Turtles, Toads, and Eels...oh my!

I'm back in the woods. Even the 2.5 day detour some 850 miles to drop "Troll" off made it difficult to get back in the woods but back I made it. I lost the military people but met back up with Noah-John who I hiked with 400 miles ago. We are staying in Waynesboro VA tonight and then into Shenandoah tomorrow. We should be in Harpers Ferry WV (160 miles) in 8 days or less and that's the unofficial 1/2 way point.

In lighter news hikers feet smell like dead something as a 3 foot eel tried to nibble on both Noah-Johns and my feet when we were soaking them in a river. I also crossed a little turtle on the trail and a there were toads and lizards everywhere today. Also saw a spider that was no less than 2 inches across...scary.

Last night I camped illegally on a ridge that overlooked the valley where the town I'm in is. It was amazing and I took some good pictures.

I plan on doing the 4 state challenge which is: in 24hrs trek leave VA, go thru WV, MD, and start PA. It will be interesting. We shall see. My time is about up here but Ill keep on trekking and I promise that Ill post my favorite privy's soon. There are some good ones on the at and good stories with them.

Times up. Hope you are all well. Talk to you soon.

Kitten

No its not a cuddly name for that special someone...well it could be, I guess. I was walking today in the blue ridge mountains and when I came to a footbridge to refill water (H20 very scarce up there). I heard a noise. Couldn't place it and it happened again from under the foot bridge, and it sounded like a cat. So I crawled under the footbridge getting myself wet and muddy and there was a little black kitten with blue eyes. I coaxed out with a 3oz packet of tuna fish, that it consumed completely, and proceeded to remove the ticks from its head. I thought I could walk on to the next town when it fell asleep but once the food and a quick nap the kitten took over and she wouldn't stay still so I had to backtrack 1.5 miles to the nearest road and hitch into town. No humane society there but I was told to try Troutville (the town I had walked through yesterday so backtrack of about 30 miles) which was a 13 mile walk by road...out goes the thumb again with no luck. I stopped in a diner to get my bearings and a nice man offered to give me a ride into town. So right now I'm in the comfort inn trying to figure out what to do with this gorgeous little black kitten. When I say little, its no bigger than my hand an probably less than 6 oz in weight. All of the public transportation services do not allow pets, there are no humane society, I may have to rent a car and take a brief trip back to new england and beg someone to care for the little beast while I go finish my walk. Guess Ill probably miss rhinos birthday bash and wont get to finish the 150 mile in 6 day birthday challenge. Oh well there are more important things in life, like being a decent person (unlike the person who ditched the little darling in the mountains.) Well I best get to it. Talk to you all soon. A blog on privies is to come...and its a good one I think. so stay tuned.

Update: I talked to everyone I could think of and Roy agreed to keep an eye on my new friend until I finish the trail. The difference in driving is 200 (going to Georgia vs Maine) so to avoid a road trip to Georgia later I'm going to head for Maine tomorrow. The plan is to be back on the trail in 5 days or less. This will of eat into my touted "3 weeks of ahead of the schedule" but I'm still kinda young and may be able to make it up :)

Time to get some sleep its going to be a long day tomorrow. The 6oz black hair blue eyed troll says "meow."

Hiking and Zombies

I have arrived at a place called Parisburg, VA today. This was after I managed to walk a monster 34.7 mile day yesterday (8am-10pm). Oddly I was not that tired when I arrived and could have gone the 8 miles to town but the limited visibility with a headlamp is not fun.

People may have about the 2 hikers in VA who were shot by the same nutjob who did the 2 murders in 1981. Well he was caught and in jail until his mysterious death a few days later. So nothing to worry about on that front.

In my time in the woods I have been working on a theory that hikers are much like zombies. Take me for example. My feet are in constant pain, multiple ankle sprains/strains, legs are swollen, there are some skin burns from the rubbing of the pack on my shoulder, my skin is peeling from sunburn, and a generalized pain all over. Zombies...well there dead and most likely chewed upon judging by the state of their body, so lots of pain if they could feel it. Zombies however don't tend to vocalize this so I can only postulate. I wonder what a Zombie's life is like when they are not playing twister, or tooling up to eat people, and assume they are walking around out of sight thinking about food...much like us hikers. You get in a zone and just walk. You can learn to shut off your brain and walk, only snapping out of this for people and possible food. To a zombie these two are the same. Well that's as much as I can remember from my journal perhaps more to come later.

All in all I am well. Still traveling with Rhino, Pickle, Raggedy Andy. The general pace is 20+ miles per day. I have been dubbed "CandyMan" and its a bit late to try to change this (even though I might.) It stuck because I generally cary about 4 lbs of food/candy for other hikers and tend to give every treats or just leave random candy on the trial for people. Hikers like their food. I guess there are worse names that I could have been given (like anything with 'bear' in it) than one from a favorite movie of mine.

Well the shared computer thing again so I should get out of here and get prepared for walking in thunderstorms again. Hopefully they will be further away than a 2 second count this time, but when your on an exposed ridge there is little to do but keep walking. We shall see.

I hope you are all well. Ill talk to you soon.
-Aaron

approaching the 25% mark of the trail

I talked to Aaron recently - he said he's quickly approaching the 25% mark on the trail. I believe he's in Virginia, but now I'm having trouble remembering the town name. Go me.

Despite my forgetfulness, I have pictures for y'all. Check out the full set of photos on my Picasa album, showing Aaron's first month of hiking, from Georgia through Tennessee.

-Jennie

Postcards from Aaron

Spoke with Aaron earlier this week - he was in Erwin, TN at that point, still hikin'. He mailed me his camera card - photos will soon be available online!

In the meantime, above are some postcards he recently sent to me.

-Jennie

Its cold in them 'are hills

The last contact was from Hot Springs where I was unable to find a phone... odd. I stayed there to participate in 'trail days' a local AT event. Some very good music by local musicians and many vendors. I did manage to come in 4th of 15 in a hiker game based on flexibility. The game is that you have to pick up an open paper bag that's resting on the ground. You have to do this on one foot with your mouth (so leaning over). After each round the host cuts off some of the paper bag (1-2 inches). I couldn't get the 3'' bag but the yoga master and 2 5 foot tall contestants could. Bummer...but Ill get them next year. The good news is that with so many people playing that game and so many mouths its like I had15 kisses at once (I went last and some people insisted on using a little tongue on the bag...gross)

I helped in the last event of the party and had to help fish ducks out of a freezing stream, yes it was over waist deep. I then headed out at 4:45pm after a sketchy local tried to sell me moonshine & mary-jane. A little night hiking and large animal scares later I pushed 11 miles to catch up with the people I had been walking with.

It started raining 2 days ago and the temps went into the 50's. I stopped at a shelter very cold and everything wet and don't remember much of the 1.5hrs I was there. I think survival instinct much have kicked in because after stopping my brain started recalling things as I was running full boar across the nearby mountain with all my warm weather gear on. I spoke with "red" later and she said I seemed out of it and just put on all my warmest clothes and started running. I'm thinking my survival instincts kicked in over hypothermia but don't really know. The next shelter I dried everything out, which was smart because soon it would be in the 20's with 20mph winds at 5000+ft. Coldest night yet that froze the ground solid. I was fine (not comfortable, just warm enough to survive) and made it to Ervin, TN yesterday.

I've been doing a little trail magic of my own and doled out much of my food/sweets to get people to town and brighten spirits. I need to decide if I take a day to try to fix the strained ankle or keep on going as I'm only 120 miles from the first major town in VA! Lots to do in town today and need to check the weather. 4 seasons hiking is hard with 3 seasons gear.

In terms of new gear I refitted my backpack and shoes in hotsprings to something lighter and it is helping make those bigger miles. Currently 8 days ahead of schedule. Talk to you all as soon as I'm able.

German Pyromancers

Hot springs NC now. There is a fire north of town across the river they have been dropping water on all day, but its still smoking. When I left the standing bear I managed to get a sprain about 2 miles out and continued for 6 miles until I ran into Rhino again. He said he had something and proceeded to put on some cream. Whatever its trail medicine right? He then said he used it when he was in the German army... red flag #1. After rubbing it in all he told me it would take the pain away and I might not like him very much for awhile. After I finished eating the poptart lunch I took out the marshmallows and roasted them on my ankle. I wonder how the Germans managed to distill lava and put it in a cream but it was on my leg. The stuff burned for about 4 hours. My leg felt like it was on fire and he was right the pain went away and was replaced by the butane torch in my boot. I then made the accident of mixing up my socks at midday and the other foot got a dose of the pain...oops. I also washed the socks out last night but they still had the burn today, never again shall I accept medicine from a German.

The bears tried to get the food last night with no success. The sprain still hurts a little but I think Im going to see about lightening up and moving on tomorrow at a slightly slowed pace. Ill talk to you all later when I get a chance. Pictures are on the way back to Jennie so hopefully she can pick a few to put up and prove I'm actually out here in the middle of the woods.