Yo Indiana get off yo butts it's hiking season

“I'll second that! Got my son moved down to FGCU college in Ft Myers last week. I ready to go hide in the woods for awhile.”

“Just got mine moved into Univ of Illinois yesterday. The nest is now empty.....til they find their way back.”

“Paint his room pink, he wont be back ;)”

“Looks like I'm a no-go on this trip.... I'm heading out to California for business at that time. Gonna have to catch up another time.... :|”

“I'm still here, just busy as hell at work and no network at home right now.

I didn't have a chance to look at maps yet I'll get to it soon. Plenty of time left. Chin gave me some mileage for good campsites along my route.

Thrifty I picked this route for a couple reasons: One I've never hiked this section of the trail and two I'm trying to keep milage low for some newbies lol.

It looks like I may not camp Friday night, but everyone else is welcome. i can post some close places to car camp or folks can just hike in a couple miles and camp Friday.

I'll either drive down late Friday and crash in the car or more likely just be there early Saturday morning to get started.

WK that's one ugly arse you've got there, pull your britches up :)”

“Hey all!!!
I will be down sometime Friday Early PM and am planning on Camping somewhere on the trail or something like that!! I have never been there and am not sure where a good place would be? So if anyone else is gonna be there around that time and wants to camp (In the Woods that is IJ , LOL)
Gimme a holler.
See ya later.
Randall”

“I'm coming on Friday. Where is everyone planning to camp?”

“anyone who says yo twice in a sentence is defineitely not to be hiked with

:-P”

“Yo, wish I could go, but you know, I've got to go hike with CMB this weekend in Shades, YO.”

“Randall - There is a campsite less than 1/2 a mile hike from the New Chapel TH if you head off to the right (southern direction on the trail)”

“I just read some FREAKING BAD NEWS. I just opened up a JURY DUTY notice for the week of 9/18.

That blows.

I guess I'll have to call tomorrow to find out the details.”

“i'm planning on going friday night too...not sure of a good place to camp but that one sounds good...or maybe there's a place in the area to car camp...i'll look at my map tonight...does anybody know about the water situation

chin, those things are easy to push back...i got one around the time my wife was due so i just told them to push it back for about 6 months...the letter came with a form to fill out to delay it...i can't remember but i don't think i even had to give them a reason”

“thrify - You were correct. There is no problem changing the week, so this won't affect any of my plans.

I have no problem doing my civic duty but jury duty creates quite a problem for me. I'm a dentist so I have to leave an entire week unbooked with the possibility that they won't need me at all on a given day. It's not just a matter of ME not working, as my entire office gets shut down, but the overhead continues.....”

“a dentist huh??!!...note to self, be nice to chin on this trip, it just may come in handy later LOL”

“Hey Indy! Where were you thinking of camping on Friday night?”

“Hey all,
"There is a campsite less than 1/2 a mile hike from the New Chapel TH if you head off to the right (southern direction on the trail)”
Ok, I,m game for the above site if anybody else thinks that they want to join me!!
Hey Chin!!! is there any water there??? If not, we can probaly carry more than enough for 1/2 mile.
So far it looks like the following are showing up Friday:
Thirfty
Randall
Stomper
Ok, see ya later!!
Randall”

“Hey all!!
I am planning on getting there around 4:00 PM (+- 1/2 hour) I am posting my cell phone number if anyone needs to get hold of me!!
630-715-5897 I have no idea if I will get signal or not, but there it is anyway!!
Randall”

“would anyone be interested in adding another 5 miles on sunday and heading down to deam lake th?, that's assuming this trip is taking the southern route

have we worked out shuttles yet?...i can move 4 plus gear

as far as water goes i figured we could pack in for friday night and most of the day saturday and then cache some at the pixley knob road crossing, again assuming a southern route...that would give us some water a couple miles before camp...then if anyone wanted to continue on to the deam lake tr we could cache some at the jackson rd th or there appears to be a year round stream called bowery creek just north of mile 2
last edited: 8/27/06 2:33:16 PM”

“I'm in as long as you guys promise it will not be 100F w/ 99% humidity like it was when I last hiked the knobstone w/ jerber.”

“Yes, there should be water near the New Chapel (<1/2 mile south) campsite, but our cars would be close enough to just carry it.

If some wanted to go onto Deam Lake TH, it's another 4.6 miles. It is an easier segment what we will hike on Saturday.

I plan on getting there mid afternoon on Fri and Cache water at Pixley knob. I can cache just about as much water as our "tribe" will need. I do not have any other water sources in my notes once we get south of Pixley. There might be other water sources, but I didn't write them down.

With regards to shuttling cars: It takes longer to do that than you might think. We need to plan a bit more time than you would think to do this, as the roads are not efficient for our needs.

The one thing that would kill me for this trip would be hot weather. I just can't handle hot/humid hiking.”

“I need to mention something regarding ME caching water at Pixley Knob Road.

Many of you folks will be hiking MUCH faster than me. We would have to figure out a way for the "speed daemons" to find the water.......heheh”

“Randall,

I guess I'll see you at the New Chapel campsite Friday night. Do we know what time we're supposed to meet on Friday morning for the Knobstone trail?”

“chin, i can probably be there around mid afternoon as well...i'm planning on taking a half day from work...that would put me home by 1:00 and to new chapel by 3:00...i can help you cache water and shuttle vehicles...randal should be there around that time too

another idea i had for the deam lake th is to have one of the people that will be stopping at jackson to just shuttle us to deam that way we could hike back to our cars at jackson with out packs”

“i think the weather will be pretty decent, after all it will be late september, in fact saturday's the first day of fall...i was actually worried about it being too cold at night ;) ...i want to go with just a fleece bag and no tent”

“HC!!!
You gonna drive down on Friday??? If you are you can catch a ride with me if ya want. I am planning on leaving about 9:00 AM Chicago time (Thats 10:00 AM Local trip time)Any way get back if you are interested.
See ya later!
Randall”

“Hey Guys!!!
Looks like we are camping at the "New Chapel" campsite Friday PM, cool!! I think I can help shuttle, I guess it depends on when I get there! I will bring lots of water in gallon jugs for chaceing or whatever!! I am not sure what time we are meeting on saturday morning Stomper. I guess we should check that out!!
See ya later!
Randall”

“I would like to carpool, but I won't be able to leave until after work Friday. I will be getting there late Friday night. Somebody leave the porch light on for me.”

“Ok,
I guess we'll see ya there sometime at night!!
I am not sure of the exact location on the trail, I only have the info that Chin gave us.
See ya later.
Randall”

“Thanks for keeping the conversation going. I've posted updates to the trip page based on the chatter here and e-mails with chin.

Since you're camping so close to the trailhead Friday, I may still come later Friday night but it will definitely be after dark.

Are there enough of you to shuttle vehicles Friday afternoon? What about the folks going on to Deam Lake?

Chin, the campsite Friday night, is it visible from the trail after dark?

Looking forward to seeing everyone!”

“Chin, the campsite Friday night, is it visible from the trail after dark?

I think so. I just have it marked with my GPS data. I would think a little glo-stick would do the trick for late comers.”

“as far as deam goes we can decide that closer to or even the day of...we'll need to know how many plan on doing it...if i'm the only one i won't mess with it

i was thinking of doing it one of two ways:

shuttling vechicle(s) to deam and hike all the way there, or

hiking to jackson on sunday and having one of the people that are stopping at jackson give us a lift to deam...that way we could hike back to jackson w/out packs or w/ just day packs”

“hiking to jackson on sunday and having one of the people that are stopping at jackson give us a lift to deam...that way we could hike back to jackson w/out packs or w/ just day packs”

That sounds like a solid plan and allows for decisions to be made late.”

“I don't mean to be a PIA, but I would like to shuttle my car to to Jackson Sat morn if possible. I need to get going pretty early Sun morn and I would'nt want to inconvenience anyone then. Is this possible?

As far as the site for Fri night, are we talking about the location that the trail crosses the south branch of the Big Ox?”

“i'm in, looking forward to meeting everyone, i still have to read all the threads to see what's going on. done a few solo's this summer at the knobs but not that far south. i'll get up to speed, let me know if there is anything i can do to help.”

“Hubcap,

It looks like the Big Ox crossing is at least a mile in. I think they said about a half mile, so I'm guessing its probably the ridgetop before you get that far?

About Saturday morning. I'm almost positive now that I'm coming in Saturday morning. I could probably meet you at Jackson and then we could drive up to New Chapel. We'll just have to set a time and all.”

“Chin
You said something about having GPS data for the Friday night Camping spot. Could you post that? I have not used my GPS for much of anything and this might be a good opportunity to make it work!! LOL See ya later!
Randall”

“It looks like the Big Ox crossing is at least a mile in. I think they said about a half mile, so I'm guessing its probably the ridgetop before you get that far?

I pulled out the map. It looks like the trail first crosses the south branch less than 1/8 mile east from where the trailhead path hits the KT. It looks like a nice flat area. 1/8 mile or 1/2 mile, either way I'm sure I'll find you guys eventually.

This will be the third time that I hiked this trail and got in way after dark the first night. I gotta stop making a habit of that.”

“Randall - I'll post the coordinates for the Fri campsite this evening. I have the data on my home computer.

I'm thinking that the first one that gets there might want to set up a tent on that site right away, so our plan isn't blow up. Sat evening we have several options.”

“Chin,
Thank you!
Randall”

“it be official mothertruckers!

im in like flynn!”

“huh? where we going?

<---is lost”

“your arrows even facing the wrong direction!

you really are lost!”

“Here is the data I have for the Friday campsite: N38 34.661 W85 52.141”

“Cool CB! I look forward to hiking with you again.

For those Google folks, here is the fri camp location:
http://www.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=N38+34.661+W85+52.141&ie=UTF8&t=h&om=1&z=15&ll=38.574709,-85.868626&spn=0.015601,0.042915

zoom out a little bit to see the street names

For the google earth folks.... well I can't figure out how to link the coolness that is google earth here. If someone else does, please tell me. Otherwise, just punch in chin's coords into the search feature and hang on for the ride.

According to chin's info, the fri camp site is just east of the feeder trail, so start looking for it as soon as you are on Knobstone proper.”

“rock on!!!...glad to see you're gonna make it crash...this is turning out to be a pretty big trip...now we just need to get golfhiker in...i don't think i've ever been on a TT trip with out him LOL”

“im gonna go on a two-nighter two weeks after this trip, also. havent decided where, though. whos with me?”

“bastards with your holiday weekends off.

o well, i havent worked for two months. i suppose i cant complain”

“Hey Crash!!!
Did they kick you outta Canada Yet????
Well it will be good to see ya, just as long as you pitch your tent outta hearing distance!! LOL
See ya later!!
Randall”

“why? what noises are gonna be coming out of your tent that you dont want me to hear?”

“whats the plan for caching water? when and where to meet?”