Hi all,
We finally have Internet, yeah! Here begins our account of our AT adventures;)
We took a taxi to the trailhead of the AT, and wow was our driver a character. We could barely understand a word he said, which he explained away as a slight cough, but the 4 cigarettes he smoked (after tearing off each filter) in our half hour drive to the trailhead might explain otherwise. However, he had a contagious laugh and many stories of other hopeful AT hikers just like us:)
We mostly go by "The twins" since its easy for people to remember, but our individual trail names are "Quercus" (latin for Oak tree) for Amanda and "Maple" for Becky. We decided to give each other tree names based on our personalities. Becky's the sweeter twin, always stopping to take pictures of wild flowers, and Amanda's the more hardcore twin, lets keep trekking forward no matter the elements.
On Day three of our adventure we saw two fluffy white dogs, but had to resist petting them, because we decided we were way too grungy, LOL.
We are mailing food and other essentials to Post Offices along the way (Thanks Mom and Dad for mailing our packages for us!!!!). We picked up our first resupply in Suches, GA (11 days worth of food). It was heavy and that's an understatement. After climbing Blood Mountain (the tallest Mt in GA), Amanda declared at the top that the 2 lbs of instant brown rice was going into the first dumpster she found. (We really left it at a hostel for other hikers to use). All along we have been loosing gear and food as we realize how little gear we need and how unwilling we are to carry anything unessential all the way to Maine (bug spray, maps, spices, sleeping bag liners, extra fuel, batteries, etc.)
Hanging our food in bear bags has also been an adventure. Amanda is use to carrying a bear canister, since out west the bears are too smart to be tricked by hanging food, so neither of us is experienced with hanging food. Therefore we have had some interesting first attempts in hanging bear bags. First of all, neither one of us are champion throwers. Usually the first try ends up with Becky "Maple" accidentally throwing the rock backwards and then ducking for cover. Yes, its as hilarious as it sounds:) We have also realized that it is important to hold onto the other end of the string before hauling the rock over a branch. Amanda "Quercus" hauled one rock over a branch with so much force that the string wrapped around twice and then got caught in another tree. In order to get the rope untangled Amanda had to climb 6' up a tree "Bear hug style." Amanda figured that if a bear could climb a tree, so could she, LOL. So far we have always been successful, and have not gotten our food stolen yet. We have outsmarted the Bears!!
Others have not been as lucky. For example, there were four hikers camping at Blood Mountain shelter. Three of them had hung their own food and were sleeping in the back room. The other hiker was still cooking dinner in the front room. All 4 heard a bear successfully take all of their bear bags that they had hung in trees outside the shelter, and then the bear came inside the shelter. The hiker cooking his food, dropped his bear bag and ran into the back room, and they all were trying to crawl out the windows. But the bear only grabbed the last food bag remaining and ran into the woods. This story has been traveling up and down the AT, and we have heard 4 different versions so far, but I believe this is the real one, because I got it from a hiker named "Meatloaf" who claims he got it from a primary source:)
We have met many many other cool hikers along the way! Everyone's so wonderful. We have met people from all walks of life, all ages, and all experience levels which is why the AT is so amazing. The AT brings together people from all backgrounds with one crazy somewhat disillusioned notion that their place in life at this very moment is to walk from Georgia to Maine. A couple even offered to ship us letters of encouragement and possibly some food, because she had a son our age and they were the nicest people.
We're now heading for the Smokey's tomorrow, currently stuck in Fontana Dam, waiting for a food package to arrive. We'll try to update the blog again in a week in Hotsprings, assuming that we can find Internet. Otherwise we'll be mailing letters to a friend (Thanks Supriya) who will be updating our blog for us, when we can't find Internet. There's Internet everywhere, but no computer access in this era of iPhones, LOL.
Hope you're all doing well!!! Best, "The Twins"
Hope you guys had fun in the Smokey's. Lots of bears around this area too, I'm sure. Enjoy the wild flowers and the spring(while we'll just have to make do with flu season).
ReplyDeleteLooking ahead, in ~2 mos, you'll be closest to NoVa around MM1000. Maybe by then you'll be craving a pasta bowl.....We can meet up and I'll bring that for you guys~ Let me know when you're closer. :)
Chang
Be careful! Have fun!
Wow, it seems you guys are having so much fun. I can't wait to hear more!!! :) Take care & have an awesome time! :)
ReplyDeleteThis is AWESOME! especially Amanda having to climb up a tree. I had so much fun reading about the adventure. Please keep us posted!!!
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