[A year ago April 15th, I set out to hike the length of the Appalachian Trail, northbound from Georgia to Maine, with my 7 year old dog, Gracie. Almost nightly, I wrote journal entries about what I was experiencing. The demands of trail life with a dog precluded me from posting these entries during the hike. I've chosen to post excerpts to mark the anniversary of this life-altering experience. Enjoy the journey, I certainly did.]
02 May 2009 - Day 18, Mile 177.5 - Fontana Village -> Russell Field Shelter
Hiked 10:35am to 6:45ish. Stopped for dinner at Mollie's Ridge Shelter then made like a fake nail and pressed on. Hiking with Pittsburgh, which is nice. I hike faster than him, so stop & wait on him every now and then. Guidebook mentions blueberries at Spence Field, will check that out tomorrow. May be too early in the season, though. [Definitely too early!]. Most everything in my bag stayed dry except the sleeping bag. Hot Springs [next town stop] means a dry sack for my sleeping bag. It may be a chilly night for my wet feet, dang it. [My down sleeping bag loses it's insulating properties when wet. Not good when it's in the upper 30s at night.] Everything else stayed pretty dry.
Pittsburgh saved me from a night at the Fontana Hilton with drunken party people by sharing his room at the Lodge with me last night. We had a good time hanging out and eating good food. It was interesting hiking (sort of) with him. [Up until now, and for a majority of my thru, I walked alone, my main companion being Gracie. On the second half of the hike, I had hiking partners
in the sense that we planned to end up at the same place each evening, and met up several times during the day, but for the most part, my walking was in solitude.] For the first few hours, I kept stopping to make sure he was still behind me - basically not letting him get out of my sight. At first I thought it was out of concern for him [really?, this was pretty ridiculous of me], then I realized I liked knowing he was back there. I felt more secure and safe on the trail with him there [and less lonely].
I hit Mollie's Ridge at 4:30 and wanted to keep going. Cooked some dinner while I waited for Pitt, then made the call to go further. Plan is for Siler's Bald Shelter tomorrow. With an early start it's doable.
B - Resort buffet, 3 eggs, 3 bacon, 3 sausage, grits, hashbrowns, fruit, coffee, orange juice
L - snacking on trail mix
D - vegetarian chili, rice and nutritional yeast
Dessert - hot cocoa over granola (thought of this while hiking, a truly inspired hiker treat!)
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment