Getting Lost...

You can't get lost on the A.T. they say.

I did.

On my third day, I woke up and I was hurting - My leg muscles were extremely fatigued and I was tired. It was all I could do just to get out of my sleeping bag, but I strapped on my pack and plodded on for three miles.

Then a sinking feeling... "Hey, that tree looks familiar."

Somehow in my fantasy world that morning, I started heading back south down the trail instead of north. Because the daylight was on the opposite side of the mountain, everything just looked different and so I kept walking.

When I made this discovery that I had walked 3 miles in the wrong direction, I just dropped my pack to the ground and wept for 10 minutes. But eventually, I put it back on and trudged 3 miles back to the shelter again and called it a day.

It was a disheartening day, but I lived.

After all, one of my reasons for being out there was to learn to pay attention again.

Do you play Chess?

Chess is a mental game... a constant back and forth game of cunning, planning and patience. Similarly, long distance hiking is a game of cunning, planning and patience.

The initial month or so is, as I am now learning, mostly a physical game wrought with physical challenges. The mental challengs are still there, just not so pronounced, yet. but on week three, they are starting to appear.

Hiking is a little like fishing too, in that you have lots of time to mull things over in your mind, and really consider things in depth you might not have considered before. If you are one to ponder negative things over and over, then this can be devastating as you do this for hours and hours at a time as you plod on. You pause for a moment now and then to consider the beauty of your surroundings, but much of the terrain is similar enough to help you get lost in your daily pensive moments.

Unfortunately, I have this great ability to ponder negative things over and over to the point where they become obsessions until I eventually rationalize them away. It may take a day or two but as my dad would always say, "even this, shall pass."

I am hoping that once the physical punishment part of my initiation is mostly over, I will settle down and find the balance I am looking for. But for now, each day is a challenge, both physically and mentally.

The chess game has begun...

Pain

Pain is a daily occurrence on the trail for many people. It manifests at different times in different ways. Sometimes it will enter one's ankle and throb for a hundred yards or so, or your shoulder might have a sharp pain when you twist your arm this way or that. But after a while, you just accept it as a part of the whole lifestyle; the daily trodding up and down hills with 35-40 pounds on your back as you try to carefully step on top of, over and around roots, stones, logs and branches of all shapes and sizes.

In a split second, each of your thousands of daily steps requires you to take a moment and pick a spot to land your foot. Sometimes, you miss, or you glance away at the last minute and step where you didn't mean to. Again, pain. If you are lucky, it goes away quickly, or at least after a few minutes. If not, your pain may follow you for days, or weeks, or perhaps your entire trip or develop into something more serious.

Sometimes, you can mask it with aspirin or ibuprofin, known as "Vitamin I" on the trail, and carry yourself a bit further. Or you may choose to rest and hope that the pain leaves you. But in any case, you just accept that another pain is right around the corner.

Universally, among experienced long distance hikers, they say to pay attention to your body and if you are in pain, stop. Long distance hiking is an endurance activity and just like with a car, if have parts that are damaged, it will eventually break down over time.

"That's the Plan"

Prior to leaving for the trail, any questions about my intent to hike the whole thing in one season were always answered with a definitive, "yes, that's right." But after the first day or two, when the reality of the hills and dirt and strenuous months ahead sets in, the answer, almost universally changes to "that's the plan."

It's almost a mantra - Even though we are all dead set on our plans, we know, deep down inside that only 20% of those who intend to finish actually do.

The trail is humbling in many ways...

Zero (0) Day...

Today is a zero day.. a day with zero miles hiked.

People average about a zero day a week, off the trail to rest, resupply, etc. Because of a growing fatigue earlier and earlier in the day, I've decided to take a day off and check out my diet which is suspect. Something isn't right, either carbs or protein or some other mix. Probably a bit of dehydration, etc. Also, after a fall last week, my left knee is a bit swollen and my right ankle hurts.

Surprisingly, that isn't too uncommon among hikers, but many press on making their injuries worse eventually suffering sprains, fractures or worse. When your left knee hurts, you will be putting even more stress on your RIGHT knee to balance out and that extra stress can cause more problems.

Not good.

I am also still working out issues with my backpack and packing system and I am still carrying too much stuff.

Long distance backpacking is technical and requires some finesse. Most things just work out over time and are basically trial and error. I've learned a lot but still have much more to learn.

Week three and today is my 4th zero day.

Ron

Mice...

Mice are cute. They really are. But sometimes they aren't cute, like when you are laying down on a hard wooden platform outdoors. In the shelters, as soon as the sun goes down, you begin to hear the pitter patter of stubby nail covered feet scratching all around the shelter. The mice run past you, behind you, over you and under you and occasionally they stop on top of you. They are looking for food, of course, and they will chew and eat through your $200 pack and gear to get it.

Meanwhile, you are laying there trying to cover up inside your sleeping bag and hope they don't eat something you don't want them to eat or chew up your sleeping bag.

In one shelter recently, there was a bottle cap on a platform above where I was sleeping - For 4 hours, these mice were playing soccer with this cap kicking it back and forth from one side of the shelter to the other and occasionally a mouse would fall off the platform on top of my sleeping bag.

It was a very restless night.

They say that you adjust to them eventually, but I don't know. I guess you can adjust to the possums that run through your shelter too, like the one last night that was sniffing everyone while we were laying there.

Lots to adjust to.

Life on the Trail

Greetings all!

Please forgive the lack of new posts as the first three weeks have been filled with lots of physical and mental adjustments, more than I ever expected. Finally, I am starting to have more energy in the evenings and am happy to report that my creative juices are once again flowing.

The daily routine on the trail is quite simplistic and simply revolves around addressing one's most basic needs: Shelter, Water and Food.

The morning usually starts just around daybreak when birds begin their morning calls and other creatures start stirring outside of your camp area. Woodpeckers like to get started really early banging their heads on trees way before the sun appears. Why any creature would bang its head against a tree for an hour and a half is beyond me, but that is usually the clue that daylight is about to come.

First, the day begins with an unzipping of a tent fly or a sleeping bag, and then a drunken stagger out to the woods for a morning pee. If you haven't gone to a water source to filter and collect water, that's usually next following by the retrieving of your bag of food which has been hanging up in a tree or on a cable designed to keep the bears away.

You then drag your food bag and stove to a community table and start boiling some water or going through your food bag looking for a suitable meal to start the day. The topic of conversation if you are with others, is how cold it was, or how well each of you slept and then quickly it moves on the climbs and stopping points for the day. Someone usually breaks out his map showing the terrain and each person decides how far he or she will be hiking that day.

The sky is evaluated for chance of rain to decide if we need to have our rainproof pack cover on or our rain clothes handy.

After our breakfast, we clean our pots and pans and stow them in their respective sacks. We then wash off a little and then pack our sleeping bags, sacks and other things in our pack along with our water. If we didn't get our water by using a filter, we then use chemical treatments to help clear out the bacteria that may be in the water. Even though the water may come from high in a mountain spring, there are still many potential opportunities for contamination.

Once our pack is all put together, we start off, taking into account where the water sources are ahead (as listed on our detailed maps) and any other places where we might stop. From this point we walk, noting the physical attributes of the path and comparing them with our maps to make sure we are on schedule.

At some point, we stop for lunch, drag out our foodbag and prepare a lunch of some kind, whether we are hungry or not. We may get more water if we are low and we'll make any other adjustments to our pack necessary. We may take short sit breaks every half hour or so or if we find a nice vista, we may just take off our packs and sit for a while. I personally am taking lots of pictures along the way.

When we finally reach the place where we will stay for the night, we decide if we will sleep in a shelter or if we will pitch our tent. We unpack our packs and setup camp and then dig out our cooking supplies and begin the nighttime food ritual. After dinner, we clean our cookware and secure our food either up high in a tree or on some kind of bear cable system if they have been provide.

When the sun goes down, that is usually when we will hit the sack.

Adjusting to the rise and fall of the sun becomes the norm after a while, going to bed when it gets dark and awaking when the sun rises. It is a simple life, but then again you gain a new appreciation for the most simple things in life...like water, which if one is not careful and he runs out, can be a very serious problem.

But that's the day in a nutshell...simple, but wonderful.

Ron

Our Limitations...

Before setting out on my journey, I would have looked upon many of the hills I have faced so far and said that there was no way I could climb them. And I would have been right, not because I couldn't have climbed them, but because I believed that I couldn't have climbed them.

But I did climb them.

And I continued to climb them and each day I continue to climb hills that I never thought I could climb. Not without a great deal of effort, anyway.

I started thinking about the other 'hills' in my life which I had looked upon and decided I could not 'climb' and which I never attempted. I started to realize that it wasn't the hill that was preventing me from achieving my goal. It was the limitations I had accepted about myself.

Anyone who has hiked a really long distance will tell you ways that their journey has changed him and I can understand that now. But it wasn't so much that the journey changed the individual as it was how the journey changed the individual's perception of himself.

Today, I still see those high hills and my brain says, "Nope.. ain't gonna happen." But then I ponder for a moment that I have already done many of these climbs and so I plod on and do them. I wonder how many other things in my life I have fallen short of completing because of the limitations I have imposed upon myself.

Ron

Pack Weight.

"What's your pack weight?" is one of the most common questions among hikers. The right answer is below 50 pounds, a better answer is below 40, and a good answer is right around 30 pounds. I left at around 40 pounds including food and water but let me tell you, for being out of shape it might as well have been a refrigerator I was carrying.

What some people do is to buy the lightest versions of everything they are carrying, but they quickly learn that 50 pounds of lightweight gear is still 50 pounds. The key is to pack the "Right" gear and then go lightweight.

At Neel's Gap I replaced about 20% of my gear with the proper things and sent home some unneeded things. I dropped around 6-8 pounds or so which may not sound like much, but which is a huge amount when you have to lug all that crap up and down endless peaks and valleys.

Ron (Muddyshoes)

PUDs

PUDs are characteristics of the Georgia mountain trails. It's a term used among hikers which means "Pointless Ups and Downs." In other words, you are on the top of one mountain and see the next mountain you have to climb. You see a direct route and think for sure there will be a path there, but then find you have 6 trips down and 6 trips up other hills in between for some reason - The distance ends up being twice as far and you wonder why there are so many PUDs in Georgia.

Ron (Muddyshoes)

Trail Magic!

Day 4, coming out of the hills into Woody Gap in Georgia, a section hiker and his step-daughter were there to meet tired and hungry hikers with cole Cokes and boxes of Little Debbie snack cakes. After three days of hard hiking this trail magic was wonderful. They also packed out our garbage, mailed any postcards we had and refilled our water containers.

Trail magic is that little fantastic piece of kindness which comes out of nowhere when you least expect it and when you most need it.

Thank you, Becky and Jim for the snacks and refreshments!

Ron (Muddyshoes)

On the Road!

Greetings, all, from Neel's Gap in Blairsville, Georgia!

Well, this is the most challenging, physical thing I've ever done in my life, carrying 40 pounds up and down mountains in north Georgia. Every step has been a chore for the past 46 miles. The good news is that on day 5, I'm finally starting to feel like I'm making improvements in my fitness. I'm still out of breath after every 200 feet of climb, but I'm recovering faster and hiking faster each day.

The first few days were very rugged. The beginning of the trail is notoriously challenging as are the hills, but especially since most hikers are just getting started. Those of you familiar with my rotundness can appreciate my thoughts on this.

Neel's Gap is the first psychological goal to those hiking South to North - It's around 4-5 days of tough hiking during which the hiker really understands the meaning of 'too much weight.' Usually after a day or so, we begin to realize that we really didn't need that extra shirt, pair of socks or 5 pound canned ham. So the Walasi Yi center is the first opportunity to mail home all the extra crap we really don't need and to have our pack dumped out and examined by their staff to tell us additional stuff that we really don't need.

Walking into an outfitter and shop like that, geared specifically for hikers, is awe-inspiring in terms of all the hiker food, gear and other items which stock the place from floor to ceiling. By the time I reached the center by around 1pm, I was already dehydrated and tired from 7 mile hike which included Blood Mountain, the highest point of the Appalachian Trail in Georgia and which is topped by a stone constructed hut/cabin with sleeping platform inside. There is also a family of skunks which live nearby and which come inside the shelter at night surprising the hikers inside. Every once in a while, a surprised hiker will awake to see the skunks next to them and try to chase them out. Well you know what happens when you excite skunks, so the rest of the hikers are none too pleased. I passed on staying to see a beautiful sunset and sunrise to get a private room at Goose Creek Cabins nearby the Walasi Yi Center.

I took today off to go through my gear and rest up and reward myself after 6 challenging days, but tomorrow it's back on the trail with my new gear, a rested set of legs and one last sleep in a comfortable cabin.

Will post some pictures as soon as I can in my gallery section.

To those folks continuing to donate to the Russell Home in whater form, thank you so much! I will be in Helen, Georgia next, Alpine capital of the southeastern U.S. in about 3-4 days.

Safe travels!

Ron (Muddyshoes)