Date: 2009-04-23
From: Iron Mountain Shelter, TN 

To: Abington Gap Shelter, TN 
Miles today: 15.9

Cell good if you hike back a ways on the AT (up a hill)OG notesWe had a very nice night last night. The night was clear and we had a cool breeze all night. The best part was we didn't have rain and awoke with a dry tent.There still was a breeze this morning but the temperature was tolerable. We were able to eat breakfast without freezing so we took our time doing so. As I mentioned, the tent was dry and that made it easier to pack. I hope this is a sign of the weather to come.We started hiking with our fleece jackets on but it wasn't long before we took them off. I don't know what the temperature was today I think last night's forecast called for it to be in the 70s. It usually is a little cooler in the mountains. Whatever it was, it was comfortable enough to hike in t-shirts again.We plan our hiking day by dividing the expected milage by our speed, we average 2 mph, so a 16 mile day takes us 8 hours. That is like going to the gym and turning on the treadmill to 2mph and a constantly changing elevation for 8 hours. Oh, I forgot to mention add in some stair stepper time in there.We're on the AT diet, too. We get to eat whatever we want, whenever we want, and as much as we want. We are both losing weight C6 figures she lost between 15 and 20 lbs and I figure between 20 and 30 lbs. Men usually lose a lot more than the women do.   All of the exercise is burning off the weight. I've heard we burn 6000 calories per day while hiking the AT, we can't eat anywhere near that out here. We try to eat more in towns, but that, too, falls short. The only other place the energy can come from is our stored body fat; that is why we lose the weight. This trend can be dangerous if it goes on too long, we have to eat lots of snacks while hiking. We also have to eat as much as possible in town. Hopefully we'll get enough to stay healthy. We are planning another double zero stop in Damascus. We need to rest our muscles and build up our energy reserves. We'll try to eat big meals when we eat while we're there. Thankfully our hiker appetites are starting to kick in. We are craving more food now. In the beginning we didn't have much of an appetite and it was difficult to eat a lot. We'll try to remember to give you an update on our weight. C6 notesIn case you might be wondering what a typical day on the AT is like, I thought I'd describe it for you.We get up when the sun rises. That was around 7:30am when we started hiking in March. Now it's around 6:30am. Some folks like to get up just before the sun comes up so they'll be ready to start hiking when it's light enough out to not have to use a flashlight. We usually wait for daylight because the majority of folks do that and we won't wake others up. I pack up the sleeping bags and press down the Thermarest sleeping pads while OG goes and gets our food down from the tree and starts heating water for breakfast. We learned early that it's best for me to put out and pack up the stuff because I stay warmer and OG tolerates cold better than me.Once the water is hot, we eat whatever we have for breakfast. After we eat, OG sets up my Camelback for my back pack (we put Propel in mine) and divides out the food into our two food bags. OG carries most of it and I carry some. (I don't carry as much because if my pack is too heavy my shoulders hurt way too much.)Once OG has put away the food stuff (stove, water, and anything else we used for breakfast), and I've finished packing up our sleeping stuff, we pack up the tent if we slept in our tent. Then we pack our packs and seem to be ready to hike about 90 minutes or so after we got up for the day.Once we take a final look around to make sure we didn't leave anything, we head out. We hike to mid-day (about 4 hours), and then stop for lunch. Lately, we've been stopping for lunch at a shelter because of how they're spaced out. We've been hiking to the 2nd shelter to stay at the 2nd shlter for the night from where we spent the previous night.How long we stop for lunch depends on how cold it is. If we're freezing, we eat fast and start hiking again as fast as we can. When we stop we immediately pull out our jackets (either our fleece jackets or our down jackets, depending on how cold it is) and put them on while we are stopped and pack them up fast to get moving again.If it's nice out, we linger over lunch longer. We had a nice visit with Red Leg during lunch today because it was warm and sunny where we were. That was nice.After lunch, we hike to our destination. We hike about 4 hours after lunch to our destination.When we get to our destination, we decide if we'll sleep in the shelter or in our tent. If the shelter is full, the decision has already been made and we look for a place to pitch our tent. If the weather is bad, we put up our tent as fast as possible and throw stuff that needs to stay dry inside the tent as fast as possible. I get inside the tent and set up our sleeping bags, etc, as OG looks for a place (branch) to hang our food bags after dinner. Same theory as in the morning - I get warm faster by setting up the bedding. If it's cold, we change our attire immediately to dry clothes (our wool insulated underwear) and start putting on layers. If it's warm enough (like this evening!), we take our time doing everything.Once things are set up, we go get water. Water sources are sometimes quite far away, so that can take a while. We filter our water and get a lot so we don't have to go back and get more water later or in the morning.After we have our water, we do dinner. If it's warm, we enjoy a couple hours visiting with other hikers. If it's cold, everyone gets in their tents/sleeping bags to get warm. That's a very early night in bed.Bed time is when the sun goes down...now around 8pm or so. It's not unusual to be in bed 10 to 12 hours, so I like to read for a while and OG listens to a radio. Old Goat & Check Six