More Pics

This is Cyclops, myself, Shadow Cast and Bigfoot at the NC/GA border, 75 miles of hiking into the trail. Cyclops and Bigfoot were both section hikers. Shadow Cast and I hiked together for about a week before I took today off, and we will hopefully meet up again in Hot Springs.
On Easter Sunday a group of people set up a huge tent and cooked omelets. But the story goes further back. Shadow Cast and I pulled into this gap at around 5:30 on Saturday. We had hiked anout 15 miles at this point and we were one mile away from a shelter. As we came down to the gap we saw this tent and some people we had been hiking with washing their hands. The people at the tent told us to help ouselves. I made a sandwich and was then asked if I wanted a Polish sausage. I thought this was a dumb question. Of course I wanted when, the questions was can I have two? just next door another group had a fire going, and offered me a drink. When I asked for OJ, I got half and half with vodka. After the Vodka Shadow Cast and I hiked up a mile to the shelter since most of the tent sites at the road were full and then finished off the Guinesses we hadn't been able to finish in town the day before. The next morning we hiked back down for breakfast and were given menus. What did we want in our omelets and what did we want in our to go bags. It was amazing.
This is one top of the Observation tower on Wesser Bald. What follows this is about the worst 6 miles of desecent I have done. I called it the "Knee Bomb." We thought it would be an easy 6 miles downhill to the shelter. It was anything but easy.

Pics

I am taking a day off the trail and visiting some friends from grad school in Knoxville. I have hiked 163 miles in my firs 13 days on the trail. I was able to put together back to back bigs days, 18 and 16 miles, and I am feeling pretty good. At my friend Ben's house I have been able to download my pictures from the first two weeks on the trail, and hopefully I will be able to post some of them. The first picture is of me and Shaggy on top of Springer Mtn. I swam with Shaggy at Carleton and he hiked last year with the Iron Chefs.
This is me and Geek. Geek hiked the trail in 1990 with a cat and again in 2000. These days he throws a St. Patrick's Day party on the trail. He was handing out beer to all the thru hikers that passed. This was my first experience with Trail Magic.

This was my first day of horrible weather. I had tented the previous night and I learned a couple of valuable lessons about pitching my tent when it was going to rain. I ended up getting a little damp. So once it was light enough I started hiking. In about eight miles I got to a shelter. It was about 1pm. I was completely soaked. My rain jacket had soaked through from the outside and I had complete sweat through the shirt I was hiking in. But my feet were still dry. So I called it a day and sat inside the shelter watching the rain outside.

This is a sunset picture with a privy. Most, but not all, shelters have a privy, some have walls, some have roofs, some have both. This one did not have a roof, and you could almost look directly inside from the shelter. This was on top of Tray mountain in Georgia after my first 15 mile day.

Weight vs Comfort vs Money

One of the big questions when it comes to gear is whether it is worth the weight. Some pieces of gear you need to have and then the question becomes is it worth the extra money to get something lighter. I started off with an obscenely heavy pack, about 55 lbs with food and water. I spent most of the first couple of days thinking about what I had that I could get rid of. At Neels gap which is 30 miles into the trail there is an outdoor shop that will go through your pack and offer suggestions on how to lighten your pack. Somethings I agreed with and I dropped about 5 lbs off the weight. But most of the suggestions involved buying new gear. Yes I could buy an alcohol stove that would be a lot lighter, but I already having a working stove that I am comfortable with. So all of the suggestions that involved buying new gear I disregarded (for now). Other things I decided to keep because I felt that is was worth the extra weight, like my insulated mug. Altough I realized that I do not need to hike with my 3 liter camelback and my quart nalgene full. There is enough water on the trail that I can start half full on water. That saved me 5-10lbs.
So right now I am taking my first night off the trail. I have hiked 66 miles in 6 days with 7 being my short day and 15 my long. There have been a lot of other people around. At least 18 other thru hikers started when I did, 18 the previous day, 51 May 1st, and I have met a lot of other people who started the friday before I did. The current problem is too many people around. The shelters have been full with as many people tenting around the site. But I have realized that I am a fairly fast hiker. If I get an early start then I have had no problem getting to the shelters early enough to get inside. I have tented twice when I have not wanted to make it all the way to the next shelter. One of those nights it started raining. I learned several valulable lessons on how and where to set up my tent. I did not get very wet, but it was annoying. That day it ended up raing from about 4:30am until 6pm. I have never felt so wet. I ended up wakiing up and starting to hike once it was light enough to see the trail. I got to the next shelter and called it an early day. It looks like Sunday may be another nasty day, so the person I have been hiking with, Shadow Cast, and I have decided that if we wake up and it is already nasty, then we will stay in the sheleter until the weather improves.
There are a lot of really good people on the trail, almost everyone is friendly and willing to help out. Most people have trail names, but I have named three people who do not have names at the time. People on the trail tend to keep an eye out for other people they have passed. The shelters also have logs so you can find out about the people hiking ahead of you. I am trying to leave interesting notes so that at one point when someone catches up to me they can say, "Tangent, I have been reading about you." It seems not worth the effort to say you passed through. If you are going to write something, make it worthwhile.
I am staying tonight at a hiker hostel with internet, which I will have to pass on to someone else in a couple of minutes. It was amazing how nice the shower felt, and I now have clean clothes again. It is amazing how all the simple things can make you happy when on the trail. Dry socks and hot chocolate are things of beauty.

Trail names

I had been asked my several people whether I have a trail name yet. All thru hikers take on a trail name for while they are hiking. I had been thinking about one, but I have always had problems about giving myself a nickname. I also did not want to reuse an old nickname from swimming in college or from high school. So I had been thinking and I was unable to come up with anything good. Luckily I had a friend come to my rescue. This friend is a section hiker (someone who does the trail one section at a time). I am going to copy what my friend said, "All thru-hikers have trail names -no exceptions. Since you're thinking about teaching high school math - and you're, in effect, going off on one - we suggest your trail name be TANGENT. This name also works when you develop a suntan (and by the way,make sure you are carrying some sunblock on your hike). And it's mush easier for you, when explaining your trail name, to tell people that Emily and I ordained if for you." So I would luck to thank Chuck for solving a problem for me.
Tangent

About to Start

I am packed and ready to go. For those of you who don't know I am about to start hiking the Appalachian Trail. It spans 2174 miles from Springer Mountain in Georgia to Mt. Kahtadin in Maine. I am planning on taking just about 5 months for the whole thing. Tomorrow I fly down to Atlanta, buy some more food and then on Sunday I start hiking. My pack currently weights about 36 pounds without water and only some food. I am wondering how much of what I have I will decide that I do not really need. At this point it all seems fairly essential, but priorities can change when I have to carry everything up and down and up and down.
I think I am fairly ready as well. I have been running since I got back into the country and for a while I was swimming as well. So I am in decent shape. I spent last week in Portland visiting my brother and trying out all of my gear and doing some practice hikes. But I never had my pack completely full and I aways came back to my brother's house at night.
I will be hiking alone for the most part. A couple of people have talked about meeting me for a section, and a couple of people who live close to the trail have offered a place to stay or to meet me for lunch. I am not worried about hiking alone. That means I get to go my own place. I also get the impression that there will be other people on the trail, so I should not have to spend too many nights alone, but I will have a much better feel for that after I have been hiking for a while.
I am a little nervous, but the normal nervous when I am about to start something new. But I am also ready to start hiking. I have been living at home with my parents for the last three months and I I ready to be back out on my own. This is something I have been thinking about for a while, and realistically thinking about since I was in grad school in Tennessee. If I don't go out and at least try it now, then I don't know when I will.
When I finish the plan is to move out to Portland and become a high school math teacher. I have applied to two MAT programs starting in the fall. One starts Aug 25, so I am planning to finish Aug 10. If I decide on the other program then I get an extra two or three weeks to finish the hike. Of course it is going to be fun coordinating receiving the paperwork for the programs and sending it on.
So I am currently at 0 Miles Hiked (MH) and 2174 Miles To Go (MTG). I do not know how often I will be able to update, but I am hoping for about once or twice a month. Whenever I update I will be checking email as well so feel free to write back to me, and I will have my cellphone with me, but i will only be turning it on when I am going through towns.