s a trail term for it, but I can’t remember what it is.

Some scary stuff has been happening in the woods: someone besides bears has been swiping bear bags, and one of my friends woke up with dog food in his boot, which out here is as good as attempted murder.

Oh, and if anyone was wondering if you can give yourself a hair cut with the scissors on a keychain victorinox, you can.

It’s hard to call myself a vegitarian after the bacon chilli Texas burger I had the other day and the mcdonalds cheese burger today and all the jerky. Yikes! My hikers hunger hasn’t really set in and I’m still carrying way to much food. I definitely crave burgers though, vegi or otherwise. Oh, and that mcdonalds was from a trail angel at unicoi. Those people are so nice!

Dropped 2 Franklins at Walasi-Yi yesterday after a shake down. Got a better lighter rain jacket and mitten shells, polyester underwear, and had dad send me an old down vest to replace the fleece, which as it turns out holds moisture rather than repells it. Also ditched my camp shoes so I’m about a pound and a half lighter. I never meant to be an ultralight hiker but am glad it’s turning out that way cause the pack still feels heavy to me.

Left knee still hurts, but it feels better after short breaks. Might try to get so gel heel insoles to take some of the preasure off it.