Date: 2013-04-06
From: Unicoi Gap

To: Unicoi Gap
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: clear sky

Those who are tuning in expecting to read about the harrowing adventure of me climbing up Rocky Mountain and Tray Mountain under the weight of my pack the green monster, followed by the humorous episode where I try to hang my food bag high enough to protect it from the bears only to end up with the rope all snagged up in the tree, and then hanging my hammock from a dead tree that promptly breaks when I sit in it and end up on the ground, I apologize. You will have to check back in tomorrow night. See my mileage above? Yes, that's right, I am STILL at the Hiker Hostel! I woke up during the night last night with my knees and feet still hurting, and realized that I needed a day of rest before I begin the next section of trail. I am itching to get out there, and felt a little frustrated at staying here today--but only a little. I was planning to zero in 16 miles anyway, and so I just moved that up a few days, and it was really the right decision. My body needed the rest. So rest, I did! After the lovely Hiker Hostel breakfast, I went downstairs to the common room, and I was the only hiker in the whole place. I iced my knees, drank soft drinks and ate peanut butter and bananas, and watched an entire movie. Then I took a nap. Then I had a burst of wanting to do something useful, so I packed up the green monster for tomorrow. I have much more food than I need because I ate so little of it this week, and I don't want to carry it, of course, so my choices are to leave it in the hiker box for future hikers, or send it ahead to Hiawasee and pick it up there. I am leaning toward the latter. Then, I went into Dahlonega for church, picked up my dinner at the Mexican restaurant in town, and now I'm back "home" will be going to bed early to be ready for my big day, tomorrow. I know I will be better able to handle the physical stress of tomorrow after my zero day today.I know many of you that read this journal already know all the hiking lingo and customs, but my family and friends do not, so here I go, explaining a few things of Hiking 101. Hiker boxes exist at most hostels and other businesses catering to hikers along the length of the trail. If you have stuff in your pack you don't want anymore but that might be useful to someone else, you put it in the hiker box. Hikers are welcome to go through the box and take anything they want from it, free. Here at the Hiker Hostel, the "hiker box" is an entire pantry downstairs. Lots of good stuff in there. I am weighing putting my excess food in it vs. mailing it ahead to myself in Hiawasee. Of course there is a fee to mail it, but otherwise I would have to buy more there anyway, and it might not be as good of stuff as I have already,And I wanted to explain the shelters. Along the entire length of the trail there are shelters, roughly one every 10 miles, but they are not evenly spaced. A shelter is not a house, far from it. They are small, usually wooden, rustic-looking three-sided structures. Hikers can sleep in them, which eliminates the need to set up their tent. I do not plan on sleeping in any shelters, but I do plan on staying at the shelter, camping outside of them. Mostly because I am not ready mentally to sleep by myself out in the woods yet, I really prefer to have other people around. Shelters also have a picnic table, usually a privy (outdoor toilet), and a water source. They are sort of the gathering place at the end of the day. The reason I wouldn't want to sleep in one is because I don't have a mat or pad, like tenters do. I don't need one in my hammock. And shelters are full of mice, that are so bold they will run across your sleeping bag, even across your face, all night. Ick! And they chew through backpacks, etc. So I plan, at least in the beginning, to camp at shelters, but not in the shelters. I have passed quite a few shelters already, but haven't taken any pictures of them because I wasn't staying there. I will get some pictures tomorrow night of the shelter where I stay, along with my hammock (correctly hung from sturdy, living trees). and my food bag, hanging high out of the reach of even the tallest bear.All of the hikers I knew here at the hostel have moved on, and a whole new group has been trickling in all day. Nervous, excited, anxious, impressed with my 52 miles. Makes me feel funny, I haven't even slept in the woods yet! I don't feel like any sort of veteran!I wanted to tell you about my feet (I know you are dying to hear about them!) When you walk downhill for a long distance, the tips of your toes bang up against the inside of your boots, over and over again. So my toes are actually bruised, at the very tips of them! That seems like a strange thing. And many people actually lose toenails that way. They just really fall off! I have heard differing opinions on whether or not that is painful, but it is hard for me to imagine that a toenail could fall off without hurting. I imagine I am headed for toenail loss. I'm hoping the folks who say it doesn't hurt are right. Keeping the toenails short is supposed to help. Still no blisters, yay! The knees are still hurting, even after a zero day, but not as much. I will rely on my knee braces, vitamin I, and short hiking days with frequent rest breaks to keep them going.Here are a couple of interesting things about hiker hostels: there are 2 large screen tvs here, and nobody ever turns either one of them on. Hikers would rather talk to each other than watch tv. I love that. Mike and I cancelled the cable at our house over a year ago, having decided that there was nothing on tv worth watching anyway. The other fact about the hostel is that by 9:00 at night the lights are all off and it is quiet. Hikers go to sleep early. It's not that we get up so early either, breakfast is at 7:30, it's just that hikers sleep a lot. I guess we stress our bodies so much, they need plenty of down time to recuperate. Hikers call 9:00 or 10:00 at the latest, "hiker midnight".So, tomorrow is the big day, my solo hiking day. Camping in the woods tomorrow night! I can't wait. I've had enough civilization for awhile. (I say that now. By two nights in the great outdoors I will probably be crying for a shower and a bed!) I would have posted a picture of my zero day, with me lying on the couch, but there was no one around to take it.