Captain Jack's Ultimate Challenge

““I know this is sort of last minute, but It's come down to go time and the trip is in danger of cancellation. Here's the deal: I'm in need of two hikers, or one dedicated driver. I'm attempting the Konbstone trail in Southern Indiana in two days. Thats two wicked 25 mile days. If anyone thinks they seriously have it in them, or would be interested in running shuttle, and doing their own thing during the day, please post up and shoot me an e-mail to boot. I'm prepared to do it solo if need be but would prefer not to. If you think you could just drive, then I would need you to at least stay with-in an hour's drive of the various TH's. If we can come up with 3 hikers then there is no need for a driver.

The plan: We start before dawn on Thursday morning, and hike South to Leota TH. We will need a driver, or a car staged there with our camping gear. We will be traveling fast and light with only daypacks.

Day two: We push on to Deam Lake, and all the goodies we can haul down!

This trip is not for newbies, or those who do not feel capable of hiking two 25 mile days back to back. It's no BS. The KT is a tough trail, but it can be done. The only question is... do you have it in you? Come on, the Captain needs a crew!””

“two twenty five mile days? you're insane, LOL!”

“Daypacks only? Shuttling camping equipment? I was gonna join til I read that. I'll have no part of this slacker foolishness!

Good luck on your hike. .
:)”

“Gee Whiz!!
I'm guessing that you have some sort of Death Wish!!
25 miles in two days!! I can see the buzzards circling as I type.
I guess this means yer not gonna go ta Big South Fork.
Damm, yer not gonna be doing anything fer a couple o weeks.
I’ll send ya card at the hospital.
If ya can do this, you should be able to do the Black Forest Trail in the same time frame.
Good Luck!!!
LOL
See ya later.
Randall”

“the best i could do would be to offer to come down some time thursday afternoon/evening, after getting off work. that would mean the earliest i could get there would be late afternoon.

i know that probably doesnt help you any, since you need someone when you start thursday morn, but i could at least camp with you guys thursday nite”

“don't panic meangreen. we have everything we need.

crash, camping with us thursday night would be great. always great to hang out with you. if you decide you want to do this and are willing to haul some light overnight gear in for us that would be super. i could drop the stuff off at your place wed night as i am driving down south.”

“(I didn't think Yogi posted on here anymore. :-P(”

“I didn't think you did either:) Thought the 2 of you had run off.”

“Tempting.

If you need to bail (not that I expect you to, but you never know), I'm within an hours drive and wouldn't have a problem coming down. It gives me an excuse to go dayhike one of the loops - 856.296.5585”

“Yogi, I straight FREAKED last night! There may have been a drink involved, but never mind that... If Crash can meet us Thursday night then it's all good. I'll be up his way this weekend, and I can drop some stuff off with him to bring, and then we are saved. Sorry for my pannick attack.

Yogi, if you could bring that tarp we talked about I'd be ever greatfull.

Crash, I'll give a holler when I have a better idea when I'm coming up. I gotta go to Extreme to get some Enertia, and a new headlamp so I'll run on up to your place then and give you my gear. There wont be tons, as I'm planning to keep dinner simple since I'll be whupped. Shall we stay at the same place at Leota? It's a good spot.

To all: yes, we know this is insane, but I'm not as crazy as Jim who is going straight from this to the Bushwhack in the Deam on the same weekend! Now, that's just a'glutton for punishment! LOL!”

“so, i assume youre NOT planning on camping wednesday night, otherwise leaving that gear with me is not going to help you”

“Hey, thanks Chris. I'll keep your number if I rip all the ligaments out of my legs. That way, you can help the Emt's find me. LOL!”

“you ARE insane”

“Don't forget to buy 20 sets of trekking poles Meangreen!”

“Shall we stay at the same place at Leota? It's a good spot.

yes, we shall, and yes, it is. just dont bring your gay porn music”

“Yeah,
Crash knows Gay Porn all right!!
LOL
Sorry buddy, could'nt pass that one up!!
Take some pics and post em dammit!!
See ya later.
Randall”

“There prolly won't be a whole lot of pics from this one since we are going so light. I still haven't decided to even take a camera. Just something else to carry, and fool with. We'll see tho. My pack is unbelievably light. With 2L of water I'm still well under 10 lbs.

Crash, I've got extra gear that can be sent in different dirrections, and all will still be cool. I think we're sleeping in the cars the first night anyway.

It is insane Dizzy. I been cooking this one up since I hiked the whole trail in Oct of 07!

Believe it or not Nigal, I'll be using a perfectly mismatched set! One silver Komperdell, and one blue Swiss Gear! LOL! I've mangled so many that I can now mix n match! HA!

Oh, and Crash, we gotta have an alarm to get us up before dawn Fri. morning! "Bowm-Chicka-Mow-Wow!!!"”

“i can just think of better ways to abuse my body, that's all.”

“I can think of lots of easier ways, but none better at the moment...”

“if there is nothing to lose there is nothing to gain. we'll end this trip physically exhausted and spiritually exhilarated. i live for experiences like this where you give something everything you've got and see what it gives you back. if life is what you put into it then why not put everything you can in once in a while? go big or go home...”

“Well said Yogi. I hope to finish this one half as pumped as I was at the end of last year's Grand Canyon trip. Should really be quite a ride.”

“i am not a weather weenie... and this trip doesn't require "perfect" weather... but it does require decent weather. we have to watch the forecast carefully because right now it's not looking good. 50% chance of NO RAIN on thursday, 80% of NO RAIN on friday. i am down with daytime temps in the upper 50s but the rain could make this trip a royal pita. for now it's still a go in my book even with the rain. it will mean more water on the trail which is a good thing... but if we head into severe thunderstorms we should back off. some of those ridges would be tough places in that kind of weather.”

““if there is nothing to lose there is nothing to gain. we'll end this trip physically exhausted and spiritually exhilarated. i live for experiences like this where you give something everything you've got and see what it gives you back. if life is what you put into it then why not put everything you can in once in a while? go big or go home...”
Yogisan
4:39:45 PM
3/27/09

Weenie :)”

“well, i was going to ask you to let me borrow one of your packs but you can forget that bub. ;)

i am thinking the weather will be good. the cool temps are actually perfect.

it will be MUDDY.

i like it MUDDY. :)”

“You's guy's are crazy. This trail do you must, there is no try, do or do not, Master Yodisan!”

“Mmmm! YES! Go, we must. A great distance we will go. Hike, we must. Very hard. Tired, we will be. Succesful, we will also be. Yes, yes.”

“you guys crack me up”

“You guys be careful. We're supposed to get some severe weather Thursday evening.”

“Yeah what IJ said!”

“weather looks harsh thursday afternoon/friday morning but i say f*ck it let's do this thing”

“leaving now... long drive and late night arrival”

“We got a pounding but it wasn't till about 5. Hopefully they were already off the trail for the day?”

“They survived day 1.”

“Did you talk to them?”

“Jim posted a facebook update this morning. They got pounded but finished way ahead of schedule. They were in tents down for some much needed rest but in good spirits and ready to hit the trail this morning.”

“We made it!”

“Way to go you guys!!!”

“next month, let's try to do it in 1 day”

“insanity!
;O)”

“We talked about doing it in one day. Possible but you would have to be an animal. I think next season I will try this again but no support. With my SUL kit I am 100 pct sure I could do it.

Then again I would like to come back and do this in a week! It is a great trail... A ball buster in spots but a great trail.”

“Did they have the north end open? Last time I was there, it was closed.”

“The southern leg from Delaney to Spurgeon was closed so we took the middle route (south side of the North loop) which was the most direct way to hook up with the rest of the trail. This trip really gave me a new appreciation for the trail. I realy liked SoBo'ing it, especially while the leaves were off (great views). Everything seemed foreign to me even though I had hiked some sections 3 times before. Thursday night was a close call. Crash Bang arrived with our gear about 45 minutes ahead of the thunderstorm that lasted all night and into the morning, but we were on the trail just after 800, and still made it out well before sun down.
This was an awesome trip that I'm very proud of, but Crash and Yogi are the one's whom I give all the credit to. I just showed up and hiked. Crash ran the essential support, and if not for him I probably would have bagged the whole thing. And if it hadn't been for Yogi's generous nature in using personal time to match up with my days off, and his indomitable spirit in the face of a cold thunderstorm I would have never hiked the second half. Thank you to both of you. A couple of the best dam hikin partners a guy could ever ask for.
I took a hand full of pics that I'll try to have up on facebook in the next few days. Many of them are just of mile markers that I'll try to get a time/date stamp on for tracking/pacing purposes only. The wild flowers were starting to bloom and the ferns etc were out too. The woods were beautiful! It was hard to keep hiking sometimes when all I wanted to do was start snapping pics of all the beautiful flora. That's as close as I can get ot a TR tonight. If anyone cares enough for mroe of the story just say so and I'll post a proper TR in the next day or so. For tonight, I'm still whupped, and need some sleep.”

“Perhaps next time we will try a 3 day, unsupported yo-yo of this trail. What say you Yogisan? Is it doable? 90 miles in 3 days? I think we can make it! ;) LOL!”

“Captain Jack's Ultimate Challenge...I thought for sure this was going to be a drinking contest....bummer.”

“dooable.

painful but dooable.”