Date: 2007-04-06
To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

Just completed the first couple of days on the trail and I can't say how excited I am to get back out there. Ballard and I did 32 miles starting Monday morning around 10 and finishing Wednesday evening around 5, I've spent most of today (Thursday) laying around, letting myself recover. Before I get back out there on Monday I've got to cut as much weight from my pack as I can -- I've got way too much in it. Like a full jar of peanut butter. Or an iPod. And the charger. I figured those kind of things would be useful at one point or another, but over three days, I used the peanut butter once and didn't listen to a single song. Ballard and I didn't really have that much free time, and when we did, we used it to either eat, rest, or sleep. The first day we went 10 miles (11 including the hike up Springer Mtn. after Matt, Ann Marie's brother, dropped us off a mile down the trail) and stayed at a campsite called Horse Gap. The hiking up to that point wasn't bad -- the first 4 miles were downhill and then up and down the rest of the day. We had a few hours to just sit around, cook dinner, plan out the next day, and hang the bear bag before going to bed. We planned to make it 10 miles the next day, figuring the morning would take a while to get through some big hills.   The first thing we had after waking up was Sassafras Mountain, about a mile uphill that people were calling "Kick Your Ass" Mountain. (Or at least, one person was.) It wasn't that bad, just took a while getting over, and the rest went better than we expected -- we did 13 miles by the end of the day and got to a campsite right as it started raining. I got my tent set up, Ballard tied his hammock down and started gathering wood for a fire. I got dinner going (had to cook right under Ballard's hammock to try to keep dry, didn't work out too well), we ate, hung up the bear bag, were too tired to do anything else so we just went to bed. I was asleep for a couple hours before it started raining right around 1:00 in the morning and didn't stop until at least 4:00 AM. it was one of the hardest storms i've ever been in, i was worried that the rain fly stakes were gonna get pulled out of the ground and my tent was going to tear at the seams. i didn't realize it at the time but ballard's tent hammock didn't keep the rain out and he got soaked. when i woke up the next morning ballard was crying about how cold he was, and i told him to suck it up and get his ass going. no, just kidding....he hadn't gotten any sleep since it started raining and was close to hypothermia, so i got any emergency blanket out and helped him out, putting out my sleeping bag and cooking breakfast. we found out from some hikers who passed us shortly after that there were a few trees blown over the trail further back. just glad that none of them came down where we were...we got going, figuring we'd be able to take our time getting to the top of blood mountain, stay there for the night, and leave early thursday morning. we moved faster than planned, getting up on blood mountain by 3:00 that afternoon (despite me getting a bad case of the shits after lunch) and took a nice break at the top. we stayed there for about an hour, i wrote in my gournal, and headed down, getting to the car around 5:00 when i found out i had a huge zit on my face that took less than 5 seconds to pop and wipe clean. stopped at zaxby's on the way back home where we noticed how different it was being back in society. it wasn't exactly bothersome, just different.   three of the best days i've had in years, even with all the physical pain and exhaustion. i don't know if i'll be able to complete the entire trail, i hope i can, but whatever i am able to do, i know i'm going to have an incredible time.