Springer Mountain to Dicks Gap, Ga.

Day one was a beast. We started in snow. The ground was covered in most places. During the day the temperature was so cold that we basically wore every item of clothing we brought to stay warm. We hiked from the parking lot on a forest road southbound for one mile to the top of Springer Mountain. Merry hiked in the freezing cold with us so we could get a picture of us at the start. Very very sweet of her. We backtracked northbound to the parking lot, got back in the car and turned on the butt warmers, and thawed out a bit before saying goodbye to Merry for the last time. From Springer Mountain to Hawk Mountain shelter was 8.1 miles so it was 9.1 miles for us total on the first day. When we arrived the shelter was already full (and apparently had a bunch of mice in it that scurried over those campers that night) so we pitched our tent and made camp. That was quite a cold night, but it snowed enough that it pinned down the edges of our tent and kept most of the warm in.

The starting point at the top of Springer Mountain



Merry and MerryCline bundled up ready to go


The next day we woke up early and started hiking so that we would stay warm. We hiked from the Hawk Mountain Shelter to Gooch Mountain shelter for a total of 7.7 miles. Many others continued on to Woody Gap another 5 or so miles down the trail to catch a ride to the hostel, but we set up in the shelter and enjoyed the fire and the company at the shelter. That was the coldest night. Neither of us got any sleep because the gaps in the floor of the shelter allowed the wind to blow through and freeze us.

Being that cold, we got up with the sunrise and got on the trail. We hiked from Hawk Mountain shelter to Lance Creek campsite for a total of 9 miles. We got there around 1pm but couldn't hike any further because camping over the next 6 miles required a bear canister and Blood Mountain (the highest point on the trail in Georgia) was part of that 6 miles. We met a couple of great people at the campsite that day. "Cozy" and "Crankin" became instant friends with us. We have been hiking with Crankin since.

The fourth day we hiked from the Lance Creek shelter to Whitley Gap shelter for a total of 14.1 miles. We killed it on Blood Mountain. It was not nearly as bad as we thought it would be since they wisely made switchbacks up instead of the usual straight up the side of the mountain you so commonly see on the AT. After Blood Mountain we stopped at Neels Gap at the Mountain Crossings Outfitters for a couple of small things we needed and the most amazing Red Barron frozen pizza ever. We made some phone calls while we had cell service then got right back on the trail. Many of the people we had been camping with stopped there to stay in an actual bed for the night but, with Crankin, we pushed on. We were going to stop at Bull Gap just North of Neel Gap but with the added motivation of Crankin we pushed on to the next shelter. It was 1.2 miles off the trail, but we were so beat by that point that we couldn't go any further so we made camp, played some Farkle, and listened to the owls before getting our first warm night of sleep in the shelter with 3 other older men who snored a lot. We looked forward to a nice easy day the next day with not so many ups and downs in the terrain.

Patrick on top of Blood Mountain enjoying the 360 view of the northern Georgia mountains

An easy day was not what it ended up being. We hiked from Whitley Gap shelter to the Cheese Factory site for a total of 19.4 miles! I know, we couldn't believe it either. We were going to have a 12 mile day, but we got there so early, and the shelter was so full that we kept going another 4.5 miles to the next campsite. There was no water there and it was only 2.5 miles at that point to the Cheese Factory campsite so we ate a snickers for a bit more energy and made it there by dinner time. We felt like bad asses. The other advantage to making it there was that we would only be 13 miles from the road crossing that can take you into Hiawassee, Ga for a hot shower and some greasy food. We ate dinner, hung the bear bag, and hit the sack. We slept pretty well that night with it finally warming up a bit.

Our last day was from the Cheese factory site to Dicks Creek gap for a total of 13 miles. There were a couple of big climbs and one really really long downhill that took their toll on the knees of myself and Crankin, but MC is doing great. We called a shuttle to drive us the 12 miles into Hiawassee. We are now at the Holiday Inn Express which we chose because they have a hot tub and a free hot breakfast. We got into town around 2:30 pm, checked in, and went across the street to Daniels Steakhouse. I got the all you can eat buffet and MC and Crankin both got the half pound cheeseburger. We were all so happy. Stinky too, and I think a couple of the other guests noticed, but we were so focus on our food that we didn't care. After eating we came back to the hotel for a much needed shower (if you are counting it had been 5 days), washed every item of clothing we had, then soaked in the hot tub. We zoned out in front of the TV, then walked .4 miles to the all you can eat pizza buffet around the corner. The guy a the front desk said we couldn't walk there, but our desire for stuffing ourselves proved him wrong in the end. With the weather looking like its going to take a turn for the worst tomorrow and thunderstorms in the forecast, along with the pain in our knees and the blisters on Crankins feet it looks like we are going to enjoy a "zero" in town tomorrow. That is a day where you put in zero miles on the trail and take a full day off. Hopefully the knees will do better after a bit of rest because its only a short 8.9 miles back on the trail until we reach NORTH CAROLINA!!!!

We love and miss all of y'all.

Stay tuned for more updates.



If you look closely you can see all the boots and shoes hanging from the tree where people trade in or retire their old stuff for new lighter stuff.




Yeah, we hiked all of that!



Here we go.....in the snow!

Yesterday Patrick, Mom and I checked out Amicalola Falls State Park in Georgia. We went to the visitors center and officially weighed our packs and checked in for starting the trail this morning. Patrick's pack weighs 30 lbs and mine weighs 33 lbs. We hiked the first two miles of the approach trail to the Appalachian Trail and ran into several thru-hikers. All men, and all with very heavy packs. One guy in particular "Z" had a pack weight of 55lbs. One challenge I foresee having is the lack of female comrades through this adventure. Either way it is going to be a great adventure that we start today. Our plan is for mom to drive us up to the trail where we will then backtrack one mile to the start of the trail on Springer Mountain. We are so excited to finally start the adventure that we have been planning for over a year. Make sure y'all check us out on the map to keep track of our daily progress.

"Let The Great Migration Begin!"

By the way it's snowing today!!

Everyone please remember that we will only be able to make posts when we come to towns. So keep checking back, or better yet, join this site on the right hand side of the screen to receive e-mails when we make a post. Love love -MC

Final preparations

The days of sitting on the couch, watching TV, and talking on the phone are almost gone. Yahoo! From the looks of my belly in these pictures it couldn't have come at a better time. I will miss these warm Mississippi days though.

MerryCline, cute as can be, ready to get out on the AT!

The packs are packed. My pack with 6 days of food, water, and gear weighs about 32 pounds. MC's pack is about 29 pounds. I know, she is a bad ass.

I know, my hair is AWSOME right now.  If we do the mowhawk before I shave it all off I will post pictures. 

Some of the final touches have been spraying our clothes with permethrin so the mosquitos and ticks won't get us (I am deathly afraid of ticks by the way). Getting all of the music, motivational talks, and audiobooks loaded up on our iPods. We made sure all of our tax stuff is taken care of. We have packed our lives back up so that we don't invade any more of the Pickenpaugh's space (and yes, it all fits in the attic). They have been angels dealing with us and all of our stuff spread out all over the place while we have been preparing. The weather is not looking great for the first couple days of the hike, but I figure the sooner we get used to the rain and cold the better, so why not break us in right. I recently read a passage from Eckhart Tolle's book "A New Earth" that says "the primary cause of unhappiness is never the situation but your thoughts about it". I hope that I will be able to apply his teachings through the tough times on the trail. My dad would translate that into "Focus on the positive". We have been fortunate to have been surrounded by so many wise and unique people over the last few years and I am sure there will be many more to meet on the trail. Well, until the next post.....

6 more days.....

We can't believe the time is almost here!! 6 more days and we will be hiking on the Appalachian Trail.  All of the final steps are in motion.  We are making sure we have everything we want in our packs, we have been looking over the Data Book and Thur Hikers Guide.  I'm still feeling nervous because this will be our first thru hike and we have no idea what to expect, but hey, isn't that part of the fun.  A new adventure! We are just anxious to get started and I know everything will fall into line once we do.  This has been a dream of mine since I was a child in boy scouts and MerryCline and I have been planning for over a year now to make it happen.

Everything has been purchased, a couple of frustrating hang ups with shipping from some companies, but overall everything has gone very smoothly.  MerryCline's skills at planning and food preparation have been so wonderful.  Our dehydrated meals are in the freezer with just a couple of items that need to be added to the packages.  Merry will be coming back from her job in Arkansas on Thursday and we will be leaving for Amicalola Falls State Park on Saturday, spend the night somewhere and start the hike up Springer Mountain to the southern terminus of the Appalachian Trail.  Not much left to do but hurry  up and wait while we take care of the last minute small things. 

Food time. Making Ghee or clarified butter.

So we are less than a month from starting our hike and we are getting to the point where we will be dehydrating the rest of our meals that will be sent to us. I'm not sure if I posted this before but because of the calories we will be burning while hiking, MC will have to consume around 3,000 calories per day and I will have to consume around 5,000 calories per day. That is a lot to ask when you aren't carrying a weeks worth of food on your back. So you might ask "how is this done?" Well, we are no experts but we know a bit about how to lighten our loads. You have to eat as many calorie dense foods as you can. Protein bars and oatmeal are good for breakfast. Snickers contains most of the essentials. Fat is what you want so that you can keep your energy up. This can be found in peanut butter, oils, nuts, and butter to name a few. Butter will melt, so you can make Ghee which is clarified butter that has the dairy removed. It is shelf stable (meaning you don't have to refrigerate it) for up to a year if made correctly.
I am going to try to attach some photos of us making this stuff. I am excited to see if it works because it will be able to add instant calories to any meal for me. Backpackinglight.com has been invaluable with their conversations about backpacking food as well as many other topics I have endless questions on.
3 more days of work and we will be free to spend all of our time preparing for our departure and learning more pottery! Yippee!

This is me scraping the white dairy stuff off the top of the melted butter.

This is what the white stuff looks like and what the clarified butter should look like underneath it.

This is us filtering the skimmed butter through a coffee filter. Not much seemed to pass through and we had to keep changing filters which wasted the butter stuck to the filter. We would like to use a cheese cloth next time and see how that works. (Update: the cheese cloth works WAY better)

Here is the final product. I used 4 sticks of unsalted organic butter. That didn't quite yield a pint. Would like to get more out of it next time. We will see.

This last picture is the clarified butter in one of our fancy squeeze tubes. It opens up wide on the opposite end from the cap so you can pour large amounts of whatever inside of it. We will see how it works for the ghee.

Weighing and working

It's getting close! Hard to believe that in less than 2 months we will be on the trail :). We have been preparing for the trail by weighing most of our gear, figuring out where we can save weight and where the comfort would be worth the weight. It is a tough balance to maintain. MerryCline and I have been practicing our meditation, one of the things we have learned can make a huge difference while hiking the trail. I think I have all the gear I need. Decided to go with the ultralight ExPed sleeping pad on top of the foam pad. Have had problems in the past with insulation regarding this pad, but I know with the foam roll underneath I will be fine. We spent a couple of nights camped out in MerryCline's backyard to see how our sleeping set ups worked out. That's when I learned that the Klymit inertia pad wasn't supportive enough for a big guy like me. I sleep on my side and stomach most of the time, so I need something that will take the pressure off of my shoulders and hip, and the thicker inflated ExPed seems to do that for only 2 more ounces. Those of you reading might be thinking "2 ounces, what the heck?" but over a six month trek where you hike 2100 miles, stuff adds up quick and you want to save weight where you can.

Also, we started a new job today working for Entergy. We have been very fortunate to get these short term jobs that pay so well. It really takes the stress off of wondering what we will have to do when we get off the trail. And I am already broke, so anything helps right now. New Orleans was our final trip that we took last weekend. We saw some of our good friends from the park and went to some amazing parades. They were experiences that I have never had before and will remember for the rest of my life.

I am going to try posting more as we get closer to our departure date so that it will be a regular practice by the time we start hiking. That's all for now. Check back soon for more updates on our adventures.

Work work work

Happy New Year everyone! The work has began. We will find out in a couple of days wether we will get the contract that will keep us busy for all of January or wether we will be free to have fun instead. We already have a trip to New Orleans planned in a couple of days. Can't put a lid on our wanderlust. MerryCline has been busy helping her mom with appraisal work and Mr. Pickenpaugh has been teaching me his craft of pottery. It has been challenging and wonderful at the same time and I think I am finally getting the hang of throwing pots, but I still have SO much to learn. It has been raining regularly down here in Mississippi so it has been difficult for us to exercise the way we would like. MerryCline has been putting in a total of 5 miles every day that she can, 3 running and 2 walking. I go with her when I can but it has been upsetting my IT band so I have been getting 20 or so miles in on my bike when the weather allows.
We are still in the process of getting some companies to sponsor us. Our water filter company, Sawyer, has donated bags that go with our water filter that should get us through the entire trail. Now we are working on Salomon and Brooks to donate two or three pairs of shoes since we will be hiking so many miles in such a short period of time.
More to come later. Thanks for following and for all the love and support from our family and friends!