Standing Indian

Well we had quite a horrendous night last night. I mean horrendous with a capital H.

It started when I almost had enough coals to cowboy cook an awesome steak I had ready. I even had a sweet rock to cook it on. Out of the blue it started raining something feirce. We ran and jumped in our tents to wait it out, and 15 mins later levated started yelling his tent floor was alive. He had somehow become swarmed with bugs everywhere. These weren't normal bugs, but some kind of tiny fleas or something. He killed thousands and they relentlessly kept coming. He finally gave up and fell asleep with his new tent mates.

I awoke at 3am with my tent going nuts with rain. Just pouring. Amazingly the lunar solo was dry in the middle of the tent. So I was ok. The edges of the bag got a little wet but nothing big.

The morning found more rain but nothing to daunting. So we forged ahead to standing indian shelter. It wound up being a pretty slow day. We crashed with some guys from the college of charleston in the shelter that night.

More in a bit.
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Mile 79 part 2

More pics
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Mile 79

Whew what an exciting trip so far. Levated and I are averaging about 10 miles a day! Pretty amazing considering I had about 3 weeks training.

Let's see some pretty crazy stuff has happened so far. After we left mountain crossings we were delighted to get our first round of trail magic at the hogpen gap parking lot! Someone left 2 coolers with chips, drinks, even purell for hikers to refill. It was like christmas in Apr. From there we ran up rocky mountain jacked on soda and our favorite elixer from rei. Check my supply list for link. We then found our way up to a ridge on laurel gap and spent the night. It was a great campsite with not many bugs or mice. I don't care what anyone says the mice are a bigger threat here than the bears.

The next day we headed off to the cheese factory, which we called the cheesecake factory from having that name branded in my brain over and over. As we got close to our campsite, levated was away ahead of me, 2 jeeps pulled up on a old service road I was crossing. There was a young kid who yelled out to me he was "chief smoke-em-lot" and he brings peace offering of sativa. Lol... I couldn't make this up if I tried. Needless to say I made a few new friends in the middle of the chattahoochee.

We had a lot of trouble with the PCT bear hang that night. Small rope is not ideal, something a little bigger is needed. I spent a lot of the night hearing critters and thinking bears were coming for our low hanging food. Ah well better safe than sorry!

The next day we had big ambitions of hitting the blueberry patch hostel. Unfortunately by the time we made it 11 miles we had been beaten up. I had a spill on a descent and jammed my knee a bit. We stayed the night at deep gap shelter up in the rafters. First off their were mice as soon as the sun went down. What happened next was a page out of a really cheesey horror novel. We were sleeping away and levated rolled over and a damn mouse ran out and bit him on his finger, right in the middle of his pinkie! It ran off but not untill L screamed!

He didn't sleep much after that but when we awoke we got surprise #2. Check out the pic of the platypus below! L almost drank out of it too!!!! Ewwwwww!!!! I said he sorta looks like hans solo in carbonite.

As much as we hate to not leave a trace we decided the platy was a good trap 4 the shelter and left it underneath to catch some more. We the hiked the 6 miles to the road and tried to hitch to the blueberry patch hostel. Given we were 2 ragtag punks hitchin we had to walk the 3 miles to the shelter. Lucky 4 us there was 1 last bunk (we shared it, but L slept on the floor anyways).

Let me make this clear the blueberry patch is unbeleivably awesome. Not only is it beutiful but its run by the nicest couple you'd ever meet. Plus the have donkeys!

In the mornin we awoke (after gruelling through a guys name crawled deafwning snores) to an AMAZING breakfast of sausage, eggs, pancakes and super awesome blueberry pancakes. I mean it they ruled every blueberry pancake before it.

We were refreshed and ready to hit the trail and that we did. We hit the nc border and never looked back. Our destination muskrat creek shelter.

And that is were I write you now. Camped up on the ridge it started pouring, killing my chances for a cowboy steak tonight. L seems to be unfortunate enough to have also have gotten a infestation of no seem ums in his pack and tent. I should prob go and help him get it fixed.

Check next post for more pics
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First 3 Days In

Well much to be expected nothing ever goes as planned. My boy levated missed his bus and I wound up spending wed in hotlanta! Hit the coke factory and the cnn tower. Was pretty fun tbh!

We finally got on the trail the next day with the help of the "Hiker Hostel" shuttle. After a few choice photo ops on the summit of springer as well as signing the registry we headed north to the very first shelter. I slept upstairs and have to admit it was a great shelter. After a few too many hits of Burbon levated had to carry as punishment for missing his bus, we passed out and awoke the next day pretty early.

The next day took us through some pretty tough and steep mountain after mountain. From the shelter we walked 11 miles to a fantastic river near the 3rd shelter. The name escapes me but it was really a great place to stay. I got a bit dehydrated on the last mountain, seems we undershot the amount of water we would need. But all was well once we got to camp.

We tried the pct method of hanging our stuff that night and had some success after getting our line caught in the tree. Luckily levated was able to joust the carbiner and pull it down.

We got up early and headed out to our next water source at lance creek 9 miles up the trail. We thought we would see how we felt when we got there and if we wanted to keep going to the shelter about 2.5 miles up the trail. Of course we didn't want to as soon as we got there. Right by the trail there was a sweet camp spot so we settled down for the night there.

The next morning we headed up to blood mountain, the highest mountain in Georgia. To my pleasant surprise we were able to get up the mountain relatively with ease. At the top we were greeted with awesome views of some fantastic mountains. We tried to yogi (more on this later) but were pretty unsuccessfull. From there we headed down to the hostel at Nells gap. Unfortunatly there wasn't much in the way of food there. And even more there was nothing for the vegatarians. The hostel was interesting as well. It was a decent hostel, but some hippie kids were trying to stay for free and we quite annoying.

More updates soon, when I can get to a spot that's open. Thanks for reading! Gotta help levated hit this burbon now.

Ps to figure out what yogi-ing is think of yogi the bear. Also here are a few pics from springer.
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First Aid

Initial Thoughts: First aid is really up to you as far as how much you bring. I opt to bring a little more than most maybe, for the shear fact I have issues with my feet due to be flat footed. Moleskin is a must for me, and alot of it. Also Zinc Oxide tape is best used to prevent blisters.

I don't think skimping on a few bandages or even a Ace bandage is a good idea. Maybe you are superman and never get hurt on the trail. If your clutsy like me, and every moment is close to near fatality, then opt for what you need and can use.

Also this goes without saying take sometime to learn how to treat yourself. If your in the backcountry and you break an ankle, now what? You going to lie their till someone helps you? Or can you bandage it up as best as possible and make a rudamentary crutch from your poles and some lashings of branches? Take a little time before you go and see about wilderness first aid or survival classes in your area. It will go a long way, trust me.

Toiletries

Initial Thoughts: This is a no brainer. I grabbed the ultra DEET from REI and everything else is really simple. People talk about drilling holes in there toothbrush handle etc.. I found a awesome toothbrush that uses the handle as a head protector. Nothing grosser than finding a bug on your toothbrush! Remember to put the toothbrush into your food sack when you hang it.

Walgreens sells small travel sizes of sunscreen. Grab one of those too...

Gear

Initial Thoughts: Your gear list is probably where you can make the most adjustments. My basic items:

hurricane matchs
head lamp
trash bags
ziploc bags (diff sizes)
lighter
rope (small and larger)
Comp/Map
Space Blanket
flint
Camp Towel

Are probably all easily accesible and there isn't a whole lot of play here for OZ savings. I read a few people use there bandana to dry off, instead of a packtowel, but for the weight a high absorbant towel can have who cares.. Also think hard about that big fancy compass. Do you really need it? I grabbed a simple compass/thermometer combo, and I am trained to use a compass! Your on a trail and unless you plan on venturing off that for a ways, don't buy the compass thats 7 ounces.

Knife
2 Poles
Blackberry + Extra Batt + Extra Gig + charger
Camp Footwear
Fill/Hook
earphones (sports)

These items above really afford you the best savings. Knife wise, a tiny swiss army knife will probably suit you just fine. I insead grabbed a Navy Seal knife fixed blade. I find for the extra oz's, I am adding an Ax to my backpack. Use a decent sized hard branch and bang on the back of the knife into v shapes on wood and your cutting away in no time. Don't think you can be Paul Bunion with this technique, but if you need to make a brace or a splint fast, here you go.

The filament/hook is really just for fun. I am going to try using my poles as a fishin rod. Well see how this works out.

As far as poles, no they are NOT all equal. The goassamar bay poles have nice CORK handles so when you sweat you won't be sliding all over your stuff. Plus they weight 7 ozs all together. Its like holding feathers.

The camp footwear is from an article I saw online Camp Shoes. I modified them a bit to remove the annoying flip flop feel and just have 2 straps running paralell across the shoe. Lets see how these work!