https://mretc.net/~cris/AT2011//American Cynic Article Feed2012-10-25T06:00:00Zchris burkhardthttp://mretc.net/~cristag:mretc.net,2012-10-25:/~cris/AT2011//reports/20121027-broomfield.htmlOctober 27 - Broomfield, CO2012-10-25T06:00:00Z2012-10-25T06:00:00Z<div class="sect1">
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<div class="paragraph"><p><em>This last entry is dated October 27, but I didn’t actually post it until November 27 because I wanted to update the other pages of my hiking site (like my <a href="../#_annotated_interactive_map">annotated map</a>, <a href="../equipment.html">gear list</a>, <a href="../books.html">reading list</a>, and <a href="../AT_Section_Hike_Clingmans2Fontana_2012_Final.pdf">Ori-Lou’s detailed account of our hike from Clingmans Dome to Fontana Dam [PDF]</a>) first. Unfortunately I managed to put off doing that for a month once I got home. Sorry for the suspense! Thank you to everyone who followed along with my trail reports as I hiked, it was fun.</em></p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>I couldn’t have asked for better weather during my last week on the trail. It was sunny and clear every day so I spent seven of my last nine nights under the stars (which I could actually see, thanks to a good portion of leaves now acting as carpet rather than canopy), a nice change of routine after spending almost every night since Hot Springs in a hostel/motel or shelter. It’s nice to get outdoors and connect with nature every now and then while hiking the trail.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>I hiked out of Hiawassee with Golden, a thru hiker who, like me, is a flip-flopper: she hiked the first part of the trail going north from VA, then hitched back to her starting point and finished on Springer going south. Except I’m not a thru hiker… mostly because of those 368 zero days I did after Katahdin. But I have now hiked the entire AT (and got to share the excitement of finishing with both northbounders and southbounders) so my youngest sister cannot make fun of me for only doing half of it anymore. And that’s the important thing.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>Golden had made friends with some locals, and one of them kindly gave us both a ride from the inn back to the trail head. We camped on top of Rocky Mountain that night. It was warm and pretty, and its name reminded me that I was headed back home to the Rocky Mountains very soon. Neither Golden or I had ever made a fire while on the AT, so we decided to give it a try. It turns out we’re pretty awesome at it (thanks to Golden for <a href="http://anneharper.tumblr.com/post/34975604199/robin-gave-diode-and-i-a-ride-back-to-the-trail">the photos</a>):</p></div>
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<a class="image" href="http://anneharper.tumblr.com/post/34975604199/robin-gave-diode-and-i-a-ride-back-to-the-trail">
<img src="http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mcyuswfhGJ1r084lfo3_1280.jpg" alt="http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mcyuswfhGJ1r084lfo3_1280.jpg" width="600" />
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<div class="title">The Fire Golden and I made on top of Rocky Mountain in Georgia</div>
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<a class="image" href="http://mretc.net/~cris/AT2011/photos_html/golden_fire_rockymountain_medium.html">
<img src="http://mretc.net/~cris/AT2011/photos_html/golden_fire_rockymountain_small.jpg" alt="http://mretc.net/~cris/AT2011/photos_html/golden_fire_rockymountain_small.jpg" width="600" />
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<div class="paragraph"><p>In the morning we ate breakfast while the sun rose, then I started off for one of my last full days on the trail (Golden was taking her time because she was meeting family at Neels Gap the next day and didn’t want to get there too early.) I never met any other thru hikers before reaching Springer Mountain.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>The next two days were nice 18-ish mile walks through autumnal Georgian woods. My last night on the trail I met a friendly section hiker named Snack Pack who gave me several little candy bars and M&M packages to celebrate my completion of the trail. Trick-Or-Treating a week early!</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>On the morning of my last day I hiked about 12 miles to where my dad was camping near the trail. I found him without problem, and we hiked the remaining few miles to the Springer summit, did the finished-this-trail photos and snack eating (I packed a Snickers bar from Neels Gap special for the occasion), then walked a mile back to the parking lot where he left his rental car. We then drove towards Atlanta, stopping at a Waffle House, Subway, and a night at a Days Inn (with continental breakfast!) on our way to the airport and our flights back to Denver.</p></div>
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<div class="paragraph"><p>So I’m now in a position to compare and contrast the northern half of the Appalachian Trail with the southern half. First, the flip-flop schedule of going north with the summer and south with the fall worked out very nicely weather-wise (and seems like a good plan whether as a semi-thru hike like mine or as a true thru).</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>I spent 64 days (August 23 to October 25) and 1,020 miles going south from Harpers Ferry to Springer Mountain. That section of trail at that time of year is very nice because of the lack of mosquitoes and ticks, I had relatively little rain but still had good water sources throughout (for the most part), the terrain is relatively quick and easy (only a small portion of the rocks and roots and steep climbs the northern half provides), and the autumn leaves make for picturesque hiking, especially from the Great Smokey Mountains onward.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>I spent 95 days (May 17 to August 19) and 1,165 miles going north from Harpers Ferry to Mount Katahdin. That section, at that time of year, provides more challenges than its sourthern counterpart, mostly in the form of blood-sucking insects and arachnids, but also as rockier and steeper terrain which makes for angry feet. There were blueberries in New Hampshire and Maine while I was there, which was a treat.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>Overall my general advice would be to find out where and when blueberries are ripening along the trail, and go hike there.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p><span class="image">
<img src="diode.png" alt="Diode schematic symbol" />
</span> <strong>Diode</strong></p></div>
tag:mretc.net,2012-10-20:/~cris/AT2011//reports/20121021-hiawassee.htmlOctober 22 - Hiawassee, GA2012-10-20T06:00:00Z2012-10-20T06:00:00Z<div class="sect1">
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<div class="paragraph"><p>I’m in Georgia! Seventy miles and zero more states to go! After the first two weeks I felt like I would never finish; yesterday I took one last zero day in a town called Hiawassee, GA, just to extend the experience a little bit.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>I’ve now carried my math book for 960 miles without reading it. Whenever I have time to look at it, either my hands are too cold or I fall asleep. I’ve also written fewer half-finished essays than I did during last year’s hike. But I’m going to finish the trail on Thursday, almost a week earlier than I planned, so I can finish those things when I get home.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>Unfortunately the zero day in Hot Springs didn’t fix the pain in my right foot like I hoped it would. It is still slightly swollen above the toes, and I’m still taking ibuprofen almost every morning so I can hike more comfortably. I think part of the problem might be the hundreds of miles I’ve walked on it in old Crocs and worn out socks. Maybe. The good news is that the second day out of Hot Springs I found a left Croc on the side of the trail to replace mine with the hole in the heel. I’ve been wearing that Croc on my left foot ever since, to good success.</p></div>
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<img src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-MIrOIEw2SGY/UH8BLSxLL4I/AAAAAAAABs0/SF-tFZEbu9M/s512/Day%25202.3_Trail%2520to%2520Silers%2520Bald.JPG" alt="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-MIrOIEw2SGY/UH8BLSxLL4I/AAAAAAAABs0/SF-tFZEbu9M/s512/Day%25202.3_Trail%2520to%2520Silers%2520Bald.JPG" />
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<div class="title">Me and Oxy-Lou (the Croc I found is on the rock in front of us)</div>
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<div class="paragraph"><p>The Great Smokey Mountain Nation Park has been one of the best parts of either of my hikes. The day I climbed into it from Davenport Gap was a foggy/drizzly and windy day. It is the first and only time I got my gloves out to hike in (and wore my knit cap that night at camp). But the next day was sunny and perfectly clear, so I had great views of the vistas and Fall colors as I walked along the ridgeline of the Smokies.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>In the park hikers are not allowed to camp, except to stay in the provided shelters (which are larger than the average AT shelter, with bear cables and good springs near each of them). And since I was meeting friends at Clingmans Dome the next day, I had only a 12-mile day planned to a shelter just north of Newfound Gap. I tried to go slow, I even took a long lunch and nap on a sunny rock, but I still got to the shelter early in the afternoon. I don’t know if it was boredom, hunger, or curiosity, but I decided to continue down to Newfound Gap and hitch a ride into Gatlinburg, TN, for the night.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>Pretty much the only thing I knew about Gatlinburg is that it is a traditional (if unnecessary) resupply place for hikers going through the Smokies, and what Bill Bryson wrote about it in <em>A Walk in the Woods</em>:</p></div>
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<div class="paragraph"><p>Gatlinburg is a shock to the system from whichever angle you survey it, but never more so than when you descend upon it from a spell of moist, grubby isolation in the woods. It sits just outside the main entrance to Great Smoky Mountains National Park and specializes in providing all those things that the park does not—principally, slurpy food, motels, gift shops, and sidewalks on which to waddle and dawdle—nearly all of it strewn along a single, astoundingly ugly main street… throngs of pear-shaped people in Reeboks wandered between food smells, clutching grotesque comestibles and bucket-sized soft drinks.</p></div>
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<div class="paragraph"><p>That’s about right. I stayed at a Microtel and ate at McDonalds and there were aimless crowds of people everywhere. The hitch in and out both took longer than I expected, based on the amount of traffic passing between Newfound Gap and Gatlinburg. On the way into town all of the pickup trucks I expected to stop passed right by me. But then a big guy in a small Saturn stopped. Not only was the car small, but it was crammed full of stuff… stacks of papers, bags of clothes, everything. He spent a minute placing the stuff in the passenger seat on top of the stuff in the backseat, then motioned for me to get in. I barely fit, with my pack on my lap. He was a very nice guy and offered to take me anywhere in town… he even offered to wait while I checked motel rates so I could find the cheapest place. But I just had him drop me off at the first main intersection and wandered around on foot.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>To get out of town I hitchhiked for about two miles, to the <a href="http://www.tennesseerivervalleygeotourism.org/content/sugarlands-visitor-center/ten2C37671FC4C00A413">Sugarlands Visitor Center</a>, again being passed by lots of pickups, before a girl in a small sports car picked me up. She said she was visiting family in the area during her Fall break, and that she had never really hiked before but she was spending every day doing a different hike in the park. That day she was doing the hike up to <a href="http://www.gsmnp.com/pages/chimney_tops.html">Chimney Tops</a> but said she didn’t mind going a few miles further to drop me off right at Newfound Gap.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>I got to Clingmans Dome, the highest point on the trail at 6,588 feet, in a cloud. A ranger up there told me it was supposed to start raining any minute, so I quickly made a lunch of macaroni and cheese with a hotdog I packed up from Gatlinburg (I’d been meaning to try that for a long time), then headed down to the parking lot to wait for my two friends named Louis who were going to hike with me through the rest of the Smokies and who were being shuttled to that parking lot from Fontana Dam (where they left a car we would hike back to).</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>Before I even got to the parking lot I heard someone call “Diode!” through the fog. It was Ori-Lou (who is from the East/orient) who had just arrived with Oxy-Lou (from the West/occident, who also happens to be my dad). That timing was perfect… and along with three-days of instant potatoes and Cliff bars, they brought me some double cheeseburgers and a candy bar! Good people.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>We walked back up the steep road to Clingmans Dome where we went up the observation tower at the top. We couldn’t see anything, but they say on a clear day you can see seven states from the tower.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>It never did rain that day. In fact it never rained on us while we weren’t in a shelter, and we had sunshine for at least part of each of the remaining three days of hiking. That first night we had the shelter to ourselves until sunset when a group of six polite guys on Fall break from a small liberal arts college in Franklin arrived. I got in my sleeping bag while the six guys were still out smoking their pipes, and I fell asleep to one of them telling another that his <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Churchwarden_pipe">churchwarden pipe</a> made him look like Gandalf.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>We hiked 7.2 miles the next day to Derrick Knob Shelter, the easiest of our full days, and were the first to arrive at the shelter again so we got to lounge around in the sun and make ourselves comfortable. By evening, though, the shelter was packed. I didn’t even count everybody. Two thru hikers who came in a little late set up their tent and hammock on the side of the shelter instead of trying to squeeze in. The next morning, like every morning, Ori-Lou made Peet’s coffee for us with his travel french press (an Aeropress, made by Aerobie, who makes those awesome orange flying rings).</p></div>
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<img src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-TbMzdz2w7SY/UH8BTvu4Q_I/AAAAAAAABtg/qjUCiQ63TUU/s640/Day%25202.9_Crowd%2520at%2520Derrick%2520Knob.JPG" alt="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-TbMzdz2w7SY/UH8BTvu4Q_I/AAAAAAAABtg/qjUCiQ63TUU/s640/Day%25202.9_Crowd%2520at%2520Derrick%2520Knob.JPG" />
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<div class="title">Derrick Knob Shelter</div>
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<div class="paragraph"><p>Our third day was about 9.2 miles to Russell Field Shelter, the first half of which included a few good descents and ascents. One of the climbs was up to Thunderhead Mountain, which is the 2,000 mile marker! To celebrate we ate a bag of Skittles my sister, Miode, sent with the Lous for me. Another half mile along the ridge is a point called Rocky Top, where somebody had written a big "2000.5" on the rock in chalk.</p></div>
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<img src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-Elih1L-xfrU/UH8Bck65-2I/AAAAAAAABuU/JsupqQsb5Iw/s640/Day%25203.14_Thunderhead-2000%2520miles.JPG" alt="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-Elih1L-xfrU/UH8Bck65-2I/AAAAAAAABuU/JsupqQsb5Iw/s640/Day%25203.14_Thunderhead-2000%2520miles.JPG" />
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<div class="title">Diode at the 2,000-mile mark on Thunderhead Mountain (~850 miles this year)</div>
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<div class="paragraph"><p>Shortly after we arrived at the shelter, a man and a woman hiked up from a nearby campground. They were going to meet their thru hiker friend, Tracks, at that shelter either that night or the next morning. He was coming from Newfound Gap, about 27 miles away. They said Tracks had gone from Hot Springs to Newfound Gap in two days (it took me four)!</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>The man went down to the spring to get some water, and when he came back he said he had seen a bear down there. Then when they went to hang their food, the bear showed up again. It calmly walked an arc around the food cables (while Ori-Lou ran out with his camera), then found a comfortable place to lie down and watch the food hanging process.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>Like most popular parks, there is a problem of habituated black bears in the Smokey Mountains who have successfully stolen (or been given) food in the past and now associate hikers with good times. At one point most of the shelters had chain-link fence across the front to keep bears out. I heard the reason they took those fences down was because instead of keeping food away from bears they tended to encourage people to feed the bears through the fence!</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>The bear kept prowling around out by the food cables. As I got into my sleeping bag, the man went out banging a pot and blowing a whistle hoping to move the bear along. It ran off, but not much longer, as I was falling asleep, I heard a rustling on the bench in the shelter (about ten feet from my head!). I thought there was no way it was the bear. But then I heard it again and looked up, and there was the bear nosing around a cup and the coffee press we had left on the bench. I said, ‘Hey!’ and it looked up at me with a guilty face like a dog who was caught doing something it knew it wasn’t supposed to do. Then my dad looked up and shouted ‘Hey!’ at it, then everybody yelled at it, and it ran out of the shelter. We hung the coffee press and never saw the bear again.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>In the middle of the night a thunderstorm rolled over. Ori-Lou was sleeping on the upper level of the shelter and got the whole lightning show through the windows on the roof (he actually got the whole shelter experience that night — bear tried to steal his coffee, mice ran over his head, and a thunderstorm). There was one thunder which shook the entire shelter for several seconds. By morning the rain had stopped, and when I got up Tracks, the thru hiker, was there! He had apparently arrived at night just before the storm.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>Our final day of hiking was almost 14 miles including another few climbs and then a loong downhill to the Fontana Dam visitor’s center where Ori-Lou’s car was parked. Before the final downhill stretch was a short side trail to an old fire tower on Shuckstack mountain. Ori-Lou and I climbed up to the top. It was one of the tallest towers I’ve seen on the trail with views in all directions; we could see Fontana Dam down below us. That night the Lous treated me to a night at <a href="http://www.fontanavillage.com/accommodations/lodge.html">the lodge at Fontana Villiage</a>, dinner, and resupply from the general store! In the morning they walked with me for a little while, then sent me on the last leg of my journey. Ori-Lou <a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/107095268465719229765/AppalachianTrailSectionHike_1215Oct2012?authkey=Gv1sRgCJbqz77swqnJdQ&feat=email">documented the whole hike with his camera</a>.</p></div>
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<img src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-c1w6qoSHD5s/UH8Cwn-v5BI/AAAAAAAAB2A/uXWzaJcgKSU/s512/Day%25204.29_Shuckstack%2520Firetower.JPG" alt="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-c1w6qoSHD5s/UH8Cwn-v5BI/AAAAAAAAB2A/uXWzaJcgKSU/s512/Day%25204.29_Shuckstack%2520Firetower.JPG" />
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<div class="title">Shuckstack Fire Tower</div>
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<div class="paragraph"><p>Two nights later I found myself looking for a campsite somewhere just before Winding Stair Gap (the place I had planned on was already occupied by several tents). At Winding Stair Gap is a highway which goes into the town of Franklin, NC. I decided I would go down to the gap, try my luck at hitching for a few minutes (because town’s are fun, and I already stopped caring about my budget), and then head up 3.5 miles to the next shelter. I had my thumb out for about a minute before a jeep pulled up for me. The driver owned <a href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/Loafers-Glory/100497600009386">a convenience store</a> and produce delivery company in Franklin and was on his way home from making deliveries in Atlanta.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>I stayed at the Budget Inn, which was across the street from an outfitter store which sells Darn Tough socks. I walked in with two smelly, holey pairs of socks (one pair I bought in Vermont on my hike last year), and walked out with two brand new pairs a minute later without having to pay a thing! Can’t beat the Darn Tough lifetime warranty. My right foot is doing noticeably better with the new socks and the extra cushion they provide.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>The Budget Inn advertises free hiker shuttles on its website… but apparently they don’t do that after May (which makes sense, but they could have been more clear about that — the room even had an information sheet listing the times for the free shuttles in it). So I hitched back out (after several unpleasant miles along highways), this time getting a ride from an electrician who maintains cell towers out in the woods. When I told him my trail name, he asked if I was an electrician or engineer and then we talked about Nikola Tesla for awhile. That was fitting because the audio book I’m going to start next is a biography of Tesla! He told me his name and to look him up on Facebook (so did the guy who gave me a ride into town — Franklin likes the Facebook).</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>I hurried to get here to Hiawassee on time to do a zero, hitching in to town without problem thanks to three day hikers who were leaving the trailhead parking lot shortly after I got there, only to find out there were no vacant motel rooms in town! In desperation I even tried the expensive places, like Holiday Inn Express, where the man at the desk said he had called every motel he could find and there wasn’t a room available within 100 miles. Apparently there are several Fall festivals going on, including Oktoberfest in the nearby town of Helen, GA, which draws lots of people on the weekends.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>I didn’t have much time to explore to find a good stealth urban camping spot (and there are cops all over Hiawassee — maybe thanks to the whole Oktoberfest thing — who I think would have been moving me along all night), but the manager at the Budget Inn (owned by the same guy who owns the inn in Franklin) allowed me to sleep on the lawn there for $9 (I talked him down from $10, because I didn’t quite have $10 in cash), and he let me into the staff shower so I could get a shower that night. It was probably for the best, since I had just spent an unplanned night in a motel a few nights earlier. In the morning he got me a room as soon as one was available.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>The inn is right next door to a Subway restaurant, and about half a mile up the main road is a place called Georgia Mountain Restaurant which has a good all-you-can-eat breakfast bar for only $7. So it was a pretty awesome zero day.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>There was a time, not long ago, that I was almost too shy to hitchhike even when I needed to for resupply. Now I’ve hitchhiked a few times for no good reason whatsoever… almost just to meet the people who stop to pick me up. That’s some personal growth. But there is a thru hiker, <a href="http://anneharper.tumblr.com/">Golden</a>, who stayed at the inn last night and who has a ride back to the trail later this morning, so I don’t have to worry about that.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>I will meet my dad on Thursday, the 25th, just north of Springer Mountain and walk to the end with him. I already have my ticket to fly from Atlanta to Denver on the 26th.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p><span class="image">
<img src="diode.png" alt="Diode schematic symbol" />
</span> <strong>Diode</strong></p></div>
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tag:mretc.net,2012-10-06:/~cris/AT2011//reports/20121006-hotsprings.htmlOctober 6 - Hot Springs, NC2012-10-06T06:00:00Z2012-10-06T06:00:00Z<div class="sect1">
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<div class="paragraph"><p>Diode’s Southbound Trail Report, Day 45: Today I walked 1.2 miles. Along a flat path next to a river. In Crocs! I know.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>The day I left the hostel in Erwin ended on a bald mountain called Big Bald, which has two summits, Little Bald and Big Bald, connected by a grassy saddle. On Little Bald is located the <a href="http://bigbaldbanding.org/big-bald-banding-station/">Big Bald Banding Station</a>, where I saw several ornithologist-types camped on top manning raptor traps (I couldn’t tell exactly how the traps worked, but it looked like they were just nets stretched out between two poles that the birds fly into). There was a table set up on the trail with a whiteboard on which was <a href="http://bigbaldbanding.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/2011raptortable1.jpg">a grid</a> listing many bird species and a tally for the number of each had been observed and the number which had been banded along with a note telling hikers they should feel free to ask questions — but there was nobody near the table when I passed by. There was also the URL for the station’s website, which gives this description:</p></div>
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<div class="paragraph"><p>The Big Bald Banding Station (BBBS) is one of very few monitoring stations in the U.S. that band songbirds, raptors and owls. An average of ~2000 songbirds are captured, banded and safely released each autumn migration at Big Bald (see Songbirds). The Big Bald Hawkwatch counts an average of ~3100 migrating raptors each autumn of 15 different species, counting over 24,000 birds of prey from 2004 to 2011. The raptor trapping substation lures and bands approximately 100 birds of prey of 10 different species.</p></div>
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<div class="paragraph"><p>The sign also asked hikers not to linger on the bald (so as not to scare off the birds, I assume), so I moved on to Big Bald. At its grassy summit is a tuft of grass which serves as a home for a survey marker and a little American flag somebody planted there, and, for that night, as my pillow. It was a windy and chilly campsite, but I saw the most spectacular sunset I’ve seen on the trail. I was hoping for a sunrise as well, but the morning was foggy and I didn’t see the sun until long after it was up.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>From Big Bald I did two longish days (24 miles and 25 miles) to arrive just one mile from Hot Springs, NC, last night. I didn’t mean to get so close to town (I wanted to end up 5-10 miles out, which I find is a good “nearo” distance for arriving in town), but all of the water sources within 10 miles of the town were dry so I had to keep walking.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>I ended up camping by the French Broad River on the edge of town. I don’t like camping by big rivers because they are so loud (I don’t think I’d appreciate those white noise machines some people sleep to), and where I camped there were spiders everywhere! I thought I left them behind in northern Virginia, but they found me again. My arachnophobic tendencies compelled me to sleep with the bug netting zipped all the way closed on my bivy bag, which made for an uncomfortably hot, muggy night of not much sleep.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>But this morning I walked into <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot_Springs,_North_Carolina">Hot Springs</a>, had breakfast at a diner, and am spending the night at a very nice place called the <a href="http://laughingheartlodge.com/index.php/accommodations/hostel/">Laughing Heart Hostel</a>. The hostel was just reopened earlier this year by a couple of past thru hikers, Chuck Norris and Tigger. It is not in my trail guide, but Bob Peoples at the Kincora hostel told me about it when I stayed there.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>The sign welcoming me to town informed me that the town was called Warm Springs until 1886. There are actual hot springs here, but I think they are all privately owned by a spa resort. In 1917 <a href="http://www.visitmadisoncounty.com/who-we-are/town-of-hot-springs/the-german-village-wwi-internment-camp/">the town was used as an internment camp</a> for German prisoners during World War I.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>It’s about that time of the hike where I start losing things. Last year I lost my Leatherman scissors tool at the October Mountain Shelter in Massachusetts, and then spent my entire first zero day in Williamstown taking buses around until I got to an EMI and bought a replacement. Now I’ve left that one at the hostel in Damascus (I think… anyway, I haven’t had it since then).</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>Last year my water filter broke in Maine. The manufacturer replaced it for me when I got home, but it still didn’t work well. I finally figured out that the problem is the pre-filter; I think at some point I sucked some fine silt into it and it is permanently clogged. If I take it off then the pump works fine, but then I risk sucking sand and dirt into the main filter — so I’ve been carrying my filter but only using Aquamira (chlorine dioxide drops) to treat water.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>The outfitters here in Hot Springs had both the Leatherman scissor multitool that I like so much and the pre-filters for my model of water filter! I also bought a little collapsible water carrier so I can bring water from the source to camp to filter it more comfortably — something which I think will be handy when I meet my dad and friend in the Smokey Mountains. So I am out a full $60, but fully outfitted once again.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>I’ve resupplied my food bag at the Dollar General store, which I’ve discovered is a great place to resupply (good prices, but not as overwhelming as Wal-Mart or a big grocery store). I’ve now got a little bit of time on my hands. I have 6 days to walk the 75 miles to Clingmans Dome where I am meeting my dad. I’m considering taking a zero day here (even after my 1-mile nearo today — so almost a double zero).</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>Even if I do take a zero, I’d only have to average 15 miles a day to get to Clingmans Dome on time, and then I will be doing even shorter days with my dad. It will be nice to do the entire Smokey Mountain National Park at a slower pace. I’ll have time to read (I’ve been carrying a math book for 745 miles and have not opened it yet) and look at the changing leaves. It will also give my right foot a chance to recover; I landed on it at an odd angle a couple of times over the past week, and it is now tender and a bit swollen and hurts a little on downhills.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>The next time I’ll have a chance to post a trail report will likely be after I finish the Smokies — and it may not be until I reach Georgia!</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Update:</strong> I’ve opted for the zero day! I love not hiking. This morning I went back down to the diner for breakfast. I got the skillet which was recommended to me by Huck and Butter Bar: a cheesy pile of potatoes, onions, bacon, and eggs with an English muffin. It was delicious. When I finished and went to pay I was told that the ladies who were in the booth next to mine had paid for my meal as well! A zero day in a town like Hot Springs in almost always the right decision.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p><span class="image">
<img src="diode.png" alt="Diode schematic symbol" />
</span> <strong>Diode</strong></p></div>
</div>
</div>
tag:mretc.net,2012-10-02:/~cris/AT2011//reports/20121002-erwin.htmlOctober 3 - Erwin, TN2012-10-02T06:00:00Z2012-10-02T06:00:00Z<div class="sect1">
<h2 id="_nbsp"> </h2>
<div class="sectionbody">
<div class="paragraph"><p>In my <a href="/reports/20120925-damascus.html">last report</a> I said that Hot Springs, NC, was the next trail town after Damascus. That wasn’t exactly true. I had not planned on stopping at or resupplying in Erwin, TN, because the actual town is several miles from the trail. But there is a hostel where I decided to stay last night, <a href="http://www.unclejohnnys.net/">Uncle Johnny’s Nolichucky Hostel</a>, located right on the trail which does several free shuttles into town every day. It’s the third hostel I’ve stayed at since Damascus, and all of them have been very good experiences.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>My second day out of Damascus (the last day of my fifth week!) was a pleasant 22-mile walk (Tennessee has had some of the most well-maintained trail so far). I went a few miles past a shelter and found a nice campsite in a little clearing near <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watauga_Lake">Watauga Lake</a>. The skies were clear, but it had rained a little earlier in the day, so I decided to set up my tarp. I was awakened around 2am to a loud cracking sound, then another, like someone was walking around noisily on the other side of the clearing. <em>Bear?</em> I thought. But then I noted the sound was coming from somewhere above me. I shifted so I could look out from my tarp. As I looked up the cracking noise turned into more of a rapid-fire crackling, and a flickering light was coming from the direction of the noise. All my sleepy mind could think was, <em>fireworks?</em> before I realized I was watching a huge oak branch fall 30 or 40 feet to the ground, about 20 feet from my own feet, with a thud I felt through my sleeping pad. The light was the almost-full moon which had been blocked by the branch but now shone brightly on my camp.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>There were no large branches directly over me, but for the rest of that night I was awakened by every acorn that fell, expecting imminent arboreal death from above. So now I’ve learned two lessons I already knew but was never exactly conscious of: when sitting on random timber near the trail, check for rattle snakes; and when setting up camp, <em>always</em> check for <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Widowmaker_%28forestry%29">widowmakers</a>.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>From the lake I did a short 10-mile day to the legendary Kincora hostel where I met Bob Peoples and a few of the feral cats he feeds (but none of the six raccoons he also feeds and let’s in his house like pets). Before reaching Kincora I took a 1-mile side trail to a town called Hampton, TN, where I ate at Whataburger and got a bit of food from the dollar store. At Kincora I got a shower and use of a washer and dryer; there were spare clothes in the hiker box, so I was able to wash ALL of my clothes for the first time.</p></div>
<div class="imageblock">
<div class="content">
<img src="http://mretc.net/~cris/AT2011/photos_html/holeycroc_small.jpg" alt="http://mretc.net/~cris/AT2011/photos_html/holeycroc_small.jpg" />
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<div class="title">Me in the executive suite at Kincora demonstrating the hole in my Croc</div>
</div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>The Crocs I am hiking in are the same Crocs I walked down Mt. Katahdin in Last year… but I have apparently used them around town in Colorado more than I remembered because they are already wearing very thin in a few places. The heel on the left Croc actually wore all the way through as I hiked out of damascus (see <a href="http://mretc.net/~cris/AT2011/photos_html/holeycroc.html">photo</a> above). There is still plenty of material around the hole, so my heel only contacts the external world very rarely. I put some duct tape over it to protect my sock, and it has seemed to work well for the past 75 miles.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>Out of Kincora I arrived at a large shelter just before a thunderstorm. I had the shelter to myself that night, and in the morning I saw blue sky so I thought I had outsmarted the rain. But I hadn’t hiked an hour before it started raining again, heavily and continuously. After 10 miles of my 18-mile day, and one unsuccessful attempt at getting a snack out of my pack without getting everything wet, I got to a road crossing where I knew I could walk .3 miles to my right and reach the <a href="http://www.mountainharbour.net/">Mountain Harbour B&B and Hostel</a>. I decided 10 miles was good enough for that day and bought a bunk for the night.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>The hostel is located just north of a popular section of the trail which goes over a series of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appalachian_balds">balds</a> in the Roan Highlands, and the hostel provides a shuttling service so people can park in the parking lot and get shuttled to a gap south to spend a couple of days hiking back. The parking lot was full when I arrived, but all day hikers arrived, many having decided to hitch down early to get out of the rain, and drove away. A total of six section hikers arrived to share the bunk room with me. We hung up some lines and spread our gear out all over the place to dry it off (it worked!)</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>Late in the afternoon (still raining) two thru hikers showed up: Huck with his dog Finn, who I had met at the Wood’s Hole Hostel in Pearisburg, and a hiker I’d not yet met named Butter Bar. There were no beds left, but they were able to sleep on the floor at a discounted rate. In the morning Butter Bar and I opted for the $9 breakfast — all we could eat of omelet, hashbrowns, pancakes with a honey/maple syrup/walnut topping, sasuage, apple pie, pineapple upside down cake, orange juice, and coffee. When we went to pay the lady who runs the place not only wouldn’t charge us for breakfast, but gave us paper plates so we could take some more with us!</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>I left late that morning, happy to be setting out clean and with dry gear, and not only was the sun out but even the grass on the balds was dry so it didn’t re-soak my socks which usually happens the morning after a rain. I got a clear view from all of the balds and noticed how many of the trees are now orange and yellow (and sometimes some bright red Maples) instead of green — that happened fast! I’m glad I decided to stay at the hostel and wait until morning to hike that section.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>That night I ended up with Huck and Butter Bar, as well as three other thru hikers I had met in Damascus (Peg Leg, Rocket Man, and Lorax), at Roan High Knob Shelter, the highest shelter on the trail (~6,200 ft). Unlike most shelters it is a fully enclosed cabin with a door; it clouded up and rained again that night, but with six of us in the shelter it stayed warm.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>I camped the next night with Huck and Butter Bar. We decided to go past a shelter so we would have a shorter walk to the hostel near Erwin in the morning, but that meant setting up my tarp in the wind and rain for the first time. It was windy and rainy all night. And then in the morning I packed up in the wind and rain. I managed to keep myself dry and had a comfortable night — but just about every piece of gear I have got wet. Huck, Butter Bar, and I split a private cabin (as opposed to the bunk room — with three of us it was about the same price) at Uncle Johnny’s and the sun came out in the afternoon so we were once again able to spread all our stuff out and get it dry. I’ve not had to stay wet for more than one day so far!</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>Now I’m resupplied and ready to walk to Hot Springs (where I plan to arrive on Saturday). I have a little over three weeks of hiking left, and it is conveniently broken up into two 10-day segments: from here to Clingman’s Dome where I’ll meet my dad and a friend to hike with for a few days to Fontana Dam; then 10 more days from Fontana Dam to just north of Springer Moutain, where I’ll hopefully meet my dad again for one last day of hiking!</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p><span class="image">
<img src="diode.png" alt="Diode schematic symbol" />
</span> <strong>Diode</strong></p></div>
</div>
</div>
tag:mretc.net,2012-09-23:/~cris/AT2011//reports/20120925-damascus.htmlSeptember 24 - Damascus, VA2012-09-23T06:00:00Z2012-09-23T06:00:00Z<div class="sect1">
<h2 id="_nbsp"> </h2>
<div class="sectionbody">
<div class="paragraph"><p>I began my hike on August 23; I arrived in Damascus, VA, the last stop before crossing the border into Tennessee, on September 23. After 32 days of hiking an average of 17.2 miles/day I am over halfway done with my hike and taking my first (and only?) zero day! The AT winds for about 550 miles <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appalachian_Trail_by_state#Virginia">through Virginia</a>, which is more than a quarter of its entire length, so reaching Damascus (and the TN border tomorrow morning) is a big waypoint to reach.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>I left my motel late on Thursday, with my pack completely loaded with food from my Wal-Mart visit (I got a little bit over excited at the cheap, cheap calories and bought way more than I needed to get to Damascus — I got here with well over a pound of remaining rice and lentils alone). I think it is the heaviest my pack has been this entire trip, but I had planned to get to Damascus at a more relaxed pace than I had been going, and was only going to go 12 miles to the first shelter that first day.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>After a leisurely walk, and spending some time at the Mt. Rogers visitors center, I arrived at the shelter. It is a very nice shelter, and I think it may be the only shelter on the AT with running water (including a shower) since it is so close to the visitors center. There was one other section hiker there named Grey Wolf. There are lots of Grey Wolves (and White Wolves and Lone Wolves) who have hiked the trail, but this one has thru hiked three times and has done dozens of long sections (including Harpers Ferry to Springer several times). I think he is the fourth hiker I’ve met who has more than 10,000 miles on the AT.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>It was only 4pm, and I was bored, so I decided to move on to a campsite six miles south. But on the way there I realized I was running out of Virginia and I hadn’t yet done any 30-mile days or any night hiking, two things I wanted to do at some point on my hike. So I thought, Why not hike all night?</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>I made it to a place called the Hurricane Mountain Shelter just before midnight, 31.3 miles and less than 12 hours after leaving the motel in Atkins. I managed the first hour after sunset without my headlamp, even though it had only been a few nights since the new moon so I didn’t get much light from him. But as soon as I turned my lamp on once, even on the dimmest setting, my eyes didn’t readjust to the dark very quickly so I left it on for the rest of the time and temporarily changed my trail name to Light-Emitting.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>That was probably the longest day I’ll do (and with one of the heaviest packs I’ll have had — oops)! Hurricane Mountain Shelter happens to be located almost exactly at the halfway mark of my hike. I wasn’t sure of the etiquette when arriving to a shelter at night. I decided to approach with my light dim and pointed down to see if it was occupied, and if it was I would find a place to sleep outside nearby. But it was completely empty so I needn’t worry about waking anybody or finding a tree to hang my food from. I ate a double-sized Snickers bar for dinner which I had packed specifically to celebrate reaching halfway, then went to sleep and slept in past 8am for the first time since I started.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>Much of the next day (Friday) was spent on a ridge above 5,000 feet in the <a href="http://www.dcr.virginia.gov/state_parks/gra.shtml">Grayson Highlands State Park</a>, which was nice with many open areas with grass and views. I met many of the friendly <a href="http://www.southernstates.com/articles/the-wild-ponies-of-mount-rogers-virginia.aspx">feral ponies of Mt. Rogers</a>. At one point I walked through a whole herd of them standing around the trail. While they live in the wild, they are obviously very habituated to humans, and I think some of them would have let me pet them if I tried.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>Friday afternoon I spent some time on the summit of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Rogers">Mt. Rogers</a>, the highest point in Virginia at 5,729 feet. It’s not much of a "summit" as it is rather flat and covered in a mossy evergreen forest, but it is a pretty place. I camped a few miles south of the side trail which leads to the summit. I think the entire mountain is full of water, because I have never seen so many cold, clear, flowing springs in one section of the AT before! Lots of very nice tenting sites everywhere as well.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>On Saturday (and again Sunday morning) the trail coincided with <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia_Creeper_Trail">Virginia Creeper Trail</a> for a few miles. The Creeper Trail is very popular with bicyclists, and it was quite the transition to go from walking alone in the woods to having bicycles constantly whizzing past. At one point an entire girl scout troop from North Carolina passed me on their bicycles. As she passed, one of the leaders asked me if I was hiking the AT. A little while later I caught up to them taking a break and they asked if they could take a picture with me and then offered me all kinds of granola bars and snacks.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>I got into <a href="http://damascus.org/">Damascus</a> early Sunday. Since I was there a day earlier than I planned, and the Methodist church here runs a hostel called <a href="http://whiteblaze.net/forum/vbg/showimage.php?i=24&c=510">The Place</a> for long-distance hikers and cyclists for a mere $6 requested donation/night, and since I’ve been walking for a month without a break, I decided to take a zero day here. And what a great place for a zero day! The trail goes right through the main streets of the town (where every other building is a bicycle rental place, an outdoor outfitters, or an inn/hostel). There’s a Subway I’ve eaten at four times already with electrical outlets at four of the tables and with country music playing all the time, there is a city-wide WiFi network (which I can connect to from my bunk in the hostel if I’m lucky), and a large grocery store a half mile out of the town center where I bought some tortillas and ramen noodles to supplement my leftover rice and peanut butter during the next leg of my hike.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>The Place is a two-story building with a deck (where I am writing this in the warm sun), a sunroom (which is always in the shade), a kitchen with sink and microwave, a dining room, a room with couches, a bathroom with shower on each floor, and several bunk rooms with wooden bunk beds which hikers can spread their pads and sleeping bags out upon. Last night the only other person staying was a thru hiker named Beatfeet, so we each got our own floor of the place. Today three other thru hikers arrived (bringing the total number of thru hikers I’ve met so far up to six).</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>The next trail town is Hot Springs, NC, in 193 miles. But between here and there are a gabillion hostels. So many that I won’t stay at all of them; but they all have little stores where I can supplement my food bag along the way so I won’t have to carry much food at any time. The first one I’ll get to on my third night after leaving Damascus is the Kincora hostel run by Bob Peoples. I’d heard stories about Bob Peoples and <a href="http://karriesappalachiantrail.blogspot.com/2009/12/bob-peoples-at-legend.html">Kincora</a> from Pennsylvania to Maine last year, so I’m looking forward to experiencing some of <a href="http://karriesappalachiantrail.blogspot.com/2009/12/bob-peoples-at-legend.html">the living legend</a> for myself!</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>I hope to reach Hot Springs on or about October 7th. Shortly after Hot Springs I’ll enter the Great Smokey Mountains, where I plan to meet my dad and another friend (both named Louis) to hike with for a few days! After the Smokies it is only a couple of hundred miles to the end of the trail on Springer. It feels so close… but it is still 467 miles away. I’ll get there eventually.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>I’ve updated <a href="http://umap.openstreetmap.fr/en/map/diodes-20112012-at-hike_154381#5/39.266/-75.586">the map</a> again.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p><span class="image">
<img src="diode.png" alt="Diode schematic symbol" />
</span> <strong>Diode</strong></p></div>
</div>
</div>