Damascus, part I

In Damascus public library, and the little popup window gave me 10 minutes left on my session, so not much talking.

Started hiking before the leaves were out. Some of the first plants to come up are now dying. Seasons!

4 states! 460-some miles! Virginia!

Slow as molasses. Couple more 18s, but they screw me over. Shin splints right now. Awfully prone to overuse injury, it seems.

So that means unless I flip and still winter hike, no thru. So what's my destination? What's my quest? Where am I going? I'm open.

As I hike, I note places near road crossings that are beautiful. I note short routes of mostly downhill or really easy stuff, where I'd take a first-time backpacker. I really want to take my mom out here. Weekend it, and we can fit a full-size air mattress!

Unaka Mtn was one of the latest beauties. Spruce and fir, widely spaced. So green. Jeramiah and I note such places as elven. Sometimes we pretend orcs and dragons are in the woods. Sometimes we pretend an evil sorceress is controlling the weather. It's fun times.

But I gotta go! I'll try to post again tomorrow!

Out of Uncle Johnny's

Well! Four days here, two in the bunkhouse, plus a shuttle to Spivey Gap today to slackpack back to the hostel, all free! Wow! Freebird, who's been in charge of the store, is so generous! And of course Johnny and Charlotte, who own the place. We're hiking four miles out to the next shelter tonight, after I eat my last bowl of microwave Mac and Yeast from heaven. New pictures are here: http://picasaweb.google.com/brittany.a.lewis/SCAAndAT2009?authkey=Gv1sRgCKryjLXq5KbH5QE&feat=directlink

Heard of some more hikers just going home. How sad! If I get off the trail, I won't be going home!

Feet feel good for now. Yay. Moving on. 339 down!

If you want to send me a package, I'll be checking the post office in Damascus, VA. I don't have the zip code in front of me, but the address would be my name on the first line, next line General Delivery, next Damascus, VA zip code, next "Hold for AT Thru Hiker." You can look up the zip, right?

I'm about two days ahead of my schedule last year. So far behind everyone! But a great time. Grant and Ian (Tolkien dork and museum dork) are with us since the Smokies, so still have some "old" friends for the time being.

OH! Going by the name Bar Fight now, officially. :D Vegan rage and pink fingerless gloves. I will mess you up. :)

STILL Still Going at Uncle Johnny's

I apologize for the rambling nature of my posts. I always feel like there is so much to say, but I can never remember it when I have internet access. Also, it's hard to communicate what the AT is really like.

Anyway, like I said, I'm chilling here at the hostel for a while because my foot feels funny. It doesn't exactly seem to be getting better, and I also realized this morning that the old injury site is swollen, so I've wrapped it. J. and I are doing laundry and preparing cabins for guests in return for stay tonight. He's still around and hanging out with me, whether it's because he likes me or because he's sickish, I don't know. He's been sick to his stomach for the past day and a half, and he finally puked last night. Leprechaun tried to hike out yesterday, feeling fine, got less than a mile away, and had it coming out both ends. And then returned. A couple others have been having similar problems. Eek.

I'm still waiting to see what will happen. There's a festival in Erwin this weekend, so maybe I'll be around for that, and it'll be fun. Here at the hostel we've been watching movies (Lord of the Rings and O Brother Where Art Thou being specially appropriate favorites) and doing crossword puzzles and playing cards and doing Trivial Pursuit questions and drawing pictures on the photos in the newspaper. And sometimes drinking. Several people who are quite well have been having trouble leaving the hostel because it's just so fun to hang out. A mocking horoscope made up yesterday: "You will chillax and drink beer for the next three days." I have a personal motto: Pooping is always the right choice. Mohawk has his own: Don't fight the zero. And indeed he, and we, and others have not. It's all part of the experience! Though it sucks when people who have been friends for the past week and a half move on. There are strangers outside waiting to be friends, I think. Except for the guy who got to the grape jelly in the hiker box before I did... [narrows eyes]

Hostel dogs are cool. One is a stray who showed up a few days ago and just lies on the sofa. I brushed the hell out of him earlier today. The other is friendly, but he looks like he wants a bath and some itch medicine.

The area between Devil's Fork Gap and Spivey gap has some pretty spots for day hiking. Just suggesting. One more cabin to change the sheets in...pictures later today I hope.

Still Going at Uncle Johnny's

So here I am at Uncle J's. This is where I stopped last year, having to go home for a nasty stress fracture in the ankle. So I was a bit pissed to feel my foot acting up yesterday, and I would be damned if Erwin, TN would be my hike's end for two years in a row. Thus J. and I only hiked 12 miles yesterday, and then hitched in very easily to Erwin this morning. I plan on staying here until my foot feels better, which I hope is a week or less. It's nowhere near as advanced as last year's problem since I was trying to be proactive in preventing serious injury. I plan on hitching back to where I left off and keep hiking north for the time being.

I've seen others hurt, some seriously. A guy named Centaur, who I met in the Smokies, has gone home for a week. Others took a zero in Gatlinburg. Chairman, who is in design school at NC State, has tendinitis of the Achilles tendon, and after hiking 8 miles north today he decided to hitch back and spend a few days at the hostel. I expect to become acquainted with him! Some people are getting bummed about the monotonous scenery, or bummed when hiking partners split and they find themselves alone for a few days, as the AT experience is largely social. I'm still hiking with Jeramiah, and I don't think even he knows if he'll be waiting for me to heal up. We've hiked together for nearly 300 miles now (we've completed 327 miles of the trail each), and I'm sure it'll feel different for me, whenever we split. Plus, I've entertained ideas of hitching up to Maine, or leaving the trail to visit other parts of the country (any takers?). No plans yet. Besides, I need to try out the new scenery, since the last 200 has been all a repeat of last year.

Healthwise, I'm pretty good. Thought I had giardiasis because of the nausea and cramps and diarrhea around my graduation time, but that got better. Fought some nasty foot fungus and some new blisters last week. Yesterday got a sunburn, and this morning discovered the funny feeling in the corner of my eye is probably also a burn, perhaps from blowing on J.'s cooking fire. Lots of insect bites, but surviving them. Braving an overfull stomach right now, as we just came back from the shuttle to town for Mexican food, and I always seem to eat too much in town. Falafel and cheezecake and tiramisu from Asheville, from my visit with Ashely, were great!

My tarp is working out well, yay. Keeping me dry in the rain. My pack is light and roomy (I started at Springer with 25 pounds but left Hot Springs with 32, eek). My shoes are starting to feel cramped, and I ought to move up a size and replace them soon, but I do love trail runners. Haven't played with any stoves yet. We'll see.

Met some cool people. John here is legally blind, though he can see some. He's hiking sections. Chairman from Raleigh I mentioned. Needles is a tattoo artist--he ought to meet up with Vinnie from earlier! Leprechaun is a rock climber who just got admitted to college today! And Mike from Ottowa is celebrating his 27th birthday today. Apparichaman has a sweet mohawk and curled mustache, and has been going at the trail almost as long as J. and I. Overall, loving the social scene. Loving meeting people, hanging out, and making inside jokes about staph infections.

No bears yet, alas.

My computer time is running out at the hostel, so I'm off to watch episodes of the Simpsons and eat chocolate. Later!

Rushed in Hot Springs

Boo boo boo! Not much time left! Short post.

I'm in Hot Springs, taking a zero day. Took a while to get here. Some days I've had no energy, just dragging out 7 or 9 miles. I think it's a calorie issue. Must fix. Getting tired not of cold food, but limited options cold food provides. Thinking about making a beer can stove. Peas and rice courtesy Jeramiah were great yesterday morning.

Many people are very casual about making it to Maine this season, and sometimes I find myself among them. I do just want to have a good time. J. and I ran into a southbounder who started last July (and took the winter off), who showed us his pictures from Maine to Max Patch (Tennessee). It was pretty inspiring for about ten minutes, and then I was going uphill again with no energy...

The Smokies were nice. I did a few days without J. as he had to go to doctor, but he caught up promptly. Max patch was rainy and viewless, but it's been nowhere near as wet as when we first entered NC. Yesterday was fantastic. The 18 miles (longest day) into Hot Springs were a ridiculously lush landscape, grasses and flowers leaning into the trail, white moths fluttering here and there, a light drizzle, the sun shimmering off of all the damp leaves.

But ah, I have an Ashley to meet! Post soon, I hope! See last year's post on this section and Hot Springs and the Sunnybank Inn.

Alive and Well!

I am home for graduation until tomorrow morning, so no time to tell ALL the stories. See for yourself by browsing my pictures.

PICTURES HERE!


I feel great. The AT never gives you what you expect. These three weeks have been far different from the three weeks of 2008 for me, and I love them all the same. I have been moving slowly, and many people have been passing me, but I am healthy and grateful for it. I also settled in with a group for two weeks, making friends I hope to keep in touch with for a long time. People and places have been beautiful.

From SCA and AT 2009

On April 20, my dad drove me to the Forest Service road dropoff a mile from the top of Springer Mountain in Georgia. At about 6:30 in the evening I tapped the first white blaze of the trail and looked out over the horizon. I spent the night alone in the nearby shelter, where the magnified sounds of mice frightened me until I realized what they were. I finally met other hikers the next day, including a couple with a dog, an overloaded anthropology/art student named Tex, and an easygoing dude called You. I also met a fellow from Raleigh I wouldn't mind having coffee with later, who knows? This group hiked on, and I ended up camping one night with a pair of guys filming for their YouTube adventure show. They gave me beer and regaled me with tales of undercover work for the FBI. They filmed me in some of their segments, but why would I want to show you those?

Maddie and Vinnie, from SCA and AT 2009

I spent my fourth official night at Woods Hole shelter and acted the crankbasket. Having decided to get up very early to hike to the sunrise on Blood Mountain, I was greatly annoyed by a combination of hikers who decided to talk loudly around a campfire well after dark. I lay in my sleeping bag stewing, contemplating exactly how I would describe in the blog. When I heard them say they would be spending the next night at the hostel at Neel's Gap, I promptly decided that I was going to avoid them and take a nero (near-zero-mileage day) at the top of Blood Mountain. None of the group seemed so bad in the morning, but I had made my mind up. Yet the mustiness of the Blood Mountain shelter was more than even Ashley could have tolerated (built by the CCC, very interesting at least), so I gave in and hiked to the hostel for the night, making it in right before the place closed. I stayed there for two nights with Thomas and Jeremiah from Cincinnati, and Maddie and Vinnie from Louisville, and took back all the bad thoughts I thought. I seemed the odd one out, but I think we discovered much in common, and I was to hike with most of them for the next two weeks.

Jeremiah, from SCA and AT 2009

Jeremiah became my special hiking partner, as we hiked similar speeds throughout the day. The first night out of Neel's Gap we had the shelter to ourselves for quite a while, and we talked for a long time. About education, and anarchy, and veganism and feminism, consumerism and dumpster diving, religion and ghosts, and more. I confessed how I had judged him and disliked him at first, and he confessed how he had judged me. Quite the learning moment. He has some atypical life experience under his belt as a homeless traveler for the past two years. He has no money whatsoever, but a good mother. He hiked 1500 miles of the Pacific Crest Trail last year. He had to postpone the start of his hike for a few weeks because he had an unexpected stay at Orleans Parish Prison for a minor infraction. He is smart and talented, and I expect great things from him, college or no. I may hike with him through the Smokies next week.

There has been a lot of rain, nearly every day for over a week, from our stop in Hiawasee, GA to our arrival at the Nantahala Outdoor Center (NOC) in Wesser, NC. Amazingly, my feet stayed healthy. A few blisters, but nothing to write home about. My tarp has kept me sufficiently dry when I camp, and my cook-less food strategy has satisfied me, honest! I AM a bit fed up with the menu, to be truthful, but I'm not sure switching to cooking would make a big difference. I have had a lot of peanut butter, ramen, oatmeal, raisins, trail mix, textured vegetable protein, chili mix, and energy bars. In camp we sit around dreaming up fantasy foods, or saying what we're going to eat when we get to town (chips and salsa for me!).

Cool Breeze, from SCA and AT 2009

From SCA and AT 2009

There have been several good instances of Trail Magic. The basic kind is the box full of food and cooler full of drinks left at a road crossing, and we met one of those. At Neel's Gap, a fellow named Cool Breeze took me to the grocery store for vegetables and grilled them at his cabin for me, then he and his roommates showed me a nice waterfall. Rickety van + darkening woods + ax in the floor were all kind of creepy and reminded me to be careful, but Cool Breeze remained a cool guy. After we left Neel's Gap he hiked from the north to cross us, bringing a fresh tomato for me, and whiskey and more as well. Even food and a tent for some of the others. Genuine generosity. A pair of hikers gave Jeremiah beer, which he shared. And at the NOC, by pure lucky timing and getting lost on the NOC campus, we ran into an NOC employee who invited us to a potluck the following night, just one ridge away from the AT. We filled up with food and beer and wine and music and campfire, and enjoyed the most amazing privy.

From SCA and AT 2009

Monty and Natalie, from SCA and AT 2009

The next day the property owner, Monty, walked over the ridge to our campsite to invite us back for more fire and alcohol. He shared his corn liquor with us, and then gave me a bag full of organic greens form his garden: cabbage, lettuces, horseradish, cilantro, basil, mint, radish, and possibly oregano. AND he arranged for a friend to take Maddie and Vinnie and Thomas to the Trail Days festival in Damascus, VA this week. Jeremiah and I hiked on to Fontana Dam, where my brother picked me up for graduation. Libations all around.


Mini stories:

From SCA and AT 2009

-A hiker named John took my leftover vegan burger, dopped it on the ground, then picked it back up and ate it. He said he thought it was chicken, and wouldn't have picked it up if he'd known it was vegan. Ha.

-A hiker named Dan creeped me out at first, especially when he said he felt like he lost his soul (as Vinnie and I were picking animal shapes out of cloud shadows). No disrespect if you are reading, Dan. I was glad to see him chill out later. Another instance of misjudging.

-At Blue Mountain shelter, a mama mouse was moving babies from place to place in the rafters and dropped one. Poor baby mousie was so tiny, and cried and squeaked. We left the shelter alone for several hours hoping mama would come, but maybe she couldn't crawl up the vertical wall with him in her mouth. Jeremiah took baby mousie in one hand, and with the other scaled a wall the rest of us couldn't climb with two, and put baby mousie in the rafters. Mouse family came out and squeaked. Then mama came and picked up baby and took him back to the nest. (I know you're thinking they ate him, but they could have done that where he fell. Maybe they ate him, maybe they snuggled him. But in any case, he was no longer squeaking and lonely. Problem solved. Jeremiah the Hero.)

-In Franklin, the laundry owners told Jeremiah and me to put our backpacks outside because they were smelling up the place. We did as they wanted, but we knew the smell was really coming from our selves. Smelly packs are later in the game.

-On top of Tray Mountain, we could see town lights below in the night. We could also see bright points in the hills from the many campfires out there.

-I started throwing a knife for fun. I hit the blue blaze target on the tree and chipped the blue paint off. Cool Breeze started calling me "Barfight Brittany" out of irony, but the rest of the group picked it up when glimmers of badassery such as this started showing up.

-More than one hiking group considers itself to be a Fellowship. When they split up, they take on individual identities. Aragorn seems to be popular. I consider myself a Sam or Pippin, honestly.

-I don't know what my trail name is yet. It would be Barfight if the others have anything to say about it, but I don't want to be mistaken as pretentious. I tried to take on Tiger Lily after an exchange in a hostel ("Tell us a bedtime story." "[rolls eyes] I don't know any stories.") started me thinking of Peter Pan, but it seems not to have stuck.

-One time I woke up feeling something tugging on my hair, and then I heard the skittering of tiny feet. I think the mousies wanted my hair for the nest. Who wouldn't? Honest mistake.

So the plan is to go to graduation today, leave for Trail Days with Daniel tomorrow, pick up Jeremiah there, and be dropped off at Fontana early next week. Will the Smokies kick my butt? We'll see. And the camera is charged this time around. See you on the trail, hopefully with more frequent updates.

From SCA and AT 2009

A New Hope

So here I am, Brittany, trying again. Daniel may be inspired to continue to post about his past adventure, so unless he backdates his posts we may be seeing some 2008 info mixed in here in the future. Other than that, I think it's my story now. :)

To review: I hiked for two weeks last year, probably got a stress fracture, and hiked another week on said fracture. Daniel did not fully appreciate the badassery of my pain tolerance, and I did not fully appreciate my own stupidity. I said I was going to train and build bone hardness before I started again...but that flopped a little flop. Weight training in the fall was awesome, and January running was likewise, but I seem to have trouble with keeping interested in a single thing long term. Hm, 6-month hike...?

My plan for the near future: I will leave Monday, April 20. It was to be earlier, but I would have needed different gear. I'll be taking it RIDICULOUSLY easy to begin with, 5-7 miles a day the first week. Which means no 8-mile approach trail the first day. We'll drive to the summit and I'll backtrack to Springer Mountain to "start." I've already sworn not to become attached to hikers I meet early on, because I WILL NOT attempt to keep up. I will go at my RIDICULOUSLY slow pace. All attempts to trail-name me "Turtle" or "Escargot" will be countered with voodoo and bear-attractant spray. I'll take regular zero days to rest and heal, and I'll stop when I feel like I need to. I'll trust myself on this, and be liberal about it. Assuming I'm still good after three weeks, I'll be picked up to attend my department's spring graduation ceremony. I have a master's degree, darn it, and I need to make sure my "Younger Self" realizes it by attending this ritual. That break will take about a week since I depend on others for transport. Then, supposing all is well, it's back to the AT.

I realize I am statistically unlikely to complete a thru-hike. Something less than ten percent of those who attempt it complete it. So I'm not going to focus on that too much, and get bummed. Rather, this hike, however long it lasts, is about me. I have money and time to spare, and I'm going to have a good time. And it's about the time, not the distance or the places seen. I'll always be able to take a week off and see a magnificent peak, but I won't always be able to trudge along through the woods and enjoy myself with no commitments. In fact, I really need to get a job once this is over. A thru would be cool, and maybe it will happen, but it's not the goal anymore.

So wish me well, why don't you?