Day 1
Got on the trail a little beat up. My Aunt just moved up from Nashville, TN to move in with my mother and I helped move heavy items up to the day before the trek. My back and feet were a bit sore to say the least.
All I can remember is the skeeters. They were relentless. Me sweating like a water monkey didn’t help things either. I got lost after Bear Mountain Bridge and ended up on the blue trail to Anthony’s Nose instead of the Appalachian Trail for about 1/8 of a mile. To my defense the aqua blue blaze faded a bit white and looked off-white in real life. The video though does debunk that fact. Whatever It looked white to me.
I ended up walking about 13 miles to a stream and noticed a make shift camp site and set up camp. 10 minutes later 2 thru hikers (River Rat & Whoop!) made it to the same stealth and decided to camp with me. Real nice guys. River Rat hiked in some spicy turkey meat and cooked it up and shared it with both me and Whoop!. I also shared some of my Bison Stew from Hawkvittles. I went in around 9pm.
Day 2
Got a late start and slept almost 12 hours it was awesome. Whoop! was also starting late and asked how far I was going. I said to RPH Shelter and I think he was thinking of going farther. He ended up heading out before me.
Better hike today. Very even terrain again and less skeeters as I was in higher elevation and away from the marshy lands. Another 13 miles to the shelter. Feet are a little tender but manageable. Starting to get a mild chaffing rash on my gibblets though.
Ended up making my way to RPH Shelter and guess who was there??? River Rat and Whoop!. There was also Low Key and Moose Head who I met for the first time. Really liked this group as they were very friendly. Unlike the last year’s group who were a bit standoff-ish because I was section hiking and not very far last year. Maybe doing a 50 miler, putting in double digit days, and doing it for charity puts me a small grade higher than a normal section hiker... who knows but I really enjoy these guys they crack me up.
Only 1 legit spot to hang a hammock. That’s it. Luckily I was the only hammock hanger or else I would have had to keep on hiking and stealth again.
A man and his family (wife, daughter, and baby daughter) came in with a cooler with trail magic. Pints of ice cream it was awesome. I let the thrus get their fill first as they deserve it more than me. After they were done the man offered me some. God it was delicious (caramel ice cream). He was a former thru hiker (1997 I believe) went by the trail name of Gasseous.
He also offered all of us to come over the next morning to his house for waffles. All the thrus went the next morning but I felt like I was crashing the party even though the thrus insisted I should attend. I’m only on the trail for 5 days so in the end I decided to hike on. That man and his family are really a great bunch of people who really try to take care of the hikers over at the RPH area. Props.
Day 3:
My gibblets are raw and my feet are barking... 16.8 miles today is needed to keep me on track to be home by Thursday 6/30/2011. Ugh. It was long and hard.
Met up with the group and met a new thru called Special Delivery for lunch at Morgan Stewart Shelter. Again awesome fellows. Had some time to chat with River Rat and he was starting to get real home sick. I’m sure he will make it to Katahdin but he said he was envious of my quick 50 and gettin home.
The final 7 miles to Telephone Pioneers shelter felt like eternity. I stopped frequently and after reflection I was certifiably exhausted. A lot of inclines and declines in this section which finally took its toll on me. Plus I had to stop at nearly every decent stream to wash my nether-region and my UA compression briefs to get the salt out to battle the chaffing.
The rest of that group pushed on past Telephone Pioneers Shelter and that was the last I saw of that group.
Made it to the shelter, set up away from everyone and just passed out and let my feet rest. Tomorrow will be a late start. Only 9 miles and my feet feel like bloody stumps and my gibblets are on fire. I need some tender care if I want to complete this without constant agony.
Late that night he biggest thunderstorm I’ve ever camped in rolled in. I was nervous that my hammock and insulation would get soaked from the mist and heavy splashing that was occurring from my tarp and the rain hitting the dense tree brush. I basically said to myself to man up snuggle in and ride it out. Your gear has been through this before and you turned out ok. Well, I was right and was dry when I woke up in the morning. A lot of blow down was encountered from that storm the next day.
Day 4:
Met up with an elderly colombian man named Ben. Gave him his trail name (Doctor 66). I explain in the video. Really nice man and he gave me some trail magic. Let me use his cell phone to call my Fiance to let her know I was ok after 3 days. He also gave me some blister band aids so I can treat some hot spots on my pinky toes. Really awesome guy and we talked the better part of the morning.
Off I went with my rash almost gone and my feet feeling a bit better. Still some steep inclines and declines but not as intensive and definitely far between each other. A lot of meadow walking.
This is the day I did something I regret and I need to get it out because if I dont I will still feel bad. Let me paint the picture of prior events. My grandmother passed away a few weeks ago due to complications from her quadruple bypass. I am the family rock when things go bad. When the decision was made I had to instruct the hospital staff to turn off the machines and when no one could stay in the room with her I stayed there stoic and hard until she passed because I would be damned if I would let my grandma go out without anyone there with her. I never cried because I was keeping my family strong through it all. I started to talk about it in my video and all the feelings that I should have felt finally burst through and I turned off the camera to get it all out and ball out in the woods.
Well as I finally decided to let it out a section hiker was comming up in the opposite direction. So I sucked up my tears and made my way on the trail. I wear a kilt and he asked if I was Scottish. I figured if I said yes we would just pass and I could finish up my emotional mess and let out the pain. It didnt work that way and he ended up talking to me for 20 minutes about boots and hiking trail runners. I shouldn’t have lied. I’m angry at myself for lying. I apologize If he ever reads this or comes across my videos. I’m better than that even if I was emotional at that point.
I made it to Wiley Shelter after a good walk and met Andrew and Victoria who were from Greenich Village in NYC. They were doing an overnighter and I was explaining some of the hiking terminology and some lighter weight hiking philosophy as they were green horns. Twig and Chupa (both thru hikers) also stayed the night but I didnt spend much time with them. Sasquach came in with is dog Hank and spent the night talking with the thru hikers. They were having a great time and I was really tired and ended up staying parked on the picnic table and then went to bed for an early rise.
Day 5
I woke up before the sun came up, packed up and ate quickly as I wanted to catch an early train. The Harlem-Wingdale train station was a good 6-7 miles away all road walking after I walked to the CT border. I ended up hitting the trail at 6:15am and made it to the train station by 8:20am. I tried to hitch but no-one wanted to pick up a dude in a blue kilt... do I blame them? No. But I thought I looked fairly sexy even though I stunk to high heaven.
Made it into Grand Central Station and took a Cab to Penn Station to get me back to Long Island. Ended up getting home by 1:45pm.
Reflection:
The whole trip seemed like a dream. If I didnt have video I wouldnt have believed I did it. Seemed like it went by so fast.
All my gear was awesome... well maybe my Salomon trail runners were a little bit of a let down. The traction sucked on rocks and was getting pretty worn down for only having 100 trail miles on them so far.
The hammock gear summer top quilt was just the answer to my venting problems from last year using a 3 season top quilt. I used it as a blanket and was the best thing ever.
The OHM backpack squeaked a bit when I filled up with water for the night. Actually at 24lbs it was a bit uncomfortable. Manageable but not great until the end of day 2 when the weight got down to the 20lbs range. Then it was heaven. And it does squeak when it is that packed with weight.
I used a thin wool shirt from Ice Breakers for my hiking shirt. First time I did this for Summer. It may be why I was sweating so much but let me tell you it really didnt smell after 5 days of sweating. Also, after 20 min of stopping to rest your body heat dries it out almost completely.
I may go to gatoraid bottles instead of a hydration bladder. I’m not sure. I did run out of water on Day 4 but luckily found a really good stream to fill back up. Hard to monitor the water in the bladder. Who knows. I’m still debating
The pockets on the Sport Kilt hiking kilt are a bit of a pain. They need to be 2 inches lower on the kilt so the hip belt doesnt get in the way of the pockets. Also I should have went with a size smaller as I lost about 3-4lbs by Day 4 and it was kinda hanging on me.
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