Erwin to Roan Mt. this week

Erwin Tennessee

We spoke to Macon briefly on Tuesday.  She sounded good after a night in a hiker hostel, some hot food, dry clothes and resupplied.  They hope to make it to Roan Mountain this weekend where she will hook up with Monica again for a visit.  Macon said the line at the lone computer was too long to write a post in Erwin so she will use Monica's computer to write a post sometime this weekend (in Boone).  A few comments during our phone call stood out.  She says that it has been half going up and half going down, and the towns are in the down.  So she resupplies in the towns and has a much heavier pack going up out of the town.  Another thing is that she was told that it is illegal to hitch-hike in Tennessee and they have begun enforcing that ordinance (I guess they need the money) so she is more patient with the shuttles provided.  The trail magic has been prolific, and at times slows them down as they cannot pass up hospitality shown by the providers, so they linger and visit with the people who have made Belgian waffles, cookies, and goodies of all types.  Her group has merged with another group and now there are seven all told. She sounds great and is physically holding up well.  Click on the map below to look at her hike this week. For the most part it follows the AT. I will improve my Google mapping skills.


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Erwin, Tennessee

Thankfully, we heard from Macon today.  We knew she planned to be in Erwin on Tuesday and now at 9:45 pm, this email just arrived:

Little Engine, Daystar, and Hips

hey hey! i'm in erwin, tn at a hostel. today is officially 4 weeks on the trail for me and so i decided to do my first big 20+ mile day to get into town. all the boys stayed at a shelter 6 miles from town but tatertot and i decided showers & hot food were worth hiking down in the rain for. we got wendys and just let me tell you what all i ate:
bacon cheeseburger
small fries
garden salad
baked potato
small frosty
also fat tire beer, 2 big reses cups, and oreos.

i just took a hot shower, forest gump is on the tv in the hostel, life is good. i'll try to call tomorrow but so far i dont have any service on my cell, but there is a computer here that i'm able to use. the pics that i'm forwarding are from one of the last days in the smokeys (which is spelled with EY at the end, not ies).

View from Mt Crammerer Fire Tower

we did a side trail up to mt. crammerer

rattlesnake !!

 and met a nice ranger who took some of our pics. i actually saved his life by pointing out a rattlesnake!

anyway, hope all is going well at home. talk to y'all tomorrow!

Trailside spring beauties

Devil Fork Gap

Here's a text from Macon earlier in the day:  "Hey, hey, we're by a road meeting up with friends of new people we're hiking with from Durham.  At Devil Fork Gap, mile 308. I'm great! Should be in Erwin on Tuesday, I think."   Devil Fork Gap is right on the North Carolina and Tennessee border in a remote area.

Hot Springs NC

Hey y'all - Daystar here in Hot Springs, NC. This is the first "trail town" meaning the trail goes directly through the center of town. I took another zero today, feeling a bit guilty since I just took one in Gatlinburg on Saturday, but we've been averaging 17 miles a day the past 4 days so my body is pretty tired, and I can't leave this adorable town just yet! Rather than going through the day by day summaries, I'd like to share some highlights. I'm on an old dell computer in the public library in town so I can't figure out how to upload the photos on this..

Let's see, we left Gatlinburg Easter morning to finish out the Smokeys. As I mentioned, the past few days have been high mile days which are simultaneously exhausting and refreshing. It feels really good & healthy to be pushing my body hard all day, admiring amazing views, scarfing down Ramen noodles as if it were fine NYC food, and heading for bed at 8:30pm to sleep hard for a good 8-10 hours. My day stays busy - we wake up and do our morning camp chores - taking down the bear bags, making breakfast, changing out of long johns to hiking clothes, brushing teeth, packing up all toiletries/clothes/food bags, taking down the tents.. its a lot. I try to be out of camp by 8am, but lately it's been more around 8:45 or so. The actual hiking is probably the calmest, most serene part of my day. My favorite time to hike is the morning - I love admiring the soft lighting as it shines through the trees across the mountains. Sometimes I'll walk with someone and we'll talk about the day or share stories from our lives back home. Usually though no two people go at the same pace so it's a lot of alone time. We run into each other at the good water sources and spend about 10 minutes or so filtering water and resting with our packs off. Sometimes we'll meet up for lunch, and sometimes I find a sunny grassy patch and like lay in the sun and take my shoes off. As I did in the office, I still get a 3pm afternoon slump where I walk slower and generally feel more tired. Around 5pm as the light starts to change again, I perk back up and happily continue on until I get to camp.

Aside from the physical hiking & activities involved with the AT, I really love the community out here. I've met people from all over the country, all different ages, all hiking different hikes, but we are all out here together. We've all hiked the same miles, huffed & puffed uphill, carefully scurried downhill, endured the rainstorms, carried heavy packs... the trail levels everyone in a way that I don't think exists in "normal" society. Ha not to mention all the fun names! Here are a few more of the people I've met: Hollywood, Tatertot, Croc Hunter, Coozie, Corona Sam, Utah Sherpa, Little Engine, Hips, Lighthouse, Chef, Radio, Hashbrown, Packman, Megapixel, Tyvek, Gato, J-Dub, Ranger Steve, Ranger Bill, Pilgrim, Doc, Fresh, Squidy (short for Squidward, which evolved from "School Words"), Wonder, Gator, Magic Mike, Owl, Country, Bones, Mouse, Sapling, Beats, Turtle, Old Blue Eyes, Hungus, Pace, Blues Clues, Ladyfish, Plus Two, Smooth Sailing, Fleetwood, Spools (sometimes called Spooly-D), Strider.. I think that's all I can think of for the moment..

We've had exceptional views this last stretch - from Charlie's Bunion to Max Patch Bald to the Mt. Crammerer Observation Tower.. all these beat Clingman's Dome! Plus we really earned them & no tourists! One exciting moment was on the Mt. Crammerer Tower - we hiked an extra .6mile out there and met a Smokey Mtn Ridgerunner. We chatted with him for a bit and as he was walking down the rocks, I pointed out "look at that big ole snake!" He looked and realized that it was where he was about to step, and it was actually a big rattlesnake - the first I've seen on the trail. Scary but exciting!

Anyway, one fun thing about Hot Springs is that I'm staying in this beautiful Victorian house called Sunnyside Inn, owned by Elmer Hall. It is GORGEOUS, especially for a little antique nerd like me. Tatertot (who happens to be another 27 year old girl out here!) and I split a room last night and are staying again tonight. Elmer cooks organic vegetarian meals and we had the most amazing breakfast this morning - veggie omelets, toast with butter & jam, homemade oatmeal with cream & cantaloupe, and coffee - so delicious! We'll probably get dinner with the boys tonight and then all head out early in the morning. Next stop is Erwin (ps this is a dry country, so we've been saying "No bourbon til Erwin!" and then Roan Mountain. I've hiked the 50 miles from Erwin to Roan Mountain when I was 15 and again when I was 16, but we hiked south, so I'm really looking forward to hike that section again, this time going north and in the spring time.

Still loving life, LOVING the Appalachian Trail, watching as winter gracefully turns into spring, and walking north into the unknown, discovering beautiful bits of America all the way.. 

xo Daystar

Two Cents on 10%



Bear bags in the cloud

Smokey Mountain vista

A few thoughts, as a parent, based on my infrequent and all too short conversations with Macon thus far on the Appalachian Trail.  Macon is good.  She sounds confident, she is in a great frame of mind, and barring injury should complete the trail.  The first few weeks have been a shake down for the trek.  Missy has met her three times with the re-supply tub (First aid supplies, baggies of all sizes, blank journals, etc).   She bought some hiking poles and a pack rain cover.  The good folks at Rock Creek swapped out the insoles - no questions asked.  She has sent home some of the gear that wasn't likely to be used and has refined her diet some.

Daystar prepares dinner

Macon had a hiking schedule that has become irrelevent  for the most part since Macon now has a rhythm to her day that is proving to work for her.   She wakes up, fixes carbs for breakfast, usually oatmeal.  Then she packs her gear and starts walking until beyond mid-day when she stops for lunch.  This has been a bagel with peanut butter.  She takes off her shoes and socks and rests her feet and body for more than an hour before she commences walking again.  She will find a shelter or campsite in the mid to late afternoon and set up camp.  She says she thought she would have a lot of idle time but she says the various camp chores keep her busy up until bed time just after sunset. The least of which is putting all foodstuffs and anything like toothpaste with a sweet odor in her bear bag. (You can see them hanging from the trees in the picture at the top of this post.)

Tyvek's camp

Mollie's Ridge Shelter

The community is wonderful.  This we have heard on all accounts.  Gribley told Missy that people back home don't understand but everyone on the trail totally gets it, the trek.  This community is like a giant amoeba that morphs as the days and weeks go by as people pass each other, as they sign into the registers at the shelters, as they see each other in the trail towns.  Macon and Missy commented on the number of hikers in Gatlinburg that they both now know. 

Hiker's sign to water

This community has the wonderful added benefit of aliases by trail name.   Gribley, Pants on Fire, Tyvek.  Some are silly like Sherpa, some with a little thought like Davey Jones.  But all these alter egos add to the eccentricity of life on the trail.  Macon has also developed a profound respect for The Boy Scouts of America on this hike.  Both hiking partners are Eagle Scouts; she has a dad two brothers who are Eagle Scouts.  Macon has run into two different Boy Scout troops on the trail and she says they are competent in the woods, considerate in their respect for others and a testimony to a great program for young boys and men. 

Blaze in the fog

Macon says the thru-hikers are respected, but she has developed respect for anybody and everybody out on the trail.   She says she has met people with significant medical impediments but their desire keeps them on the trail when their body is up to it.   She has met many section and weekend hikers who don't have the time for a thru hike but love the trail.  My friend Warren Mowry frequents the trail on weekends.  Because Macon is a thru-hiker, the outfitters are very liberal in their warranty policies because they want happy hikers who endorse their products on the trail and in the towns.

While she has only completed the first ten percent of the trail, better than 217 miles, I feel good that this adventure will turn out well, barring accidents or injury.  I hope you too have loved the photos she takes with her art director eye.  We should have another update from Daystar later at the end of the week when she arrives in Hot Springs, NC. 

Most importantly, Macon is very happy.  She has said that she's living in the present.  She loves all aspects of the trail - the chores, the weather changes, the scenery, her fellow hikers and those she meets on the trail, the actual hiking... it's all good. 

Smokey Mountain AT

Happy Easter

Howdy howdy, Daystar here in Gatlinburg with a recap since my last post.

Shuttles buses
at the NOC

Ha! Gatlinburg is quite a place, so glad I came but very ready to get back on the trail. Let's see, when I left off on the last update, I was headed into the NOC (Nantahala Outdoor Center, http://www.noc.com/) a week ago. We stayed the night before at the A. Rufus Morgan Shelter, which cracked me up by how proper it sounded. We spoke with British accents and cracked each other up by asking goofy things like: Where are the butlers?

Friday morning we hiked down to the NOC and I finally felt like I was really in the NC I love - green, lush, damp and beautiful. We had a great breakfast and looked into laundry and showers - best things ever!! It was so funny, everyone there was also doing laundry, so all you saw were people walking around in rain gear since everything else was washing (we only have 2 outfits - hiking and sleeping, both get stinky). By the time we finished up it was 3ish. We decided to stay the night at the hostel rather than attempting to hike seven steep miles in the approaching storm. We bought beers and had a jolly, cheerful time. I felt like a cool rock star staying up really late, only to realize that when I went to bed the clock said 9:30... aka hiker midnight (since bedtime is usually around 8 pm when the sun sets).

Saturday morning we headed up and out. Nothing like hiking seven miles straight uphill with a slight hangover haha but we made it to Locust Cove Gap to camp and it was great to be back in the woods.
Sunday morning we got up and hiked down to Stecoah Gap and found some great April Fool's Day trail magic - oatmeal creme pies & coca colas! We hiked the one tough climb of the day - Jacob's Ladder and then on to a campsite for the night.  

Stecoah Gap


Monday morning we hiked down into Fontana Dam (the highest dam in the eastern United States). Gribley started the day off with a bad joke by asking: What did the hikers say after hiking miles down into Fontana? DAM! Haha, so pretty much all day we found an excuse to yell "DAM."

View from top of Fontana Dam

Daystar at Fontana Dam



 We resupplied at an overpriced general store and took a dip in the lake (below).

We filled out our permits for the Smokies and got going.

Pants on Fire, Gribley, and Daystar

Pants on Fire on Fontana Dam

It was crazy to be walking along a real road as part of the AT but we had to physically cross Fontana Dam to get to the Smokies' entrance. 

Those first few miles were TOUGH, and I declared, "The Smokies ain't no jokeys, y'all!" We'd hoped to make it to Mollies Ridge Shelter for the night but were pretty beat and camped at Birch Creek Campsite - the only campsite in the Smokies. Normally hikers are required to stay in the shelters. The site was huge but they had small designated camping spots. We didn't want to be greedy taking up three spots, so Gribley, Pants on Fire, and I put our three tents up in a small space about half the size of a parking spot.

 Ha! it was like a sleepover later in the night because we could just talk through our tents as we were falling asleep.






We got up the next morning (Tuesday) and hiked over to Mollies Ridge for lunch and then onto Russell Field Shelter.

Russell Shelter

 We'd talked about going on to Eagle Creek to the Spence Field Shelter but we saw huge dark, ominous clouds and decided to stay. The heavens broke (video on my facebook page) but it was a really fun night. We shared the shelter with lots of other fun thru-hikers and also a group of Boy Scouts training for Philmont. They were so excited to hear about our hike and shared lots of great food with us. Another group of guys had these teeny tiny Delta playing cards and they taught me a mid-western card game that sounds like "yuko" but it spelled something crazy.

We got up (Wednesday) and decided to do a bigger day - almost 15 miles to the next shelter, Silers Bald. In the morning we hiked up THE Rocky Top!

Topping Rocky Top

 And yes, I was singing, "Good ole Rocky Top, Rocky Top Tennessee" all day. It rained pretty hard again that evening, and I was glad to be in a shelter with a real roof over my head.

The next day (Thursday) we got up and hiked up to Clingman's Dome - the highest point on the entire AT.

Clingman's Dome Observation Tower

Ramp to the Tower

Daystar at Clingman's Dome

Gribley

The crazy thing though is that a road goes to the top so there were a million tourists, and we were the oddballs out - all stinky with our huge packs. There's a crazy 60's style observation tower that you can walk up, which was kind of pointless since we were totally in a cloud. We had some pretty awesome trail magic - there were about 7 of us sitting down below and a couple saw us and asked, "Do y'all want a beer & some beef jerky?" and we were like YES!! Ha! so we split one beer among all of us and inhaled the jerky. They offered us to come by and tailgate with them. They passed out beers and we had one then, and took one to go. It started to rain, and we concluded being on the tip-top highest point is probably not the best place to be in a storm so we took off for the next shelter. Luckily the rain let up while we hiked, but started back when we got to Mt. Collins Shelter. At 5900 feet it was pretty chilly, and we put our beers out in the rain to cool them.





Friday morning, we hiked down 5 miles to Newfound Gap where we met some trail angels. Mom took us to lunch and got us hooked up at the Grand Prix motel and took off back to Chattanooga. We took showers and divided our clothes into 2 loads - super stinky and medium stinky. For instance, our sox are SUPER stinky and didn't want them to stink up our sleep clothes, which aren't as bad. We got some beers and had a really fun time on the balcony at the motel with all the other hikers staying there. We met up with another group of three guys who spent time in the Peace Corps in Peru. We've been camping with them the past few nights and they are a lot of fun. We all went down to Mellow Mushroom and had pitchers of Sweetwater 420 and 2 large Cosmic Karmas - pretty much my two favorite things at Mellow Mushroom. Afterwards we walked around Gatlinburg which is quite a crazy experience - it's like Myrtle Beach meets Vegas meets Disneyworld but in the mountains.. haha so bizarre! We got Pete's pink hat that he found on the trail airbrushed with "FRESH" - a word those boys always use to describe things (jokingly). We then went to a local brewery where there was an Elvis impersonator singing 80's hits and had a bit too much fun. The "encore" was "When I come around" by Greenday. Ha Ha the total randomness of the evening delighted me to no end.

Yesterday (Saturday) we got up and did "full pack explosion" - took everything out of the packs, dried it off, decided if things were necessary or not - an overall pack re-organization.

Pack explosion

Hiker's sink

We headed down to Food City to re-supply. I'm still getting the hang of the food thing, but I'm glad for my purchases. Breakfast is usually oatmeal & tea. Lunch is bagels with peanut butter or cheese. Dinner is Ramen with a tuna packet stirred in or a scoop of peanut butter (like Thai food!). Snacks this go are goldfish & granola with peanut M&M's.

Food for this week

                                                         Anyway, I also got a silk sarong to have something to wear in town. The boys I'm with grew up in the Catholic church and I joined them at a local church for the Saturday night Easter Vigil. It was so adorable - a small parish about the same size as the small Episcopal church I grew up going to. It was fumbly and quirky and nothing was quite perfect and I loved every second - I love the small town personality of things like that. When we were outside lighting the fire to light the Pascal candle, a truck was parked across the street blasting bluegrass music and I was thinking, yep - this is about right. After the service we had burgers & beer and headed to bed. Lots of tired hikers ready to get back to our reality.

Got up this morning (Easter Sunday) to get packed up and write this post. There's a couple of "trail angels" that offer shuttles back to the trail and they arrive soon so I need to get a move on it. Thanks for reading! If anyone has any questions they want me to address, just leave a comment! I don't have great service on the trail, but I'll try to send an update from Hot Springs, NC in a few days.

Happy Easter! Daystar

Gatlinburg

This is Macon's mom with an update on meeting up with "Daystar" in Gatlinburg.  I found her around noon at Newfound Gap on US 441, the only road crossing along the Trail in the Smokies.  Gorgeous, cool spring day with bumper-to-bumper traffic for miles.  Macon and her two hiking buddies declined the offer to return to Chattanooga for a couple of nights.  They piled in and off we went in search of lodging for the night.  We called and booked the last vacant room at the Grand Prix Hotel, close to the national park and on the edge of town.  Then, off to lunch where each hiker wrote a post for the blog.
Lots of pictures will be posted tomorrow. 

Macon, "Daystar":  Just had an amazing salad and an Appalachian Pale Ale at the Smoky Mountain Brewery. So great to have some real food after many nights of Ramen and peanut butter.  In the fine town of Gatlinburg.  I've never been here before and it's quite a sight.  Looking forward to the "Nero" (near zero) today.  We walked 5 miles this morning and met some great trail angels who had sandwiches, Oreos, and Cokes.  Mom checked us into the hotel and took us out to lunch.  Later we'll shower, do laundry, and run to the grocery store to resupply.  Tomorrow will be the first true "zero" - total relaxation.  Sunday morning we'll hitch or shuttle back to the trail - excited to finish the Smokies!!

Pants-on-Fire (First let me explain this hiker's trail name.  So, I asked, "Patrick, how did you get your name?"  It's certainly easy to imagine different scenarios for such a name.  He said that someone on the trail asked him his name... to which he responded, "Pat-so-far."  The person said, "Pants on Fire"?  So, "Pants-on-Fire" it is.):  Pants-on-Fire here checking in on Daystar's blog for the first time.  The community out here on the trail is magical.  Everyone we meet has experienced similar trials such as rain, hail, blisters, hunger, and the miles of hiking.   I believe most are having fun still.  I am definitely having fun.  We wake up every day and hike and we are loving it.

Gribley (His name is based on the character in My Side of the Mountain.  Sam Gribley runs away and learns to survive in the woods): I've been hiking with Daystar for about a week now and it has been great.  It seems so crazy that we have hiked 200 miles in three different states in under three weeks.  There's been rain, blisters, and some annoying biting flies to deal with but that's all a small price for the panoramic views of sprawling mountains, sunsets at 5500' in the Smoky Mountains, and an awesome albeit windy night on an observation tower looking down on the lights of a city in a valley below.  We are living in the woods now and loving it.  I can't wait to see all the next 2000 miles have in store.