Come Hell or Hiawassee (or Helen)

EDIT: I meant to post this yesterday morning (Sat. Feb 28),but it didn't go through so I'm trying today.

Aww Helen Georgia.  Or alpine Helen,  as they seem to call it.  Or alpine heaven, as it feels. Today we descended about a thousand feet down Blue Mountain to Unicoi gap. We were hoping to catch a hitch or shuttle into Hiawassee for a night in a hotel. The guidebook said Hiawassee was to the left, but a car parked at the gap full of GPS wielding tourists assured us it was the other way. So we started down the road with the hitch thumb up and a truck pulled over for us pretty quickly.  We asked if he was going to Hiawassee and he said that Hiawassee was the other way.  So I asked if he was going to Helen, and then decided we should just go to Helen. We climbed in the back of his pick up and rode about 9 miles into town. Now we're in Helen sharing a bed at the Helendorf Inn,  which is especially lovely at $50 for the night.

We met a cool veteran and veteran through hiker named Josh down at the local bar/ pizza place who gave us some good advice for the trail, and his number if we need an emergency contact. He had some great life advice too, including the gem,  "I would have been a cowboy if I could find a horse big enough for my ass. Then I did, but she was divorce-able". The pizza was good.  They didn't serve us beer.

Helen is gorgeous. The town is modelled after a Bavarian village. There is a quaint town square and music and ample trash receptacles. Very nice for one day, but I wouldn't want to live here. Tomorrow when we're pried from our hotel room we will ascend Tray mountain, assuming we get a good hitch to the gap.

Blood Mountain - >Blue Mountain

Yoooo

Tonight were in Blood Mountain shelter, approximately 50 miles from Springer Mountain. We've been out 6 days now and on the the AT for 5, putting us at 10 miles a day. This is right where we should be mileage wise considering the conditions and the fact that we're new at this. We've gotten ahead of most of the crowd we were with earlier, but they'll probably catchup when we get off to resupply.

It's cold. We got about 6 inches of snow last night on top of 3 already on the ground. You'll think it's new England when you see the pictures. The boots are covered in snow, which will melt and saturate the boots so that by morning they will be blocks of ice. I have one more pair of socks that aren't saturated in ice water. It's cold too. Last night and maybe tonight too we sleep in the tent in the shelter to stay warm. If we bring the boots into the tent maybe they won't freeze. Hopefully this cold snap will break in the next couple of days or a week or so.  I mean,  it's Georgia.

It's also very foggy.  We have only gotten what you might call "a view" twice. Both were photographed and will be in the upcoming imgur album. Today we strode into a sunny spot for about a half an hour. It was nice.  Then we turned around the mountain spur and it was a w foggy winter hell again. Georgia,  come on.

Anyways, we're 2.5 miles or so from Unicoi gap where we'll head into Hiawassee for a re-up. We're trying to spend the night in a hotel. Sanitary toilets, showers, laundry, groceries. Aight Aight.

And Internet access. I'll post the imgur album when we get there

Day 3

Greetings!

I'm writing at 5am on Feb. 23, though I don't have service so it may be a while before this is actually posted. When the sun rises in about an hour we will be starting our third day on the trail. Our first day was spent climbing Amicalola falls, and then hiking to about 1.5 miles short of Springer. Yesterday we made it about 10 miles to Hawk Mountain shelter, where we spent the night.

We are not alone. Five people left before us on the 21st, and 59 have left before us as of the whole year.  We're sharing this shelter with about 10 others.  It's the most full we've certainly ever seen a shelter, and it sounds like quite the exotic variety of snores.

The weather is quite good for hiking. It is cool enough that we don't sweat a ton while walking but not enough to be really cold. We've managed both nights with out  tents and just my bag has been plenty. There is a bit of ice though.  Day one the hazard was in the trees. As it melted large chunks would fall and occasionally hit us in the head.  Yesterday the hazard was on the ground.  As the snow on the trail was walked on it had become compacted into a sheet of ice. I don't think tonight spent much time below freezing though so hopefully that should be cleared up.  Who knows what today's challenge will be.

Well that's that. I'll post this as soon as I expect to have service,  as well as another 30 or so pictures.

Breakfast !

Hi faithful followers. We got in late last night in the bitter cold of a Georgian winter. Shea was kind enough to welcome us weary travelers into her abode, where we have slept and regained our strength. Unfortunately, we slept too long to make it out today, as our host/ chauffeur has to work this afternoon. Looks like we'll be napping around her place all afternoon with the intention to go out tomorrow. There seems to be weather coming in Saturday night, but we're hoping by that time we will be at a shelter, safely huddled away.


Anyways, thats our show for tonight. Remember to tune in next week; Same time same place!


P.s. I do have a coat reddit. Gosh. And remember, photos at the imgur site.

In Transit 1

9:40 PM. New York port authority bus terminal.  Departing for Richmond. We should get in by 6:30 am after one stop at 4. 

Today started out great. We all made it out of bed on time and hit the road with plenty of time to make it. We hit traffic but were able to avoid sitting in it by working the back roads. We made it to the station with enough time to print out our 24 separate tickets and got on the bus at 10. Unfortunately we hit some traffic coming  into NYC and missed our 40 minute connection.  Alright.  

The next available route was a 9:30 departur,  which I guess is fine... I don't see the other option. We found food in Times Square,  took a picture with some people who asked for money (but they were wearing costumes so it's cool), and then back packed South down 4th Ave until we got cold and took the subway back to port authority.  We still had hours to kill so we ate a pizza,  played hearts, and listened to the sweet classical play list that port authority rocks. It was pretty cool I guess.  But now it's almost 10 and we still have 24 bus hours to go,  so we'll have to see.  Oh,  and a male prostitute attempted to solicit Sam,  and Brett and I experienced a pretty good solicitation of cash so we can cross that ff the bucket list. 

So that's it.  We're all good - a little late but whatever, man.  Ttyl 

Mike <3

Gear List

HELLO AGAIN

Lets talk gear.

 This is it. Well, not including food but this is it. Starting from the middle cushion we've got:

• Exoficio Underwear (2pairs) - This stuff is supposed to be great (I'll let you know how it really does in a few days). It is stretchy, moisture wicking, and antimicrobial so it shouldn't smell all that bad even after a few days
• Darn Tough Socks (3pairs) - Good Wool socks. Made in USA. Lifetime warrantee. Works for this guy.
•  Short sleeve wicking shirts (2) - For walking during the day. I could probably get by with one while its cold, but it might save a maildrop down the road, and they don't weigh much
• Long Sleeve thermal shirt - For camp and really cold days. 
• USB Charger - 3 usb cables and a multi-charger. Each plug has 2.3 amps available, so hopefully I can charge all of my devices quickly when we're in a good place.
  
  Right cushion
• Frogg Toggs rain gear. Top and pants. Good, lightweight rain gear which is only $20 in WalMart
• Marmot NeverWinter 30 degree bag
• Thermarest z-lite pad
  
  On the floor
• Eureka Apex 2xt tent. Its missing the rainfly right now because Carl MacDonald Jr. is irresponsible. Seriously man, I'm pissed. We're going to search his house today to try to get it, if not we'll use Sam's tent, which is similar. 
• Crocs - Camp shoes
• Trekking poles - with duct tape attached.
• 3 L smart water bottles - These fit on my filter so they make for great containers. $1 a piece at Wally World and they don't weigh anything empty.
• Osprey Atmos 65L pack - Mmmmm so comfy

• The Yellow bag is a dry bag by Sea to Summit - Its my conveniences kit
• 200 Acetaminophen capsules - hopefully worth the weight
• AWOLs 2014 NOBO Guide. Might come in handy.
• Moleskin journal and pencil. For poetry, sketching, and drafting blog posts
• Playing cards - for hearts.
• The ziplock is my toiletries. 2 oz of Dr. Bronners 18 in 1 soap. Toothbrush and travel paste, TP.
• The pill bottle contains doxycycline - an antibiotic which we can use as against lyme disease.
• Squirt Juice stuff. To make water a bit tastier 
• 4 Blistex sticks. I always lose these and chapped lips ruin my day. I'll be tucking these everywhere in my kit.
• Crazy Glue - First aid and gear repairs.
• Aquamira - for if the filter freezes
• Sawyer Squeeze water filter - fits on the Smart Water bottles and only costs $25. Best filter on the market.
• Orange dry-bag has an extra USB battery, 2 AAA batteries, a bic, and will carry my phone to keep it safe.
• Headlamp
• Retainer case
• Cold Weather clothing - gloves, neck warmer, hat, 
• The red bag at my feet has the...

FOOD

I'm not going to go over all this, but lets just say its all "Just add water!".

6 days worth of food (hopefully) only cost about $70. Right on target, and should definitely get us through Suches. I'll tell you more interesting things about food once the thru-hiker appetite settles in and we get practiced. 

Anyways, Off to harass Carl about that rainfly.

23 Hours

OK TEAM.

Last night everyone got together to be merry at the Shire. We ate and drank and sang songs and danced and it was lovely. I uploaded some pics of the evening to imgur. My link there is mikedemanche.imgur.com . I think I may have told some people the wrong thing earlier, so thats the right one. Here is a hyperlink to it. Bookmark that or refer to this post or whatever, because imgur is a lot easier for me to upload too, especially when we're out there. If I want to actually post photos to the blog I need to do them one at a time, and hopefully I'll be taking enough that I won't have time to upload them one at a time. Photos will hopefully be a big priority out there on the trail. Writing out text posts will require either lots of time typing on my phone, which is exhausting to my thumbs and the battery, or by sitting at a computer in town. I'd much rather let you know whatever I can through the visual communication that is a photo. Plus like, its worth a thousand word each, so, what a deal.


Right now I'm cleaning my room, drinking coffee, and frantically trying to remember what it is I need to do. The whole like, "make sure all your affairs for the next 6 months are in order" thing is terrifying. I take solace in the fact that I'll have my phone if when I realize I forgot something big, and I will of course be "out of service" if any bad news is trying to find me.


So that's that for now. I guess I might write a post on the bus or something if I get the chance. Photos to follow. Another blog post this afternoon with the gear list.



Oh, and Mr. Holmquist says the blog is bland. Obviously he is not satisfied with my clever prose and colloquial tone. If anyone knows how to like, make the blog better, comment on it.

T - 12 (Re: Weather and Photos)

Hot dog! We are getting close. Spooky close. Almost close to the point that I will be posting my gear list. Close as like, two things right next to each other close. Close to the 10 day forecast close.


Right now weather.com takes us right up to the week of. Sunday the 15th looks to be highs around 50 with a night time low just below freezing. That's great news. Plus only 1 day of precipitation between now and then. Much better than the 7 degrees Cape Cod got last night, Surely there will be some variability during the next 3 cold months but hey, looks like we picked an OK week to start.


Yesterday Brett and I made it out to the woods to do a little day hiking around Barnstable. The snow was pretty deep and drifts and that dumb crusty stuff on top. Half of your steps you stay on top but then half the time you fall through to about your knee, which kinda sucks to walk through. It was about 25 degrees, way colder than we expect in Georgia. We carried packs just to feel cool and spent a couple hours before sunset, then went back to our warm homes and ate food cooked for us.


PHOTOS

THANKS JULIA FOR THE CAMERA!!!!! (This picture wasn't taken on it though).

I asked for a good waterproof camera for Christmas and Julia hooked me up with this sweet Fujifilm one which should capture some images which will soon grace the blog. The thing can connect to my phone wirelessly so that I can upload without needing a computer, and hopefully then I can upload more frequently. Prepare yourself for it's 14 megapixels of glory.


I'm going to host the pics on Imgur cuz its what I'm used to. They'll be under my profile which is here. The rest of the pics associated with that beaut above can be found in this here thing. http://imgur.com/a/Y9qsa


Anyways, ttfn. Hanging with Sam as I type. Maybe even as you read it. He says hi.