Category: Uncategorized

3: spring mountain shelter to hot springs 

Posted in Sam's gap to hot springs, Uncategorized2 Comments

Last night was cold, but I actually slept pretty well. I liked the little enclave of NOBOs I tented with. They were jolly and funny and friendly. 

  
As I’m sure you can all imagine, though, I woke up stiff and sore (but I had my pillow this trip, so at least there’s that!). Most of the stiffness worked itself out on the walk down to the privy. My knees are in remarkably good shape. 
My hair, however…

  
I packed up and didnt dawdle in camp. I gave the rest of the bourbon to the guys as a thank you for being so nice to a section hiker. They were excited. The bourbon will have to be a staple on my hikes from now on. It’s been a good addition to my pack. I don’t really drink much, just a sip or two, but it sure helps to make friends! 
I had an intense climb this morning, but most of the trail was sweet and gentle. It was a fast hike, even after yesterday’s miles. I wasn’t hurting much at all, except maybe my feet. 

  
I stopped to caffeine up at a water source. 

  
I hit Mill Ridge (I think that’s what it’s called). I could smell the sweet grass and hear the birds before I even saw the meadow. The sun was shining, the wind was just a breeze, and the birds were singing all around me. It was beautiful. 
I stopped to smell the air and smile more than I should probably admit. 

    
At the pond, I sat on a bench and finally ate a long, leisurely breakfast. I’d already hiked 6 miles, and I was starving. 

  
I walked on, heading down. 
Lindsey alone at Lover’s Leap. 

    
Shortly after lover’s leap I saw a day hiker talking to a NOBO thruhiker. Something about the thru hiker looked familiar, so I slowed down. 
“Hey,” I said, “didn’t I run into you in the Smokies?” 
“Maybe!” she said. “Were you the one who told me about standing bear?” 
“Yes!” I replied. 

We chatted, and she told me her name was Sunshine. I explained how I ended up headed in to hot springs, and she explained how she ended up just now headed out of hot springs. 
“Well this must be a sign,” she said. “We’re going to have a good day now.” 
“I think you’re right.”  

  
I always wonder how the people I run in to are doing. I’m glad I could see Sunshine again, and add her to my list of People I Care About. You can never have enough people on that list, I think. 
It has been a good day. It’s been a good weekend. I’ve only thought about school in incredibly positive ways, by which I mean thinking about the smoke of a fire as free convection or seeing louvers on the bottom of a jetboil as enhancing heat transfer. School has made me understand the world around me better, and that’s something nice to remember. I had also woken up to a text from my friend Sarah, an engineer I’d worked with at my co-op in Birmingham. She’s since moved to Hawaii (rough for her) but we keep in touch. She gave me a nice pep talk and it was just nice to know I’m not alone. 

  
 I got to the forest service lot at 1:15. I wasn’t rushing, and I spent plenty of time enjoying the trail and taking jackets on and off. 

    

  
My shuttle driver came and we talked on the drive about hiking alone and section hiking. I got to my car and started driving back home. I was surprised that my directions were taking me a different way…in fact, they were taking me right next to my Aunt and Uncle’s house. I called them up and asked if I could drop by. 

  
I stayed longer than I intended to, mostly because it was so nice to see my Greeneville family again (minus cousin Kelli and her fiancé Caleb). My cousin Samantha was there with her husband Brandon, and I’d missed them a lot too. Samantha is pregnant and I hadn’t seen her in a while, so it was great to see her cute pregnant belly. 
We chatted about sports and babies and family things. Eventually I had to head out, and I was sad to say goodbye to all of them. Fortunately I’ll have another section hike or two that puts me near Erwin and that area, so I’ll have more excuses to drop by. Hope y’all are ready 🙂

  
Last night, when I texted Gonzo and carpenter that I’d just walked 26.2 miles, I added “I am dead.” 
Gonzo replied, “no you aren’t. You are alive and doing amazing things.” 
Sometimes, I feel like maybe I am. 

  
MVP: well it can’t be my fanny pack every day. Or can it?
LVP: I loved my shuttle driver but she was 20 minutes late. 

   
PS: since I’m not posting this until Monday, I can add the good news that I made an 86 on that DoM test. Sunshine was right; things were going to go our way. 

   
    
   
   
   
  
Until the next time, my lovely friends! Thank you for joining me on this walk! I love you all. 

8: a zero in hot springs

Posted in #SpringBreak, Uncategorized3 Comments

I woke up this morning stiff and sore. Zeroes finally made sense to me. There was no way I could have hiked into the smokies to look for my glasses. 
I had a text from Julia, one of my very good friends from school, that she was at Fontana lodge, so dr love and I packed up (easy to do when you haven’t used your sleeping bag) and went down to the lobby to meet her. 
It was so good to see Julia again. I hated to put her out as our shuttle back to newfound gap, but I loved having the time to catch up with her and chat about school and professors and friends. Julia has gotten me through a lot of hard times and good times, and I’ve missed her since she graduated. 

  
We stopped at McDonalds in Cherokee. The cashier kept trying to ask me “for here or to go” and I kept trying to order more food. 

  
I ate all of it. That biscuit? That was Dr Loves and I didn’t eat the bottom because it had syrup on it. 

  
We got to Newfound Gap and Dr Love and I said goodbye to Julia. I will have to see her again soon. (Soon!!)

  
The drive up to hot springs was beautiful and quick. My car had again been invaded by mice, but this time I had tried to protect anything important, and I had succeeded. I just used some packing tape to clean the poop up out of the driver’s seat and said goodbye to Dr Love. 

  
I stopped at Laughing Heart Hostel to get the scoop on a bunk for the night, then headed in to town for the more indulgent side of my spring break. 

  
Hot Springs has to have hot springs, right? And if you know me, you know I love a good spa. So I went in search of the famous hot springs to see if I could get a massage and a soak. And boy did I. 

History nerds: this place started in 1778.

  
  
Here’s my view from my private tub. 

  
The tub attendant fetched me some water, so I got to hydrate my poor sunburnt face while I soaked and stared at the river and took in the smell of woods and leaves and wind and mineral water. I wrote some, and then I sat back and thought about why this trip seemed so unfulfilling. I’d set a new record for miles (22.9). I’d done the smokies in 4 days- that’s 76.9 miles (without counting the blue blazes). But I just didn’t feel good about this one. 
I feel strong. I feel capable. And I feel like I can do a whole lot more. And you know what? When I’m out there, with all of those NOBOs starting out? I feel like none of it matters. I’m “just a section hiker.” I’ve hiked everything they have, at this point. But it doesn’t really count, I guess. 
I think I’ll be avoiding the trail for a few months. After I find my glasses, I mean. I don’t know. Maybe it was hiking with Dr Love; maybe it was the Smokies. Maybe it’s just where my head is now. 
I know that I’m capable of doing things that are difficult. I may not always make the smartest choice at the end of the day (snickers and bed instead of cooking dinner) but I survive it all. And I may be just a section hiker, but I think I’m a pretty tough section hiker. But as soon as some thru-hiker says “oh section hiking! Now that’s the way to do it!” I just want to punch them in the face. It’s my only option! I’d be thru-hiking in 3 months if I had a choice! Don’t give me that crap.

 
Yesterday, hiking down to Fontana, dr love and I stopped for lunch in the sun. I unrolled my sleeping pad and laid out (for additional sun burning) and ate. And despite the fact that I couldn’t bend my right leg and had shooting pains in my left, and the back of my left heel was bruised, and I was basically out of food and just had a granola bar (which I split with Dr Love) and water and whatever Dr Love gave me (he was generous with food and, luckily, I don’t eat much), everything was perfect. I loved my stench. I loved the sun burning my face. I loved the pain I felt because I knew it meant I’d been hiking hard. I loved the miles I had left because I knew that meant it wasn’t over. We started walking again and it hurt, and I was slow to warm up my muscles, but what a feeling it was. 
Sitting in the hostel now (when I am writing this; it will be posted later), I wish I were hiking again. I know it will hurt tomorrow, to go up to wherever I left those stupid glasses and especially to come back down, but it will hurt even more to get in my car and leave. 
I don’t know when my next section will be. I have to go straight from school to work. I’d like to do something fun for my 30th birthday in May but I haven’t decided where and I don’t know…well, I just don’t know. It’s something I’m going to have to sort out my feelings on. And maybe give control of my bank account to someone in case I just pack up and start hiking and don’t come back until I get to Maine, just to prove that I can do it right now. 

   
  
*****

  
Do I look refreshed?

 
Those were my hot tub thoughts, I guess. After the spa, I went to the outfitter to poke around (nada) and then had lunch. I wanted a bacon cheeseburger. I ordered it. 

  
It took me 6 minutes to eat that entire burger. I ate all the fries, too. I wasn’t even particularly hungry, I just figured I’d eat. 

So after my soak and massage and burger and mill about town, I came back to the hostel. I had a bit of a cry in bed, frustrated about the fact that …well, just frustrated. I got up and went to join the other hikers in the next room, introducing myself as “just a section hiker.” 
Well, turns out they were all section hikers. No clue where the NOBOs are but they aren’t here. We watched a movie and ate some frankenstew they’d heard about from a hiker further up the trail (yes I ate more) but eventually I came back into the other bunk room and chatted with I Am. 

  
I Am thru-hiked back in 99, I think, and he’s out sectioning now. (And during that thru hike he stopped for a soak in the hot tub, so we bonded over our appreciation for mineral water soaks!) We talked about what he’s out looking for, and why I’m so frustrated with this section, and lots of other things. It was exactly what I needed. And what he needed. 
So I feel better. I Am helped me plan a few more sections (Harper’s ferry south for Christmas break) and was just the kind of connection I needed to make when I needed to make it. Not the food kind of trail magic you always hear about, but the people kind, I guess. 
I am a tough girl. And I am determined and focused. And each time I go out for a section, I become more focused and determined and comfortable with who I am. And I am not a totem or accessory, but my own person with my own hike. 

That’s for me to remember when I go back to reread this. 
*****

“And I don’t know if it’s the chili or your smile but something is warming my heart!” 

*****

One more day of hiking (big critter never found my glasses). But maybe I Am will find my glasses in the woods and it will be his birthday present, to do a kindness for someone else. Or maybe I will find them, and I will be self-sufficient but grateful for the love and support offered to me. 
Or maybe some bear is wearing them, happy his astigmatism has been corrected. 
My heart is filling up again, at the laughing heart hostel. 

  

Cable gap to Fontana dam to Cookeville 

Posted in NOCtoFontanaDam, Uncategorized1 Comment

After I left Cable Gap, I had a decent-ish evening of walking. It definitely wasn’t an easy 7 miles like Dr Love said. There was quite a bit of uphill. And I had my second fall of the day:  
 I live here now. Just kidding.
But I covered the last 4 miles in an hour and a half, and that included stopping to upload all of those pictures and that blog post AND to pout when I fell. So, pretty good time. The last mile was in the dark. I said hi and bye to my car:


And kept on walking.
The Fontana Dam shelter is commonly known as the Fontana Hilton and WITH GOOD REASON. First, though, ok. I walked up and there was a dude here who told me he had thru hiked back in 2003 but now he’s taking some firefighting hazmat course and didn’t want to pay to stay at Fontana Village so he’s staying here. He offered me a beer and I accepted. Yum. I took the beer down to the bathroom which was HEATED and sat under the HEATED hand dryer and warmed up.



When I was toasty inside and outside (remember dinner was 7 hours ago and my body, at this point, had suddenly had violent flashbacks to the tail end of the January hike so I’d been starving since 6.5 miles ago) I headed back to the shelter. I flipped to the shelter log until I found what I was looking for. First, I saw Pajamas, the friendly bearded stranger I met on the trail one day. Then I found Carpenter and Gonzo.

It was nice to see their names. Every second of the hike it felt like I was hearing their voices in my head. My physical therapist had recommended that I walk down hills with a wide stance, and as I did that I could hear Gonzo saying “sometimes I pretend downhills are like skislopes and go from side to side.” (More on the wide stance later.) As I ate my ramen I could see Gonzo pulling out his ramen and discussing optimal cooking technique with…Otis? I can’t remember. And as I finished up my big miles, ripping down the trail, I could hear Carpenter saying “you’re keeping up with the big boys now!” Wouldn’t they be proud of me if they could see me flying down the trail? My knees were doing so well today I really could have been keeping up with the big boys. Maybe. Almost.
So it was nice to find their names in the shelter log. I texted them, of course. And heard about their time here. I was glad I decided to come here instead of staying at cable gap. I mean, I got a beer AND a heated bathroom.
Ok, so back to the wide stance. My physical therapist recommended the wide stance for downhills, and it really seemed to help, so then I thought, well, why not uphills too? And then I started thinking, men walk like this ALL the time. And I bet they have way fewer knee problems. So I started walking with a wide stance (basically so my knees and hips are in alignment) and I felt so powerful. My legs were flexed and my butt was flexed and I was taking up more room on the trail and it was like my own version of manspreading (google it) but on the trail and of course I moved over if anyone came my way (no one came my way except those two thru hikers and we just stopped and chatted so it didn’t matter). I even like…gave a primal dinosaur growl at one point. It felt awesome. So that’s my new hiking technique and I highly recommend it.
Tomorrow (today? When am I posting this???) I hike a mile back to my car and then I drive to school and take a shower at the gym with their weird soap and scrounge for cleanish clothes and start studying hardcore. Legit plan.

****

Ok so today (this is Sunday) I woke up early (sleeping bag selfie)


Had a rough moment in the bathroom because 1. I have got to figure out food (I am Not Good at food) and 2. I slept like crap (this is a Pee Pants talk)


and went down to see Fontana Dam. This is for all you enginerds, like me.






Then I went back to the shelter to pack up and have breakfast.


  
I didn’t want to leave at all. But like my heat transfer professor says, sometimes you just have to grit your teeth and differentiate the durn thing.  I was feeling a little demotivated, obviously, so I decided to channel speed demon Gonzo and listen to music. It worked. I got to my car in record time.



And, of course, I couldn’t leave without wishing Carpenter a happy birthday from the trail.


Happy birthday, Carpenter! (Wish you were here!)
The drive back was nice. Only got a little lost, and driving the dragon again was fun.
And now I’m back at school.  I think I smell passably decent but we shall see. Ready to get some studying done and this heat transfer review session over with so I can go home and stretch my tired muscles. All in all my entire body held up admirably. I liked the weight I carried too. I’m still considering a new pack, but it’ll have to be something that REALLY transfers to hips comfortably. And I might switch to a closed cell pad (foam) just to get moving faster.

And if anyone wants to buy me a P*style I will be happy to review that on my next section hike 🙂
Next up: THE SMOKIES TO HOT SPRINGS! What a spring break trip that’ll be, huh?


  
  


Until next time! I love you all!!

Sassafras Gap to Cable Gap (to Fontana dam)

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I slept pretty well last night. The wind woke me up a few times, but that was it. There was evidence of one living mouse in the shelter but he never bothered me. There were two more dead ones (drowned in a bucket) in the privy.
I had breakfast with a side of Materials and Processes, filtered some water, and headed out.


It was chilly and foggy. Not great for views, generally. And I was slow moving for most of the morning.



Ironically, I was thinking about stresses and strains when I put too much lateral force on my foot and it slipped out from under me. Down I went. The material of my hiking poles survived the bend though. No necking or fracturing.


Last trip my dad sent a tersely worded text requesting more blog updates and more pictures so here is the result of that. More awkward pictures.




This trash was within site of a trash can.

Today was just lots of ups and downs.


This afternoon I finally ran into some thruhikers, two SOBOs. One named Dr Love and the other…I don’t remember. We chatted for a while and I exchanged numbers with Dr Love; we might hike the smokies together when I’m there on Spring Break. He’d had to skip part of it because of the snow. But it was those two guys who informed me about the status of OTIS. They’d run into him in the smokies, on Otis’s second attempt. The snow had forced Otis off too, and he wasn’t happy about it. Willpower wasn’t enough, I guess.


The guys invited me to hike SOBO with them, and when I said I couldn’t, encouraged me to just hike all the way to Fontana Dam tonight. And when I saw this sign around 3:30pm:

I figured I might as well. I’ll end up doing a little night hiking, I think, but I’ll only have a mile or so to backtrack to my car in the morning and that’ll give me more time to study at the shelter before I drive back to school. I’m just a little more comfortable with that. So I’m technically writing this update from Cable Gap Shelter (no service, so I’ll post whenever that happens) where I’m eating some ramen and looking over Heat Transfer (and writing this), and then I’ll head out. Looks like 6.6 miles to go.


  
MVP: flavored water things with caffeine

LVP: …none? Oh, blisters. I swear, my feet WILL NOT CALLOUS. I need to start checking fairy tales to see if this is some secret princess test in the vein of the pea under the mattresses because no matter what I have baby soft feet that blister all the time. Ugh.

NOC to Sassafras Gap

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I left school this morning feeling rushed. I had homework to do and a group project that needed my attention, but frankly, I think we can all agree that my mental health needed to be the priority here.

I got a free chocolate shake when I stopped for chick fil a, which was nice. And my shuttle, Andrea, from The Hike Inn, was delightful. But it was a rough hike today. There were bright spots, like this overlook with the warm sun beaming into my face:


Or the Nantahala Gorge Overlook:



Or running into three campers who told me about a salamander that only lives on top of one mountain here.
I also got to test out two of my three new pieces of gear. The first is pretty low tech. Gonzo had commented on my lack of pee rag; I’d been following the advice of Internet commenters which was to just use leaves but after a day or two of my January trip I’d come realize that 1. They were all dudes and 2. There aren’t many leaves in January. So my secret “get your act together, Lindsey, you miserable excuse for a human” name for myself was “pee pants.” It’s what I called myself whenever I just couldn’t walk anymore. It’s what I’ve been calling myself all this week. (For the record, it’s not like I ever peed my pants, it’s just humans invented toilet paper for a reason. Leaves just aren’t that good at that particular function.)
So. I’m trying out the pee rag and so far I like it. I just haven’t quite figured out where to pin it on my backpack. And I keep setting it in the dirt when I put my pack down. It’s a dirty pee rag. Whoops.
My other new gear are Khatoola Microspikes. I have no idea if I spelled that brand right but you can google easier than I can. I bought these at the beginning of the week when I wasn’t sure how much snow there would be or how much it would warm up. It did warm up quite a bit, but there’s still rather a lot of snow, so I got a chance to test them out.


It was AWESOME. I felt like I was glued to the snow.


This part of the trail reminded me of this old computer game I used to play called Treasure Mountain. You were this little elf guy and you had to solve math problems to get coins. I loved that game.


Anyways, that part of the day was ok. But it was, as I said, still kind of rough. You can’t expect everything to be fixed the moment you start walking. There was some crying but it is exceedingly difficult to cry and walk at the same time, especially when everything is uphill.


I made it to the shelter just as the sun was setting. There was evidence of mice but not recently; I read through the shelter log but someone had ripped out all the entries after November. I decided to sleep in the upper loft, which is where I found the mice. Or rather, where I found their remains. Dead mice.


I set up my bags, ate a snickers and called it dinner, studied some Materials homework, and went to bed at 7:30.

MVP: that almond snickers!

LVP: mouse carcasses. Better than live mice though. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

Weekend Section: The Plan

Posted in #itinerary, NOCtoFontanaDam, Uncategorized2 Comments

After that big January trip, I felt like I was on top of the world. Seriously, I had the confidence of ten Amazonian women. I walked into all of my classes like I was the smartest engineering student to ever engineer. And it was magical. Even my personal life felt perfect. Everything was just…perfect.

And then it started falling apart. Slowly. Like energy moving through a concrete block or something. I don’t know. First came the Mechanical Engineering Analysis project that was all differential equations by hand. Then came the uncertainty in my personal life. Then came the crying and the doubt and the dreams about all the mistakes I’ve ever made.

So I’m headed out this weekend to try to regain a little confidence in myself again. We’ll see if it works. Right now I don’t feel like I’m capable of even the simplest gear train problem. I don’t feel like I can read situations correctly or trust my instincts at all. And a weekend isn’t very long, but maybe it’s long enough.

Unfortunately, I have a Heat Transfer test on Tuesday night, and a Materials and Processes in Manufacturing test on Tuesday morning, so I’ll be bringing some work with me on this trip. The good news is it looks like I’ve got my pack weight down quite a bit. Right around 17lbs this time. Of course, that’s without a tent. I’m thinking I’ll go without this time, but I might still throw it in at the last minute. Or I might just throw in a pencil and some notes instead. We’ll see.

0aa9bbb7-6630-4cd5-9877-866580ee05b4

 

So I’m headed NOBO on this quick little trip. This is the real plan, but since there’s a Heat Transfer review on Sunday at 2 pm, I’m might *try* and do 23.3 miles on Saturday to get to my car and just have to drive out on Sunday. We’ll see how the knee holds up. I’ve had a few days of physical therapy and I feel stronger already (like a horse!) so maybe I’ll be alright.

Or maybe I’ll just spend the whole weekend crying. It’ll be cathartic.

 

(Oh! If you’re wondering about Tellico Gap to NOC, I actually did that section back in November with some friends. But I’m planning on doing it again with a friend from school when it gets a little warmer.)

 

NYE Gear Test

Posted in #geartest, #springermtnorbust, Uncategorized1 Comment

IMG_8938

The Backyard Sleepingbag Selfie

In preparation for the Big Hike, I took my new Big Sky Soul solo tent on the back porch with my NeoAir xTherm pad and my new sleep system: a GoLite women’s down sleeping bag rated to 30*F and an Enlightened Equipment Revelation Quilt from their Garage Sale. As I sat on the couch at Rock Island checking the weather for the hike, I got to thinking about how cold it would be, and how cold of a sleeper I am, and I decided I just might as well carry two bags. And then, in shoulder season when it’s not 20*F, I can use my GoLite bag and someone else in the family can use the new Enlightened Equipment quilt and voila! We have doubled the number of quality sleeping systems available for backpacking, and I can now do deep winter backpacking comfortably.

And as last night’s test proves, I can do it VERY comfortably. I slept in my Nike Pro leggings and a light wicking hoody, nothing very warm, and one pair of Darn Tough socks. Usually I need at least two pair of leggings and three shirts plus my Patagonia puffy jacket and two or three pairs of wool socks. And then probably a nalgene of hot water, and I’ll still wake up cold at 3:30am (like clockwork, I tell you).

But the gear test went well. I woke up once to take off my jacket and use it as additional pillowing (my little Sea to Summit air pillow is great, but I’m never really sure if it goes on the pad or on the ground, so it tends to move around a lot).

IMG_8939

The tent setup went well, as expected. The Big Sky Soul is a great 1P tent, weighing in at around a pound and a half. It’s freestanding, which makes set-up a snap, although I did have to stake it to a patio chair until I actually got in it last night. NYE was windy! My new headlamp, the well-praised Black Diamond Spot, worked well. I feel confident that any night hiking or set-up I have to do will be fine with this headlamp. It’s pretty ridiculously bright.

All in all, I’m ready! Now I just need to finish buying a few supplies and food and then pack. Itinerary and gear list to come.