Date: 2015-05-05
From: Jenkins Shelter

To: Jenny Knob Shelter
Miles today: 25.0
Weather: overcast clouds

Short Stride and I set off just before 8 am this morning starting with a climb out of the gap but then enjoyed some easy terrain for a bit. We leap frogged Tortoise and Garmin a couple times. Down by the creek 5 miles later there was a cooler with cold sodas! We enjoyed a Coke and then moved on. Another 7 miles brought us into Bland on US 52 and some trail magic soda just before we arrived!The AT is an unique hiking experience and you don't know what backpacking the trail is like until you try it. The trail is far more strenuous than most realize. Even in the easier terrain you are still hiking up and down. The flatter areas are few and far between and what goes down ALWAYS goes back up. Daily hiking distances are usually dictated by shelters and campsite locations. Not all campsites are listed in the book so you may find a good camp spot and you may not if you hike a distance in between. Sometimes the distances between camp options are too short (e.g. Less than 10 miles), but the next option may be farther than you want (e.g. 20+ miles). You can only research and prepare so much but you just have to go out and do it. There is a reason so many hikers drop out after the first 30 or 100 miles. Most drop out by the half way point ... All for various reasons - health, mental, gear, lack of preparation, family issues, etc. I have already said the AT is one of the, if not the, hardest things I have done. My first hiking partner Side Kick said the AT was one of the hardest things she had done. Short Stride said past 3 days were the hardest days she has experienced. Most of the hikers who have had friends join them for a couple days on the trail had similar experiences.It's not easy hiking the AT with a 30 lb pack. It's definitely not something you do for fun...you do it for the challenge, liberation, journey, escape, adventure, meditation, etc but not because it's pure fun to do. There are definitely fun moments and the people you meet are amazing. Short Stride deserves major props for investing the time and resources to come out and experience the AT for herself. You don't know unless you try!! So she decided to leave the trail in Bland but she hiked 15.1, 18.6 and 12.9 for a total of 46.6 miles in 3 days. Wow!! When we arrived at US 52, I knocked on the door of a house attached to a church to see if we could use a phone to get Short Stride a ride. No answer. Tortoise and Garmin caught up to us. I waved down a car going west who stopped and turned around. The driver wasn't going to Bland but told us where Short Stride could rent a car. So we waved down the next vehicle driving east and were elated to see fellow hiker Retro who had kindly carried down all of our trash since he was going into town in the vehicle! A family relative had picked him up and he just happened to be the car we waved down! They were driving past the town where Short Stride needed to rent a car so fortunately she was randomly able to get a ride with someone we knew!! Relieved I had left Short Stride in good hands, I hiked on a mile with Tortoise and Garmin to the creek. I saw Mato hiking too far past the trail and called him back. Tortoise, Garmin and I cooked lunch by the creek. Then I decided to try to hike as far as I could possibly making it 11 miles to the second shelter since I arrived at the first shelter by 3 pm. The guidebook didn't list any campsites in between shelters nor are there water sources. So if I found something along the way and felt too tired to continue, I could stop and camp but it would be luck not planned. Otherwise I would try to make it a 25 miles today.A little less than a mile from the shelter, I passed Tink with 3 other hikers heading southbound towards Damascas. She's definitely having fun! I hiked the first 7.75 miles quickly in 3 hours but started to tire. I only had 3.1 to go to the shelter so I pressed on, passing the "600"mile rock sign someone made on the trail. Woo hoo!!! Another mountain climb and I ran into Warm & Toasty, whom it's always a pleasure to see. (Of course I was "singing" Adele out loud when I saw her ahead!) She has to leave the trail Thursday for her niece's graduation so I will miss seeing her everyday since we then be off sync on our sections. I also encountered 3 deer in the trail. I kept smelling a faint whiff of campfire smoke and hoped it meant I was getting closer to the shelter and that Crafty and made a campfire. Bend after bend after bend, I finally arrived and saw Crafty and 4 section hikers from the Lawrenceburg, IN and Cincinnati area, along with a couple in a tent whom I never saw while there. We chatted with them over dinner and they laughed at how I couldn't stop eating. I wasn't feeling very hungry when I arrived but I cooked the rest of my couscous which made a lot. I inhaled all of it and still felt like I could keep eating so I polished off some trail mix. One of them asked "South Pole are you still eating??" I replied, "I am putting down the spork now!" My hiker appetite has kicked in this week as I seem to be able to eat and eat and never feel full. "ATC" - Several times, I have dropped my Cliff or granola bar on the ground and picked it up, dusted it off and still ate it. Tonight I dropped a M&M from my trail mix. I was sad to see it there and Craft told me it was just "trail spice" so I picked up the blue M&M, dusted it off and ate it!