Month: May 2019

Walking along the ridges and valleys of North Carolina and Tennessee

On By Jess4 Comments

Here is a handful of highlights from the last couple of weeks.

Fontana Lake

We arrived at Fontana Lake when the dam was releasing water into the Little Tennessee.

Great Smoky Mountains

John’s parents visited us one last time and provided lots of trail magic. Here we are at Newfound Gap along with Brian.

They brought the beard trimmer for John.

Before

After

Max Patch inspired lots of napping and cartwheeling. One of our favorite spots so far.

200 mile marker

Memorable trail magic

We walked for six hours through a torrential downpour to Stecoah Gap to find a woman in a pickup offering up rides and food to hikers. Despite our best efforts at staying dry, we were cold and wet. She offered us warm pasta and snacks while we warmed up in the car. This is Janelle from North Dakota.

Big trees

Trail names

On By John3 Comments

With every year about 4K new people try to hike the AT. While each of us will hike our own unique hike, one ritual that touches us all is the granting/receiving of trail names. Since being on the trail we’ve met Turtle, Thor (x2), Dropsy, and Chuck Norris. We’ve also been hiking with Brian… who refuses to take any of the different names we have given him (chainsaw, audible, pontus, soap box, and french press). The ritual is special and sacred as a name means a lot both to those we interact with as well as to ourselves and who we wish to become.

Jess-

I tried a lot of different names out for Jess over the last four weeks. “Hey Rocket, ready for a snack?” (She learned to snot rocket on the trail and also requires an astonishing amount of fuel to keep going), “Hey Wonder, what do you think about this flower?” (For about an hour of every hike she’s in literal awe of every flower, bug, and person we meet), “Have you guys seen Wild Flower? I can’t find her anywhere” (yeah, obviously the school connection, but she really really likes the flowers out here), and there were a few others but none really stuck.

The one that finally had legs (well not really legs…) was Turbo. You see Jess really really really likes snails, and she’s also much much faster than I am. Snails and speed = the fastest snail I could think, Turbo (a close second was the racing snail from the never-ending story) . She’s even developed her own song: “Turbo Snail, she’s faster than all the other snails and John, she’s going all the way to Maine…”. Okay, so the song is still a work in progress, but none the less, Jess is now Turbo.

John-

My name doesn’t have its own song yet (Though we did start saying it very loudly one day when we heard what sounded like a very large animal in distress from an even larger animal). We were walking through a cloud one morning in Georgia. It was hard to see even 50 ft out in any direction, but as the other hiker approached he knew exactly where we were from well beyond because of the highlighter green pack cover that I was using for the rain. “Hey Lighthouse!” rang out as his greeting… That moment combined with my extraordinary good looks… okay, okay, my height, made for a sticky trail name. John = Lighthouse

Safety update

On By John4 Comments

Many of you will have now heard about the attack that occurred on the trail the other day, so we want to quickly let you all know that we’re safe and sound. We are sad and still trying to wrap our heads around what happened, but our thoughts go out to the hikers and families who were impacted. Tomorrow we’ll continue along, hiking with heavier hearts.

Creatures, Angels, and the Hiker Reality

On By Jess10 Comments

John and I landed in Nantahala, NC yesterday, and the last few days have been packed with people and creatures and unique experiences.

Creatures. We’ve tried to get pictures of some the creatures we see on the trail, though we still haven’t gotten a picture of the owl or the grouse that make strange noises in the night by our tent (John likes to imagine it’s actually a weird guardian angel named Ted).

This guy hitched a ride with us from the woods into our hotel room.

We stepped over hundreds of millipedes, centipedes, and snails.

And then the mouse that ransacked our food bag and left his calling card.

Trail Magic. When we descended the hill at Winding Stair Gap, we were greeted by two guys Jumanji and Possum who were grilling hot dogs and had a wide array of snacks for hikers. Best. Hot Dog. Ever. It wasn’t the only instance of trail angels descending on the trail, a guy named Will and his dogs met us at almost every gap with snacks.

Other kinds of trail angels (part 1). John’s parents have been rock stars coming out to visit us, setting up resupply kits, and delivering resupply kits at a few different places on the trail so far as well. It’s rare that we get to spend so much time near them, and it’s been pretty amazing to see them as we get started.

Other kinds of trail angels (part 2). For the first time in a long time, we are without our cars and without a regular pool of Lyft drivers. The AT has an underground network of drivers who will meet us at the trail and drive us into town. We met a woman named Joyce in North Georgia who spends 3-4 weeks in the Boundary Waters each year. She regaled us with stories of the 2011 fires and her narrow escape. And Jim, the former NATO commando, gave us donation only based rides around Franklin. The stories and lives of our drivers continue to enliven our trail experience.

Comical Koreans. We were descending a hill and were greeted by a group of about 10 Koreans from the Atlanta area. The driver asked me, Are you Korean? He then turned to John and the other white hiker and said with a smile, Are you Korean too? You must be half Korean.

T-Bird. At a bar in Helen, GA, we were told that someone wanted to buy us a round of drinks. That’s how we met T-Bird, a hiker at the bar who recognized us from Neels Gap. He had just retired four months ago and had been planning to hike the whole trail, but his knees weren’t having any of it and he was heading home.

Trail Family. The hiker community is a huge part of what we love about hiking. We have had to say goodbye to some friends (Chadd) and section hikers who are done their hikes (Candace, John, David, and Nate). We have found a small group to hike with now: Brian, Michelle, and Runa. Here is a pic of us along with Nate before he went home.

Milestones. We’ve now made it into state #2! The crossing wasn’t too thrilling, but we did celebrate with a handful of other hikers. We had a mix of section and thru hikers and the group was pretty international. Once in NC, a steep climb to the top of Albert Mountain earned us one of the most spectacular vistas of the trail so far and also landed us at mile 100! Next milestone: getting our trail legs…

Recovery. We have tried to get into the habit of doing legs up the wall at the end of each day, sometimes over lunch as well. Others have started to join in.

When we arrived at the Nantahala Outdoor Center, the river was perfect for an ice bath. (Our trail friend Runa took this video. She has lots of videos about the AT at Runa Hikes.)

Hard days (part 1). I (Jessica) had my first hard day after Neels Gap. Being dehydrated and improperly nourished left me pretty depleted. It reminded me of a bad long run. I made it 11 or 12 miles that day but not without a lot of breaks to snack and Nuun-hydrate along the way.

Hard Days (part 2). I (John) was a wreck yesterday on the trail (that’s why we were standing in the river in the video trying to ice our legs). It turns out that my long old man legs aren’t quite ready for 16 miles in a day. As a result we’re taking our second day off today. Hoping that some rest and icy water will help with some calf and hip ouchies.