No Rain, No Pain, No Maine!

Well true to form we start hiking to Maine today and its is RAINING!!! Mike and Sue will be dropping us at the trail near Bellvale, New York in a couple hours and the forecast is showers and more showers. But at least it is not cold and raining and I guess all the water sources will not be dry! Have to look on the bright side. We will have about 30 miles to get to Bear Mountain New York and finally get to walk through the ZOO there that Toesocks was looking forward to on last years hike. The trail passes right through it! There even looks to be a deli on the way according to last years Appalachian Pages data book! We will try to keep the blog updated as we pass through the trail towns along the AT. THANK YOU to ALL the friends and family who put up with us and let us stay with them along the way! Hope to see you all again when this journey is completed!!

THANKS AGAIN!!

Last Night in Trumbull

Toesocks and Chaco walking the Dogs
Shasha and Lucy

Toesocks and Lucy

Well its after 11PM and we hit the trail in the morning. My sister Sue and her husband Mike have kindly offered to drive us to Bellvale, New York and drop us at the trailhead there. There is a icecream stand there that Toesocks walked five miles on a broken leg to get to after falling near the NJ/NY border last year. We will start again from this exact spot. We are both what hikers call purists meaning that we hike every single blaze of the AT. We do not slack pack (hiking with a half loaded pack or daypack) or blueblaze (taking connecting trail shortcuts) or take shuttle rides further north to hike a section in a southerly direction because the terrain that way is easier. We will only hike every blaze (including shelter loops) from south to north, in order, till we reach Mount Katahdin, Maine. Tomorrow the dream to finish the entire Appalacian Trail south to north continues! Wish us luck and stay tuned for hopefully some great stories and pictures!

A Little Day Hike

Yesterday after most of the family left to return to Newport , Toesocks and I had a chance to get some walking in. We walked down to the Pequonnock Valley Trail which is a Rails to Trail system that follows a beautiful stream and goes through shaded woods. We walked along the trail not knowing how far it went and arrived at the next parking lot trail head after about 2 1/2 miles. Then we turned around and headed back to the entrance and walked into town and had lunch at a nearby Dunkin Dounuts. Then it was back to my sister Sue's for about a 7 mile total walk. After all this driving and eating so far it will be tough to get into the mind set of hiking the AT. Today we will go find a Walmart and buy 3 days food for the trail. Sue and Mike are driving us to Bellvale, NY tomorrow and our hike will begin again! We have 815 miles to hike to complete the entire 2175 mile AT. We also plan to hike the entire Long Trail in Vermont so we are looking at about 983 miles of hiking!! It has been fantastic so far on this trip, doing trail magic and seeing friends and family.

Fun with Family in Trumbull, CT.

Well we got the car fixed and have been at my sister Sue's since Friday, her and Mike are driving us to the trail on Tuesday. We have had so much fun here! My other sisters, Carol and Deb and my Uncle Robert and Carol's daughter Sara all drove up here from Newport and we have been to Chase's (my nephew) Babe Ruth ball game, cooking out and eating non stop for two days! What a way to start off our AT hike, seeing family, eating and having a great time! Toesocks and I just got back from a 7 mile walk and very much needed to burn off a few calories. The weather is great here and its supposed to rain the day we get on the trail. All the "Newporters" drove back this morning and tomorrow Toesocks and I will start repacking everything for the trail and buying food to get us to Bear Mountain New York, our first stop after Belvale.

Broke down in Bridgeport, CT

Well we made it to Ct. yesterday and camped at a nice little State Park called Kettletown. It has been 3 nights camping and 3 nights very low budget motels so far. We are in Bridgeport, Ct. right now waiting on word on our car. It started running hot just this morning as we were in bumper to bumper traffic getting closer to my sister's house in Trumbull. It never did over heat and when it got to highway speed it seemed to run at normal temps. I cannot see that the electric cooling fan is coming on at all so that is what they are looking at. We are in a McDonalds just killing time till we hear from Roy's Auto Repair which is a one bay shop and gas station. At least if it had to happen we are not stranded at night on the side of some highway in the middle of nowhere.

Yesterdays visit with Sunny and Share

Sunny and Share checking the ATC Journeys magazine where they are listed with the 2008 Two Thousand Milers!! We had a great but short visit with them at Waterpenny Farm in Sperryville Virginia and they drove us into Front Royal for dinner. Great people working very hard and happy on their new farm internship. Hope to see them on our way back to Texas after the trail!

Grannys Motel

Wed. June 3, 2009
We are in Frackville, Pa. and had a coupon for $34.99.....but was it worth it just to save a few bucks?....will we ever see the light of day come morning??? Note the "childs' doll with no head...is this an omen of whats to come?

Trail Magic for Dan the Thru-hiker

We met Dan ( no trailname yet) at Newfound Gap in the Smokies and drove him into Gatlinburg to resupply and eat a pizza and then brought him back to the trail. He was astounded that as soon as he came out of the woods we were there to take him to town and then back again! We were more happy than him to do some real trail magic and pay back for all the great people who helped us on our AT hike last year!

Clingmans Dome

Had a GREAT day for the views atop Clingmans Dome....Highest point on the entire AT!!!

Neels' Gap and Toesock's Sandals

We were happy to see Toesocks sandals from last years hike hanging in the outfitters at Neels Gap!

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On the Road to the AT!!

Well we finally got on the road (it is now June 1st!). The first day out ( Saturday) we drove 735 miles to Cheaha State Park in Alabama just east of Birmingham. We didn’t get to the park until after it closed and despite a rumor that there was no gate, we found ourselves sleeping in the car in a parking lot nearby. Some time after midnight a security guard making his rounds saw us and stopped to ask if we would like to get inside to camp. “Well hell yes we would!” So he was kind enough to give us the gate code and we were soon inside and since it was so late we decided to sleep in the car anyways. We didn’t want to set up a tent so we just emptied out the back end and folded down the seats and got about 5 hours sleep. There is nothing like a good nights sleep……and THAT was nothing like a good nights sleep!! When we awoke the next morning ( it was fully light out at 5:30 AM!), it was still early and the camp store was not open so we decided to get on the Pinote Trail and hike to the first shelter. It was a nice hike and just 4 miles round trip so that by the time we got back the store was open. There was plenty of water flowing in the creeks and even some small water falls along the hike and we enjoyed reading all the entries in the shelter register. Of course we wrote our own entry into the log with our trademark CHACO & TOESOCKS logo! We then called Sheila’s sister in Jacksonville and drove into town to see her. We all went to Captain Dee’s for a fish dinner and had a nice visit and showed Nancy our new haircuts! I don’t think she was impressed!
It is now Monday morning and I am writing this at Vogal State Park in Georgia. We stopped by Mountain Crossings in Neel’s Gap last night but they were already closed. We will return there when they open at 8:30 and have a look around for Toesocks sandals to see if they are hanging from the ceiling! I will also get some AT stickers for the car and maybe one of there infamous hotdogs! Today the plan I think is to head for the Smoky Mountains and then get on the Blueridge Parkway and to the Shenandoah’s. It should be a pretty drive after all the interstates and we want to get closer to Waterpenny Farm where Sunny and Share are working and living. We will have to call them today and see when it would be good to drop in for a visit. We also want to start doing some trail magic for the thru-hikers once we catch up to where the majority of them are on the trail. We also will call Jason “TwoLions” who we met in Dallas while walking Whiterock Lake trainiing for the AT. He left on his thru-hike about May 10 or so. I wonder how far he has gone by now? WELL…now I see Toesocks strirring in the tent so I guess it is time to get some breakfast and get on the road again!

HAPPY TRAILS!!
Chaco

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On the ROAD in the Morning!!!!!

No pics today...we are leaving in the morning after dropping Toesocks car at my brother Dan's. We are headed first to Birmingham, Alabama to visit her sister there. We may camp at Cheaha State Park and climb Mt Cheaha which is the highest point in Alabama. Here is a short video of the park:http://www.outdooralabama.com/videos/index.cfm?movie=CheahaSP.flv
From there we plan to visit Mountain Crossing Outfitter in Georgia and see if Toesocks sandals from last years hike are hanging from the ceiling with the hundreds of other hiker's boots on display. It is also the only place on the entire 2175 mile AT where the official trail goes right through a building! http://www.mountaincrossings.com/index.asp?PageAction=COMPANY
After this stop we are on our way to visit Sunny and Share who we met on the AT last year and are now into an internship on an organic farm call Waterpenny Farm in Sperryville, Virginia:http://www.waterpennyfarm.com/
Then we plan to drop in on the ATC(http://www.appalachiantrail.org/site/c.mqLTIYOwGlF/b.4850633/k.9733/Interactive_Map.htm )
and do some trail magic/volunteer work in Harpers Ferry before heading to my sister Sue' in Trumbell Conn. where we will leave the car and get back on the trail to Katahdin! We will try and keep our Blog updated as we pass thru trail towns and include many pictures of the places and people we encounter along the way!

Last few Items go into Storage

Well the storage is about 100% done now, we got spiffy new haircuts, the car got an oil change, my daughter Jacki has a new bank account, I go to the dentist tomorrow for a cleaning, Sheila's car goes out to my brother Dan's Friday, we have to be out of our apartment this weekend......so it looks like we are all set for another adventure! I just hope this one does not involve broken bones and a rental car back to Texas!!! Its is Katahdin or Bust!!!!

Cookout at Brother Dan's

Today is Wednesday but on Monday we went out to my brother's for a cookout and to visit again before we leave for the AT. Dan and Yolanda cooked hamburgers, sausage, beans, and corn on the cob. It was nice to get out of the city and spend some time at their place out in the "country". He has six dogs, FOUR of which are friendly! Three stay inside and three outside where they have about an acre or so to run. I took a picture of the border collie " Homer Simson" because it is the only one that likes to play and will fetch a tennis ball until you cannot throw it anymore. Dan is also going to store Sheila's car at his place till we return from our hike.

Toesocks get her Revenge!

Last night after we had a cookout at my brother Dan's house Toesocks gave me AT haircut number 2!!!!

Today is 7 days till we leave Texas for the AT! Toesocks got an AT haircut and promises revenge on me when I least expect it! Our apartment is all but empty and our few possessions now fit in a 3x5 storage unit. I still have to do some work on the car and program the GPS for visiting Toesocks sister Nancy in Alabama, Mountain Crossings at Neel’s Gap, Sunny and Share in Sperryville, Virginia and my sister Sue in Trumball, Connecticut. We are looking forward to doing some trail magic on our way up to New York along the AT corridor and give back to the trail a little bit of the magic and kindness we experienced while we were hiking last year. We plan to tent out along the way and hopefully be on the trail hiking about the second week of June. So far it looks like we are on track. Monday is Memorial Day and we plan to visit my brother in Alvarado, Texas and just hang out and cook some burgers and have a few cold ones! Dan is going to keep Toesocks prized Mazda Speed Miata at his house while we are gone and she had a custom car cover made to keep the Texas summer sun from ruining the convertible top and that bright red paint job. It may be tucked in better at night than we are, sleeping under just a tarp on the AT! Anyways it nice to know she won’t have to worry about it and we thank Dan for offering to keep it for her. Right now we are trying to get in as much walking as we can but admit that as we wrap up last minute things we have been slacking off in that department. Our plan still is to hike the AT from Bellevale, New York where Toesocks broke her leg last year and where Vermont Long Trail splits off the AT, we will hike the LT all the way to the Canadian border. Then we plan to hitch or catch a bus or ride back to where the AT and LT split and continue on the AT all the way to Mount Katahdin in Maine. We figure the hike will be about 983 miles total and when done we will have the 2175 mile AT and the 274 mile Long Trail completed!! Not bad for a couple of near senior citizens! Last year I started the AT at 189 pounds and when we had to end our hike I was 159 pounds. Toesocks also lost about half that much weight and we were not overweight to begin with. It just goes to show that when you burn between 5000 and 9000 calories every day that you just cannot carry enough food to keep your weight on. We tried to make up for it when we hit a trail town and have been know to eat TWO “AYCE”s (all you can eats) in the same day! We plan like last year to start out hiking only about 10 miles per day to start and slowly get back up to our 18-20 miles per day. We saw many people start out too hard and too fast and get feet and knee problems early on in their hikes. We are also going a little bit lighter than last year and our loaded packs with about 3 days of food and a liter of water will weigh in about 8-10 pounds for Toesocks and 12-15 pounds for me. I usually carry most of the food for both of us to keep her pack lighter. We will camp at shelters along the way and tent out depending on the conditions and the other hikers we share the trail with. We can’ wait to see the Green Mountains in Vermont and the Whites in New Hampshire! This year we are still going to hike in our Chaco sandals but are going with the new Pro model soles that are stickier but will not last as long. We will see how they work out. Toesocks wore just one pair of Chaco Z-1’s last year and got all 1360 miles out of them! I went through two pairs, the first I had to replace in the Smokies when we hitched into Gatlinburg as they were already about two years old and the main straps were starting to go. The second pair made it all the way to New York but the soles were broken down by all the rocks in Pennsylvania and we both had new pairs waiting for us at Bear Mountain, New York. Toesocks broke her leg 30 miles from that post office drop! We hope we have better luck this time out.

Trail Work at the Cedar Ridge Preserve

Well this last weekend while all our trail buddies were away having the time of their lives in Damascus Virginia at Trail Days, Toesocks and I were doing volunteer work in the rain at the Cedar Ridge Preserve! It was fun to get out of the almost empty apartment (not that we had any furniture to begin with!) and do some volunteer work where we practice getting in shape for the AT. At least the rain kept it cool as the day before it had been in the 90's!

My ZPack comes in and Apartment gets packed up

Well my custom ZPack finally arrived and I had a Cuben hip belt and pockets added and a top strap to close the pack or carry more gear on top of pack. Once I get past the baby blue color (there is no color choice with cuben fiber) I think I will like it. Toesocks and I went on another shakedown hike Saturday at the Cedar Ridge Preserve and found we are in no shape for hills as there are no hills around Dallas to practice on. When we got off the trail they were having a picnic for all the volunteers at the CRP and we were treated to cake and had our pictures taken. We have done several volunteer weekends there and it was nice "trail magic" to have some treats after our practice hike!

We also started packing up our apartment and putting some stuff in storage for when we are gone. We finally sold our 2 kayaks to people in Oklahoma of all places! The person who bought my kayak was adventurer, former Army Special Forces Green Beret and writer Charles Sasser. He has written many military history and bio books and is a really neat guy who has done many unique adventures including flying an ultralight parachute plane across the country! He has never kayaked and is going to paddle Alaska's Inside Passage in it. He promises to send me some pictures of "Ah-Notta-Hey", (my old kayak) in Alaska! Thats about it for now...all that's left is to hit the road to the Appalachian Trail!!

Final Countdown

Well it is now only 22 days till we are officially homeless and head to New York to pick up our AT hike from last year after Toesocks fell and broke her leg after 1360 miles of hiking. Our plan is to drive to Bellvale New York, the location where Toesocks hiked out 5 miles on a broken leg that ended our 2008 AT Thru-hike. We hope to do some trail magic along the AT on the way up there and help out this years hikers headed to Maine. We had so much help from Trail Angels last year that it will be nice to give back to the trail. We will stop by Mountains Crossing at Neal's Gap Georgia to see if Toesocks sandals from last year are on display with the hundreds of hiking boots suspended from the ceiling in the outfitters. Then we plan to have a short visit with "Sunny and Share" (2008 AT Thru-hikers), in Virginia who are on an internship at Waterpenny Farms in Sperryville. We hope to get on the trail about the second week of June after leaving our car at my sister's in Conn. I hope to see some of my family there to see us off. We plan to hike the AT from New York to Vermont where it runs for 104 miles with Vermont's Long Trail then continue on the Long Trail to the Canadian border. Then we will hitch back to the place where the AT and Long Trail separate and hike the AT all the way to Mt. Katahdin Maine! That will give us a hike of about 983 miles before we reach Katahdin. If all goes as planned and we do not have any unforseen mishaps we should finish up around the end of August or early September. All our gear has been selected and we are going even lighter than last year with pack weights before food and water ,"base weights" of around 6 pounds. This includes sleeping bags, sleeping pads, tent (really just a tarp with bug screen), packs, warm jackets, raingear, long johns, balaclavas, umbrellas, sunhats, spare socks, bear bag rope, food bag, first aid & misc. kit, pack liners and maps and data books! Its amazing that modern gear can be this light. A "traditional" pack with this much gear can easily weigh 30-40 pounds. Some people think that we are just "dayhikers" with our small packs. At our ages this is not an option...to hike at these distances over hundreds of mountains, going lightweight is mandatory. Is is also more fun and liberating to not have a 40 pound load making every step of the hike seem like a military forced march! We have frequently covered 10 miles by 10AM and 26 miles total on several days. That does not sound too difficult until you carry it up and down mountains, over and over and over! We will try and keep this blog updated as we visit trail towns along the way and include some pictures and hopefully some interesting events from the trail. Stay tuned!

Barefoot Hiking

Well not much new here, went for a 9 mile pratice "hike", really a walk around Whiterock Lake yesterday. We took our loaded trail packs and Sheila's new 4 ounce Z-Pack made by Joe Velasco. I did most of it barefoot and I am paying the price today with new blisters on both heels and the balls of my feet. Put on plenty of duct tape, socks and real shoes today just so I can walk almost normal. Feeling pretty stupid too because since we hike in sandals anyways we pretty much don't have any foot problems. I do like hiking barefoot though and once the feet are toughened up I may even hike some of the AT barefoot this summer. We are still getting our gear sorted out and trying to go lighter than last year which is gonna be hard to do. Base weights now are in the 5-6lb. range and thats about as light as you can get without leaving important stuff behind. Sheila's new pack is a dream at only about 4-5 oz. and she says since Joe did some modifications it fits better than any pack she has carried. We have ordered one to be made for me and it will save me another 1 lb 5 oz. over the Golite Jam I carried last year!

On our last 2 hikes at Whiterock we met a Springer bound hiker named Jason (trail name- Two Lions) who is headed out to the AT about the end of April so it was fun talking to him about the trail and seeing the enthusiasm he add like we did this time last year. We hopefully answered some questions for him about the trail and different gear and passed on to him the best advice we ever got before starting the AT and that is... HIKE YOUR OWN HIKE! Good luck Jason....hope to see you again in Maine!