Trail Journey - April

1st April, 2000
Dad phoned Mum today He is in FRANKLIN - NORTH CAROLINA and is 106 miles up the trail
walking between 10 - 15 miles a day. He is living on Lipton dinners - Noodles, pasta and rice, - just add water, said they are really good, but not sure whether it is the hunger or not. He has resorted to Tuna for lunch - as has not been able to buy small tins of baked beans (Dad is a strict strict vegetarian-usually!) Has been buying Bagels and having them with his vegemite. An American girl tried the vegemite and really liked it. She talks about Dad on the Trail Place under March 26th, second paragraph. Carnation has a breakfast cereal - so that has been breakfast. He is still shaving - everyone on the trail is picking at him as they only have a shave when they go into town. Has also been having a sponge down each day after walking - no one else does just go to bed in the cloths they have walked in all day. He usually gets up about 6am and goes to bed 7.30-8pm. They are going on daylight saving 1st April. His backpack weighs 50lbs. One of the dogs - Ernie has had to leave the trail as he is having problems
with his pads on his feet - the owner is trying to work out how to send him home so that he can continue. We also received the following e-mail from him...

"Hi all, its Friday 31st March and I have just left the trail at Winding Stair Gap, North Carolina (that's AT trail mile 106). I hitched a ride into Franklin NC, which is 13 miles down the road and is in Macon County (how many movies have I seen Macon County Sheriff's cars in?). Today was supposed to be an RnR day... buy some food, do the laundry, have a shower and rest, but Franklin is so spread out I guess that I have walked 10 miles since arriving here just getting the basics attended to.

Anyhow, about the trail or the AT as its referred to. I started out from Amicalola Falls Georgia, where I stayed the night in the lodge. The start of the AT is 7.5 miles uphill from the lodge, I got stuck into that first thing next morning, then continued on for another 2.5 miles to the Stover Creek shelter, after that I would have given $100 for a cold beer.

The weather has been mostly fine, around 25 degrees thru the day, but it did rain solidly on 3 days and got freezing cold on those particular nights. There are a lot of people hiking north, many of them wanting to complete the whole 2160 miles. From the hikers I've seen my estimate is that about 80% are aged between 18-28, this group are mostly kids in college or just finished. About 15% seem to be in the 50-65 age group and the other 5% mixed ages i.e. scout groups etc.

Most people are hiking solo although many hook up into informal groups for a few days or longer. Most are male but so far I've come across about 6 females hiking alone. I hooked up with Bob, a Physiotherapist from Indiana and Dick, a retired Judge from Minneapolis for a few days but they needed to stop and rest their weary bodies. I'll probably see them further on. I've
also met about 6 people hiking with dogs fully equipped with backpack!

Most hikers get awarded a trail name. They named me "Donwunda" first day out. Most nights I stop near a shelter. These are 3 sided affairs that sleep about 8 and they are generally situated about 7 miles apart. I've slept in shelters twice and don't like them as they are too cold and the mice keep you awake all night. The tent is a lot warmer and only takes about 5 minutes to put up. However I normally cook in the shelter as it's under cover and there's always a few interesting characters and laughs at hand.

Met a guy the other day called "Fiddlehead", he's carring a backpacker's guitar. He's more than willing to play a request or two, and he's not too bad. There is lots of company if you want it, but also plenty of solitude if you like it that way also. I've been pretty much on my own for the last 2 days. Other highlights: Shared my Vegemite with Ali who is the first American I've met who likes it... then ran out of Vegemite on day 4! Ali and Jim are placing their daily journal on the Trailplace.com website so I may get a mention. Also ran into Keith Leffler who also has his journal up on Trailplace That's all for now. Regards to all...David"

3rd April, 2000
Dad phoned again. The date is 2nd April for him - he is at WESSER NORTH CAROLINA - 134 Miles up the track, had just walked 17 miles in the day. The night before it had started raining and in the middle of the night another hiker was knocking on his tent, asked could he share his tent as the one he was in was leaking really bad and he was drenched. So "Donwunda" - (Dad) moved over and let him share - Dads only comment was a pity it wasn't a female - don't know whether Mum needed to hear that.

The rain had cleared in the morning and he started packing his equipment up but it started raining again and continued all day, so he kept on walking doing 17 miles into Wesser where there was Lodge with restaurants and backpacker accommodation (sharing with 4 others) - as he needed a shower and to wash his clothes again and attempt to dry out his equipment.

6th April, 2000
Downunda phoned 3.45am Thursday morning. It was 1.45pm Wednesday over there. He's at Fontana Dam, North Carolina which is 162 miles up the trail. He went to a town called Fortana Village and was hanging out for a good feed, mainly pizza cravings to satisfy...but as it was a tourist place and being mid-week it was closed. He asked at another place if they could do a vegetarian meal which he didn't get a good response from so he decided to give it a miss and bought another large tin of Tuna!! Has rained for 3 days and they have had snow on one of the days. He says it's really cold at nights and has resorted to sleeping in his Polartec Windcheater and the shelters as it is too wet to put the tent up. Imagine Dad camping out in a 5 man shelter with 8 people!!! He is starting to head up the Smoky Moutains which is part of the trail that runs along the borders of Tennessee and North Carolina. It will be about another 5-6 days before he hits civilization again. He is still walking between 10-15 miles per day and is keeping good spirits. He's met a nice man called "Red Squirrel" and when Dad queried his name his response was "I used to eat them". YUK!!! Dad's still shaving.

10th April, 2000
Whilst at Fontana Lake Dad noticed some houseboats (must have made him homesick) and he asked about them, to be told that they have several hundred on the lake and the lake is used for flood control and quite often the lake ends up empty and the houseboats end up sitting on the mud - bit like ours is going to be shortly if this dry weather keeps up.

He has endured a few days of rain, snow, hail and torrential downpour but he had to keep going and did 15-16 miles to get through to the shelter at Newfound Gap. He was frozen solid when he got into camp about 6.30pm and thought no one was around but there were a few hikers huddled up in their sleeping bags trying to keep warm. Dad slept in the shelter as he was unable to put the tent due to the snow on the ground. Apparently the shelter wasn't much better! His feet and hands where frozen and he ended up putting his Polatec windcheater around his feet with his hands shoved down the arms of the windcheater, all the while wondering what the hell he was doing there. The next morning his boots were frozen solid - hard as rocks! To thaw them out he ended up holding them over his teeny weeny stove so he could thaw them out enough to squeeze them on his tired feet.

He has climbed over the highest mountain on the trail - Clingmans Dome, Tennessee - 6500ft. During this gastly weather he has injured his shin splint but had to keep going to the next town, Gatlinburg - Tennessee so he could rest for a few days. The weather is a lot warmer there and he is searching for an internet point so he can check in but as it is a small town he has little hopes of finding one. The next time he reports in will be from Hot Springs - which is about 67 miles.

12th April, 2000
Dad phoned mum and as you could imagine he's not sounding to happy having injured himself and being off the trail. He has little to do and spends his days visiting the library for the Internet, sleeping or reading. His leg is very painful.

Dad writes ... "I'm stuck here with a lower leg injury in downtown Gatlinburg, and expect to here for perhaps even a few days more. I ran into another hiker today who is an emergency room specialist doctor and he advised me to take anti-inflammatory drugs and not to start out again until its better, otherwise I could get a stress fracture (I guess that's real bad!).

This town is everything Bill Bryson said it was... It's in the heart of the Smoky Mountains in a naturally beautiful setting, the problem is there's a cute little white Wedding Chapel on every corner with hundreds of plastic tulips and pansies in the front garden, Ripley's Believe or Not Museums and Haunted Houses and the like, Guiness Book of Record Museums, countless Tee Shirt shops, and Aunt Mahalia's Taffy Houses. And there's hundreds of retired people wandering aimlessly up and down the strip all day. Down south here is definitely the in the heart of bible belt, many towns are in dry counties, just when you're really hot and thirsty you can't buy a beer anywhere! Also, ask for a vegetarian meal and you get treated like an atheist.

I've now downgraded from my $30 a night motel to a $20 per night job seeing my stay has to be extended. Still seems luxurious compared to trail shelters.

Regards, David

14th April, 2000
Greg (Dad's brother) and Michelle (Dad's daughter) have both phoned Dad over the last few nights to say hello and see how he's doing. Dad is hoping to get back on the trail again and move on over the next few days. It will be about 6 days before he reaches another town.

15th April, 2000
Dad has joined the trail again after a weeks resting of his leg. He is another 6 days walk before he hits another town so we are all hoping his shin problems are a thing of the past and he is able to continue his journey without any difficulties.

19th April, 2000
Dad had a pleasant suprise for Sue this morning and phoned her at 8.00am (she got to bed at 2.00am) then on finding out his grandson wasn't home he quickly gave her the brush off and told her absolutely NOTHING! So she had to ring her mum to get the latest news. He has managed to hobble along to HOT SPRINGS - NORTH CAROLINA, 270.3 miles up the trail, a small country town that has half stocked supermarket shelves but thankfully no mention of god awful churches with putrid plastic flowers!

He is staying at the Creek Side Inn Motel which do not have phones in the room! And for this priviledge he is paying US$53.00 a night. They must have seen him coming and decided the 'hobbler' was desperate. His Shin Splint in his right leg is 85% on the mend, but because he has been favouring that leg he now has a problem with his left knee.

The skies blessed him with rain, thunder and lightning on the last day of the walk, fortunately he had got to the shelter before it started raining really heavy - he was discussing with a couple of the guys you wouldn't want to be out in that when something resembling a drowned rat entered the shelter for the night. These shelters sound pretty fantastic - through the night the roof had leaked right above David so the sleeping bag was rather soggy by morning. (the drowned rat probably didn't know the difference.) He is a lot happier that he has now caught up to most of his buddies that he had been meeting and walking along the trail with before he had to hole up for the 5 days in Gatlinburg ("Nutsville") with his injury.

He was just walked the lowest point on the trail at 1200ft and there is more evidence of Spring - Butterflies, birds, wildflowers, ferns, dogwood in blossom, etc. He had noted in the higher points that there was no wildlife, etc. His next point of call will be ERWIN - Tennessee, 67 miles should take about 4-5 days - The trail in this part is actually running along the border of North Carolina and Tennessee, hence he is cutting backward and forwards between the 2 states.

20th April, 2000
Dad writes...Hi all, Its April 19th and I am in the Hiker Store Hot Springs North Carolina, fortunately they have an Internet terminal. Hot Springs is 270 miles along the AT, its a very small town nestled in the hills in a very picturesque setting. The trail goes right down the main street.

The problem I had with Shin Splints in my right leg is improving but unfortunately I have had some problems with my left knee. I had not planned to stay in Hot Springs but we have had a lot of rain and all my gear need a good drying out so I booked into a Motel for the night. There's lots of company in town as its full of thru-hikers... I now know many of them so there's always someone to talk to.

Two days ago I reached the lowest point on the trail at Pigeon River (1200 feet above sea level). There one could really see that Spring was here... lots of beautiful wildflowers, Dogwood trees in bloom, mauve Butterflies.  It will only be a few weeks and these beautiful sights will be moving up into the higher altitudes where we tend to be hiking mostly. The last few days the scenery has been the most varied and best yet.  Today I'm moving on toward Erwin Tennessee, that'l take about 5 days. The forecast is good so hopefully we'll get a few days of sun for a change.

Regards, David

26th April, 2000
Dad has arrived at Erwin, Tennessee - 338 miles along the trail and has been staying there for the past few days.  He has hiked through an ICE STORM in which the ice falls off the trees and hits the weary hikers.  OUCH!  Thus he is remaining in town a little longer than planned as the weather forecast isn't all that great.  His knee and shin splint are only giving him minor discomfort.

29th April, 2000
Dad has arrived at a small town called 'ELK PARK' - North Carolina - 384 miles up the trail. The town only has about 500 people in it and it gets its name from the Elk that used to roam around these parts - they are now extinct thanks to the goons that shot them all! On Thursday he walked 20 miles because he wasn't watching where he was going and missed the shelter that he was aiming for. Bad weather set in the next day, by the time he had walked 10 miles he was a drowned rat with muddy boots. He has endured another snow storm and the mud in parts is 4" deep, making walking rather difficult and dangerous.

Thus he decided to go into Elk Park for the night to dry out. He had been walking with another guy who had phoned ahead and made a booking (dad thought he might muscle in and share the room) but on arriving at the motel they had lost the booking and there was only one room left that had not been serviced and the cleaning lady had already left for the day. Desperation kicked in and Dad and his friend 'serviced the room' themselves! DESPERADO'S! And they didn't even get a discount on their $35 a night room.

Walking back from town, the police, ambulance, fire, emergency services all screemed up this small side street - they were wondering what was happening, when they got back to the motel and turned on the TV they discovered that a light plane had crashed and ended up in a house. The bad weather is really making life difficult on the trail and he is starting to question 'what the heck an I doing here' He has another 48 miles to go before he has walked 1/5th of the trail

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