Howdy, I am now in Peatrisburg, VA 622 miles from Springer. I was able to download some pictures at a Walmart the last time I resupplied, but for some reason or another, I am not able to upload them here. So we will have to wait for those pictures until I get to NYC. My pace has slowed down significantly recently. I found out that I got into Marylhurst University for grad school, I will be getting my MAT, and that gives me an additional month of hiking time. This means I do not need to be pushing 20+ mile days. That is why I am about 3 days behind my estimated arrival date here in Pearisburg. However I will be pushing the next couple of days to get to Catawba by Sunday. In Catawba is the Hompleace restaurant. I have heard from multiple past thru hikers that this is the best AYCE (all you can eat) on the trail. Unfortunately it is only open Thursday through Sunday. Today is Tuesday and I am 72 miles away. Once I get there I will probably slow down again. Next time I get to a computer I will let yall know about it.
Before getting to Damascus, Shadow Cast and I had been talking about pancakes. Thru hikers spend a large amount of time talking about food. We usually have all of our meals planned before we get into a town. So once we arrived in town and settled in we went looking for pancakes. We were told of three places, Dairy King, Damascus Eats and In the Country. The Dairy King looked sketchy and in a random choice we went to In the Country. It turns out they do not have free refills on Ice Tea and they burn most of the pancakes. We were not impressed or fully satisfied. We later learned that Dairy King has really good (we did our next two breakfast there with great pancakes), and that Damascus Eats also would have been fine.
In Damascus, Shadow and I were hanging out with Peacock and Daddy-O. They were taking an extra day in Damascus, so we went extra slow the first three days so they could catch up with us. We have been hanging out together since then. However they are not going to push to Catawba with us, so we will try and meet up again later.
The guide book I am using lists highlights for each section. I have stopped reading what those are, because they have always been fogged in for me. Blood Mountain in Georgia, fogged in, Clingmans' dome in the Smokies, fogged in, Max Patch in NC, fogged in. This past section lived up to the rule. The highlight was Grayson Higlands, and that was fogged in and cold, but it looked like it had the potential to be nice. Up there is a herd of feral ponies that they use to keep the balds bald. These ponies have no fear of people. At one shelter they came right up to the shelter. The next day as I took a quick break I got bumped and nudged by one who then laid down on the ground in front of me. Does anyone know if that is part of the mating ritual of feral ponies?
In this past section we also come across the first of three shelters that you can have pizza delivered to. That afternoon we went into town to resupply and hit up the AYCE chinese buffet. It went through me as quickly as you can imagine. Then we got more food and attempted to hitch out of town. This was not very easy. We ended up in a van with four locals who might have had one full set of teeth between them. If we had not been having so much trouble getting a ride we would have just let them go on. We then got driven on the backroads through town and we start to get a little worried, but it all worked out OK. Then we ordered pizza.
One thing I have also realized on the trail is that timing is everything. It makes the difference in good hitches into town and trial magic. Daddy-O has a nack for being just ahead of trail magic. One day a group of four of us, Shadow, Peacock, Daddy-O and myself left together from lunch. We hike together for a while, then I start getting stomach cramps, so Shadow and I slowed down. I took a quick stop, felt better and started hiking again. Just as we get to the next gap and road we hear a truck pull in. As we get to the road the driver asks us if we would like a cold beverage while he fires up the grill for hamburgers. One donut, one half a cantaloupe, one gatorade, one orange juice, one sunkist, one bacon hamburger, one hot dog, some grapes and an hour and a half later we pull out. Peacock and Daddy-O were waiting at the next shelter for two hours wondering what had happened. If they had only been 20 minutes slower.
At that shelter there is a sign from a local church offering an ALCE breakfast on Monday mornings at the road 5 miles North of the shelter. It is Saturday and we start thinking about whether to hike back or not. We need to resupply at the next town, so on the way we are thinking about how to get to the breakfast. We decide to spend the night in town, so we split a hotel room 5 ways, and we start calling churches. There are about 13 thru hikers staying at the same hotel, and after 30 minutes of calling and leaving messages we get in touch with the church and arrange a pickup at the hotel. It was entirely worthwhile. I had scrambled eggs, pancakes, potatoe pancakes, black bean patties, egg caserole, biscuits and gravy, banana bread, mac and cheese, and the most amazing blackberry cobbler I have ever had. It was one of the most amzing desserts I have ever eaten. Then we even got a ride back to the trail which saved us a bad hitch.
Tomorrow I am back on the trail heading to Catawba, I do not know when my next computer stop will be. I am trying to head back to Damascus for Trail Days May 16-18. That is a big celbration of the Appalachian trail with a lot of current and past thru hikers, and gear companies and local merchants. I may stay for Hardcore afterwards which is three days of trail work organized by the trail club just South of Damascus. So I may be back in Damascus before I get to Waynesboro. We will see. I have also just mailed home some of my cold weather gear. This makes my pack almost 5 pounds lighter, but it is a little bit of a gamble. The last two nights were very cold, and two days ago it was snowing as I packed up my tent. But I still have my warm sleeping bag and I have only used my warmest jacket as a pillow and for the first 30 minutes I am awake in the morning. If it is still cold I will stay in my sleeping bag longer.
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Birthday Dinners and Bathrooms
I am now in Damascus, VA 460 miles from Springer. I will be taking another full day off the trail to sit around and not do much. The past ten days had two days of snow and some wonderful trail magic as well as a couple of stories.
On my birthday I went out to eat with Shadow Cast, Pinky and Miss Priss. Miss Priss hiked in 05 and was having some girl time with her college friend Pinky. Shadow Cast and I are now back to hiking together. We all went to the Bridge Street Cafe. We sat down and ordered. Pinky and Miss Priss both ordered the same thing, and the waitress came back out a couple of minutes later with one menu and said they were out of that. They both changed their orders, and a couple of minutes later the waitress said they were out of one of them, so Miss Priss changed her order again. All this time we are asking for our bread which now finally comes. A long time later my food and Miss Priss' food comes out, and the waitress says that they are out of what Shadow Cast and Pinky had ordered. They reorder from about the three things still left on the menu, but our appetizers never show up. Then a couple of minutes later the manager arrives and gives me a free dessert for my birthday, and yet I still have most of my dinner in front of me, and Shadow Cast and Pinky are still waiting for theirs. When all the food finally arrives, it is good, but we are slightly frustrated. However we are only charged for two meals.
Our next meal ensemble is much better. Shadow Cast had gone to church the day before and all four of us were invited to breakfast at someone's house. The food was wonderfull, had lots of butter and kept on coming. It was not until 11am that we were finally on the trail.
We were now on the trail with our bags full of food and as always we were thinking about what to eat for dinner. Around 5:15 we get to a road crossing and there is a sign saying Trail Magic and directions. This leads us to a two hour stop and a three course meal of Belgian waffles, chili and fresh made apple pie. The only down side was that our backpacks were just as heavy the next day.
After a couple of days of great weather we run into some snow. The first day we get some light snow as we were hiking, and that night several inches fell. The next day it snowed a little more, but it was absolutely gorgeous. We stopped that night at the Kincora Hostel. When we arrived the only bed available was a double bed in the unheated treehouse. It was a tight fit, but better than another night in a shelter. We went into town for groceries and pizza, and it is amazing how easy it is to eat a large pizza by yourself.
The next morning about 9 miles into the hiking I was starting to think about how nice it would be to find a toilet. Lo and behold we come across a picnic area with a restroom. There were a bunch of forest service vehicles in the area and the workers having lunch. So I go into the restroon and take care of business. Part way through I hear the door lock. This worries me. After washing my hands I try the door and it does not budge. So I try banging and shouting and still nothing. Shadow Cast is waiting for me, but I do not know at what point he will come back to the restroom, so I start thinking about how to get out. There is some wire mesh in the triangle between the roof and the wall so I turn the trash can over (it was empty), and start beating on the mesh. After a couple of minutes I manage to get an opening I can squeeze out of. Then it was only a couple of foot drop after hanging over the edge of the wall. I slide through with only a scratch or two to show for it.
Shadow Cast and I are hiking fairly quiclky, but that should us allow us more zero days and the ability to slow back down when we get the White Mountains. I am not sure when I will be able to get more pictures up, most of the small towns are not set for for something like that. My next two mail stops will be Pearisburg, VA 24134 and Waynesboro, VA 22980. I am estimating Pearisburg about April 25th and Waynesboro May 9th. So if you are mailing something
Jeffrey Berliss
c/o General Delivery
Hold for AT Thru Hiker
Town, State Zip
On my birthday I went out to eat with Shadow Cast, Pinky and Miss Priss. Miss Priss hiked in 05 and was having some girl time with her college friend Pinky. Shadow Cast and I are now back to hiking together. We all went to the Bridge Street Cafe. We sat down and ordered. Pinky and Miss Priss both ordered the same thing, and the waitress came back out a couple of minutes later with one menu and said they were out of that. They both changed their orders, and a couple of minutes later the waitress said they were out of one of them, so Miss Priss changed her order again. All this time we are asking for our bread which now finally comes. A long time later my food and Miss Priss' food comes out, and the waitress says that they are out of what Shadow Cast and Pinky had ordered. They reorder from about the three things still left on the menu, but our appetizers never show up. Then a couple of minutes later the manager arrives and gives me a free dessert for my birthday, and yet I still have most of my dinner in front of me, and Shadow Cast and Pinky are still waiting for theirs. When all the food finally arrives, it is good, but we are slightly frustrated. However we are only charged for two meals.
Our next meal ensemble is much better. Shadow Cast had gone to church the day before and all four of us were invited to breakfast at someone's house. The food was wonderfull, had lots of butter and kept on coming. It was not until 11am that we were finally on the trail.
We were now on the trail with our bags full of food and as always we were thinking about what to eat for dinner. Around 5:15 we get to a road crossing and there is a sign saying Trail Magic and directions. This leads us to a two hour stop and a three course meal of Belgian waffles, chili and fresh made apple pie. The only down side was that our backpacks were just as heavy the next day.
After a couple of days of great weather we run into some snow. The first day we get some light snow as we were hiking, and that night several inches fell. The next day it snowed a little more, but it was absolutely gorgeous. We stopped that night at the Kincora Hostel. When we arrived the only bed available was a double bed in the unheated treehouse. It was a tight fit, but better than another night in a shelter. We went into town for groceries and pizza, and it is amazing how easy it is to eat a large pizza by yourself.
The next morning about 9 miles into the hiking I was starting to think about how nice it would be to find a toilet. Lo and behold we come across a picnic area with a restroom. There were a bunch of forest service vehicles in the area and the workers having lunch. So I go into the restroon and take care of business. Part way through I hear the door lock. This worries me. After washing my hands I try the door and it does not budge. So I try banging and shouting and still nothing. Shadow Cast is waiting for me, but I do not know at what point he will come back to the restroom, so I start thinking about how to get out. There is some wire mesh in the triangle between the roof and the wall so I turn the trash can over (it was empty), and start beating on the mesh. After a couple of minutes I manage to get an opening I can squeeze out of. Then it was only a couple of foot drop after hanging over the edge of the wall. I slide through with only a scratch or two to show for it.
Shadow Cast and I are hiking fairly quiclky, but that should us allow us more zero days and the ability to slow back down when we get the White Mountains. I am not sure when I will be able to get more pictures up, most of the small towns are not set for for something like that. My next two mail stops will be Pearisburg, VA 24134 and Waynesboro, VA 22980. I am estimating Pearisburg about April 25th and Waynesboro May 9th. So if you are mailing something
Jeffrey Berliss
c/o General Delivery
Hold for AT Thru Hiker
Town, State Zip
Sunday, April 6, 2008
Boy Scouts and Mice
I am taking my second zero day on my birthday in Hot Springs, NC, 270 miles from Springer. I rolled in around 1pm yesterday after a 13 mile day, and I am waiting to get some mail, and send some stuff home tomorrow morning. I am staying at Elmer's. He has a wonderful old house and cooks amazing vegetarian dinners and breakfasts. I will be celebrating my birthday by soaking in the hot springs and getting a massage. I am also breaking in my new trail runners. I started out hiking in my tried and true full leather hiking boats. I was not having blister problems and the leather is still good, but they are starting to leak between the leather and the sole. I am also lightening up by about a pound per foot, which is nice.
I have been rained on everyday since I left Fontana Dam and entered the Smokies. Most of the the time I was hiking in a cloud. It is not too bad, I would rather be in a cloud then getting rained on, and it is good for making time because you do not want to stop. However, the views are not as good. About half an hour after I passed Clingman's Dome, which is the highest mountain on the Trail, the clouds broke and I had two half days of gorgeous weather. The next day at Icewater shelter I had a marvelous sunrise with undercast. By that evening it was raining again. I took an easy day when it was sunny to enjoy the weather, but I have started to push it as it clouded again and I did back to back 18 and 20 mile days. As I leave Hot Springs I will be pushing it some more so that when I get to areas where I know people I can take the time off to visit.
Thru hikers tend to have a love/hate relationship with Boy Scouts. If you cannot yogi food off of a boy scout you are in trouble (defn. yogi, to get free food from someone without asking for it). On my second day in the Smokies I pulled into a shelter after a tough 17 mile day in the rain at around 6pm. The shelter was full of Boy Scouts. I later talked to a bunch to through hikers who had come through earlier in the day who had all seen the Boy Scouts and pushed on 1.7 miles to the next shelter. As I walked in, not wanting to go any further, they were lighting a fire in the shelter. Normally this is a good sign. Unfortunately the chimney was not working and the shelter quickly filled up with smoke and they put out the fire. They were cooking as a came in and after they finished eating said if I had been in a little earlier they would have saved me some. However, as I started cooking they were dividing up dessert and offered me some raspberry crumble. It made a great appetizer. I am trying not to turn down free food. The next night I ran into a different group of boy scouts. These were more annoying but I did get four hot chocolate and two tuna packets in the deal. So all in all, not too bad on the exchange.
Mice are something that thru hikers just have a hate relationship with. While most shelters have bear cables for hanging food, what you are really worried about are mice. I had not had too much trouble until Walnut Mountain shelter. It was another rainy day and I arrived to this shelter after 20+ miles. Otherwise I would have kept on going. It was old and slanted with a not so great water source, but I was done for the day. There were 5 of us in the shelter that night and we were kept up a bit with mice running through everybody's packs'. This is why you leave all the zippers open, so they can get in and out without chewing through your gear. At one point I had a mouse run over my forehead. But the worst was when I woke up with a mouse in my pants. It had been raining as I got into the shelter and my pants were wet so I hung them up to dry. I had forgotten to take the peanut M&M's out of my pocket, so I woke up to the sound of a mouse in my pants. Luckily I had left the pocket open so Ionly lost one handfull of M&M's, and no damage to my only pants.
I have also started to have things break. I had a minor part break on my water filter the first week that I easily replaced. But the first real break was my spoon. On night 13 while stirring my dinner to prevent something burning to the bottom of the pot my spoon broke in half. Luckily Shadow Cast lent me his spoon for dinner and I was able to buy a new one the next day in Fontana Dam. The first major issue was my water filter. Last Sunday the handle on the pump broke, so I spent a week borrowing other people's filters and treating with iodine (I had brought iodine as a backup). Thursday night I stayed at a hostel and called Katadyn and they mailed a replacement part to Erwin, TN (still three days away). As I got into town here in Hot Springs I went to the outdoor store and got the handle replaced. So it is now fixed and I have a handle waiting for me in Erwin. When the filter wasn't working I had a lot of people tell me to get rid of the filter to save weight and not treat the water. I do not think my stomach is strong enough for that.
Before the Smokies I had been hiking for a week with Shadow Cast. He decided to not zero in Knoxville, but he was going to try and meet up with friends in Ashville. So I would hike a day behind him and we would meet up after the Smokies. He kept leaving me notes in the shelter journals asking when I would catch up to him, and talked to people about me, so almost all the people I passed had heard of me, which was nice. However, as I finished the Smokies I found out he was not taking the day off in Ashville and instead did 23 and 26 miles days when I did 18 and 20. Luckily he took enough time off in Hot Springs for me to catch up and was lounging in Elmer's when I walked in. Tomorrow we will be back to hiking together again. We both realized how nice it is to have someone hiking the same pace.
My next planned town stop will be Damascus, VA in about 10 days on March 17th. So if anyone feels like sending me anything, good lucks or belated birthday cards, you can address it to
Jeffrey Berliss
c/o General Delivery
Damascus, VA 24236
and write "Hold for AT Thru Hiker" on the envelope.
Take care and keep on posting comments, I love the feedback, and if you have any questions, ask away.
I have been rained on everyday since I left Fontana Dam and entered the Smokies. Most of the the time I was hiking in a cloud. It is not too bad, I would rather be in a cloud then getting rained on, and it is good for making time because you do not want to stop. However, the views are not as good. About half an hour after I passed Clingman's Dome, which is the highest mountain on the Trail, the clouds broke and I had two half days of gorgeous weather. The next day at Icewater shelter I had a marvelous sunrise with undercast. By that evening it was raining again. I took an easy day when it was sunny to enjoy the weather, but I have started to push it as it clouded again and I did back to back 18 and 20 mile days. As I leave Hot Springs I will be pushing it some more so that when I get to areas where I know people I can take the time off to visit.
Thru hikers tend to have a love/hate relationship with Boy Scouts. If you cannot yogi food off of a boy scout you are in trouble (defn. yogi, to get free food from someone without asking for it). On my second day in the Smokies I pulled into a shelter after a tough 17 mile day in the rain at around 6pm. The shelter was full of Boy Scouts. I later talked to a bunch to through hikers who had come through earlier in the day who had all seen the Boy Scouts and pushed on 1.7 miles to the next shelter. As I walked in, not wanting to go any further, they were lighting a fire in the shelter. Normally this is a good sign. Unfortunately the chimney was not working and the shelter quickly filled up with smoke and they put out the fire. They were cooking as a came in and after they finished eating said if I had been in a little earlier they would have saved me some. However, as I started cooking they were dividing up dessert and offered me some raspberry crumble. It made a great appetizer. I am trying not to turn down free food. The next night I ran into a different group of boy scouts. These were more annoying but I did get four hot chocolate and two tuna packets in the deal. So all in all, not too bad on the exchange.
Mice are something that thru hikers just have a hate relationship with. While most shelters have bear cables for hanging food, what you are really worried about are mice. I had not had too much trouble until Walnut Mountain shelter. It was another rainy day and I arrived to this shelter after 20+ miles. Otherwise I would have kept on going. It was old and slanted with a not so great water source, but I was done for the day. There were 5 of us in the shelter that night and we were kept up a bit with mice running through everybody's packs'. This is why you leave all the zippers open, so they can get in and out without chewing through your gear. At one point I had a mouse run over my forehead. But the worst was when I woke up with a mouse in my pants. It had been raining as I got into the shelter and my pants were wet so I hung them up to dry. I had forgotten to take the peanut M&M's out of my pocket, so I woke up to the sound of a mouse in my pants. Luckily I had left the pocket open so Ionly lost one handfull of M&M's, and no damage to my only pants.
I have also started to have things break. I had a minor part break on my water filter the first week that I easily replaced. But the first real break was my spoon. On night 13 while stirring my dinner to prevent something burning to the bottom of the pot my spoon broke in half. Luckily Shadow Cast lent me his spoon for dinner and I was able to buy a new one the next day in Fontana Dam. The first major issue was my water filter. Last Sunday the handle on the pump broke, so I spent a week borrowing other people's filters and treating with iodine (I had brought iodine as a backup). Thursday night I stayed at a hostel and called Katadyn and they mailed a replacement part to Erwin, TN (still three days away). As I got into town here in Hot Springs I went to the outdoor store and got the handle replaced. So it is now fixed and I have a handle waiting for me in Erwin. When the filter wasn't working I had a lot of people tell me to get rid of the filter to save weight and not treat the water. I do not think my stomach is strong enough for that.
Before the Smokies I had been hiking for a week with Shadow Cast. He decided to not zero in Knoxville, but he was going to try and meet up with friends in Ashville. So I would hike a day behind him and we would meet up after the Smokies. He kept leaving me notes in the shelter journals asking when I would catch up to him, and talked to people about me, so almost all the people I passed had heard of me, which was nice. However, as I finished the Smokies I found out he was not taking the day off in Ashville and instead did 23 and 26 miles days when I did 18 and 20. Luckily he took enough time off in Hot Springs for me to catch up and was lounging in Elmer's when I walked in. Tomorrow we will be back to hiking together again. We both realized how nice it is to have someone hiking the same pace.
My next planned town stop will be Damascus, VA in about 10 days on March 17th. So if anyone feels like sending me anything, good lucks or belated birthday cards, you can address it to
Jeffrey Berliss
c/o General Delivery
Damascus, VA 24236
and write "Hold for AT Thru Hiker" on the envelope.
Take care and keep on posting comments, I love the feedback, and if you have any questions, ask away.
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