April 19, 2005 | Day 23 | Miles 3.3 | Total Miles 237.3
End: Standing Bear Farm, a homestead in the middle of nowhere, Hartford, TN
Danielle:
Sunny and warm
Well, after I wrote my journal last night, the mice came out. And they were friendly. One of them came right up next to me and scared the crap out of me. Nasty buggers. The shelter was down low, at 2600ft, and much warmer, so I think because of that they were out. Oh well. They didn't get into any of our stuff, so that was good.
It was only 5 of us last night. Drumsick and Six-Piece were there when we got back up from Mountain Momma's, and then later Charlie came in. He did a 27-mile day. Whoa! He is on a roll. Trying to meet someone in Hot Springs tomorrow. Drumstick was playing his guitar. He's a great guy, really nice and funny. We really have met some fun and great people out here. That has been one of the best parts of the trail, all the interesting people we've met. And the trail kind of equals us all out, we're all out here doing the same thing, the same miles. Makes for a great community.
So, today we had a nice, mellow 3 miles out of the Smokies. The Smokies have been some of the best hiking so far. Beautiful terrain and we lucked out on weather. We got out of the park with no rain. Yes! We are currently sitting at Standing Bear Farm, a homestead a few hundred yards off the trail, with a few cabins, a bunkhouse, a kitchen area, an internet/laundry/phone area, and a stream, fire pit, shower, etc. Great, lowkey place to hang out.
Patch and Strider have caught up to us here, although Peanut, Thirsty and Ribeye are now ahead. That's how it goes, you are with a group, it disbands, and then you find a new group, then you meet up with old friends. Lots of leapfrogging going on. But I think everyone will be in Hot Springs this weekend. There is a hiker fest going on, so it's going to be a busy place. Should be fun.
So, it's been three weeks, what have I learned? We love our chair converters; we get stinky out here and there is nothing you can do about it, you just smell; 7 days of food is heavy but we could eat it all or more; there are some great people out here and it's a wonderful community of strangers who act like friends and become them quickly; we've used everything in our packs, except some of the first aid stuff, and the big mitts and iPod we sent home at NOC; hiking is hard, but rewarding, and now 12 miles is an "easy" day--how did that happen?; we are tough! With our aches and pains and everything else, we are loving it and we can make it. We're in this together and that makes it all the better. We are so happy to be out here. It is great :-) Can't think of anywhere else I'd rather be, and anyone else I'd rather do this with than Ryan. Loving life and feeling good :-)
Ryan:
sunny, warm
a beautiful day to sit around and do nothing. well, not completely nothing...we did hike 3 miles...and eat a lot. we also crossed under interstate 40...so that's the excitement. back to relaxing.
today's song - cat scratch fever, ted nugent...our most gracious and wonderful host, curtis, looks just like the motor city madman.
April 20, 2005 | Day 24 | Miles 14.6 | Total Miles: 251.9
End: unofficial campsite near new Roaring Fork Shelter, Tent
Danielle:
Sunny, hot
After a fire in the firepit and a game of poker (Strider took us all out--me first, then Ryan and Patch on the same hand, then Hazy Sonic, all while drinking the Manhattans that his girlfriend sent along in his maildrop), we awoke to another beautiful day. Standing Bear Farm was a great place to stay, but we still set out at 8:25 and managed to do 9.6m before lunch at 12:30--we're getting in hiking shape :-) We saw a beautiful patch of wild irises along the way, only about 4 inches tall with 2-inch tall light purple flowers. There are some gorgeous flowers out here! Of course there is also lots of poison ivy down low too, so I guess you take the good with the bad...
We went over Max Patch today, a beautiful, mile-long bald up at 4600ft. Amazing to come up out of the woods and see this huge grassy hill before you. And it just stretched on forever. Great views. We ended up hanging out on the top with a bunch of hikers. A 2003 thru-hiker had brought up beer and goodies earlier in the day. The beer was gone by the time we got there, but we had a soda, took off our shoes, sat down and took in the views for an hour or so. Very nice. We weren't in any rush to get anywhere, but finally left around 5pm, when we started to get hungry. We're currently the only ones in this little campsite by the river. Wow the first time we've been alone camping. The new shelter isn't yet completed, and most people headed on through. There is even a crew of 6 --Beantown, Drumstick, Six-Piece, Wiggy, Horizon, Jersey Fresh-- who are thinking of hiking through the night and getting into Hot Springs early tomrrow morning. Crazy boys. It's 18m from here, and they'd all hiked at least 12m earlier today. Yikes! Not for us, thanks. We'll have a good day tomorrow and then a short hike in on Friday, perfect.
Great day. Happy as always to be out here :-)
Ryan:
sunny, warm
it was tough to break free of the vortex of standing bear farm, but we managed to get back on the trail. standing bear farm was great. curtis and his wife, maria, have turned their homestead into the perfect hiker hostel. bunkhouse, cabin, showers, outdoor kitchen, laundry, internet, firepit...all on this great piece of land right in front of their house. plus, there's a creek running down the middle of it all. oh yeah, for those keeping score danielle and i are +8 bucks in our one dollar poker games. i'm sure danielle wrote that max patch mountain was the highlight of the day, but i can trump that. i got danielle to sit and do nothing for two hours today...two whole hours...nothing. when we arrived at the summit of max patch a past thruhiker, spiff, had set up a little trail magic...most of the goodies were gone when we arrived, but a soda under the sun on this perfect day was sweet. so, we sat and chatted with the group of ten or so that was also doing nothing. can you believe it? she did nothing.
today's song - like humans do, david byrne
No comments:
Post a Comment