'05 AT Thru Hike

“Got another couple entries from Nimblefoot today...they are here...

Skip 5/8-5/10...they are only there for completeness' sake.”

“Hi,

I'm in Troutville (or is it Troutdale, they all sound alike?), the town that is north of Catawba. Got here last night with the intention of making a valiant attempt at a nero, but it's just not in me to skip a town. Besides, my journal needs updating and so I'll likely spend the afternoon in my room at the Comfort Inn with pen in hand.

If I did one thing right this whole trip it was to eat at the Homeplace in Catawba. Definitely the best food on the AT, maybe the planet. I ate as much as I possibly could short of projectile vomiting on my fellow hikers,sat at the table for another hour and then made it to the front porch for still another hour. My tent ended up pitched on the front lawn and from there I hike a whole .25 mile up to the little country store and got some milk and a sunday paper. The evening was spent in repose, journaling and cataloging pictures. The next morning I went back to the store for sausage, egg and cheese biscuits and reluctantly got back on the trail. I plan to hike on to Buena Vista and skip the 20 mile section north and continue to Waynesboro. At that point I'll meet up with CreekDancer and we'll return to Buena Vista and hike the skipped section. I'll then ride with her to Richmond and spend some time with my son.

It's still fun. Shin splints are healed and I'm back to running. Gotta pee.”

“Woohoo!

Looking forward to receiving your journal entries. I'm going on vacation next week though so it may be awhile before I get them up.”

“Excellent update! Thanks for keeping us posted on status.

Hey, that pee thing is catchy! I gotta go to.”

“Me too!

Been thinking about you SE. Watch yer step and have fun.”

“Cool..Ray..great meeting you at trail days. :)”

“Hey Bit,

If you're going to be on vacation, how 'bout if I just enter them straight on trailjournals?”

“Won't hurt my feelings any! If you can get the time on a computer to do it, I say go ahead.”

“New entries are posted. I'm gone in the a.m...after a stop at Cracker Barrel.”

“Keep on trekkin' man! I just started reading your journal the other day.”

“get off the computer and back on the trail, ya bum! katahdin waits for no man!”

“Wow! What you are doing is nuts. Stay safe out there.”

“its not nuts. this is a backpacking board, right? hes just out there for a longer period of time”

“link for his journals..no I don't bookmark it”

“once youve been out on The Trail for a few weeks you realize this life is nuts”

“amen CB”

“Shoot, I don't even have to go out on the trail to realize that!”

“Ewk, here.”

“Hi, I'm sitting in my son's pad in Richmond, where I've been for a couple of days. Trail journals are updated except for the last day on the trail. I'll get that one too once I think up some more lies.”

“Hey, good to hear from you. I'm back from vacation now, so whenever you're ready to send me paper journal entries, I'm ready to transcribe.”

“hey, i live in richmond (midlothian). want to meet for a beer? i'm off today and will be after 12:00 tomorrow.”

“GO NF!

-percious
www.percious.com”

“Hey Y'all

Bit - Hope you had a good time. I'll send paper entries as I can. It seems as if more and more I can't get myself to write anything in the evening and seems to work best if I just type stuff in when I get to town. I hope this won't last because I don't want to spend my town time in front of a terminal.

Baume - I'm really tied up until I leave on Wednesday and my son needs the only vehicle so he can do that working thing. I will be here once I finish the hike and, once again, to run that Richmond marathon in November. Can a guy get a rain check?

Percious - Someone ate my stove? Ate as in it's gone. Missing. Kaput. There is no corpse to do a post mortem on. I looked in my kit and kaboodle one evening and it was not present for muster. Sorry.”

“no problem, see you in the fall”

“theft is the highest form of flattery.”

“you need a can stove?

i have one (pepsi can) i can give you immediately.

i have many others for that matter. a couple svea 123's, a whisperlite, pocket rocket, you need one, just holler and i'll drive it to you today.”

“NF -

I'll send another one out to you if you like. Do you need a windscreen too? If you dont mind me askin, what happened to it?

-percious”

“Percious - I don't know what happened to it, one day it was just gone. Stolen? Lost? Decided to go southbound? I don't know. Don't send another; I've really gotten used to eating cold: saves time and weight, plus I don't seem to be the kind of guy who requires hot food. Thanks a lot though; it worked well during the time I used it.

I'm at the Bears den Hostel just south of Harpers Ferry about 20 miles. Hiking the roller coaster was quite a treat on a hot day with no breeze. I'll probably wander out of here about midday.

I had a rough experience in the Shenandoah's. Some fellow hikers and I were hitching a ride and got picked up by a section hiker and her husband. He was returning to North Carolina and so she invited us to stay at their condo in Massanutten and slack pack through the remainder of SNP. This I did, reluctantly of course. I have pictures of me sitting naked in the hot tub...lots of bubbles, some created by me. That's the thing I've learned on this hike, the art of taking the bad along with the good. I didn't really like hiking during the day, finishing up with a hot meal, hot tub, cold beer and a clean bed(I was going to say "cold bed", but I'm not married anymore), but someone's got to be willing to take on the true thru hiker challenges and I guess I was just the man for the job. I seriously doubt that either Crash Bang or Mile Monster could have handled such a challenge...”

“ass”

“Sounds good to me.
last edited: 6/19/05 10:12:54 AM”

“yeah...ass is always good...especially with fava beans.”

“and hot sauce.”

“now your talkin ns :)”

“Crash Bang - you're such a priss; you really need to get some sort of life.”

“Hey, Nimblefoot! Thanks for the pics!

I'll scan them and get them up on Trail Journals sometime today. Glad you're having so much fun!”

“:-P”

“Wow! Sounds like you've really been having it rough. Poor thing. Things will get better, though. The hot tubs and beers are well known to be the cause of the "Virginia Blues." Good to know you survived them.

The Trail has so many surprises and wounderful people. Glad to hear you're finding a few of both.
last edited: 6/19/05 7:02:56 PM”

“what did you think of dragons tooth, stumblefoot?”

“Dragon's Tooth was toothless when I got through with it. I was more impressed with the "roller coaster" north of Front Royal. Also, the Bears Den is sure a kick ass hostel.

Presently in Harpers Ferry; having lunch and moving on. If I average 16 per day and take no zeros I can finish in August...don't bet your house on it. Then again my distance and speed have picked up since leaving Waynesboro. Adios and get your asses back to work.”

“. If I average 16 per day and take no zeros I can finish in August...don't bet your house on it

i wouldnt bet monopoly money on it

i was also in harpers ferry on june 20 last year, but i started 3 weeks later than you did ;-P. if you average about 11-12 per day and take a zero every 10 days or so, you should finish in september. aint no way in hell you could convince me you could average 16 a day thru nh and maine. my longest day in the whites was i believe 14.
last edited: 6/20/05 6:12:05 PM”

“PA is coming soon. I'll try and track you down and hike with you.”

“i hear sarge is hunting down and killing any liberals he finds on the trail in pa. be careful”

“yeah, he has already told me that he hikes the same stretches of trail that I do.”

“actually, he refuses to talk politics while backpacking, which is good, because the last thing i want to do is get in a heated political argument with an ex-military martial arts instructor”

“I agree with you, CB. It's merely mathematically possible. Averaging 15 to 16 per day right now, with an occasional 20, is pretty easy. The no zero's is the problem. Further up north, as you pointed out, will really slow me down. It would be possible to do more than I have to (16) and bank the rest for an occasional zero day, but I just don't see me doing that very long either. Playing the numbers game is just what you do to entertain yourself on the trail.”

“and if you average 1165 miles a day, you can finish tomorrow”

“now that would be a helluva day!”

“If your mouth was a motor I would have been there in March.”

“hey im glad to see im not the only one who thought the guy at harpers ferry hostel was an ass”

“i wrote in their guest-book "i wont stay at another ayh hostel again". i ran into the guy again in massachusetts and he had the nerve to suggest that maybe it was my fault that i had such a disagreeable time. at least the wife was somewhat contrite and wanted to know what could have been different. i told her it was largely due to the strict-ass rules, and it was, but it was their rudeness that prompted me to feel that way”