Georgia's Off My Mind

Come tomorrow, I will complete the first state of the trail, Georgia.  I look forward to crossing into my home state of NC, where the sweet tea is sweeter, the women are prettier, and hopefully, where the sunshine is more plentiful.  It's been a roller coaster of weather thus far.  After battling combinations of sleet, rain, and fog; warmer and sunnier days would be welcomed at Mother Nature's earliest convenience.  

The trail has had its own ups and downs as well; literally, lots of hiking up, and then right back down.  Commonly referred to as PUDs (Pointless Ups and Downs).  Because the Appalachian Mountains are so old and have been eroding for millions of years before the Himalayas and even the Rocky Mountains,  the tops of what were once giant peaks are now much closer together.  This act of nature has become the vain of my existence as I slug up and back down each climb.  As I begin hammering away the miles,  67.5 so far, I feel as though my trail legs are getting under me.

I have been meeting lots of people and the desire to get miles under their belts is all the talk on the trail.  Russ, Weather Bug (Kevin, mentioned in an earlier post) and a host of others are here with me in Hiawassee, GA on my first town stop on trail.  With gnarly weather rolling in on Friday night, we all decided to get into town and hunker down in a motel while the storm plowed through the mountains.  The same storm system wreaked havoc on the piedmont of NC and much of the Eastern United States today.  Spencer, aka Warpzilla, travelled from Raleigh to spend the weekend with me as well, Spreading Trail Magic* like its his job.  He arrived Friday evening during the storm just in time to drive us to the local Mexican Restaurant, Monte Alban..  Not because we were craving Mexican necessarily, but because the rest of the town had shut down at 9:00 PM.  Here we enjoyed chips and salsa, burritos of thru-hiker proportions, and eavesdropping of how the local high school baseball team (who was sitting beside us) had gotten in to what sounded like an epic fight with a rival team.

As we took things back to the motel, we continued trail talk and finally went to bed... in real beds.  They were not quite Hampton Inn posturepedic grade mattresses, but they did the trick.  Tonight we are bunking up at the Hiawassee Inn, because Mull's Inn, where we stayed last night, had rooms reserved.  More thru-hikers showed up today as well.  Spencer and I gave a few of them a much welcomed ride to town.  Hikers we met today were not quite as lucky as I because they had to brave the storm last night.  I reckon that I too will have to endure a few storms during this adventure, but I'm not sure if I'd like them sooner rather than later.    

The next resupply will be at Nantahala Outdoor Center (NOC) near Bryson City, NC.  I plan to be there in four days, give or take, mostly give.  According to the weather forecast, midweek this coming week has a good chance of precipitation and temperatures dropping off on Tuesday.  You'd think knowing the weather would be an advantage, but truth be told, it doesn't really matter.  Weather or not, pun intended, the trail heads north, therefore, so do I.  

Warpzilla helped me shave a few ounces today as he made me layout all the items in my pack in the motel room.  I even exchanged my stove for one he gave me, which burns denatured alcohol.  It is made of a metal bottle and weighs no more than 2 oz!!  Alcohol burning stoves are all the rage on the trail.  One can even be made out of a cat food can, which Warpzilla has shown in a youtube video.  With just a couple ounces of denatured alcohol fuel, I can boil water for dinner every night.  

I am really beginning to enjoy this journey.  As my nerves begin to settle a bit more, and I begin reaching significant milestones; like completing my first state and reaching 100 miles, I feel my confidence growing.  Knowing that tons of people are following the blog and reading about my trip gives me comfort as well.  All  the support is greatly appreciated.  

Until Next Time,

B. Moore Out