Final Report

May 08,2013

I have 300 miles under my Pack, hiking through all kinds of weather.  I have met so many great and wonderful people.  It is amazing how giving the "People of the Trail" are, both past and present!

 I just hope that some of them feel the same when thinking of the time spent with me.  I tried to share what little knowledge I had along with a few of the things I was carrying on my back, from a good length of para cord to a extra blank journal,  a pocket knife I found on the trail, and even even the little wrist band I found and returned to Prayerwalker.   They were little thing, but I hope they made the day better for a few people!

I am home now and still have the congestion, but the cough has subsided some what. I feel fine, but I know for sure that I made the right decision to leave the trail.  The warm 'dry' heat of AZ will feel good for a while.



Thanks for tagging along, it has been fun!

Home at last, home at last!

The airport's entertainment for the night came around 0400 this morning when a few young ladies came in with suit cases about the size of a small refrigerator and started repacking them.  There is a fee for over weight luggage so they were weighing each piece on the ticket counter scales and moving articles of clothing between them to get each piece under the limit.  This would have been no big deal except that over time a gentleman with them was bringing in cart load after cart load of huge pieces of luggage.  I think they were returning home to Europe and had been here on a shopping spree.  There must have been enough luggage to fill a small delivery truck.   I did see more people join them a little later including a 'grandmother' type and a small child.

Around 0530 the airport began to stir a little and signs of life were starting to pop up.  I managed to get a breakfast sandwich and coffee and then started my check-in process.  I had to check my backpack and pay an extra $25 for the privilege.  The claim check and bag label printed out on behind the counter so I had to ask for assistance.  The lady looked at the print out and remarked "Phoenix, the hard way,  you know we have non-stop that leaves thirty minutes later!" Now she tells me!  Atlanta, to Charlotte, to Denver, to Phoenix is my plan!  Her 'Hard Way' comment made me think I should be flying through Las Vegas.  (The Denver to Phoenix  flight for the last leg of my trip actually continued on to Vegas!)

Very poor planing on my part.  I am beat and ready for Margaret to pick my up and get me home.

It is very disappointing to have to end my hike, but, I am glad to be home!

Thanks to everyone that has followed me through this adventure.

The Voyage Home

Up after a good nights rest.  Milled around for a while before going to the lobby for the free breakfast.  It was great and had lots of choices including, but not limited to biscuits, sausage, eggs, gravy.

Checkout at eleven so I hung around until then because of having my backpack to deal with.  My departure was at 14:45 so I had time on my hands with nothing to do but wait so I went on over to the bus station and rescheduled my ticket for today.  Bus stations are really boring places to kill time!

Finally depart on schedule heading for Knoxville where I change buses after about an hour layover!  Heading for Atlanta after dark and in the rain.  A new thing now is that commercial buses have to pull into the weigh stations along the interstates.  After doing so we also got a free safety inspection, courtesy of Tenn. Dept of Transportation and Highway Patrol.  Forty five minutes later we were again on our way to Atlanta and arrived at near midnight, in the rain.

After off loading and retrieving my backpack from under the bus, I inquired about MARTA's (Metro Area Rapid Transit Authority) location and fortunately it was in the same terminal, just around the corner.  No hiking in the rain at midnight!

I have to buy a Breeze Pass to board the train.  That in and of itself is an experience to endure.  When I arrived in Atlanta to start my hike, I found a window with a live person at the airport terminal and bought a single ride pass from the airport to North Springs, the northern most point on this same "red" line.  However, near midnight at a remote terminal, there are no live persons to be seen for assistance.  While trying to interpret the vending machine for the pass a young man showed up and offered assistance.  I thought he was just being kind and helping out a confused old man but then he asked for help as he did not have the where with all to add a ride to his empty breeze card and make his way home.  So, another $2.50 (from me) and we are we are both inside the terminal waiting for a south bound train!  I think he earned it, I could have been there a while trying to figure out that system!

Its too late to get a room, and midnight arrival at the airport meant that I still had seven hours to kill.  Nothing is more boring that a large airport at midnight!  Not even a Gray Hound bus station. At least there you can see some interesting people!  I know there is no way I'm going to sleep, so I just try to get a little rest.

Planes, Trains, Automobiles, and Buses

Note:  The trip home was almost as adventurous as the hike!  I left the trail on Saturday, and Sunday morning I started making arrangement to get home.  As I mentioned, my Nexus was broken so I had to use the computer in the lobby and this was no conducive to doing a lot of research on the internet.  The final itinerary was not something I am proud of, but my brain was not functioning up to full specs that day.  The next few entries will be used to relate my homeward bound adventures.


Sunday, May 05, 2013

I called Miss Janet for a shuttle to Johnson City, TN, where I could get a bus to Atlanta.  Miss Janet is on the short list of Hikers Best Friends on the trail!  However, she operates in her own world, on her own schedule, and her own way.  After she picked me up, she had others to drop of at different places and then with the remaining hikers we went by her house.

I was ready to wait in her van until she was ready to go but nothing would do but for me to come in meet everyone and hang around for a while.  I went inside and was surprised at all the familiar faces I saw.  Globug was there, Tinman, and the Hart family.  I was glad to be able to say goodbye to them in person as we had spent a lot of nights together.  There were other as well but I did not know them as well.

Then, all of the sudden, Miss Janet takes off in her van with a large contingent of the hikers there.  I knew I would never make it to Johnson City, never mind being on time! And, my backpack was still in her van and the separation anxiety was starting to get to me.  I paced and watched the driveway. It's like now that my hike is over everything should revolve around me and my schedule and less of a laid back approach to getting there that is prevalent on the trail. After all, I now have a places to be and schedules to keep!  Someone ask when my bus departed and told me not to worry, there was plenty of time.  Easy for them to say!  It is amazing how my world prospective has changed in less that twenty four hours!

Finally, after what seemed like hours, Miss Janet returned and two other hikers and  I jumped into the van and were heading out of town.  But were going the wrong way.  She is taking the two hikers to the trail head in the mountains.  Shouldn't we be going to Johnson City, after all I do have a schedule!  Eventually, we are coming back down the mountain and soon on our way to Johnson City.  We arrive with time to spare.   I have to go to the bus station and change my ticket for the following day because I don't want to have to get a room in Atlanta at midnight tonight.  Well, Miss Janet waits for me and then takes me to a Comfort Suites about a mile from the bus station.  All is well and Miss Janet has done a wonderful deed in getting me here, and on time.  Thank you, Miss Janet, you are truly a Trail Angel, and a hikers best friend!

The rest of the day is uneventful and filled with boring motel living.  I do manage to get my shirt, socks, and underwear washed in the sink, using bar soap,  and dried over the heater.    I'm not on the trail now and have to be considerate of other!

Decisions, Decisions!

Saturday, May 04, 2013
Destination: Ewrin Super 8
Starting Location: Indian Grave Gap
 Today's Miles: 3.60 Trip Miles: 293.52

 
Up around seven after a windy-windy night. My tent was still intact, but sleeping not very good. Ate a cold breakfast and broke camp in the still high winds.  Breaking camp in high winds is almost as much fun and setting up camp in high winds. Two of the three ladies I met yesterday walked by as I was breaking camp.  The winds were bad where they camped, but, they said it was pretty much above them so not as bad as where I was.

 I managed to get away by 0745 and finished the one thousand foot climb that I started last night! As I climbed the fog started coming in with the cold wind, so that was fun. As I passed Beauty Spot, a clearing along the ridge, I saw a pickup parked over by the forest service road and I almost walked over to see about getting a ride back into town because the weather was getting worse and rain was expected tomorrow,  but I continued on as I still had another 1,000 foot climb ahead of me later today and wanted to get over that next mountain.

I made it to Deep Gap and was starting to feel bad again and the congestion and coughing was also acting up again.  I waited around Deep Gap for a while, sent a text to my son to explain my post on Facebook, which he translated for others. The responce this time was "They both speak trail talk"!  It reminded me of the scene in the Airplane movie about Jive Talk,

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0j2dVuhr6s

Talked to thru hiker camped there and a couple of other hikers passing by, heading up the mountain. Now the dilemma, could I continue on with the cold, congestion, and cough? I paced back and forth on the trail for at least an hour trying to decide what to do. Was this how my hike was going to end? I decided it was. When I sent the text to Aaron  earlier, I told him how good things were going and an hour later I am walking toward home.  I cannot deal with the recurring cold, cough, and congestion as it was slowing my already slow pace and I could not see how I was going to finish another 1,900 miles. I sent a text to Margaret to let her know I was coming home. Cell signal was iffy and text is the best way sometimes.  It was a very hard decision to make but my health is more important that the hike.




I started hiking on the F. S. road and about mile later two gentlemen came by but said they were only going a little further and I told them if they were going to the top of the hill, I would take it and jumped into the back of the Pickup. When they stopped they told me they would not be here long and if I waited, they could take me into town. I waited while they were hunting Ramps, a member of the lily and  onion family.  It was their family tradition to come up here in the spring for the Ramp hunt.






 Back to the Super 8 and start making plans to get home. I met Lumber Jack (for his chain saw snoring, I guess) in the lobby as he was signing up  for the night. I had met him just before Fontana Dam. I told him to come to my room and I would give him some of my food and other supplies that I no longer needed.  He was grateful and that he no longer needed to go to the grocery store for supplies. Glad I could do a little trail magic before leaving town. I would have left most of it in the hiker box, but this was much better.

For those who have followed my adventures, thank you and I hoped you enjoyed them as much as I did.  I am disappointed that I had to end my hike, but I am not disappointed in my accomplishment.  I am 66 years old, on my first backing adventure ever, and hiked over 300 miles in the woods, through the rain, freezing rains, snow, sleet, high winds and freezing temperatures and love it (well, most of anyway). I met a lot of great people along the way. Will I attempt this again?  Probably not.  This was a test of, by, and for me, and I passed!



 "All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost" -J.R.R. Tolkien

Too windy to cook?

Friday, May 03, 2013
Destination: Indian Grave Gap
Starting Location: Uncle Johnny's
Today's Miles: 8.50 Trip Miles: 289.92

Eight and a half miles to a stealth tent site just past TN395/NC197. The trail has followed and crossed the TN/NC border for ever. This is not a good tent site an add to that the wind @20-25 MPH and higher gust made for an iffy night, but I was hiking up hill and carrying four liters of water, about eight pounds, while looking for a place to camp. I passed up a lot of good sites but did not have enough water for setting up camp for dinner, breakfast, and starting off in the morning. Setting up the tent I saw the rain fly was still wet for a few days ago and I had forgotten to get it out and let it dry. The wind soon solved that problem. I met Stretch, Pantry, and Slow 'n Steady during the day. They were hiking together and they found found the good water source at the highway, but they back tracked to find a campsite and  I walked north and found this one. I had to walk back down the trail 75 yards or so to find a place out of the wind just to cook dinner.

 After settling into my tent I discovered that I had not packed my Nexus 7 tablet very well in my pack and had cracked the glass screen. About 20% of the screen was working and responding to the touch. Everything was viewable, just could not use the touch keyboard for text entry. Tried short hand code to update my Facebook followers and the response I was "you talk funny". So much for that! The wind is howling and gusting. Reminds me of the three little pigs and the wolf huffing and puffing to blow their house down. But my Big Agnes tent is holding up very well. It will make for a bad night for sleeping though! Getting dark, so I will settle down for some rest, if not sleep!



 "All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost" -J.R.R. Tolkien

More Recovery

Thursday, May 02, 2013
Destination: Uncle Johnny's
Starting Location: Uncle Johnny's
Today's Miles: 0.00 Trip Miles: 281.42

Decided to recover another day.  I left Hot Springs too early and that cost me in time, miles, and a doctor visit.  Took the breakfast shuttle for some biscuits and gravy and just hung around until the dinner shuttle and went for the KFC AYCE buffet. It is not very exciting to hang around a hostile for very long so I am ready to leave as soon as I feel like it.


"All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost" -J.R.R. Tolkien

Four miles adds Zero to total?

Wednesday, May 01, 2013
Destination: Uncle Johnny's
Starting Location: Erwin TN Super 8
Today's Miles: 0.00 Trip Miles: 281.42

Zero miles even though I walked four miles with an overloaded pack to get to Uncle Johnny's. This was a test to see how I was really feeling.  If it had gone well I would have started up the mountain, but it wore me down so I got a private cabin an settled in for the night. Will have to wait until I am feeling much better before heading out. Busy place and I see a lot of familiar faces.  According to their pack scales, my pack weighs in at forty one pounds and a little!  Weigh too much!


 "All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost" -J.R.R. Tolkien