Dear friends,
I'm typing on a computer keyboard for the first time in several weeks! Llew and I are "zeroing" at a hiker hostel in Stratton, Maine. Mt. Katahdin is 187.8 miles behind us with today marking the first day of the fourth week of hiking. It averages out to just under nine miles a day. But we've been busting out 15-mile days recently. I feel like I've gotten my "Trail legs" and that I'm really ready to step up the mileage to something serious! (Today I met a northbounder who'd just done a 32-mile day!) And we have to train up for the "quad-state challenge," a feat which means walking from the Pennsylvania/Maryland border, doing all of Maryland, all of West Virginia, and ending up in Virginia all in one day! (Total miles=43.5!) I'm looking over the computer screen at a map of the A.T. with a "you are here" pushpin at Stratton and I'm filled at once with a sense of accomplishment and pride at the sizable chunk of the Trail I've knocked out and also a pang of terror at the HUGE chunk I've yet to walk. But the saying goes "Once you've gotten to the New Hampshire border [if you're doing a northbound hike from Georgia to Maine] you've done 90% of the Trail and 10% of the work!" Since I'm hiking the Trail from North to South I guess once I get to the New Hampshire/Vermont border in a few weeks I'll have done 90% of the work and 10% of the Trail!
I'd like to apologize to all y'all I've kept waiting for this blog to start. I was under the impression (as per AT&T) that I would have excellent cell phone reception out here (even though I found it a little hard to believe!) and it turns out that that's not really the case. As I'm blogging from the web browser on my phone I need a good connection and haven't been able to secure one (yet...though according to people I've met on the Trail that should change as soon as I get out of Maine). Honestly I wouldn't have had the energy to write anything even if I had had reception--those first couple weeks were brutal. Hands down the most intense athletic challenge of my life. No contest there. But like I said, I've gotten my Trail legs. What does that mean? It's Trail talk for I've moved my gut to my quads and grown a blond scruff on my face! Hahaha no seriously I could crack walnuts on this body. Don't be fooled by any photographs you might see.
So let me take you on a quick crash course on the trip so far:
We started hiking on June 7. That's when we summitted Katahdin. From there it was 15 miles to the start of the "100 Mile Wilderness" (think the Fire Swamp from The Princess Bride). We were joined by Llew Dog at the beginning of the Wilderness (as dogs aren't allowed in Baxter State Park where sits Katahdin) bringing our party total up to five: Llew and myself, Nate Peters my godbrother, and two other hikers who just happened to be starting the A.T. on the same day as I: Matt and Katherine. The Wilderness was astounding, beautiful, haunting, horrifying, wonderful. My body underwent a metamorphosis: I shed my old body and my old feet and grew an entirely new one. Look at my facebook page to see pictures of some horrendous blisters (which are now huge, gnarly callouses!). It took us about 10 days but we did it! We had some HEAVY packs because we had to carry almost all our food (and we wanted to eat right, you know. Like...REALLY right...). And I say "almost" all our food because we were able to arrange to have a pretty significant portion stashed in a bucket 50 miles into the Wilderness for us by a local dude. We saw incredible wildlife! Amazing plants! Views like I've never experienced in my life! Unbelievable rock formations. Pristine rivers. Not a car engine to be heard as far as the ear could here. Near total isolation. It was glorious. We all shed our connections to society and connected with Nature on a pure, deep, genuine wavelength. I learned so, so much about God, myself, my world, my universe. And it continues here in Stratton with the end of the Wilderness almost another 100 miles behind me. The journey goes on.
I'm by myself now. No people. I've been traveling off and on with Matt since we finished the Wilderness but I'm also moving into more solitude. It's just me and my Llew Dog now. Llew, by the way, is having the time of his life. He walks 2 miles for every 1 I walk just in his running around the woods around the Trail. He climbs like a champion and races down the Trail in total ecstasy at all the smells and sounds and sights! And at night, after he's eaten his HUGE bowl of dog food he's ready to curl up in the sleeping bag and keep me warm all night!
There are three reasons why my pack is so heavy. 1) dog food. 2) a library of Zen literature. 3) the Cumberland Stinger--my 11" Bowie knife. I'll send the books home as I finish them...but we gotta have the dog food and I gotta tell ya people...I'll send my boots home before I send that knife home.
Anyway I'm gonna go eat 10 lbs of red meat, an entire head of broccoli, 4 or 5 Snickers bars and a gallon of vanilla ice cream! Happy Trails y'all!!!!
Love,
Evan Jones AKA Mountain Goat ME-->GA 2010 HELL YA!!!!!
I'm typing on a computer keyboard for the first time in several weeks! Llew and I are "zeroing" at a hiker hostel in Stratton, Maine. Mt. Katahdin is 187.8 miles behind us with today marking the first day of the fourth week of hiking. It averages out to just under nine miles a day. But we've been busting out 15-mile days recently. I feel like I've gotten my "Trail legs" and that I'm really ready to step up the mileage to something serious! (Today I met a northbounder who'd just done a 32-mile day!) And we have to train up for the "quad-state challenge," a feat which means walking from the Pennsylvania/Maryland border, doing all of Maryland, all of West Virginia, and ending up in Virginia all in one day! (Total miles=43.5!) I'm looking over the computer screen at a map of the A.T. with a "you are here" pushpin at Stratton and I'm filled at once with a sense of accomplishment and pride at the sizable chunk of the Trail I've knocked out and also a pang of terror at the HUGE chunk I've yet to walk. But the saying goes "Once you've gotten to the New Hampshire border [if you're doing a northbound hike from Georgia to Maine] you've done 90% of the Trail and 10% of the work!" Since I'm hiking the Trail from North to South I guess once I get to the New Hampshire/Vermont border in a few weeks I'll have done 90% of the work and 10% of the Trail!
I'd like to apologize to all y'all I've kept waiting for this blog to start. I was under the impression (as per AT&T) that I would have excellent cell phone reception out here (even though I found it a little hard to believe!) and it turns out that that's not really the case. As I'm blogging from the web browser on my phone I need a good connection and haven't been able to secure one (yet...though according to people I've met on the Trail that should change as soon as I get out of Maine). Honestly I wouldn't have had the energy to write anything even if I had had reception--those first couple weeks were brutal. Hands down the most intense athletic challenge of my life. No contest there. But like I said, I've gotten my Trail legs. What does that mean? It's Trail talk for I've moved my gut to my quads and grown a blond scruff on my face! Hahaha no seriously I could crack walnuts on this body. Don't be fooled by any photographs you might see.
So let me take you on a quick crash course on the trip so far:
We started hiking on June 7. That's when we summitted Katahdin. From there it was 15 miles to the start of the "100 Mile Wilderness" (think the Fire Swamp from The Princess Bride). We were joined by Llew Dog at the beginning of the Wilderness (as dogs aren't allowed in Baxter State Park where sits Katahdin) bringing our party total up to five: Llew and myself, Nate Peters my godbrother, and two other hikers who just happened to be starting the A.T. on the same day as I: Matt and Katherine. The Wilderness was astounding, beautiful, haunting, horrifying, wonderful. My body underwent a metamorphosis: I shed my old body and my old feet and grew an entirely new one. Look at my facebook page to see pictures of some horrendous blisters (which are now huge, gnarly callouses!). It took us about 10 days but we did it! We had some HEAVY packs because we had to carry almost all our food (and we wanted to eat right, you know. Like...REALLY right...). And I say "almost" all our food because we were able to arrange to have a pretty significant portion stashed in a bucket 50 miles into the Wilderness for us by a local dude. We saw incredible wildlife! Amazing plants! Views like I've never experienced in my life! Unbelievable rock formations. Pristine rivers. Not a car engine to be heard as far as the ear could here. Near total isolation. It was glorious. We all shed our connections to society and connected with Nature on a pure, deep, genuine wavelength. I learned so, so much about God, myself, my world, my universe. And it continues here in Stratton with the end of the Wilderness almost another 100 miles behind me. The journey goes on.
I'm by myself now. No people. I've been traveling off and on with Matt since we finished the Wilderness but I'm also moving into more solitude. It's just me and my Llew Dog now. Llew, by the way, is having the time of his life. He walks 2 miles for every 1 I walk just in his running around the woods around the Trail. He climbs like a champion and races down the Trail in total ecstasy at all the smells and sounds and sights! And at night, after he's eaten his HUGE bowl of dog food he's ready to curl up in the sleeping bag and keep me warm all night!
There are three reasons why my pack is so heavy. 1) dog food. 2) a library of Zen literature. 3) the Cumberland Stinger--my 11" Bowie knife. I'll send the books home as I finish them...but we gotta have the dog food and I gotta tell ya people...I'll send my boots home before I send that knife home.
Anyway I'm gonna go eat 10 lbs of red meat, an entire head of broccoli, 4 or 5 Snickers bars and a gallon of vanilla ice cream! Happy Trails y'all!!!!
Love,
Evan Jones AKA Mountain Goat ME-->GA 2010 HELL YA!!!!!
