Paralympic Flashback

My post for August 6th in the White Mountains was titled More Of Same. Here's the whole post, reproduced for you:

Not much to note today really, except that I dodged two rainfalls by hanging out in huts where I met lots of nice families. Unfortunately, I left my map at the last one so I'm now mapless until Hanover.

That's it. I didn't get into any details, even though, in many ways, this was one of the most interesting days on the trail.

I think I was just too tired to get into details.

But today, a year and a half later, I'm going to fill one of those details in.

What I didn't mention is that one of the families I met and chatted with at length at one of the huts was Dannelle Umstead's. Her kids were wearing Australia green and gold caps, and when I asked about it they explained that it's because their mom travels a lot.

She travels a lot because she's a visually impaired Paralympic skier. She skied for the US Paralympic Team in Vancouver and Sochi and has three paralympic medals to show for it.

And today, she skis again representing the US at the Pyeongchang Paralympic Winter Games.

So I've decided to revisit that blog post just to say how cool it is that I met a paralympian. As much as I love the Olympics, I find the Paralympics about 10 times more inspiring. All olympic and paralympic athletes achieve levels of athleticism that most of us can only dream of - but paralympic athletes do it toiling in relative obscurity and with a tiny fraction of the financial support that other olympians get.

So I'll be watching the Paralympics again this year, and though I'll obviously be cheering for the Canadian athletes first - I'm also looking forward to seeing Danelle at work.

And just because I didn't include a photo last time, here's one I took that day:

Day +a lot - Reflection (27/1/2017)

So, I'd been struggling to figure out how to wrap this whole thing up.

Luckily for me, so has Cinderella. Even more luckily for me, she figured it out first, and so perfectly articulates my feelings months later, that I'm not going to bore anyone with my version.

Go read this. The details might be a bit different (I wanted to quit a lot sooner, and cried less but probably swore more), but the general sentiment is pretty much exactly how I feel now, 56 days on.

Day +1 - Normals in the Mist

Today I begin a long study of Normals in their natural habitat‎. To prepare, I have tried to disguise myself as one of them by putting on "jeans" and "a shirt" (see attached Figure). Thus attired, I walked among them for a few hours. It's a grey and misty day, which seemed to help my cause. They were preoccupied with finding shelter and warmth, making it easier for me to pass mostly unnoticed. I did notice some minor alarm whenever a Normal did take note of my strange face, but they generally preferred to scurry indoors than worry about this hairy stranger.

All in all, they're a trusting species and allowed me to interact without incident. I was even welcomed to enjoy a meal at one of their "restaurants." If they were surprised by the amounts that I need to eat, they gave no sign of it. I am hopeful that, in time, I will be treated as just another Normal.

Day 155 - Nero (3/12/2016)

‎This morning the five of us (Flatlander, Blueberry Crisp, Lancelot, and Equinox) headed out for the last 8 miles of our journeys. Our final nero.  I'm deeply grateful to have shared my last 700 miles with them.

Tonight, I'm in a King size bed at the Amicalola Falls Lodge. Tomorrow, I start the drive home with Papa Wallaby.‎ I wonder what the next chapter will bring.

‎Wallaby out.

End: ‎Springer Mountain 

Total: 2,121.4 miles, (67.7 on fire)

Day 154 - One More Sleep (2/12/2016)

Hard to believe that 154 ‎days ago I used the same title before the start of this crazy journey. Today it's a propos. Flatlander has been campaigning for mid-day nap time since we started hiking together 700+ miles ago. She finally got her wish. She, Equinox, and I all slept cold (read, poorly) last night, so weren't moving well. After lunch we curled up in the sun and took a nap. It meant an hour or so of night-hiking, but it was worth it.

Tomorrow we summit. Amazing. I also get to see Papa Wallaby again. It promises to be a good day.

Start: Blood Mountain 

End: Hawk Mountain 

Distance: 21.2 miles

Remaining: 8.4 miles

Day 153 - So Close (1/12/2016)

Just 2 more sleeps now.

Not much happened other than walking. We stopped in at an outfitter in Neels Gap, where we got free ice cream and coffee. It turns out we're only a day behind Legs, Foggy, and Littlefoot!

Start: Blue Mountain

End: Blood Mountain

Distance: 21.2 miles

Total: 2,159.8‎ (30 to go!)

Day 152 - Just Section Hikers (30/11/2016)

I‎ realized this morning that we have 70 miles to do, no more resupplies, and when we finish, we go home. We're just short section hikers now.

It rained most of the day, including over an hour of serious downpours. It wasn't fun, but with only three days to go, I feel a bit like nothing can ruin the hiking now. Besides, with any luck the rain will improve the fire situation, and the forecast is for cool, but dry and sunny weather from now until Springer. We really can't complain.

Just 3 more sleeps until I'm bedding down in a king size bed at the Amicalola Falls Lodge.

Start: Dick's Gap / Top of Georgia Hostel 

End: Blue Mountain Shelter 

Distance: 19.1 miles

Total: 2,138.6

Day 151: 0 = 68 (29/11/2016)

This is it. The day we shuttle past the fires. Because my feet are so sore, I decided that I was going to hostel again near the Dick's Gap trailhead. The others also had less severe foot issues, so no one objected. Best of all, Equinox gave me a prescription strength Naproxen which helped enormously and by the end of the day my feet felt fine. Not great, but the soreness was dull enough that I figured drugs, sports tape, and desperation to finish with the trail family would keep me going.

We got around the fires thanks to the generosity of a friend of Flatlander's who drove 3 hours to pick us up, let us resupply in Hiawassee, then left us at the hostel. We cannot be grateful enough.

Speaking of the trail family, Lancelot reappeared this morning!! He pulled 30 mile days, hiking late into the night to catch up, so we're all together again. It seems Equinox (a German PhD student living in DC) has been adopted as well, so we're thinking of renaming ourselves Katie and the Foreigners. Lancelot is an honorary Canadian, because Connecticut kind of sounds similar. It was either that, or rename himself Katie. 

Since we had a kitchen at the hostel, we made risotto and brownies for dinner. It turns out it is possible to make too much food even for 5 hungry hikers. Still, it was a nice candle lit dinner with wine and friendship. I'm going to miss this group.

In less cheerful news, Gatlinburg is burning to the ground and all of the Smoky Mountains is now closed to AT hikers. Several friends have been evacuated, including Trout. Luckily no one has been physically harmed, but it's a sad situation.

In the end, we're 67.7 miles further down the trail without any hiking. We're also in Georgia, the last state on the trail. The end is truly nigh.

Tomorrow the forecast is for cold and rain. Wet feet are at the root of my foot issues, so it could be a challenge but... only 4 more sleeps to Springer!!

Start: Nantahala Outdoor Center 

End: Top of Georgia Hostel

Distance: 0/67.7 miles

Total: 2,119.5 miles

Day 150 - (Un)Happy Feet (28/11/2016)

Today we head to the Nantahala Outdoor Center, which has a restaurant and hostel. I'm determined to get there before dark both because I'm really tired of night hiking, and because the restaurant closes at 6pm and I really want a beer.

We made it, but only just and I've all but destroyed the undersides of my feet. I can barely walk, but I did get a huge amount of food (a trout cake, followed by a pizza, and an apple cobbler + 2 delicious craft beers). Not only that, but when we asked for the bill, our waitress told us an anonymous trail angel had already picked up the tab leaving us only the tip to take care of! Needless to say we tipped well (and she'd have deserved it in any case). A happy end to a painful day.

Now I go to bed showered and warm. Word is that there are new fire-related closures in the Smoky Mountains. An access road is closed (making Gatlinburg inaccessible), and a shelter. The trail is still open, but you have to go into the park with enough food to hike it's entirety. We're grateful that we got there when we did.

Tomorrow a friend of Flatlander's is shuttling us around the fires, and then it'll be 3.5 more days to Springer!!

Start: Cable Gap Shelter

End: Nantahala Outdoor Center 

Distance: 21.9 miles

Total: 2,059.9 miles

Day 149 - Who's There? (27/11/2016)

These blogs are getting tough to write. I'm so tired in the evenings, I fall asleep writing them then forget they aren't done when I post them the next day. Like yesterday's blog, for example.

Last night we arrived late at our shelter and found it full. There wasn't a lot of stealth around so we decided to head to the next shelter and hope for more space. We got there very late but there was only one other hiker. It's generally impolite to arrive after 8pm and move into a shelter of sleeping hikers, but in the Smokies you have no choice: you're prohibited from tenting unless the shelter is full. So we guiltily (and as quietly as we could) set up our gear, ate, and went to bed.

In the middle of the night, I suddenly heard loud banging on the floor of the shelter. It turns out that Hashbear objected to snoring, and his solution was to wake the entire shelter whenever snoring kept him awake. Since both Blueberry Crisp and I snore, that meant a lot of banging and not much sleep.

When I woke at 5:30, I decided to just get up and get moving. This also meant that I wouldn't have to deal with Hashbear, towards whom I held a fair amount of animosity. I was on trail by 6:30, and the others were still asleep. I figured we all knew where we were headed so we'd meet there. I was quite excited that I'd be able to hike the whole day and probably avoid night-hiking. I shouldn't have gotten excited. At Fontana Dam, I stopped for lunch planning to leave after an hour. After 45 minutes, Flatlander and Blueberry Crisp came by. 2 hours later, we hit the trail again... our little trail family has too much fun (and I may have been running out of steam for the day).

It was a very smoky day... you could really feel that we were getting close to fires. I'm also carrying another rock (but for a much better reason this time - see the images).

The shelter we're at is tiny and in terrible shape. Since I have a slow leak in my mattress already, I wasn't keen to risk it so I tented tonight (we're out of the Smoky Mountains National Park now).

Start: Russell Field Shelter 

End: Cable Gap Shelter

Distance: 21.2 miles

Total: 2,029.9 miles

Day 148 - Clingman's Dome (26/11/2016)

We woke up early this morning to try and beat the crowds to Clingman's Dome (the highest point on the AT at 6,667'). I'm glad we did. While there were a few people about, we outlying got to enjoy the views quietly.

To be honest, though, I mostly just ate breakfast there. 

I was much more excited about something else: we hit the 2,000 mile mark today! I've been reluctant to count down since I preferred to focus on how far I'd come than on the end result, but it's official now. I'm thinking about the end. Seven more sleeps, 110 more miles. I can almost taste it.

The end of the day was very cold. Once again the trees were covered in ice, reminding me that I'm not entirely ready for the rest of this...

Start: Mt. Collins Shelter 

End: ???

Distance: 22.4 miles

Total: 2008.7 miles

Day 147 - Ripley's Believe It Or Not (25/11/2016)

(I seem to have missed a day somewhere in the blog sequence, hence no Day 146)

I was a late starter and fell behind the others for most of the morning. We were heading in to Gatlinburg, Tennessee for a resupply and hopefully a festive meal. On my way to catching Blueberry Crisp and Flatlander, I came across a woman who had fallen and injured her elbow quite badly. She wasn't handling it well. I had some painkillers with me to help with the swelling, and got her to her feet before her party showed up to walk her out.

I raced down past hundreds of day hikers and came to a parking lot thronging with people and we realized the 15 miles to Gatlinburg might be a lot more difficult than anticipated. Luckily, Cinderella and Waterboy had a shuttle arranged for drop off, so we hitched a ride into town with them.

Gatlinburg, it turns out, is nothing but a tourist trap with overpriced motels and ridiculous attractions like the Guinness Book of Records, and Ripley's Believe It Or Not. Do not recommend. We were almost stuck staying there, when an angel appeared and offered us a ride. He turned out to be mildly insane, but in a friendly way.

The long day and weekend meant that we fully expected our shelter to be full of weekend hikers. Luckily we were wrong and had another shelter just to the three of us.

There wasn't much time to celebrate though because it was late, so we quickly went to bed to get rested before Clingman's Dome tomorrow.

Start: Peck's Corner Shelter

End: Mt. Collins Shelter

Distance: 14.5 miles

Day 146 - Show Me The Place (24/11/2016)

I walked alone most of the morning, listening to Leonard Cohen. It made for a lot of self-reflection and slow walking. At one point I was looking out over a view while Cohen sang "Show Me the Place." It was as near to a perfect moment as any. I tried to get a video with the music in the background, but my phone wouldn't play music while recording video (it's too large for me to email, so it'll have to wait until I'm at a computer).

The Smoky Mountains have been beautiful for walking, even if the most of the views are too hazy. What you can see is mostly ridges with dead trees, so it's a bit dreary anyway. I think it'd be better to visit either earlier when things are alive, or later when winter has really come. Still, this is the last of the major iconic sections of the trail, so I'm enjoying it as much as I can.

It's American Thanksgiving today, and I think Flatlander is a bit bummed that we don't have anything planned. She missed Thanksgiving with her friends last weekend, and now isn't getting one on the day itself. Personally, I'm a bit bummed we didn't arrange to be in Hot Springs for the town-hosted Thanksgiving. It would have slowed us a but, but it seems like one of those experiences I promised myself I wouldn't miss. Travelling with others means compromise so we gave it a miss, and I definitely didn't want to break up the party. Tomorrow we stop in Gatlinburg for resupply, so we'll try to do a celebratory lunch of some sort.

Start: Davenport Gap Shelter

End: Peck's Corner Shelter

Distance: 19.7 miles

Day 145 - Of Mice and Men (23/11/2016)

Despite sleeping in tents because of mice in the shelter, Blueberry Crisp, Flatlander, and I all woke up to acorns in our gear. Flatlander in particular had dozens of them in her pack. Other than that, it was a pretty work-oriented day. We walked a lot.

We did see Danger Mouse and met Someshine, another flip flopper that we'd crossed paths with in Hot Springs. On the other hand, we lost Lancelot to Thanksgiving. He's hoping to catch back up in a week.

Crossing Max Patch this afternoon, we could see the Smoky Mountains in the distance... they looked huge. It reminded me of looking at the Whites in New Hampshire. Tonight we entered the Smoky Mountains Park and are bunked down at a shelter with a fence at the entrance to keep bears out. The question is, will we just be locking the mice in?

Start: Walnut Mountain Shelter 

End: Davenport Gap Shelter 

Distance: 23.6 miles

Day 144 - Loot! (22/11/2016)

Lev from the 12 Tribes Drove us back to Hot Springs to get back on trail. We picked up coffees at Starbucks on the way where I introduced him to the double espresso. He is a fan. Gladheart also left us with dozens of maté tea bags, and a pound or so of maté energy bars. Once again, their generosity and hospitality was second to none.

Before hitting the trail, I had two packages to pick up at the post office, and we had to arrange permits for the Smoky Mountains. As always, friends have been far too generous and I have a bag packed to capacity with ANZAC treats. Katie & the Canadians (+ honorary Canadian, Lancelot) will be eating well for the next few days.

We've settled on Dec 3 as our end date. That gives us one day to do Thanksgiving in Hot Springs if we can find a way back and forth, and one more day of flexibility (all assuming the fires continue, which seems all but certain). 

So onwards until then! 

Start: Hot Springs / Asheville 

End: Walnut Mountain Shelter 

Distance: 13.1 miles

Day 143 - Asheville, NC (21/11/2016)

New shoes! I exchanged my shoes at REI and even got some money back because they were on sale. I also bought a new stove that won't be as sensitive to the cold as my alcohol stove. That, a warmer liner for my sleeping bag, and a few Xmas Clif bars and I'm ready to face the cold again.

After resupplying, we all headed into downtown Asheville to check out the brewery scene. Asheville has 15 breweries in the city, so it's kind of a big deal. We settled on Lexington Avenue Brewery where Blueberry Crisp, Lancelot and I each ordered a sample flight of their beers, and I had delicious tacos and a rib sandwich. I definitely liked this town.

Since I'd now done 3 nights at 12 Tribes communities, I thought I should pop in to their Gathering: twice a day (before breakfast and dinner) they meet up for song, dance, discussion and prayer. There were a few things that I noticed : first, the discussion was very much focused on confirming everyone's beliefs rather than dusagreeing, and second, only the men discussed. The latter point made me wonder where the women fit into the communities.

Start: Gladheart Farms 

End: Gladheart Farms 

Distance: 0

Day 142 - Twelve Tribes (revisited) (20/11/2016)

We'd been puzzling over how to get to Asheville, until Flatlander remembered there was a Twelve Tribes community in the area. Given that most of us (Flatlander, Lancelot, and I) had had great experiences with their other communities on the trail, we decided to ask if they could host us.

As usual, they were generous and welcoming beyond reason. We got in to Hot Springs early enough to get dinner and a beer before they sent a driver to pick us up almost an hour away. We arrived at Gladheart Farms just in time for dinner, and met several of the community members. After dinner, we all congregated in the dining area and helped package the maté energy bars that they sell.

At the end Blueberry Crisp commented on just how friendly everyone was. Another convert.

Tomorrow we'll do some gear shopping/exchange (I've had another pair of shoes die) and resupply, then spend another evening with the community. 

It's nice to be warm, both physically and communally.

Start: Little Laurel Shelter

End: Hot Springs, NC

Distance : 19.6 miles

I'm not doing ETA's anymore because too much depends on the fires further south. If they don't clear, we'll be spared 3-4 days of hiking. If they clear, we'll be later.

Day 141 - Winter Is Coming (19/11/2016)

The beautiful sunrise I watched from the privy did not foreshadow the rain and bitter cold that was to come. We walked some high ridges with stunning views: the wintry winds had frosted half the mountain, leaving the other half seemingly dry and autumnal. Tonight I sleep with everything I own because temps are expected to dip to -5. I am not thrilled and warns the others that if I was too cold to sleep, I'd likely pack up and head off early.

Tomorrow, we head into Hot Springs, followed by a zero as we head to REI in Asheville for some gear. First up for me: either a sleeping bag liner or a quilt to make the nights more bearable. But I also need to replace my shoes again, get trekking poles, and buy a fuel stove since the cold is making the alcohol stove less and less effective.

Start: some shelter somewhere

End: Little Laurel Shelter

Distance: 20.7 miles

Day 139 - Icee! (17/11/2016)

It's resupply day! Always nice to walk with a light pack. We headed into Erwin planning to stop at a hostel and shower, do laundry, and pick up food.

Flatlander has been searching for something called an Icee since, apparently, Pennsylvania. Today we passed by a Shell station and on a lark decided to pop in and see if they had one. Despite all the amazing views and experiences, I'm pretty sure the Icee machine is Flatlander's highlight for our walking together. To be fair, I had a Cherry Dr. Pepper Icee, and it really was worth the excitement.

If I'm honest though, the cold and fires are starting to make me think it's time to go home. I've been considering ending the trip in Hot Springs. The Smokies are going to be cold, and apparently smoke covered. The next section is on fire. It's beginning to feel a bit pointless to do the rest of the trail. Tonight's night hike up a mountain didn't help. We'll see what morning brings.

Start: ??

End: some shelter somewhere

Distance: 18 miles

Day 138 - (16/11/2016)

Some days are so forgettable that I completely forget what happened if I don't write that night.‎ My logs are blank for this day.

Start: Roan High Mountain

End: ??

Distance: 22.9 miles