Date: 2010-10-29
To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

Did 35 miles yesterday. 35 MILES!!!!! I know what your thinking....and go ahead. Take a minute to sit back and bask in my awesomeness. Are you done? Ok, now I'll begin.I saw something that amazed me yesterday. It was my shadow. At first I was tempted to chase it around the forest like Peter pan, but I was so delighted to see it I didnt want to take any chance of scaring it away. The sun finally came out, and the sound of rain was replaced by the sound of a forest coming back to life. The birds were happier than I was! Geo and I stopped at the Bryant ridge shelter two days ago, which way short of our goal for the day that would have put us in easy striking distance of Daleville yesterday. When we got to the shelter it started to rain again, and after the previous nights experience, I had no interest in hiking in the rain. Also, there were a couple of interesting section hikers that I thought would make good company for the night. Hard Charger and Johny B are from Clarkburg WV, and are trying to section hike the entire AT. Hard charger is a retired Army Colonel, and Johny B retired from accounting. They were of particular interest to me becasue hard charger spent a part of his army career as a historian, and has written several books about the Civil War. I enjoyed their company, but only until about 5:30, which is when I passed out unintentionally. I didn't wake up until it was time for my 3 am pee, and than slep right thru till morning. I was determined to try to make a push for Daleville despite the mileage. I have been meaning to push a 30+ day for a while, just to say I did it. According to the book, it was about 32 I think. However, I decided to take a little hour long stroll down a horse trail. There are hundreds, perhaps even thousands of other trails that run into the AT. This one was very confusing, and it even had white blazes on it for a while. After quite some time, I realized there was no way I was on the AT. I backtracked 30-40 minutes only to find out my mistake. I was furious!! Luckily I saw a crew working on the trail that day, and informed them there were misleading white blazes on a side trail.Trail crews. The AT is maintained by volunteers along its entire legnth. There are very few people who are actually employed by the ATC. The ones that are work as "caretakers" or "ridgerunners", looking after certain stretches of trail and shelters. But the majority of the AT is maintained by volunteers who donate their time, sweat and blood in order to keep this trail hiker friendly. The majority of the people I have seen are much older folks. I try to stop and talk to them whenever possible, and I am always humbled by the dedication. Many of them have been working on the same section for years, and it is a matter of pride for them. They pack out chainsaws, axes, shovels and alot of other gear. They clear trees that have blown over on the trail, they create amazing stair cases with boulders where the trail is steep, they create water run-offs, they build and maintain the shelters, and they do all of this for free. I think this trail belongs to them, and the rest of us are just borrowing it for a time. When I am able to post some pictures, you'll see some of them. I'm talking 80 year olds packing chainsaws up a mountain! I'll try to update several more times before I leave Daleville tomorrow so stay posted!!!