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He expects to start his Appalachian Trail thru-hike tomorrow about noon. With nine days of food and 2 liters of water, we estimated his pack weight at 40 to 45 pounds. He is well supplied with potato flakes, appropriately. Cooking utensils consist of a Tupperware bowl with a tight cover and two plastic spoons.
We persuaded him that he should have the second spoon but that he did not need four credit cards. In accordance with his plan, he purchased the food at 2 AM and packed until half an hour before leaving. Having spent the previous day and night moving out of his apartment, and the night before that working on the emergency squad, his glazed eyes were barely balanced by adrenaline. We predicted that he would be asleep within the first mile. His driver, Harley Newman, promised that Sven would *not* be allowed to drive on the 750-mile trip to Georgia.
His trail partner, Jim Newman, dropped out a week before departure due to several family crises. They hope to get together for a few weeks in Virginia. (This entry written by Jim Newman)
By the time I got to the Peak, I was sweating with my fleece pants and T-shirt so I changed to wearing the nylon swim trunks and polyester T-shirt. (and 1 pr nylon socks and 1 pr heavy wool socks and Solomon sneaker/boots). Apparently this looked cold in the 1 degree C temperature with melting snow on the ground. I tried taking a few photos on top of Springer.
After the photos, I set off to cover 10 miles my first day. I walked with "MG" (Melly) and her dog for a while. Learned quite a bit about dog hiking supplies. Maybe I'll try this with Sandy (my dog) for a while in the Mid Atlantic area. After stopping to chat with MG & Dino at Stover Creek Shelter, I decided to continue on for Hawk Mountain Shelter by myself. I thought I lost my way two times and backtracked one mile each time to find the previous AT trail blaze.
The first time was just after the Three Forks (USFS 58) along Long Creek Falls. The second time was just after the logging road. The first time I confirmed I was on a trail that was poorly worked and continued up the falls with diamond markers instead of the standard rectangular blazes.
The second time I missed a double blaze that turned sharp to the left. I think the snow must be covering many of the blazes. I arrived at Hawk Mountain Shelter at 6:30 PM and stayed with Tom Horn, "Crash", and "Scoobie." Tom has thru-hiked about 6 times and told me my 5000 cal/day diet was unrealistic, that few people could eat that much in a day, let alone carry that weight.
Since we walk through towns very often along the southern and Mid Atlantic sections, I will be sending my excess food ahead to Erwin when I reach Hot Springs. My pack weighed 57 pounds, including the warm clothes I packed, 2 liters of water, and about 25 pounds of food. I will not fill my water bottles before my departure today. I'll drink a lot of water at breakfast, eat my pasta meal (the tubetini and acini de pasta work great without cooking). Then add the water to my pasta lunch just before I leave. The pasta rehydrates in the Tupperware within a few hours in the freezing temperatures in which I've been hiking.
I took 10 photos this first day on roll 1 of the disposable cameras. I'll plan to buy cameras along the trail, but I think having a few (3-4) in each mail drop will be a good plan.
Harley reminded me to take my two rocks to Katahdin. I remembered to put them in the pack. One rock will stay at Katahdin. One will stay with me afterward. (This gives my thru-hike it's whole purpose for those who wonder why I'm hiking this distance. I'm carrying a rock from Springer to Katahdin to change the slope of the Earth.)
I believe I'm allergic to mice. I stuffed up and began sneezing with watering eyes once they came out to dine on past hiker food.
I took my time getting up this morning. All night long I swatted at the mice crawling all over me. I learned that they like salty wool as well as food. My wool sock has a nice 1" hole on the top of the ankle. I'll see if it still works today (the sock, no reason to think the ankle is bad). If not, I'll replace it with a spare and have another sent from home. That's a $6 sock!
I finished hiking at 6 PM yesterday, due to some problems with my PUR-Hiker purifier. I think I got a piece of sand in the diaphragm of the pump. It was pushing the water out the intake hose. The filter seems to be clogged as well. I was very dehydrated at the start of yesterday's hike due to lack of water, so I kicked back near a nice stream (Blackwood Creek) where I collected water to clean the filter, wash my dish, wash my stinky self, eat, and think about setting up camp. I decided I had to cover the 10 miles so I continued over a bunch more hills/mountains. I'm glad I did.
I was told by Crash that the place to burn up miles is VA through Mass, the mid Atlantic region. This area, and NH, are supposed to be the hardest. I'm worried how hard it might get with all this food on my back, but I don't dare part with it until I know I won't need it.
I took 5 panoramic shots yesterday and 5 on the regular camera. I think the panoramic cameras will be useful. I got a shot of some wild flowers for Mom. There is also a 3-shot panoramic of a view from the side of one mountain (Justus Mt?).
OK, my feet are waking up. Time to eat, pack, then start hiking. Today's destination: Slaughter Gap campsite. It has water, and I'm tired of the shelters.
I met 3 other thru-hikers on top of Big Cedar Mt. They started at the bottom of Springer at the visitors' center so they are running about 1/2 day behind me. Their trailnames are "First Degree," "Second Degree," and "Third Degree." They are the "three degrees of smart-ass." I think they camped at a creek just before Granny Top Mountain, as they seemed finished for the day when we compared their map to my databook. I'll be walking through Neel's Gap this morning so these last few days will go in the mail. There's a grocery store on the trail. I might need some ice cream and duct tape but my food still weighs about 20 pounds. (I later discovered that my food weighed 40 pounds and my pack was about 60 pounds.)
It's about 45 deg F this morning with a steady breeze and occasional gusting wind. I was very comfortable in my tarp/tube tent last night. I put it up first, threw my sleeping bag and clothes into the structure, stripped my wet hiking clothes off, dried off, then put the fleece on. Next I hung the bear bag rope, ate a very watery spaghetti and Parmesan cheese with tomato dinner, with peanut butter for desert. Finally, I hung the bear bag with the food, medicines, and dirty Tupperware and went to sleep.
I got about 10 hours of sleep, though I woke at 2 AM with a sneeze and congestion. The last shelter log talked about two hikers with pneumonia and one with a bad cold. I'll stay out of the shelters at night if possible as we needn't all share germs. This tube tent was warmer than a shelter because it stopped ALL wind. Time to bandage my feet and grease them up with Pathmark's Triple antibiotic ointment, then get back on the trail. Let's see--today's goal will be Poplar Stamp Gap for my first 15-mile day. I also plan to spend an hour at Neel's Gap grocery store to mail this journal, check in with Jim, and buy and eat ice cream! (Note - he stayed at Neel's Gap all day. -Jim)
