Day 21 text from Judd

Here's the only communique  from Judd in two days  (text message below.) Clingman's Dome would be the highest point in the Great Smokey Mountains. -- I can't find an AT shelter listed on Judd's  crib sheet there. That must be why he has to go up and over.

http://www.nps.gov/grsm/planyourvisit/clingmansdome.htm

And this just in from their link:

Did You Know?

A nursing female bat can eat her weight in mosquito-sized insects each night.

Are you HERE?

Day NIneteen - Entry: Sep 28, 2013

We are in!!
-83.8082°, 35.4529°

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Day ??Seventeen - Really Sep 25, 2013

This is really the entry for the 25th. Jay and I were up and at the restaurant for breakfast at 8 it was pouring rain. We steeled ourselves in shorts and tshirt and headed out to Sassafras Gap shelter about 7 miles away and straight up out of this gap we went straight through and arrived beat ,cold and hungry . My fingers couldn't pop the clasps on my pack. It was almost dark and we were pretty miserable. We got everything wrung out and dry cloths on but it took a while to warm up. Jay is an interesting fellow. We kept each other going with chatter. He flew harrier jets for the marines and we exchanged some LHA stories from when I worked for LBNS (Long Beach Naval Ship Yard.) There was no service at the shelter --touch screens don't work when they are wet anyway and my fingers were not necessarily doing what I wanted them to do anyway. It was by far the most demanding day so far. Uncle Richard did get a text thru that America had won the Americas cup races. Seems like all the little aches and pains were all multiplied on this miserable day. We congratulated ourselves for keeping a dry set of cloths to change into and bemoaned the fact that we would have to put all this cold wet stuff back on in the morning. Jay lamented the fact that he had not brought an extra set of camp shoes. We planned tomorrow with 3 potential places to hole up for the night if we began to flag at any point during the day. It could be a short day, but it's really hard to stop hiking before 2:00. A medium day or a full day that would put us in to a leanto around 6pm. The medium day would entail setting up tents in wet cloths on a wet ground-- just didn't seem restful. One thing Jay had that I didn't was a good topo map. I'm convinced I need the topo maps recommended by the ATC just so I can see where I am and what's around me.
Bryson City, NC, United States

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Day Seventeen Entry: Sep 27, 2013

Zero day at the NOC. Mostly laying low I did have fried eggs for breakfast and intend to do so again tomorrow. I even had a glass of red wine after my spaghetti dinner. I did a load of laundry lets see a shirt two pairs of socks a pair of pants and a set of long underwear. Most of the day we watched kayakers plAying in the river that runs right thru the place. The release must come around 9 am but stays high until after dark. There are gates all set up and some of these guys are good. I watched a fellow stay right in the same place and do about a dozen forward rolls. There were kids and all sorts of toys. Even stand up paddle boards. I watched a truck go by with about 30 deflAted rafts heading off to the put in. Of course the place was full of middle schoolers and the overflow bunkhouse was up and out, way out. I met a fellow Jay who we has seen earlier hiking with his daughter. They had started at Springer too except by now she had ditched him and he was on his own. He'd been stung by a bee of some sort and was hitching into town for an Epi pen for next time. He said later hitching into town was like being a kid again. Sitting in the back of a beat up pickup-- it was fun. Come to find out he's headed to Fontana dam too before he goes home and we decide to hike together. Tomorrow it's supposed to rain and the climb out of this gap is steep but the first shelter is about 6 miles and we'll shoot for that. Oh, and the weather report was for rain, rain and then rain. But we can do it on fried eggs and grits from a breakfast at the restaurant .
55° Partly Cloudy
Nantahala National Forest, Bryson City, NC, United States

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Day Sixteen Entry: Sep 26, 2013

Wesser Bald. I didn't wake up in Wayah Bald shelter thinking I'd make it all the way to the Nantahala Outdoor Center but by 6 pm I had covered 16.5 miles. Making sure that every blaze I saw was that happy little white AT blaze. There were some ups and downs and the Wesser bald fire toweresque observation tower was a real up hill run but the views were amazing. Lately I've gotten to the tops of three balds and have been fogged in --not this time. Since my little stick pick contraption has weaseled out of all the stuff I've sent home I thought I would try to do a 360 video just like in the commercial. Not so much. I tend to fall back on the panoramic sew three shots together of my camera. It was hard to walk past the Wesser bald leanto at mile 10.2 but I pushed on. I walked right past the Rufus Morgan shelter. I had wanted to at least see the place since I knew the guy's story but I didn't even see the blue blaze for a turnoff. At one point I did see the roof to the "mouldering privy" but that was it. Mouldering priveys are the only thing I've seen so far for out houses. They are usually a platform sometimes with a roof over them and under the platform usually about 4 x4x4, chicken wire and all above ground is where everything goes from the seat above. They ask you to throw some dried leave and twigs down after you are done but that's about it. There are usually barrels of leaves and such for your convenience. An above ground out house. The smell was not noticeable at all - really! So I get into the NOC about six and they have a bunk in the overflow room. Something about a herd of middle schoolers coming in. My bunk is about a half mile away and up about 1000 feet. I couldn't believe it. Course it was the17$ variety ANSI was gratefull to be on a mattress, never mind that it was 2 incessant of old egg crate. I had a shower, about ¼ mile from my bunk, put on my cleanest cloths sans underwater and hurried back to the restaurant for a burger before it closed at 8. On the way back I ran into Steve. He had just tumbled in, heading sobo. **He was looking for a bunk. I said everything is closed but I have the key to the overflow room that still has 3 open bunks
So the NOC recently played host to an international freestyle kayaking thing. The river runs right thru the middle of "campus" and the gates were still up. The AT goes right across the bridge right in the middle of it all. There are zip lines, xcountry bikes, rafting all sort of stuff almost Disney-esq. I decide tomorrow will be my first real zero day. And I'll figure out if I make Fontana dam in two hard days or three easy days. Relatively speaking.
Did I mail this to you????
70° Cloudy
Nantahala National Forest, Franklin, NC, United States

**sobo = South Bound

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Day 17 - You are a popular hiker....

Judd-- Do you realize people , beyond our inner and middle circle of friends, are checking in on you??? There are some outer circle hits/strangers  (some stranger than others).... sometimes up to 78 post-views a day!!

You go!

Day Fifteen- Entry: Sep 24, 2013--what's a bald?

Wayah Bald. I got a ride into and back from Franklin by a fellow named Chuck. He told me the story of Rufus Morgan, a local minister, who had built his church. The mythology is that he was the sole, local AMC member for about 30 years. He did all the local trail maintenance until he was 80 years old or so. Chuck took me to see the church--just as you'd expect, humble and functional. Built into the stone foundation were the tombstones of Rufus family. On the way, we passed what was once Rufus' house except it had burned down when Rufus was in his 80s. The chimney was still there and the front steps and it actually looked like the yard was kept up-- a monument to his work, I guess, and the the trajedy of loosing everything the man owned at 80 something. The hills we drove through were similar to the hills around central Maine-- lots of farming. When we did get to the church, Chuck and I were both surprised to see an addition being put on. Not for the addition, but for the choice of material. Cinder block foundation and particle board siding. Chuck said he was going to have words with some folks in town.
As we got close to Winding Stair Gap, Chuck asked which side of the road I wanted to be dropped off on. Well, which side is the trail on? He pointed out that I had been picked up on the south side of the highway and the trail continues on the north side of the highway. Yea, so? Well, he had to ask if it was important to me to walk across the road, you know--was I a purist who had to pass every white blaze? I figured that's not the AT-- that's US 64 and those are not white blazes-- they are yellow stripes. Just let me out on the north side and we'll call it a safety measure as I believe in a hiker vs truck on a highway, the hiker would loose.
I slog up Siler Bald, and then Wayah Bald, a "peak" of some prominence in these parts with a great stone tower at the top and you really can see forever. I don't waste anytime because it's before noon and I'm feeling pretty good, so I'm going to bypass Wayah Bald shelter about a mile further on and make for Cold Spring Shelter, 5 miles Further on. That would make it almost a 16 mile day. So coming down off this bald, I notice that another trail has commingled with the AT. That familiar white blaze now has a shiny yellow blaze next to it. This would be the Bertram trail. After about a half mile or so I make a sharp right or east turn avoiding the sign that says "shelter" turn left or west. Usually the shelters are located a half mile or so off the trail blazed with blue blazes. That shelter not for me I'm pushing on baby. So the yellow blazes become more frequent and the trail keeps going down and down and down. I've lost all white blazes by now although I could have sworn there were some, well, every so often. It's amazing how white some of that tree fungus can look when you really want to see white. So I keep walking down down down. I passed Wayah Bald shelter around 3 pm. Around 4:30 I reach a sign that says Locust Tree Gap No. 2. That little voice in my head is now screaming, 'this is supposed to be Burning town Gap.' I start trying to rationalize, not making that return trip up up up to Wayah Bald shelter. If I had a topo map and compass, maybe I could figure out how to hook up with the AT by keeping on the way I was going … Something akin to my mother's voice told me to suck it up and start back up hill. I spent the night at Wayah Bald shelter. I got in about a 6 mile-r. If I had just hiked to the shelter it would have been an 11 mile day. I'm calling it a 14 mile day and I don't care what you think.
The idea that I'd have to drag my sorry stumble butt across US 64 just to say I completed the AT is crap --spent my first night alone in a shelter--well me, the mice and the owls --was luxurious --zip tried to start a fire but everything was so wet I couldn't even get something to burn using my stove as a starter. It got cool at night and I was thankful for my sleeping bag which was zipped up tight with the hood cinched for most of the evening. Up until now I usually crawled into my liner bag and threw the bag over me quilt style.
73° Sunny
Nantahala National Forest, Franklin, NC, United States

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Dear Anonymous - Day 13

Dear Anonymous--

There was no post from Judd yesterday  (or I didn't receive one because our shared iCloud was full.)  Today I bought more of the cloud, so we should be okay for a while.

P.S. 
You only have to be anonymous if you want. If you scroll around from the default--to where is says NAME/URL  (see blue line below,) you can leave your name.  Or leave your name or real or imagined trail name in the text of your message. If you don't tell us who you are, we can't make witty comments back.

Day TWELVE Entry: Sep 21, 2013

Dan the policeman shares his leftover canister of fuel and shows off his 10 pound .45 cal service weapon be had been carrying. He's off to grow miniature steer in Texas after a career in Austin PD. We say good bye in Unicoi Gap.

Rock Gap Shelter 9/20
Dan from PA or big "D" when he gets to Fontana Dam. It will have taken 24 years but he will have completed the whole AT. We have been sharing shelters the last three nights and off and on again for the last seven. He's up early, stop early and nap. I am up sort of early, stop a lot more and usually roll in after nap time. Tomorrow I go into Franklin briefly to pick up the box of stuff the owner of the two Budget Inns offered to transport for me, Ron Haven. Course I don't have any cell service and  I haven't had any for the last 10 miles. So I am not sure how I'm going to get into town. Maybe things will change in the next four miles before I get to the road crossing and Franklin is 10 miles east. I guess I could walk. We are both headed for resupply at the Nantahala Outdoor Center but after today he should be a day ahead of me. It's funny but you really do develop a community. You know who is on front of you. You know who is behind you. You know about how fast everyone is going and you know just about where everyone is going to be for the next two or three days.

The shelters seem to be getting darker and nastier. I may have to start pitching a tent. This one however does have a bulletin board on bears made by the Summit Charter School.
Tonight's supper was instant potatoes with tuna salad mixed in. I don't care how hungry you are it's dang hard to put away a Ziplock quart size freezer bag full of that stuff. I'm carrying way too much food.
Rain pants are the next thing to go home . Really--if it rains you are going to get wet. Rain or sweat. If you were sitting in a boat doing some spring fishing that would be different. I've got a hood insulated rain/ wind jacket and Down sweater and dry Smartwool long under wear to recover from any chilly wet slog. I wish my underwear would dry out. ExOfficio claims one pair and what 6 countries HA! Even my Smartwool socks dry quicker!

Woke up early because walnuts or chestnuts or whatever have been dropping on the tin roof of the shelter all night long. Along about midnight a shot rings out and I jump right out of my skin. It's a mouse trap going off over head. Thanks Dave. About four o'clock another one goes off. In the morning we locate the traps and no dead critters. Maybe it was something bigger. Right after breakfast it starts to rain. D is going on but I am only going to the road crossing where I get Chuck Norris to give me a ride into Franklin NC. He thru-hiked in 2009 or so and he's married to a girl from Farmington. He'll pick me up at 8 am tomorrow. In the mean time, I have spread everything out at the Budget Inn and gone for a walk thru town. Found the "Rathskeller" with cold draft beer . One IPA down and this journaling is coming easy - maybe another and I'll think of another story. I've already decided on Elmore's Fish Fry for supper. I bought myself a t-shirt and will stick it in the box I hope I get to mail… Today, the Rathskellers just gave me a stick of Bavarian beef from somewhere not here --vitamin b they call it. They even asked if I was vegetarian first. I'm not sure if that is beer or beef. Thee "b". Franklin is another beautiful area. I wonder how I can get more than one picture in a post?

So the plan is to get on the trail early and reach the Nantahala Outdoor Center in two long days, then it's on to Fontana Dam and the Smokies.

Oh, one more thing --I am going to send my pencils and paper journal home this afternoon. I really appreciate what everyone wrote but I could really use the ounces….
And there's live music tonight! I may be heading towards a zero day here in Franklin .
64° Rain
Nantahala National Forest, Franklin, North Carolina, United States

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Sent from my MacBook Pro:
I looked it up because I couldn't tell if Judd's auto-correcting phone was just mis-typing RatKiller or something-- Melanie

Rathskeller, Franklin, NC - review on YELP

 6/19/2013

Very chill place with coffee beer and wine. If you are on Main St look for the sign hanging above the sidewalk, just past the outfitters. 

Rathskellers

Max the dog is covering up the tshirt

JUDD hits 100!!! - Sep 20, 2013 - Day 11

Paul Simon singing away--the sun is bright. This might be a good day to dry out. Shift into Mark Knofler and EmmyLou to Ghetto the top of Albert Mtn . There's even a fire tower and spectacular views, I bet, if it wasn't all socked in and misty. Last night, in Carter Gap shelter a roundish Georgia fellow showed up, retired after 35 years on the rail road. He did love to talk. He showed up after dark with very little water so D and I spotted him enough for supper. He tried to find the spring but he didn't have a good sense of direction. We kept seeing his light bouncing through the woods in the completely wrong direction. He tried again in the morning and got lost again. We had to walk him down to the spring . One of the peculiar things about Dave (Dave's not here) was he carried mouse traps with him because he hated vermin and he set his mouse traps every night. Last night we didn't hang bear bags but we did hang the food bags in the shelter on "mouse preventers." ( Can lids with the string passing through, hang your bag below and supposedly the critters can't get at it. )Rumor has it that the Cuban fiber, whatever bag I put food and garbage in, is rodent proof.
Hey! I just hit 100.1 miles!
0°, 0°

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Day TEN Entry: Sep 19, 2013 - UPDATED

This has turned into another 12 mile day . Standing Indian Mtn at 5498 ft is not above tree line. I had visions of a Katahdin Stream Trail and it's not even close. However, if you pass some guy with his dog coming down and he tells you the summit is just 30 minutes ahead, don't believe him. 

So I pull into the shelter and sure enough "D" is here and a couple of others waiting out the rain. Oh did I tell you it rained the past 4 miles. I strip down to shorts and gaiters and my shirt got washed. I have warm dry cloths in my pack. The rule is when you head out in the morning you have to wear stinky, sweaty, cold cloths. You warm up soon enough. Nothing really dries out and then at camp you strip, wipe off and put on warm dry cloths, and try not to think about what you will wear in the morning. I hang all the wet stuff up. That's mostly so I can wring out the bottom hem or the cuffs that have been hanging down. I haven't set up my tent yet. Have had some interesting conversations about hammocks. Apparently a Hennessy lets you sleep NOT in a banana shape some how and everyone swears by them. A fellow just pulled through looking for the spring (ha .)Said he is walking a few more hours before he quits. I commented on the well worn campsites around the leanto and he says there's no way you can get near a shelter during the through season he says there're people every where.

United States

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Day Nine Entry: Sep 18, 2013 - Border Crossing

My first state crossing! 2.9 miles to Muskrat Shelter
Hayesville, North Carolina, United States

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You still look perky!!!!

Day Eight Entry: Sep 17, 2013

So here I sit at Dick's Creek Gap, a road crossing of US 76. I'm waiting for Joyce or Sally to pick me up and take me back to Hiawassee. I have my first drop box waiting for me and I also need to get a new fuel canister. I finally used my first one up almost at breakfast. I could still squeeze two more cups of hot water out of it, enough for supper, but its time. The rumor is that one store, the Buckshead, may or may not have canisters. Joyce and Sally are working on it for me. I may have to build a stand of some sort out of a soda can for the alcohol stove and mail my jetboil ahead to Winding Stair Gap my next resupply
There are lots of little critters around: squirrels, butterflies, and millipedes. The brown ones about 6 inches long; the ants have a party when one dies. Aren't centipedes the ones that can bite? Every so often the side of the trail is all torn up. Even giant downed and rotting trees that look really termite or  infested look all torn up sometimes. I've been envisioning bears grubbing all around looking for food but I don't think so now. Yesterday I saw a whole herd of piggies. They must be this year's litter --they are about that size. (Right now I am having this incredible craving for a meat lovers Subway… And I've never even had one! ) PArt of it might be the incredibly efficient way my body is turning food into energy. Really! Hardly any waste at all. Oh sure I pee pretty regularly--staritng at 5:30 in the morning --when every guy in the shelter over 55 rouses himself to pee. What I'd really like is a good solid rewarding BM - shoot I could have packed half as much TP. So, these pigs were as cute as could be, all different colors and splotches --course me, I'm on the lookout for mom and then I think, no, it's the dad with these guys. No probs, they just snuffled off through the leaves and poison ivy.
Yesterday most of the conversation with myself was whether or not I need to carry the tent or some part of it with me. Last night there were 5 people in a shelter that holds 7. Again, this place must be crawling with thru hikers in the spring. Sally says its thru hiker season! Most people say keep the tent. I'd like to be able to set it up with just hiking poles instead of the whole freestanding set of poles.

Got in to TD Hiawassee Budget Inn-- picked up my resupply box - it's like Christmas! And I spoke to Dave at the desk and anything I don't want to carry for the next four days I can put in a box and the owner will take it to the Budget Inn in Franklin which is my next on-the-run resupply and I am thinking it might be my first Zero day (where I just soak in a hot bathtub and drink beer for a day of zero miles progress.) Ok ! When do the muscles stop hurting and the uphills become something besides sore? Muscles and mind games… Don't you "get in shape" at some point???
-83.6186°, 34.9124°

Ahh this is living!
Just sort of a comment here and I don't want to sound ungrateful because it has been quite a slog so far. This is wonderful hill country of streams lakes, gaps, hollers, stamps, balds, knobs. Ok I have not heard or read "holler" but all those other ones are legitimate geological formation. This is wonderful country and I am starting to see leaves change. But the "trail" is more a foot path with some serious ups and downs. Lots of section hikers this time of year and most people refer to Maine as rocks and roots. Most everyone agrees this southern part is good training to get you ready for New England .
150 S Main St, Hiawassee, Georgia, United States

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my own day seven

I'm "camping' in Boston for the week at a conference. In Harambee** with Judd I have brought along some of his left over hiking fare to have in my hotel room: oatmeal to be made with coffee water, tuna packets to be eaten cold.  My left over $6 chicken tikka an rice from the food court on ice for today's lunch.  And the VIEW!

out my window

ugliest hotel art, evah


Boston, 70 degrees, sunny, sent from my laptop

** Harambee (pronounced ha-rom-BAY) in Kenya, came to be a motto of solidarity: Harambee literally means "all pull together" in Swahili, and is also the official motto of Kenya and appears on its coat of arms.

Day Seven Entry: Sep 16, 2013 - A trail name is revealed

So ,just as a follow up to the night I spent at Gooch Mtn shelter, the one where you couldn't hear the babbling brook behind me - and BROOK is being generous. I'm about ready to strip off my skivvies when I hear voices coming down the trail. I get my cloths back on and look up. We'll the first thing I notice is a campfire ring built in the clearing right below the bear cables . That can't be right, I think, and then all the commotion turns out to be a lone woman. She throws about an 80 pound pack on the lean to floor and once again my spider senses tell me "that can't be right." So we start chit chating --she works in a bar and we are both lamenting the fact that there is no alcohol. If I had brought my personalized flask it would have been long gone, but those 14.2 ozs made great conversation. She admitted that she had a lot of stuff and come to find out the pad she was sleeping on was a swimming pool mattress. She had about 20 pounds of batteries and every piece there is in a jet boil kit with a pot big enough for four. Part of the evening for me was trying to make the little ultralight alcohol stove mate to my jetboil pot or at least my metal cup --everything seemed to put it out. I need to make a stand out of half inch hardware/ cloth and get a wind screen . I even tried using some of Dancing Crane's (that's her trail name) extra jetboil parts she had. Nothing worked. Even the amount of fuel I had to use to prime the thing didn't seem to make sense . My jetboil heats enough water for supper in less than a minute. I burned off the fuel in the stove and was trying to figure what to do with the left over 8 ounces of denatured alcohol in the Gator aid bottle when DC wanted to start a fire. I dunno-- I haven't needed a fire at any camp yet. Maybe I just don't want to smell like smoke. So she pulls out one of her fire starters, dryer lint stuffed in TP cardboard roll. I suggest she pour some of my left over fuel in on top of the lint. She claims it only took her two matches to get a fire going and she was some excited. After dark (I'm usually in bed by dark) she started showing me all the stump tops and sign posts she has pictures of on her phone. Except she is in her dancing crane position. On one leg, arms outstretched, you know. Her ambition is to go to law school but right now dancing pays the bills. What kind of dancing in a bar does she do? Well she says she doesn't wear many cloths at least through the whole performance. OK! It's time for me to go to bed and I am hugging the far left wall of the shelter. How did this girl getup here? She is 98% of the lean-to away on the other side. I'm trying to go to sleep and all I can hear is that damn pool raft squeaking. And me, I've got my head under my covers repeating to my self "I'm Fathergoose, I'm Fathergoose , I'm Fathergoose " I guess if anyone asks I am Fathergoose on the trail
-83.6768°, 34.8041°

Cary Grant as Father Goose -www.ourrelease.org 

www.ourrelease.org

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Day Sixish Entry: Sep 15, 2013

Unicoi Gap, 52.9 miles from Springer and 2133 miles from home. I'm waiting for Joyce and Sally's shuttle service into Hiawassee Budget Inn. Had some wildlife encounters. A couple of partridges one flew off and one just eyed me from the brush. About a hundred yards up the trail from this road crossing/parking lot, two black bear cubs scampered across the trail left to right up hill ,UP hill right in front of me. One was about 20 feet up a tree before you could spit and the other one kept running. Now I'm a smart man when it comes to bears And I know enough not to get caught between a mom and her kids so I look down hill to my left and sure enough here comes momma moving like the wind. She grunts every time she pushes off with those hind legs. I'm in full reverse by now. She gets across the trail and stops to look at me. I'm talking to her just as nice as I can telling her exactly what I'm going to do and what I'm not going to do. I figure she has to get junior down from the tree so I'm just holding my ground, chit chatting with her and the I notice junior isn't in the tree. Mom disappears and I keep talking as I work my way down. Not 10 yards down the path, there's crowd of kids coming up the trail with a big Doberman type dog off the leash. I tell them what just happened and the said they thought they'd hike the trail on the other side of the gap.
So I'm in front of them and I head over to this sign and take a peek at what's in the magic boxes. The one on the right has mostly granola bars… And four copies of the New Testament. I was tempted to grab the potato chips but looked in the other box first- an APPLE. As the kids with the dog passed by one of the boys looked in the boxes and grabbed something --his girlfriend read him the riot act. "That's not for people like us!"
77° Mostly Cloudy
Chattahoochee National Forest, Hiawassee, Georgia, United States

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Judd's email -- did he mean me to share some of it or all of it?:

I'm at the budget inn sunday, a day early. So using their keyboard this may even turn into a blog entry if you can make it happen. Im not used to having to put in punctuation and caps. I can't figure out how to view pictures on my camera. I'll go back to my room and get it to try again. I might push through two more days then come back for the box. It works out for my resupply. Instead of carrying 6 days, four of yours and 2 from the grocery store, of stuff. I'll do two then pick up your four. As the crow flies I'm about 8 miles south of NC. It will take me 6+ days. I will leave a bag of stuff that I'm sending home too. i REALLY DO UNDERSTAND why some people count the ounces. As the mornings get chillier I have heard that some people try to go from the warm sleeping bag straight to the trail to stay warm. Thats my next experiment. It means starting the stove only once for supper just before you hop in a warm bed.. Breakfast can be a cliff bar and carnation instant breakfast. and I haven't really started stopping for lunch its sort of a knosh on the go. When I stop My muscles tighten up I would rather rest by just slowing down. Those gaggy energy bars need to be eaten in little bites - and they don't have to be eaten all at once. I have a nice 10 mile pace right now. it gets me into camp around 4, Im usually on the trail by 8am. That might change with the new breakfast. In bed by 8pm and up by 7am thats about sunrise sunset. I have done more but after 13 I get goofy. but I can feel my muscles getting stronger. I weighed myself on the rusty old scale outside the office door and it said 202 lbs. So, its sunday here in Hiawassee. No beer or wine sales on sunday and the hiking store is closed.I was dreaming of beer and pizza. I hit the grocery store for a salad in a bag and cold OJ for supper. I picked up a mashed potato supper, a couple cliff bars, a couple apples and a box if carnation instant breakfast - really! They are not bad! All that instant coffee was a bad idea, you can strip it out of any unsent boxes. Oh, and Im thinking that powdered pnut butter and humus on tortillas should begin to play more of a role. Im getting a little mixed up trying to figure out what i have instagramed and what I have journaled and what I have journaled and mailed to the blog and what I have journaled and tried to mail to the blog but might be lost in the ether because of a fuzzy service connection. Actually there might even be some instagrams out there that I thought I sent but they never went through... I have to just journal all the stories I write in my head while I'm walking along. They may not come up chronologically but there some corkers.

Whew, today the bears were really cool

and here's a little game we like to play on the AT in GA. See if you can spot the rattle snake dozing on the side of the trail before you sorry ass boot kicks him in the head and he gets pissed off at you. They make the cutest little sound with that giggly thing on his tail...

Sep 14, 2013 PM

Pigpen gap
-83.843°, 34.7255°

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"You can't hear the brook behind me but its calling me to get naked"

Judd and I texted a bit this morning. He said he's using duct tape as moleskin. That does not sound reassuring. Doesn't he know, duct tape is for removing plantar warts? I asked if he wanted me to overnight express some moleskin to him. He said no, he actually has some somewhere in the pack, but the duct tape is rolled around his walking sticks so is more convenient. Convenient until it rips off your skin, Judd.

Sep 14, 2013 A.M.

Good morning. I'm really headed up hill. Today should be about 12 miles most of my food is eaten so my pack is lighter. I found an alcohol stove so I'm going to experiment find out if my jet boil set up with canister can be replaced with something lighter
Still just plain old Judd…
50° Sunny
Chattahoochee National Forest, Blairsville, Georgia, United States

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Day FIVE Entry: Sep 13, 2013

Now that is some serious trail magic. Bought a bunk at mountain crossing/walasiyi inn/ neel gap hostel o get a shower and dry out. Said goodby to my Florida firemen buddies and they left me with serious BBQ. The log books here go back to 1996
75° Sunny
United States

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I hope they have a drier for you and your gear. All I can imagine after hiking even 24 hours wet is the crotch rot and foot fungus you're going to get.
 I sent your first box today to Hiawassee. I might not have been 100% upfront when the postmaster asked if there was anything liquid or perishable.....I tried, but I couldn't figure out how to freeze-dry the Southern Comfort....

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Day Whatever Entry: Sep 13, 2013

John trades me a bely [sic] pocket for cheese crackers and a milkyway
72° Sunny
Chattahoochee National Forest, Blairsville, Georgia, United States

Blood Mountain --some serious sitting going on
72° Sunny
Chattahoochee National Forest, Blairsville, Georgia, United States

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Day FOUR Entry: Sep 12, 2013

What's for supper? Why, spaghetti marinara with mushrooms - LOW SODIUM!
82° Sunny
Suches, Georgia, United States

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Glad you figured out that superhot-fast-stove. Thanks, Steve G!!!  It's 68° and raining here in China but not quite the lightening show as last night. 

Day FOUR Entry: Sep 12, 2013

My first rainy day transit-hurray!
84° Sunny
Chattahoochee National Forest, Dahlonega, Georgia, United States

Water for tonight and tomorrow.

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WHOA-- Judd is wearing the bandana I colored him (with the big black mosquito in his foreheard!)  Each kid made him a special bandana for father's day.

Day THree Entry: Sep 11, 2013

Overnight food storage
Appalachian Trl, Suches, Georgia, United States

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Day THree Entry: Sep 11, 2013

Some trail magic in Coopers gap. At least I think it's magic . My shuttle driver survivor Dave said something about 4 gallons of water in a gap, I wasn't sure then what he was talking about I'd feel bad if it was promised for some of his clients - a little. I only took 20 ounces to mix up some gator aid.
This was not really my first trail magic. While I was at the Hiker Inn I met up with another couple from Rome Georgia and they treated me to supper in town, Dahlonega. It does not rhyme with Taladaga, accent on the second syllable. Dahlonega was a really cute town and reminded me of Woodstock VT. I had shrimp and grits and it was heavenly, washed down with Terrapin Ale.
We put one of my Florida firemen hiking buddies on a shuttle out- he had blown his knee out. His two buddies are going to continue on to Neels gap. I'm waiting for them at Gooch Mountain shelter. Tomorrow will be 13 miles to Woods Hole Shelter half way between Bird Stamp and Bird Gap (?).
And I had a long chat with my first Copper Head ( isn't that what you call a rattler in Geogia?) He was sitting right beside the trail and I think we both startled each other. I poked him with a stick but be wasn't moving. He said my trail name could be Snake but then I'd have to wear an eye patch so I'm thinking Copper reminiscent of The Fox and The Hound (sort of) He didn't let me hear his rattle until the third rock. It was then I decided to bush sack around him VERY conscious of the fallen rotten logs and knee high poison ivy. NEVER put your hiking poles down (in poison ivy) AND I have become very Leary of putting my PicStic on the dirty end of my hiking pole. They do know how to grow poison ivy in Georgia !
88° Sunny
Chattahoochee National Forest, Suches, Georgia, United States

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Day Two Entry sept 10,2013

Springer mountin thanks friends
77° Sunny
Chattahoochee National Forest, Blue Ridge, Georgia, United States

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Judd called last night to say he'd had dinner with strangers for his first trail magic:  folks from Rome: the wife hikes, the husband supports.   I figured out eventually, he didn't mean Rome, Italy... but not sure..... is there a Rome, Georgia?  This morning he hit the trail... here's his text from this evening:

 ....

Day One Entry: Sep 8, 2013

After riding In the car from Jackson to Logan standing in line to get boarding pass and invasively frisked by TSA I was inside the gate… With exactly two hours to wait. Just like Melanie said there would be. There was a family over in the corner, trying their best to keep kids entertained --they were not entertained and howling. A sweet young sing song voice came over the intercom to remind us all that there is no screaming in the waiting area. Really?
On the plane, I sat beside a mom and her 4 year old. Of course I gave up my window seat. He didn't fall asleep until 10 minutes before we landed. As soon as we landed and the A/C shut down and everyone was standing up to get out and everything got really claustrophobic mom blew lunch--she was a little pregnant>
I got to my holiday inn hotel ok and walked down the street to find supper. Ribs, fried okra and rutabagas--  I've bad better ribs. I also picked up a can of boiled pouts in a can. I'm told you should warm them in the microwave before eating.
79° Mostly Clear
1380 Virginia Ave, East Point, Georgia, United States
As editor, I corrected what I could (Judd typing with his thumbs on his iphone...) I just couldn't translate what this meant. Can you?

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Whoa! - The weighing of the pack.

"Maybe I can take that personalized flask filled with 14.6 ounces of Tullamore Dew!

Oops my hydration system is empty... Add 4 pounds of water to that. Although, I shouldn't have to carry more than a couple pounds at any one time. Hmmm..."

Give each man his Dew!
Sept. 6- upon departing China, ME

Bon voyage

Judd is, to this minute, getting bon voyage messages and gifts.  Is it a "voyage" if you walk the whole way?

oh, yeah-- I guess it is:

voy·age

  [voi-ij]  Show IPA noun, verb, voy·aged,voy·ag·ing.

noun

1.

a course of travel or passage, especially a long journey by water to a distant place.

2.

a passage through air or space, as a flight in an airplane or space vehicle.

3.

a journey or expedition from one place to another by land.

Judd's FISHPACK gave him a "cough syrup" holder: 

 complete with inscription from Judd's Jabberwocky recitation:
   Carol, et al, gave Judd an inscribed Happy Trails cake with a sculpted hiker.... the Lederhosen still wet with paint even after 3 days. The tiny autographed red lobster is actually small enough to carry but only if it has a dual purpose.  (i.e. you can only carry a book if it doubles as toilet paper. Two pencils are okay but that's because you can use them to rub together and start a fire? Can the lobster double as a toe nail cleaner? Paper weight? I gave Judd a small autograph /memory book and covered it with an old photo hiking in the snowy White Mountains of New Hampshire back in 1975 when Judd was just starting to dreasm about the AT.  Oops: I was told the hiker in the snow was  trail mate Vic. (If you type THAT wrong the first time it comes out TRIAL mate Vic.)

The resemblance is striking

White Mountains Judd - 1975