Waynesboro (totally forgot about the blog, woops)

Listen to Wayesboro at Virginia by Mike Demanche #np on #SoundCloud http://soundcloud.com/mike-demanche/wayesboro-at-virginia

Marion

Listen to Marion at Virginia by Mike Demanche #np on #SoundCloud http://soundcloud.com/mike-demanche/marion-at-virginia

And pony pics http://imgur.com/a/T6yIL

From Damascus

Listen to Damascus at Virginia by Mike Demanche #np on #SoundCloud https://soundcloud.com/mike-demanche/damascus-at-virginia

Roan Mountain

Hi

I'm not sleeping well tonight so you get a blog update (yayyy).

We left ceecee's wonderful Greasy Creek Friendly two days ago a booked it over Roan Mountain to Stan Murray shelter. We were originally hoping for overmountain shelter but 20 miles just wasn't in the cards for a team half still recovering from food poisoning (poor frodo and snowshoes). By the time we got to Stan Murray it was nearing dark and it simply wasn't worth moving on. We woke up this morning to a dusting of snow and frost. Our whole morning was spent crossing high balds with wind speeds higher than the temperature. It felt bad ass and cold and also very cold. The extreme conditions are kinda fun in a "keep moving or you die"  sorta way (in reality it's more of a " keep moving or you really get a chill"  type deal but you get the point). I got some good pictures of the whole ordeal so it was worth it.

Tofay we managed an 11 mile descent to TN 19E where we hoped to in ans out to stealth camp on the trail. We walked about 2.5 into town without a hitch until we came across Jo-Ann. She took us to the grocery and then offered us a bed for the night. It is cold tonight so we took her up on it. She got us some nice southern barbecue, we got a shower, and she even let us use the washer and dryer. We are super duper grateful for her hospitality.

Tomorrow we are shooting again for high miles. We're hoping to manage 25 or so to a hostel just outside of Hampton TN.

Oh, and we're done with NC. Go us!

Anyways. Goodnight. Damascus by Wednesday, maybe even Tuesday.

Audio Blog

I'm trying to spend less time typing on my phone, and to let Hozzle and Frodo contribute, so here's a group-recorded audio blog post. While you're there check out the Ableton projects I did for school last semester.

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Cheeers

Cap't Tying Knots

Standing Bear Farm

Hi team

We're at the standing bear hostel about to leave bound for hotsprings NC. We've had a great night and made good time through the smokeys but unfortunately the service here is spotty so I can't post pics. Also the charger I bought doesn't do the whole charging thing too well so I need to sort that out again when we get to hot springs. Let's hope for WiFi.

Anyways, know we all good. The smokeys are behind us and we have less than 2,000 miles to go (yay). The weather is looking up for the next few days and hopefully we can keep out mileages high.

Plenty of stories from the smokeys and this hostel to come. We've made two new friends snowshoes and Wolf. And pics. Such pics!

Till then,

Captain tying knots

Fontana Hilton

Greetings from the laundry room of the Fontana Lodge laundry room.

The past couple of days have brought us to the souther edge of the Great Smokey Mountains National Park. We've lucked out on rain and made good time getting here.

Leaving the NoC we went straight up about 3,000 vertical feet over 6 miles to sassafras gap shelter. We met flash again, and a couple dudes hiking together  who call themselves Mary and Pippin. The weather was warm and sunny that day. Only bad thing asides the vertical gainz was at a lunch break my peanut butter fell down a cliff. Sam well documented the recovery effort.

The next day (Mar. 9) we did 15.2 to get to the cable gap shelter. Mary and Pippin were there again. We managed to time our hiking perfectly in that we left after the morning drizzle and got in before the evening rains. It's been nice that it only rains at night really, though that luck will surely runout in the smokeys.

From cable gap it was only 7 to the Fontana dam shelter where we'll stay tonight. We got the sketchiest hitch yet into the resort where we were looking to resupply, eat, and launder. The only real resteraunt in town is a hotel. Luckily the three of us were the only folks looking to eat on a Tuesday afternoon so they actually let three smelly hikers eat. They even gave us a free chicken pot pie to take back to the shelter which is like, probably the highlight of the week.

Anyways. I have a short time on WiFi while the wash works and then it's back to the shelter. No service there so I guess we'll chat next when we're through the smokeys. I'll try to get pics up before then.

Oh, and I got a charge cable at a gas station. All good.

Cheers