April 27, 2008

Starting Out : Too Much Weight, Trail Names & Through Hikers

Hi from Hiawassee, GA,

I’m just over a week into my Appalachian Trail Hike, and already a day and a half behind my schedule. I stayed up late last Friday night packing my backpack. I should have just gone to bed at 10:00 PM. When I got to the Detroit airport, my backpack weighed in at 58 pounds. I was picked up at the Atlanta airport by my cousin Conrad and his wife Mary Jo. We had a nice lunch and a too short of a visit before they dropped me off at Amicalola Falls at 4:00. I figured it would be no problem to make the 9 mile approach trail to Springer Mountain, the official start of the AT, in 4 hours. It took me 1 hour to make the first 1.2 miles 850 feet up to the top of the falls. I added 4 pounds of water and was carrying 62 lbs. I only made it 5 miles before it was getting dark and I stopped near a flat spot to set up for the night.

Sunday morning I finished the final four miles of the approach and reached the top of Springer Mountain. An old bearded guy, Roger, registered me as a trough hiker. My trail name is “Izzy”. As I started out from Springer Mountain with 2, 174 miles to go, I met Postcard from Tulsa. He was also a through hiker. The fist two things, and sometimes the only things you learn about someone is their trail name, and where they are from. He is also a through hiker.

I was progressing steadily, but slowly. There is very little flat terrain. Either I am going up, or I am going down. I used to think Georgia was flat except for Stone Mountain. I have a new appreciation for the north Georgia mountains. I’ve climbed several 1,000 feet in elevations in a mile, and then back down. Blood Mountain was one of the worst, very rocky going both up and down. There is a side trail around it, but I did take the route over the top, and have pictures to show it. I even registered a SPOT GPS from there.

Postcard told me of an outfitter at Neel Gap that will help trim down my pack and ship stuff home. I could not wait to get there. I arrived late Wednesday afternoon. Andy, who had done a through hike himself, went though my pack and started taking stuff out I would not need. By the time he was done, we had 20 pounds to ship home and 2 pounds thrown out. My pack was now down to 36 pounds without water. What a difference it made to my pack. That night I stayed in the bunkhouse there; and had a hot shower and a pizza. Life is good.

Generally I sleep from 8:00 PM to 6:00 AM in the morning. I’m usually very tired at the end of the day and sleep well. Sometimes the outside noises wake me. One night I heard a loud sniffing outside. I got up, tuned on my light and looked around, but saw nothing. The owls here can be a little loud at times also. There are a lot of birds and butterflies in the woods. I still had no sighting of a bear, but Fatty from FL saw a baby cub. Although, there are signs of bear poop on the trail. The only wildlife I’ve seen is lots of grey squirrels, a rabbit, and chipmunks. One night a chipmunk ate through my food bag and into a bag of almonds. Now I hang my food bag each night.

I hike from 8:00 AM to 6:00 PM. The other time I am making or breaking camp. I have not stayed in a shelter yet. I heard from people who have, that they are full of mice. One guy had a mouse run over his face. I prefer to find a flat spot, usually in a gap or on a mountain, in the open.

So far I have met about 10 other through hikers. One, Alex from FL, has quit after two days. Said he missed his friends. I’ve read that 70 percent of the through hikers do not make it. Fatty from FL, started last year and made it to NJ before he had to quit, so he is starting over again. Monk from WY, started last year also, but got Lyme disease and had to quit, so he is starting over. Of the ten I met so far, I’m wondering who the other 2 guys are that are going to make all 2174 miles.

Since I dropped off the backpack weight, I have been able to make it 10 miles a day as I planned for the first two weeks. I usually carry about six pounds of water, depending on how far the next stream is. I have a pump and filter to fill my bottles. I can carry up to 10 pounds, if I need to.

If you are following my SPOT GPS signals, you may have noticed that Friday I made extra good distance. I did make my planned 10 miles hiking on the AT, but left the trail and hitchhiked into Helen, GA to send this trail report. I arrived at 4:30 and the library closed at 5:00. I quickly wrote a message and when sent, it failed because I had too many recipients. In the process of correcting it, I lost it and they were closing, so a failed mission. But it still worked out OK because I ate at a German restaurant and had potatoes and gravy, sauerkraut, and smoked pork chops. So much better than trail food. Stayed at a hotel and had another hot shower, a caught a ride back to the tail Saturday morning.

Today I lost a half a day stopping to get new hiking boots in Hiawassee. Unfortunately, it is Sunday and all the stores are closed. I’ll stay until morning when they open. For all the hiking I have done, you would think I would know better, but I started with a hiking shoe and running shoe to change off every other day. My feet are killing me. I feel every stone on the trail. When I started last week, every bone and muscle in my body was rebelling; now it is down to my feet. Otherwise I’m feeling pretty good. I’m hoping a change in shoes will solve this. My plan is to make up the day and half I lost later in June when I am in better shape.


“Izzy” Jim
 

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