Date: 2006-04-28
To: Sue's Notes - On The Trail (2) With Old Goat
Miles today: 0.0

Sue¢s notes from visit with Old Goat ¢ 4/28:We hiked 10.2 miles yesterday. Going uphill was very hard for me, as I¢m sure it was for all the thru-hikers in their first days on the trail. Old Goat was so patient and supportive. As the day went on, something that has happened to me every time I do intense hiking came on again. After a few hours of intense hiking, something changes in my body where I can¢t eat much at any one time or I feel nauseous. When we hiked Philmont, I lived on snacking all day long for the entire trek ¢ energy bars, trail mix, etc. ¢ and not eating a whole meal. In the afternoon yesterday I could tell it was happening again (it¢s not sudden ¢ it comes on as the miles go by). As Old Goat heated the water for our dinner, I thought I¢d be okay with one of the meals. Within an hour later, I felt so nauseous that I thought I¢d lose my dinner...but didn¢t.   I had some Oatmeal for breakfast today (4/28), but not much because I knew how I¢d feel in a short while if I ate more. For the rest of our hike I nibbled trail mix (that mixture seemed to settle fairly well as long as I didn¢t eat much at any one time, but we didn¢t have enough with us for me to nibble on that for the rest of the day), raisins (which didn¢t sit well), peanuts (even worse than the raisins), and a few bites of a Pemican bar (which was okay).After our Philmont trek, Old Goat came across an article that said this happens to some people ¢ but it didn¢t explain why it happens, nor did it say what to do to stop it. This time, when I ran into Little Engine and Gotta Go on 4/29 and we were talking about my hiking with Old Goat, I mentioned it to them. They told me Gotta Go had the same problem in the beginning, only his was so severe that he lost most of what he ate. They have a friend who is a dentist who told them Gotta Go¢s electrolytes were out of whack and that he needed to drink Gatorade to replace the electrolytes. Gotta Go has been fine since he started pushing the Gatorade. That gives me hope. Since I still wasn¢t feeling real well the next day (4/29) whenever I ate anything, I drank Gatorade during my drive home. I loved hiking these two days with Old Goat. We were lucky to have two beautiful sunny days, it was great to have this time with him, and it was wonderful to keep seeing people he knows. Since we¢re going South, we crossed paths with lots of people, and today Old Goat started meeting people he¢s heard of but hadn¢t met yet because they were behind him. In my notes # 3 (Trail Names), I covered most of the people we met today. One group of guys I missed in # 3 are four guys who go by the name ¢Jersey Boys.¢ They¢re from New Jersey and mostly hiking together. We passed one of them hiking alone, then later the other 3. Since Old Goat had told me the first was a Jersey Boy, I guessed that these 3 were the others and said so ¢ they confirmed I was right. One asked if the logo on my shirt was Philmont ¢ he¢s been there. A lot of people on the AT have Philmont in their background.Another guy we met is ¢Bill E. Goat.¢ When Old Goat introduced himself, Bill E. Goat enthusiastically said, ¢Old Goat! I wanted to meet you!¢ Then he asked if I¢d take their picture with his camera. We went back to Damascus after we finished hiking. Old Goat had heard of a fabulous Bed and Breakfast there (Lazy Fox B&B) but it was full, so we stayed around the corner at ¢The Victorian Inn¢ B&B. A very nice place ¢ beautiful and luxurious decorating, comfortable bed, and they serve a wonderful breakfast. Old Goat also hoped to see others who he knew were behind him, but the only person we ran into was ¢Free At Last.¢We spent the evening making sure Old Goat's pack was ready to go solo again and getting other things done before we each head out tomorrow. Again Old Goat fell asleep immediately. It took a while for my mind to slow down from all the wonderful things about today and this visit with Old Goat.