Date: 2010-04-17
From: Fayetteville, GA

To: Erwin, TN
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: light rain

I'm packed up and ready to drive to TN tomorrow then start hiking again Monday morning. My pack weight is down to 21 lbs. I'll lose some more when I switch over completely to summer gear. The Saturday after I got home I weighed 164 lbs. This morning I was up to 166. I started exercising the Sunday after I got home and watched what I ate. Gear reviews after this stretch. The Montrail Hard Rock Mids are my new favorite hiking shoe. No blisters yet. 200 miles, including the Smoky's snow, and they still look pretty good. Kept my socks much dryer than the Garmonts. Can't complain about the Garmonts fit but WL Gore should be embarrassed to have their name on the outside. My socks did not get dipping wet, but they were damp enough to freeze stiff at night. I think the Montrails even let most of the sweat escape. The only improvements I would make would be to make the front of the heel and the lugs a little more pronounced to give more traction in going downhill. The Microfiber shell on my Western Mountaineering sleeping bag has done a good job of keeping dampness out of the down. Sleeping in an open shelter with heavy fog coming in could have degraded the downs warmth, but I never noticed any problems. Everything else is working well. I had thought about skipping the Smoky's and coming back to do them later. I'm glad I didn't. I've heard a lot of people skipped them, or quit before they got there. This isn't supposed to be easy. The hikers that went through in March, or before most of the snow melted, have demonstrated that they have the determination, mostly mental, to ignore the naysayers and carry on in spite of the odds. It was never impossible to get through the Park this year, hard but not impossible. I hope I can catch up with some of them, they're the cream of the crop. Caution, personal religious thoughts coming up next. Ive been thinking about the spiritual aspects of being out in the woods. Since my wife worked for Delta Airlines I've been able to travel a lot. I've been a lot of places and seen a lot of things. I have no trouble believing that God can work through man to accomplish what he wants to get done. I know that He can work through medical professionals to heal, that He can work through architects, engineers, and construction workers to create amazing structures. I marvel at the Empire State Building, the Golden Gate Bridge, Boulder Dam. But what's most important to me is to get to the source, to cut out the middle man and see what God has created himself. I can still remember the first time I flew into Jackson Hole, WY and got off the airplane and saw the Tetons. Or stood on the edge of a cliff on the north shore of Lake Superior. Or watched the sun rise from the top of Haleakala volcano on Maui. Or how about Devils tower, Carlsbad caverns, Great Salt Lake, the Everglades, the Mississippi River. Can you really be a good American and never go to Yellowstone or Yosemite? I know that spending so much time outside is not for everyone, but here's a quote that does a pretty good job of summing it up for me. "If you loved the world the Creator made for you, you did not shut out the blue heaven and its lights, or lie in foul air in a stuffy room, when in a bed outside you could smell the morning and watch its mother-of-pearl light softly touch the hills." That's all for now. I should be in Damascus Friday, but it may Be Saturday before I can get to a computer.