Saturday, May 26, 2012

Recovering in Hiawassee

Had to stop in a town (Hiawassee, GA) to give Nancy's ankles a rest.

 

Summary so far:

 

5/23 Resupplied in Helen, GA. Perused the "hiker box" at the Helendorf Inn and found a nice rain jacket for Craig (he previously mentioned desiring a rain jacket with pockets). Went thru our mailed items and re-boxed to mail ahead to Franklin, NC. Walked the box about .5 mile, and the post office was closed for lunch for an hour; left the box there. Went back to the Helendorf and ate some Wendy's chili. Craig jogged back to the post office and sent the box. Hitchhiked to the AT trail head with a very nice couple who went out of their way to get us there. Hiked in the rain and tented at Tres Mtn shelter. Craig had deet spray in his fanny pack, and every time he bent over the deet would spray on his fanny pack and kilt, melting the plastic inside the fanny pack. Ran into friends, "Team New Orleans" at the shelter. Ate a cold-water mix of Western Stew...amazing what you will eat on the trail.

 

5/24 Met new friends Woody and Jessica who gave us an orange and slice of tomato. Met them and Team New Orleans at Deep Gap shelter, the nicest shelter so far. Craig hiked to the shelter first and hiked back to Nancy and carried her pack about a mile. Nancy's brought out her spices at dinner, and was coined the possible trail name "Spice Girl". Also met Alex who started a really nice campfire after dinner.

 

5/25 Hiked to the first road and got a ride from Greg for $20 to Hiawassee. Ate lunch at a Chinese Buffet, and they gave us meat for Kayenta. Met Woody and Jessica, who are staying as well, and ate dinner with them at a Mexican restaurant. Nancy is soaking in Epsom salt and nursing her ankles three times a day.  Nancy realized in hindsight that the ankle issue was a compiling result of three things: 1, carrying too heavy a load; but that alone did not create the issue.  2, Nancy had Kayenta dog leashed to herself for the first 5 days and Kayenta was pulling strong.  Nancy did not realize how much extra pressure this was putting on her ankles, once Craig took the dog  on day 6 this was realized.  3, we hiked a really long 10 mile day over Blood mountain and that was that, the ankles need unstressed and they will be fine.  Nancy is lightening her pack yet again, this time with great understanding of the matter.

 

5/26 Deciding what to do tomorrow regarding the hike.

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Forgot to post pics

Amigos at campfire and Nancy at shelter.

Made it to town, Helen GA

Here is a summary of the adventure:
5/12 Nancy  hand sewed while Craig drove. Stayed at Motel 6. Ate at Zaxby's. Nancy had a 55 pound pack; Craig 38 pounds.
5/13 Had an awesome breakfast and toured Ashville NC. Headed to Georgia in the rain. Stayed at Amicalola Falls State slept in the car. Nancy purged some stuff from her pack. 
5/14 More purging: Nancy 45; Craig 42. Mailed box of excess to Nancy K. Tried to call a shuttle in the pm to no avail. Hiked half the 8.5 mile approach trail and tented. Met new friends Aileen Trever and Alyss (Craig dubbed 3 amigos). Hard time with Sierra Zip Ztove. Ate cold oatmeal which wasn't that bad and became the staple.
5/15 Stopped at a couple shelters and stayed at Stover creek shelter. Saw amigos again. Discover that they were carrying 55 to 65 pounds. Kayenta (dog) shivered in shelter; she is a tent dog for a while.
5/16 Stayed at Hawk Mt Shelter and met 3 amigos and others. Took about an hour to start campfire with Alyss' help bellowing.
5/17  Stayed at Gooch Mt Shelter. Many hikers there. Craig saw Fireflies or something shining thru the tent all night.
5/18 Tented at Lance Creek. Guy named Tune played guitar. A squirrel chewed Nancy's bear bag and ate a quarter of her nuts. Nancy has had a different body part ache each day.  Soon all parts will be done and we can say by to pain.  Kayenta has been great.  She is stiff in the morning like all of us but walks faster than I can and still has energy at the end of the day to explore the campsite.
5/19 Saw a bear near the tent; Kayenta barked and it left. Climbed Blood Mt which had a beautiful view and an awesome shelter of mountain stone. Stopped at Neel Gap and at a pepperoni pizza, probably the worst pizza that tasted so good. Bonvoyage to our 3 amigos who stayed to ship stuff home. Hiked to find a campsite and ran into a huge storm. Found one around Levellend Mt. Craig could not throw a bear bag rope over a branch for almost an hour and got soaked.
5/20 Discovered that our New Orleans and Australian friends lost some food to a bear. Stayed at Whitley Gap Shelter which was 1.2 miles off the AT, whew!  Nancy hikes every day thinking about what she can send home from her pack.  So far she has about 3 pounds going home at the next town to Nancy K.  She attracts many great comments with her innovative rain roof.  People love it. Good news is that it functioned beautifully in the first gentle rainstorm we had.  Many notice our kilts and we are being called the kilt people.  Hiked 1.2 miles to the shelter, which was the longest to any shelter for us. Kayenta slept about 16 hours. Rhododendron and mountain Laural in bloom.
5/21 Many ticks at the site. Nancy removed over 30 ticks from Kayenta. Still having a good time tho.
5/22 Hiked to route 75 and hitched a ride to Helen GA from a father and son who were very nice. Staying at the Helendorf tonight; got our supply box from the post office. Ate dinner with Craig's high school classmate Bob Y, who lives in GA.

Friday, May 11, 2012

Posting a Photo of Us; Leaving Soon

This photo was from our presentation at Craig's work about a month ago. Just want to see if I can easily send from Gmail (sending to go@blogger.com).
Leaving for Asheville, NC tomorrow and staying the night. Our plan is to start hiking Monday morning.