Today is Friday, March 8, 2013.
Day 3 of our slack packing...on the way to Katahdin....
one issue with slack packing is that someone is picking you up at a specific time and place.
Today our destination was 14 miles.
We got dropped off at Hogpen gap at 8am...there was nowhere to get picked up except unicoi gap which was 14 miles away.
The weather was absolutely perfect. Sunny and a little warmer...I stripped down to my short sleeved shirt a time or two today(on the uphills of course)
The terrain included several miles along an old logging road which was fast and easy except I was trying to go as fast as I could sustain...for several miles..my legs are not at all accustomed to this as I am not a runner.I learned today that I do best on varying terrain...my legs like change....often is better.
We met our first thru hikers today.
They were leaving low gap shelter when we passed. The older guy (I think his name was "Dixie grits"). We walked together now and then.. He seemed nice; lives in Mississippi but hoping to move to Virginia someday. We leapfrogged with him until just before lunch at Chattahoochee gap. We caught the other guy from low gap shelter at Chattahoochee gap. He walked a bit faster (and we stop for a minute here and there : )..anyway, the four of us walked along the logging road as it wound around the side of the mountain. I kept catching strains of someone really belting it out...just singing as they walked...I commented to myself (as I do continuously throughout the day..this is the only one I'll share from today)"he's really got a set of pipes"..lo and behold
..this is the guy we caught up to at lunch..he didn't have a trail name yet, so I told him I'd been calling him"pipes"all day in my head..so I hope it sticks..I will have bestowed my first trail name if it does...we went up and over blue mountain..then came on down to the parking lot...another awesome day on the AT...my toes and knees are sore..but life is good...
Tomorrow's another day..
Was in a cute little store today shopping and everywhere I turned, there were owls. Owl earrings, necklace, purses, picture frames, etc-really uncanny how many owls that i kept seeing. it began to be a game as I continued to search out owls in this shop. Basically it made me think of you! Just wanted you to know that prayers and thoughts of you are being sent often! Love keeping up with you through the blog!
ReplyDeleteI love that you and Zag are posting enough detail that I can find you on the interactive map. I wish technology would let me mark your progress on their map, but I'll have to be more creative...
ReplyDeletePaul and I did a 5K thing for cancer this morning, at his pace (Eagle Scout = fast) on asphalt, no 25+ pound pack, in about 55 minutes. I think I payed more attention to joints, to assess whether this Old Fart could do what you are doing, for months, in all types of weather and terrain.... Hmmmm... Haven't abandoned the idea yet.
My thoughts and prayers are with you, for peace, for safety, for fair weather. I worry for your cold hands...