Before heading off for the trail this summer I stopped by the sporting goods store to pick up some extra fuel for my stove. While there I noticed a whole line of "survival" products bearing the name of Man vs Wild star Bear Grylls. It was funny. There were survival kits, knives, machetes (yes, machetes), blankets, and more. Who knew there was such a market for this? Are there that many people who need high-priced celebrity-endorsed survival gear in the wild?
Beyond Bear's stuff there were other products that caught my eye. Take, for instance, the "Survival Kit-in-a Can."
Or the "Campers Toilet Paper." Okay, this one may not exactly qualify as "survival" gear but it did strike me funny that someone would pay extra for special toilet paper.
The medical kit made sense. I usually just take a sandwich bag with band-aids, ibuprofen,cloth tape, and maybe some Neosporin. However, last spring I broke down and bought an "official" medical kit with tiny tweezers, bee sting treatment, and a variety of other remedies to nature's ailments.
Perhaps my favorite piece of life-saving gear was the "Survival Bracelet." It's basically a long piece of thin rope that has been braided into a fashionably neon-colored wrist accessory. For only $7.99 you would have what would probably be an important piece of survival gear if you had any idea how best to use it (run it between two really small trees and drape across it the tarp you've been keeping in your back pocket to use as a make-shift shelter?).
What would I do in an emergency? Well, we've had quite a few of late and somehow we've always survived by simply using the gear we have, sticking to the well-marked trail, and hiking back out of the woods for the comfort of a hotel room or our car. No bracelet needed.
Day One - Newfound Gap - Peck's Corner Shelter - 10.4 miles
In the picture you see the boys and I are holding up three fingers to represent this being our third attempt to hike out of this gap. The first was last year when Muluken and I called our hike quits after walking in both homesick and full of terrible blisters. The second attempt was last spring when our snowy trip was called short by one boy with a sprained ankle and the other vomiting and collapsing into the snow. While this was our third crack at Newfound Gap you'll notice our friend, and hiking buddy Emily, holding up one finger. She proved to be a lucky charm. We finally made it out! This is a touristy part of the trail, in the heart of the Smokies, so we saw about 92 people in our first four miles of walking. Once we got past a well-known lookout on the trail we didn't see anyone else until arriving at the shelter six miles later. The shelter was packed with about 16 people so it was snug, but fun.
Muluken:
"As we were walking we counted how many people passed or went by. It was good to know lots of people are on the trail with you. Most of them were going to Charlies' Bunyan...We went pretty quick like more than one-and-a-half miles per hour and got to our stops a few minutes early and I would be happy. But then all this fog or smoke came. It's called the Smoky Mountains. It got low because we were a few thousand feet in the air. It started to sprinkle....Then we got to the sign that said shelter. It was half a mile off the trail. Jeez. Why would they put it that far away? We finally got there and took our stuff out and brushed our teeth and sat to write. PS There's a guy snoring by us and he keeps stopping and starting again. Weird. PSS There are actually two men snoring!"
Ty:
"We saw 100 people today on the way. When we thought we were at the top of the mountain it would always go up more. When we were close to the shelter we thought we heard a bear. I kind of got scared. We're at the shelter now and we are glad because it started to rain...We have just enough room for the four of us."
Day Two - Pecks Corner Shelter - Cosby Knob Shelter - 12.9 miles
Chris:
"Most of the morning was flat ridge walking with a few small climbs. We stopped at a shelter for lunch and Emily showed us how to Prancer-cise. It was as silly as it sounds. She said it's on YouTube and very funny. There are ankle weights involved when doing it properly. We only came across other hikers three times today. About a mile out from the shelter it began to rain, just like yesterday. We had been hearing thunder for quite some time so we kept anticipating the rain's arrival. While steady, it was more refreshing than anything.
When we got into the shelter there was a dad with his two teen-aged sons and then a group of four people who are quite interesting. They've all been on the trail for four or five weeks which means they have only been averaging about seven miles a day. What do they do with all their time? I said something to the younger guy about how far he might get before he stops at the end of August and he wouldn't commit to anything. "I take my time and see stuff along the way. I'd rather enjoy a nice fire on a clear night than rack up miles." There's wisdom to this plan but honestly, seven miles a day?! Later this same guy, who we are secretly calling Free Spirit stripped off his clothes in the shelter to change. When Emily walked in and saw him he said "Hey, I'm changing here. If you're cool with it so am I." Emily smiled really big and turned away as quickly as humanly possible.
Free Spirit later called us over from our card game to point out two bears over by the privy. When they walked back into the woods he said with a knowing tone "Oh, they'll be back." Later in the evening he walked up to where they were and began grunting and making bear noises as if calling out to them. The rest of his crew made faces at one another as if to say they weren't all that surprised by this behavior. Free Spirit is a character. For real."
Muluken:
"Number of people today: 14. Number of snails today: 16...We walked about five miles to a shelter to have lunch. We walked very fast today and it was hilly, down, and flat. We got to the lunch shelter and made a video for mom and our sisters, saying something about our trip so far and how it was. We got packed and walked pretty fast and we were supposed to see a bald called Cosby Knob but we didn't notic it because we were trying to go through the rain that kept pelting us and making us cold. So we walked so fast that Big D said we would get to the shelter at 6:00 but guess what? We got there at 5:10. Almost an hour less. We got to relax and take our boots off. I put on my flip-flops and massaged by foot because it was aching. It felt good...We are writing in our journals while my dad makes mac 'n cheese."
Ty:
"Today we saw 11 people. If you subtract 100-11=89 so the difference is 89 people less than yesterday. Yesterday we saw 8 snails but today we saw 14. We saw six more today than we saw yesterday. We hiked 13.4 miles today (counting a side trail from the morning's shelter).
Tonight we played poker, Pass the Trash, and Rummy. Then we SAW TWO BEARS! THEY WERE BLACK BEARS. IT WAS COOL! One bear was the mom and the other was smaller. We might see them again."
Day Three - Cosby Knob Shelter - Campsite near Painter's Branch - 12.7 miles
Chris:
"One of the guys from the eclectic group had a corn cob pipe sitting out this morning. How perfect is that? I wanted it to belong to Free Spirit but it didn't. There's an older guy in the group who is spending two months on the trail for his 50th birthday. They call him Blue Jay and the pipe was his. Blue Jay carries about a thousand pounds of stuff in, on, and hanging from his pack. I worry he might collapse and die. Literally.
I woke up to a perfect morning. The sun was just coming up and a soft yellow light filtered in through the leaves on the mountain side. I could have stayed in my sleeping bag and watched it for hours. There was also a steady breeze moving in across the mountain making the leaves dance all around. I'm glad we were in the shelter last night (as mandated by Smoky Mountain National Park) because had we been in our tent I would have missed this. All I see in the tent is the rainfly. When I looked over the boys sleeping bodies I noticed Emily was awake and watching the forest wake up as well.
Our first eight miles today were mostly downhill which was easy on the legs but hard on the toes. At the end of this we FINISHED THE SMOKIES. There was no sign to commemorate this but it was still awfully rewarding. A few miles later we came out of the woods and crossed a bridge where underneath us we saw dozens of whitewater rafts floating by. I recognized this spot from our trips down I-40 to St. Louis each year. This part of the trail follows the road for just a bit as we make our way underneath the I-40 overpass and then back into the woods. Well, we're supposed to get back into the woods using a 160 step stone staircase. We somehow missed it and followed a hot sunny gravel road until we picked the trail up again. Guess we're not purists anymore because we missed a 1/2 mile stretch of the trail while walking down that road. Tell you what, though...we finish these 2,170 miles of trail to Maine and I'm not going to sweat that 1/2 mile detour. The mileage was the same and heat was about ten-fold!
We stopped by Standing Bear Farm Hostel to pick up a package I had mailed with our food for the second half of the trip. The owner, Curtis, helped me find it and then held court talking (read: preaching) at us about his views on the hiking community and much more. He told us some people spread rumors on the internet that he's a real jerk. I suppressed a chuckle having read this in numerous places. That said, he's not so much a jerk as a strong personality. We enjoyed his company for about an hour or so and then finished our day with a really hard 2 1/2 mile climb back into the woods."
Muluken:
"People = 9. Snails = 26."
Ty:
"Today we hiked 12.7 miles. Me and Muluken saw some snakes! It was so cool! Right now we have a fire going. It's really warm. Big D's feeding it. We're gathering rhododendron. It's awesome."
Day Four - Campsite at Painter's Branch - Roaring Fork Shelter - 13.0 miles
"We started our morning with a long hard climb. It seems we had only started it last night when getting into camp. Probably for the best we stopped and cut it in half. It was so long.Ty was really hurting - barely moving at all. I started giving him and Muluken math problems to solve in their heads and suddenly the mood improved and we walked much faster. It's amazing what you can do when you don't think about how tired you are or whether or not the climb will ever end. I told Ty this proves he is physically capable of doing anything out here. We just need to keep negative thoughts out of our heads. He hiked very strong the rest of the day.
At the top of Snowbird Mountain was an FAA installation for air traffic control. It was surrounded by a wooden fence and many signs warning us that our tampering could result in the loss of lives. It's not exactly what you expect to find at the top of a remote mountain. Kind of reminded me of Lost. I wished someone out here (read: Emily) had watched Lost so we could draw parallels.
We made it to Max Patch late in the afternoon. Max Patch offers 360-degree views of the surrounding mountain. It's beautiful. Our plan was to camp up here and see the sun come up in the morning but a thunderstorm was moving in and we didn't want to risk it. A few years back a man brought his girlfriend up here to propose and they were both struck by lightning. I couldn't imagine being in a tent with metal poles would be a good idea. So we walked an easy two miles down to the shelter and set up there. We're the only ones here tonight."
Muluken:
"On the trail we saw three snakes, one tan with red dashes, a tanish-gray one, and then we saw another smaller one. It was exciting seeing all the snakes. After three miles or so we got to a gap that wasn't all that good and it was confusing trying to find the water so we could cook our food. We left and went to the next gap. We tried at Deep Gap but in the end left and went to Brown Gap. It was hard to get water so me and Flash (Ty) made a deep dam where we could scoop the water. The water was cloudy until we walked a few minutes more and found a bigger and easier spot."
Ty:
"When we got to Max Patch it started to drizzle. Dad (aka Big D) tried to get the weather but he couldn't get it on his phone. Emily tired and eventually she go the weather up and a Tstorm was coming in about an hour! So we got out of Max Patch and back to the woods. We hiked two more miles then got to a shelter. We couldn't stay on Max Patch because we were the highest thing around."
 |
| What's REALLY inside this government building nestled on top of a remote mountaintop? |
Day Five - Roaring Fork Shelter - Deer Park Mountain Shelter - 14.8 miles
Chris:
"We're thinking about a new idea for a coffee table book - Privies of the AT. Seriously, whoever builds these things obviously never attempts to actually use them. While the privies in the Smokies were okay by wooded toilet standards, these privies over the past few days have been subpar to say the least. We've taken to rating each of them on a scale of 1-5. Tonight's is the worst. It's so tiny that when you sit your shoulders nearly touch the walls beside you and your knees stick about three or four inches beyond where the door is supposed to close (to provide you some sense of privacy). That they stink and sit in a cloud of flies, spiders, and other creepy crawlies is a given. But seriously, how much more could it cost to make them about four square feet larger?
Today's hike was our longest of the trip but other than one climb up Bluff Mountain it was fairly easy. We spent most the day laughing at how we think every plant out here is a type of rhododendron. There''s rhododendron actualis and then thousands of other varieties. We thought we might make up a flora book for the Appalachians in which we explain to people not only the names of all these variations (take, for instance, the rhodomaple or the rhodobirch) but the many uses for survival in the wilderness. A few nights ago Free Spirit helped the boys haul some dead rhododendron back to our campsite and explained that although it burns really fast it burns easy. They have since become obsessed with the need for rhododendron when building a fire (of which they did last night on their own). When we made it into the shelter tonight I was concerned they would start to lecture two guys from Asheville trying to build a fire on their lack of skills because the wood they were using didn't jive with what Free Spirit had suggested a few nights ago.
There's a dad here who thru-hiked the AT in 1997. He's section hiking with his 9-year old daughter who had curly red hair, is super excited about everything she sees or hears, and talks to you as if she has known you for years. She's a lot of fun but I'm thinking her dad is probably a little exhausted. He was more than happy to have the boys distract her for a while. He's also hiking with his 10-year old niece, 13-year old nephew, and his father. I believe his father is trying to section hike the whole AT. They're a nice group. It was nice to sit around the fire and talk a bit. We've met some really interesting people out here this trip."
Footnote:
Rhododendron is poisonous and should never be used to build a fire - especially one you plan to cook over. The boys are very disappointed. Hopefully Free Spirit is still in good health!
Muluken:
"We woke and hiked down to Lemon Gap and right after that up, up Bluff Mountain. When we were half way up we met a big group of fifteen people. They were singing, talking, and laughing and having a great hike going up this mountain like it was a piece of cake. We though how can they be so cheerful? They were going really really fast on teh mountain but when we got to a flat part they went really slow. Weird.."
Ty:
"Today we saw a black rat snake. It was so cool because it passed right in front of us where I was going too steep! It passed on the trail. My hands are so dirty! I have not cleaned them in five days...or six! There's this guy and he can start a fire good and there's so much wood for the fire."
 |
| Talking to Mom on one of the rare occasions that AT&T had service on the AT. |
Chris:
"Ty and Muluken found a gravesite just a few yards down the trail from where we slept last night. It seems this land used to be a farmstead. There were two graves. One had deceased in 1966 and the other in 1944. I wonder, were there roads up here back then?
We make quick work of the three miles down into town this morning. We were on Main Street by 8:20. We sat and waited for Tricia and the girls to show up with our hugs, clean clothes, and breakfast. They slept in Asheville last night and made the 45 minute drive into Hot Springs to pick us up and to go whitewater rafting on the French Broad River. It was a 9-mile trip and full of great Cat 2 and 3 rapids and even a few 4s. Muluken fell out twice. In his defense he was sitting on the back of the raft with the guide and that is the bumpiest part of the boat.
At one point we stopped to jump off a ten-foot rock. I was proud to see Ainsley march right up and leap off as if it were nothing. Harper, Muluken, and Ty jumped as well. I did, too. I wasn't so concerned with the leap as I was with the really cold water. At least this river isn't dam-released. Still, it was cold.
We finished our raft and drove Emily back to Newfound Gap so she could pick up her car. I'm really glad she came along. I wish I would have had access to her hiking journal so I could have included her voice in this post. If nothing else she could have better explained the particulars of Prancer-cise.
No comments:
Post a Comment