Date: 2009-03-19
From: Standing Bear Farm Hostel

To: Roaring Fork Shelter
Miles today: 170.9
Weather: overcast clouds

Been a while since I last wrote in this thing!Thankfully, things have been orders of magnitude better than they were in my last entry. Over the past week or so, I've been making my way through the Smoky Mountains, which is one of the most beautiful areas I have yet seen. Unfortunately, the it's been raining and foggy for the last couple of days so I didn't get to see as much as I would have liked. Still, hiking across a ridgeline a mile above sea level with the wind blasting against you and fog floating in and out of the surrounding woods is a pretty cool experience in and of itself.I realized that I haven't really given any good description of what life is like out here, so allow me to present:A day in the life of your average thru-hiker!!!I get up most days a bit after sunrise, which usually works out to about 7:30 or 8am. After doing a bit of procrastinating, I force myself to get out of my nice cozy sleeping bag and step out into the morning cold. I grab my food bags down from the bear cable (I hang them in a tree overnight so bears/mice/what have you don't eat it) and start cooking breakfast. After I've had my 4 oatmeal packets and a few mini donuts, I pack up all my crap, refill on water, and start walking.I usually walk for about 8 or 9 hours a day. I've known others that walk for up to 11, but I'm usually ready to quit before then. About midday, I start looking for a place to have lunch. If it's nice out, I'll just drop my stuff along the trail and eat, but if it's raining I'll seek out a shelter where I can unpack my pack without everything getting soaked. Lunch nowadays usually consists of something like a triple-decker PBJ with some cheese and summer sausage, a candy bar, and whatever else looks good in my food bag. On occasion, I'll drink a few teaspoons of oil as well just to keep my calorie intake up.After lunch, I (rather obviously) keep walking! At first, it was a bit hard getting used to being by myself for so long each day (as you could probably tell by my last entry), but it's been increasingly easier. It helps that whenever I look to my side or up at the trail ahead of me, I almost always end up thinking, "Man, a photo of this could be hanging in an art gallery." The areas in which I'm walking are just so incredibly beautiful that it's hard to feel anything but wonder and amazement when traveling through them.At around 5 or 6, I roll into camp, unpack my stuff, set up my stove and make dinner. This is when I get to talk to everyone else at the shelter about the day, the weather, or whatever else comes to mind. As darkness falls, I finish off writing in my trail journal, brush my teeth, and crawl into my bag for a fitful yet somehow still restful night's sleep.So that's basically my life. I also had a few other tidbits I wanted to put in here, but I don't have the time to organize them elegantly (internet = $1 per 15 min), so here they are in random bullet form:-The so called "hiker hungries" have officially set in. My appetite is insatiable. A week ago, I ate a 1-pound burger with fries. Last night I ate a whole DiGiorno pizza in one sitting, then topped it off with a bunch of Oreo cookies. I realize this isn't much for some people (*cough* Dan Benevento *cough*) but for me that's damn near superhuman.-Trail magic is the best. Coming into this hostel, I met a couple named Mark and Karen who were parked near I-40 looking around. They gave me a bunch of breakfast bars and an apple for no reason other than that they were good people. Thanks guys!-I climbed Clingman's Dome (the highest mountain on the trail) on a day when it was raining and winds were gusting at 40 or 50 mph. I got halfway up the observation tower when I noticed my waterproof pack cover shooting away from me, carried off by the wind. Oops.-This hostel is awesome. They have an electric dryer but no washing machine, so I just washed all my clothes using bar soap, a washboard, and a wringer. For those of you who have never used a clothes wringer - I highly recommend it. It was one of the highlights of my day.-I did a short night hike, also when the wind was blowing about 40mph, and it was AWESOME. I highly encourage everyone to try it.That's all for now - I'll try and update again in a few days when I get to Hot Springs."And we'll all go together, to pull wild mountain thyme all along the blooming heather..."