A Wonderful Trip

“I would like to dedicate this trip report to Doug Wenger. A dear friend who passed away while I was on this trip. He will be remember for all the happiness he brought to others. He died young but lived a happy life making others happy. I will miss him very much.

Well this trip will be called Mary Phyl and Joyce do the AT.
This trip has been long in the planning and finally the day came.
We started out on Max Patch and headed north to Hot Springs.
As we climbed Max Patch the weather was lovely and I stopped and looked back I was taken in by the Smoky's in the distance and all the colors of fall the red, orange, yellow and some still green colors so bright on the beautiful day. When we got to the top we choose a nice spot and had lunch..... early you think not why waste these views!
We finally went on our way heading into the forest. The colors again were the WOW of the trip. I talked to Mary and Joyce about the feeling of the AT. Neither of them had ever been on the AT. So they were feeling the fever. Thinking of all the thousands of feet that had hiked the trail and it gives you feeling of deep thoughts.
All the talk of the AT and how people must feel who started at one end or the other you can't help but be wowed.....
Our first nite was at Roaring Fork Shelter. Nice little place. But we set up our tents not much for shelter life. But everyone should experience a shelter at least once in their life...LOL
The next morning we started very late well because I was sick all night..... I won't go into details..... I willed myself better because I have been waited on this trip for months.
On the trail again. This day had two good climbs but they were fantastic!!!! I love the climb. Some don't but hey I do.
When we reached the top I had brought my cell phone which I usually don't but all the events goin on I wanted to stay in touch if only once on top of the mountian. Much to Mary's great excitment she had to make some calls for a new life had entered hers. A new grandchild Mollie, she was so glad to call her daughter and find all was well with mother and baby. It made her day complete.
Well I did forget to mention some other problems in our way. My water filter went on the blinks so we had to go to old methods. We finally got to Big Rock Springs and filled the water bag. Mary and I carried it onto a campsite hanging from my hiking pole. Those do come in handy for other things also.
We finally found a flat spot in the road... and just laughed so much when no tent stakes would go into the ground.
Mary with her tarp was a site. But she overcame the problem by finally getting one stake in and ties goin everywhere. But hey leave it to a Canyon Girl (her new name) to make it work. Joyce just bunked with me and my dog Shelley who by the way was a wonderful trail dog.
We all crashed and burned.
Ah yes the other problem we had...you are goin to laugh at this one. We had left Joyce's car at Hot Springs and took mine to Max Patch. Well Joyce had left her keys in my car.........
So that is another story I will tell at the end.
We were up early and hit the trail.
The day was great. Some ups and downs my legs were screeming STOP.... but suddenly I came out the forest and the sun was bright and the view was the beautiful mountains all a flame with color and all the pain I had was forgotten... I know all of you have had this feeling of I can't go on....and when you see the view you are so taken in by the beauty laid out before you can hardly take a breath.
As we started the walk down to Hot Springs you hate for the trip to end. I know Mary did for she often stopped just to prolong the trip. It is sad when you leave the trail. You refect on all the wonder of the world and what you have seen. How great it is to be outside.
Now for for car problem.
We stopped at the local outfitter and asked about a shuttle, Joyce did have a extra set of keys in her car so we picked someone to get into the car. It took him alittle time but he did it. We were very grateful.Loaded up everything and headed up to Max Patch.
On all our journeys home we stopped for the normal greasy food intake after a trail hike and reflected on all the events of the trip. We all smiled and laughed about all the funny stuff and remembered the beauty of the trip.
I said goodbye to my dear friends and bid them safe travels and decided we would do this again real soon.
Hope you enjoyed this report.
Barbara”

“Love the trip report, Barb. The car keys, now that's something that I would do. Someday, when the kids are older, I'll be able to get away for some of these short trips that sound like so much fun.

Glad that Mary's daughter and grandchild were okay.”

“I can relate to the keys....I once left the key to the shell of my pickup in SnowDude's truck ... at the other end of the trail. I was able to squeeze in thru a window and unscrewed the locks from the inside with a dime. We spent more time going thru the truck, looking for anything to unscrew the locks. The dime was under one of the mats.

Sounds like a great trip....and Congratulations, Mary!”

“nice report. i know what yo mean about the AT. it calls me all the time.”

“It sounds like it was such a nice trip. I'm so sorry I had to miss it. Congratulations on the new grandbaby Canyon Girl!”

“Great trip report! I just did the key thing recently, realized I left my keys in the others car halfway through the hike, so we had to turn around.

Congrats on the new grandbaby!”

“I have never done the Max Path to Hot Springs section, but reading thru your report makes me want to.

Thanks for sharing!”

“Great report, thanks for sharing.”

“Barb, sorry to hear about your friend. Thanks for taking the time to do the trip report, it sounds like a nice trip.”

“Barb, sorry to hear of your friend.

Yep, I did that!! LOL Half way through the second day it suddenly hit me that the keys were in Barbs car at Max Patch!! DUH! She was too nice to say that I also forgot my hiking poles and somehow ended up with an extra insole in one of my boots that caused a nice hot spot in the arch of my foot! LOL

Although I proved to myself how silly I can be, it turned into a wonderful trip. The mountains were beautiful, Shelley was a great trail dog, and the time spent with my good friends was priceless.

The trail was challenging, and a good warm up trip for the Grand Canyon next month.

Great time, thanks Barb for putting it together!! By the way, I did get the Aether 60 pack at Barbs store and carried it on the trail. It's great!”

“Almost forgot, We got to meet sklukaz the day before the hike in Cumberland Gap. Great girl, look forward to hiking with her!”

“Nice report, thank you.”

“Sorry to hear about your friend, Barb.

Nice report. How would you rate Max Patch to the balds around Roan Mountain? I love the Roan area but would like to hike some other balds.”

“Well I haven't done Roan Mountian. But Max Patch is a beauty..... I highly suggest you go and just do it.
Barbara”

“Sounds like ya had a bit of fun. Nice report”

“I would also like to thank all of you for your thoughts.
It helps to know others care.
Barbara”