Learning to fly

4/25 Day 36 Max patch - hot springs

I'm so sick of "hot springs". It's nearly 5 a.m, the slight breeze rustles my tent from atop max patch and the sound of frogs fill the distance; oh, and Debbie's throwing up. That's it, Norovirus for everyone! It's taken us over a week just to get from Davenport to max patch, and we're still a two days hike from hot springs. This whole trip has been progress every day, but God damn this past week has felt like I'm going backwards. I was sick last week, and now Debbie is today... It's a vicious cycle. I'm actually starting to "dislike" the trail a little because of all the trashy fucking people that hike it. Lack of hygiene, etiquette and common sense are some common traits you'll find out here, which to be honest is surprising to me. Coming out here, I had a totally different perspective on the AT but it's quickly changing. I'm becoming bitter and tired and I hope it's just a phase. Camping on the summit of Max patch has been a bucket list AT item for a while, and it's finally here. Watching the sunset and then being able to see the entire nights sky is amazing. I had gotten some great photos with plans to take some more in the morning. I had positioned my tent doors East to West so could get the rise and set of the sun through my doors. Waking up at 3:30 a.m to the sound of violent puking is a mild cause for concern, and to be honest makes me a little sad. My dog dad reflexes kicked in within seconds of hearing the "sounds" and I flew out of my tent, like I was going to catch her puke or something... It took a second to get it all together, but I figured out very quick what the situation was and how the next 48 hours would play out for Debbie. I'm so exhausted, but I wasn't going to let her go through this on her own. I sat with her for over an hour and helped any way I could. But I'm back in my tent now, my eyes are dozing off and I think it's time for bed.

Woke up, Debbie got sick again. Decided she's going to town. She's not too happy about it but she needs to be off trail. I had to take down both tents. She got a shuttle, I had to run down max patch to give her her tent. Started hiking, a little frustrated. Having shoe squeek issues and pack issues. Oh, 16 mile day. Trail is nice, enjoyable scenery and flowers. Gone 5 miles so far. Going to stop for lunch in 1.3 miles. Stomach cramps, must ..get..to .privy. Body is still trying to adjust back to normal.

Ate lunch, decided to aim for the tent site before the shelter. Both sites were full, nowhere to tent. Decided to just hike 19 miles to hot springs. Involved night hiking, so we stopped for dinner at the water source before the shelter. It was cool. Sun went down and our night hike began. Glad I got a nice headlamp, really bright. Was a long hike, painful too. Foot issues. Barely made it to hot springs, foot about to give out. 1 mile away stealth camp for tonight. We're both cooked. Time for bed, so exhausted.

4/26 Day 37 Hot springs stealth camp - laughing heart hostel

So I Forgot my alarm was set to 5:30 from max patch for the sunrise. So suddenly in the darkness of my tent... "RINGNNNNGG RINNGNGGGGGDINNNGG". Ugh. I scrambled to turn it off and fell back asleep until 10. There was a bit of rain and wind last night, so packing up my tent was fun; with all the leaves and shit stuck to it. I got my stuff packed up and was pretty tired and sore, but being only a mile from town was a nice feeling. A short mile hike downhill and we actually made it to laughing heart hostel, and Debbie was there! She's doing a bit better and is going to slack pack max - hot springs to catch up on lost miles.

TOWN DAAY (typical feelings)

So hotsauce and I decided we would finally go to the smoky mountain diner for breakfast, since it was closed the last time we were there; and I had the plague. After not seeing a "real" breakfast in well over a week it was time to chow down. Per usual fashion, I ordered water with lemon, coffee and an orange juice. A stack of pancakes, eggs, bacon and hash browns filled 3 plates in front of me. It didn't stand a chance. R.i.p breakfast.

So the unfortunate part of this day was that I was debating on getting a new pack for quite a while now. I went into bluff Mountain outfitters and talk to one of the guys there about proper pack sizing and the smallest pack that I could get for the amount of care that I had. Long story short my original pack Weighed upwards of 4 lb and there was no way to reduce that. basically my only option for trying to reduce some of that weight was to get a new one, and I'm honestly so glad that I did. I ended up getting an osprey Exos 58L, which still fit all of my gear comfortably and weighed just nearly 2 lb. They let me pack all of my gear into the Exos and walked around the store for about an hour. The pack just felt so much better and after putting it on the scale I found out that I had dropped six pounds of weight. Some of this was also a few other pieces of gear which will go into detail about. Another thing that I did end up doing was getting another (yeah..) sleeping bag. I had a Nemo disco 15 degree bag that was literally roasting me alive at night even in the low-to-mid 30s. I needed to find something that was more suitable for the temperature range and also maybe a little later. The sleeping bag I ended up really enjoying the most was the kelty sine, which was a 35-degree bag. Not only did it have a better temperature rating, but it also weighed almost a pound less as well. I do partly regret buying the sleeping bag because I still sweat in this one too. Guess I'm just a hot sleeper. Maybe I'll just use a trash bag or something to cover up at night.

But I think overall the best part of this day was the fact that I had a package at the post office. In that package was a Sony alpha a6000 mirrorless camera and I was beyond excited because that meant I could send home my huge cannon which weighed nearly 2 lb. A delicately cut open the box that my mom had sent me and begin unpacking my entire box right in the post office on the floor. I wasn't overly happy about spending the money on a new camera, but the size and weight reduction was well worth the money. Anyways after I had repacked my new backpack I delicately put all of the shit in this massive 3 ft long box to send home. Now that all the fun stuff was over hot sauce and I went over to the art store on the corner that also had a little smoothie shop. After being sick for nearly a week I decided that some fresh fruit wouldn't be too bad to have, especially after eating rice and tuna for several weeks before. We hung out in the shop and kind of just played on our phones for a little while, finishing our drinks and then heading over to Dollar general to resupply our food. nothing special happened at Dollar general, we just walked over got a bunch of shit and then we're on our way. On our way to the $6 spaghetti dinner that was being hosted by one of the local church groups! luckily it was being held in part for the little hiker fest event that was going on this weekend, so having our giant backpacks with arms full of groceries didn't look so bad. I ended up paying $10 for an all-you-can-eat and got two big plates of spaghetti, garlic bread and two bowla of salad. All right, now the fun was over. we walked back to laughing heart hostel where we were going to repack our food bags and get rid of the massive amounts of cardboard that are accumulated every time you resupply.

This is the rest of my night. The pictures will explain everything, or not.. who knows.

Shower Did Laundry, I wore a dress while I washed my clothes. Everyone was dying laughing. Talked with people, Also worked on packing new pack. Set up tent, just gonna stay here. Long day, bed time.

4/27 Day 38 Laughing heart hostel - rich mountain fire tower

Woke up, slept better in new sleeping bag Tent is wet. Like WET Tents drying Pack is great Had coffee and went to help set up event tent Hotsauce made bomb scrambled eggs with bacon bits, broccoli, onions, etc. Packing up slow. Plans to do 8-11 miles today. Got sandwiches and icecream Went to outfitter and got some last minute stuff and said thanks and bye. Came across odi, who told us of a secret trail up lovers leap with ropes and stuff. Left this damn town finally. Found the secret trail, it was intense. Short hike, but stressful. Lots of uphill. Lots of people hiking, including foraging groups. Decided to camp at the fire tower! Two girls from max patch are here, also"baby" he's cool.

4/28 Day 39 Rich Mt fire tower - spring mt shelter

Slept in fire tower Windy Had breakfast A little stressed (hole in food bag) it's kind of not feeling hiking today. Feet hurt pretty bad and my back is just all over the place. Came across some ATC volunteers who are working on a trail and I've decided that after I'm done I'd like to volunteer sometime as well. Definitely stopping at the first shelter. Sucks that I'm only going to do a 3 or so miles but I'm feeling a little under the weather today mentally and I have so many things I need to try and get done. I've been so focused on everybody else's well-being but I forgot about my own. it's time for a personal day.

Alright, I've had enough. My pack feels like a bag of rocks, my shoes are still squeaking and this hip belt buckle is digging into my back. UGH. In no situation do I ever want to do such weak and pathetic miles... But I need time to sort my shit out right now. I walked ahead and passed more ATC volunteers, thanking them all for the work they put in. Eventually I saw the shelter come into view from the crest of a hill, home at last. As I walked closer I remembered I was in North Carolina, and that meant really crappy shelters and privy's. A tiny ass log cabin lean-to sat on a patch of flat ground. A picknik table and fire pit were just outside, and maybe spots for 4 tents; On the bright side, no one was there. I plopped my pack down on the crooked table and took a nice long sigh. A moment of silence and peace for my crazy mind. My first order of business was to fix my stupid shoes, well my stupid "superfeet" insoles. Basically the bottom heel section of the insole is made of a plastic material and it was rather sharp around the edges, so I had to use my knife to shave off some of the material to round it off. Basically it was causing my shoes to squeak every time I walked and it was driving me insane. But a little hiker ingenuity fix the problem. After that, I got to work on modifying my pack. I had some ideas in town about how to make a quick detachable fanny pack and a few other slight modifications to save some weight. Unfortunately with my new pack there are no hip belt pockets so I really needed to make my own. When you're on the trail and you want to keep moving it's very important to have a snack pocket accessible. Basically I took a platypus fanny pack and cut some industrial adhesive velcro to fit the hip belt. I use my lighter to heat up the glue so it would Bond through the fabric and give me a really secure connection. it took me over an hour to precisely cut the velcro and fuse it all together but the end result was something I was pretty proud of. I was able to get rid of some weight from the fanny pack too by removing the strap and buckle system and also some of the plastic zipper pulls that were a little too excessive for what I needed. I also took the brain, which is the top storage compartment off and did a few zipper pull mods as well.

Baby and "brother" showed up for a bit Talked with some people and I made a fire. Ate some food. Played with camera Set up tent because people suck and just jumped in the shelter. But it's cool because I like my space, and people are gross. Organized gear (sending GoPro home). Taking care of feet and such. Debbie made it!

4/29 Day 40 Spring mountain shelter - Jerry's cabin shelter

So today has been a good start so far. I was able to get up at roughly seven and hot sauce had already gotten the food bags down. My sleeping bag and sleeping pad were packed relatively quickly and I was feeling much better. after spending a little bit of time yesterday working on my gear I feel much more confident that I can actually do some miles today. We plan on doing about 12 miles today to make up for the lack of yesterday, and there's even a little general store in about four miles that I can't wait to check out. I think out of everything I'm most happy with my new Velcro fanny pack. I now have easy snack access and a place to put my camera in the event of a freak rainstorm.

We stopped at "mom and dads" It looked like an old Western shop that travelers would stop in for a cigar and beer. Except in this case it was burgers & soda. There was lots of of steep uphill and Deb's still not feeling too well. Probably going to stop at the second shelter today instead.

Song of the day: Deep thoughts - Neffex

Stormed up the 2 mile incline Left hotsauce a good 30 minutes behind Got to ridge, was so beautiful Tough down hill, Hit 300 miles Made it to shelter. Mac and cheese with bacon and bread crumbs for dinner 💙 Bed

4/30 Day 41 Jerry's cabin shelter - Flint mountain shelter

Well it's official, allergy season has begun. I woke up with a really sore throat and just really tired. I guess when you're allergic to pollen, spending all that time in the woods will do a number on you. One of the biggest challenges so far has been hiking with different people, realizing that everyone will come and go and there's really nothing you can do about it. Right now I need to be focusing on me. I rolled out of my sleeping bag and quickly got my stuff packed. That's one thing that I'm pretty happy about is that I've learned how to efficiently set up and take down my pack and camp. I kind of just ate my typical oatmeal and got my gear ready and started hiking. It started off pretty gradual with a climb to big butt mountain; yes that's a real place. There was tons of rock and it was so tempting to not climb everything. I took a side Trail to the summit and it was a little less than ideal. There was basically no view but there was a little survey marker indicating the summit. I knew I needed water so I kept moving to the next water source which was about 2 miles or so away. It was a pretty typical Trail that was relatively flat and mostly downhill until I came to a nice-looking cold stream. I dumped out my warm water bottle and topped off with a nice ice cold water, even putting some on my head. I've been walking for 7 miles and I'm about a half a mile from the shelter, where I am debating on staying the night. The downhill has been pretty steep and my knees and legs are starting to tire out. If I pushed over 15 miles a day for the next two days so I could be in Erwin but I'm not sure I'm ready to make that kind of push. Debbie is planning on getting to the shelter today and she has tons of extra food, she's even willing to share. There's two Road gaps for the next day that you can get a shuttle into Erwin, and there's even a hostile in the next 4 miles that has food. Today has all been focused on one thing, and that's a quote that I don't remember where it's from but it goes something like this.. "don't lose sight of the hike by focusing on just the hiking". this is something that I've been watching people do as they fly past me with their tag numbers several hundred above mine. To each their own, but I like to stop and look at the scenery once in a while. What's the point of walking 2,000 miles if you're not going to admire the beauty the trail has to offer.

Meh, anyways.. I got to the shelter and hotsauce was sitting in the shelter with a few others. I put my pack down on the table and kind of just zoned out. About a half a mile before the shelter I stepped down wrong and felt something in my foot pull with a sharp pain. I went down to the water and filled my water bladder to use as an ice pack. I ate some lunch.

Ate lunch Hotsauce left Talked with guiding light for a while, she's super nice Made dinner Made a fire Debbie made it More talking with Bruiser, guiding light, whistles and rev Bed

5/1 Day 42 Flint mountain shelter - hogback ridge

Woke up, made a fire. Slept pretty good, had some intense dreams about a huge ski resort and snowboarding. Lightning clouds on the ground going up. Then at the top there was dinosaurs. Space rift from storm? Talked about ghosts and stuff Helped Debbie repack her bag Found that kids stick

Meet some day hikers, older group on a learning hike. Gave us oranges! Stopped at Laurel hostel, had pizza, soda and icecream. Pack weight Back on trail, waterfall pics. Worst uphill in a while. So..tired.. so humid.. dying Not do video until after trail? Can't keep up. Only did 9 miles, had to assess the situation, def not enough food or battery for 2 1/2 more days. Stopping at hogback ridge shelter for the night, and then doing a 15 tomorrow to pivey gap. Going to Uncle Johnny's hostel after that. Ate dinner, not much food left. I found out there was like 12+ mice living in the shelter, so I set up tent and moved my stuff. I'll pass on that. Early night tonight, running out of battery too.

This day sort of sucked.