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  1. #1
    New Member
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    Another Newbie from Western NC!

    Hello all...

    I ended up here after a friend introduced me to Shug's videos...

    I gotta be honest-I almost couldn't watch them at first-THAT GUY HAS TOO MUCH ENERGY!

    Later, on another forum, someone posted to check this site out and gave Shug's background, so now that I understand his background, I haven't stopped laughing!

    Brief bio:

    I "hiked" with some older church members when I was a kid, and then in the late 80's. I live near the Linville Gorge, and to many people here the Gorge was someplace that if you went you got lost or died or both!

    That just made me want to go more! Me and a buddy went in one Sunday with daypacks, and...
    GOT LOST!

    We didn't panic, we didn't die, and we backtracked and "found" ourselves, and enjoyed the day.

    Later, two friends and I started hiking on weekends. One (Greg-imagine Shug at 22 years old!) was a sergeant in the 82nd Airborne (coming home almost every weekend) and one on particularly nasty cold and wet winter weekend, I almost froze in my cotton longhandles and cotton and polyfill sleeping bag. Me and the other guy both felt like he had to "babysit" us, and we decided that was pathetic on our parts and that it wouldn't happen again!

    We hiked the Gorge almost every weekend, and bought as much quality gear as we could. Little by little, I went from jeans, combat boots, cotton long handles, a Kmart sleeping bag, an ALICE pack, etc., to a Eureka frame pack (and later a Mountainsmith internal) Danners, Slumberjack bag, North Face and Patagonia underwear, a North Face down jacket, etc.

    The days of being "babysat" were over!

    I tried hammocking a couple times and liked to FROZE, so I gave it up.

    I got "out of" hiking as other hobbies and endeavors started taking my time. Little by little I sold or gave my gear away to buddies that needed it or were just getting "into" wilderness hiking.

    Here lately however, I have "vowed" to "get back into the woods" and several years have came and gone, but this year is looking good! Just bought hammock, fly, titanium stakes, a Primaloft jacket (when you find mountaineering jackets in 3XL on closeout, you BUY them!) and already did a day hike at Shining Rock with some new Columbia pants and trekking poles.

    Looking forward to picking your brains here!


  2. #2
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    You are very inspirational. Enjoy the the wilderness hiking!

  3. #3
    Senior Member Hooch's Avatar
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    Mar 2007
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    Woo-hoo! Another NC hanger! Welcome aboard from down the road in Charlotte!
    "If you play a Nicleback song backwards, you'll hear messages from the devil. Even worse, if you play it forward, you'll hear Nickleback." - Dave Grohl

  4. #4
    Senior Member flatline's Avatar
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    welcome to Hammock Forums and hey from high point nc.

  5. #5
    Senior Member Catavarie's Avatar
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    Welcome aboard.

    The Gorge Rats will be invading and beautifying the gorge this week. Lots of hangers in the woods.
    *Heaven best have trees, because I plan to lounge for eternity.

    Good judgement is the result of experience and experience the result of bad judgement. - Mark Twain

    Trail name: Radar

    2014 Smoked Butt Hang Planning Thread | Sign up Sheet

  6. #6
    Senior Member dragon360's Avatar
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    Hello and welcome to HF from Canada!
    The key to immortality is first living a life worth remembering. - St. Augustine

    Some people feel the rain. Others just get wet.
    - Bob Marley

  7. #7
    all secure in sector 7 Shug's Avatar
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    Whoooo Buddy....wish I live near the Gorge!!!!!
    Yeah.......I save the energy for camera, the rest of the time I am kindly sittin' and staring at the wall. Humming.
    Have fun.
    Shug
    Whooooo Buddy)))) All Secure in Sector Seven

  8. #8
    Senior Member raiffnuke's Avatar
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    Welcome to HF from Mass.

  9. #9
    New Member
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    Thanks all!

    Whoooo Buddy....wish I live near the Gorge!!!!!
    I guess we're kind of like the folks at the beach who never go to "the beach".

    I have done every trail in there (except 1 primitive trail off the Shortoff Trail) but that's why I now go to Shining Rock! My favorite trail there climbs 50 feet in FIVE MILES!

    Most in the Gorge gain/lose 950-1200 feet in ONE MILE!

    It is "rugged" though...

    Army Special Operations and SEALs use it for "Wilderness" Training. The big rock at the bottom of Spence Ridge Trail (was that maybe Hickery laying "dead" on it in a recent Shug video?) has "SEAL 6" carved on the top it (although it may now be covered with some of the "bridge".) I know that's not "low impact" or "leave no trace" but I'm willing to make an exception for SEAL Team Six!

    Another thing I recall that I often cite when discussing this is an article in Outside magazine in the early 1990's (?). I was in the local tire store waiting while a new set of tires was put on my vehicle, and flipping through a waiting area copy of Outside magazine. I was nonchalantly flipping through and noticed a picture of a rhododendron bush thicket with a trail next to it. I'd already flipped the page and my subconscious yelled "THAT WAS LINVILLE GORGE..." I flipped back, and the article was about the Gorge. I only glanced at the pic for a split second, and it was a CLOSEUP of a trail but NO PLACE on Earth looks like the Gorge!

    The article was written by a guy who'd rented a cabin nearby (Gingercake Acres?) and spent the week in the Gorge. He woke up and ran that morning, took his son fishing that day, and was near "burnout" that evening, but went up Hawksbill to watch the sunset. Coming down, it got darker quicker than he'd planned, so he decided to bushwhack (the usual first mistake in the Gorge). He got lost, and "missed" the trail. He ended up almost at the river, and admitted he was near exhaustion. (And who knows HOW MANY Eastern Diamondbacks he stepped near??? ) He decided that the only "safe" course of action was to climb BACK UP TOWARD THE SUMMIT which he could still make out against the night sky. He done this, and he said he almost cried when he fell onto the trail near the summit after midnight.

    And this guy WASN'T a rookie-perhaps the last paragraph was my favorite part-he went on to say "I've hiked all over the world-the AT, the Rockies, the Andes, trekking in Nepal, but I'VE NEVER BEEN MORE LOST THAN THAT NIGHT IN THE NORTH CAROLINA MOUNTAINS!




  10. #10
    Slowanderer's Avatar
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    The Gorge is certainly on my "Bucket List." Welcome from Colorado.

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