Day 2 - February 15, 2013 on the AT

I finally fell asleep last night and slept a few hours; when I awoke it was daylight. I looked at my watch and it was about 7:15 AM.  Time to start packing up and to get moving for the day. I wiped the sleep out of my eyes with a little water using a small piece of blue shammy-like cloth (marked for my face only). Boiled a cup of water for a cup of Yerba Mate while I was taking down my tent and packing up and had a serving of Kay's Naturals French Vanilla Protein Cereal (kind of like Cheerios but it contains 10 grams of proteins). Also had a couple of handfuls of trail mix (pistachios, raisins, sunflower seeds, cranberries, and other nuts).

Winkle and I headed out for Blue Mountain Shelter (7.3 miles down the trail). I'm wearing a Homes For Our Troops rubber bracelet on my arm to help me know which direction to head out in the morning.  If I turned left off the trail to head for the shelter, I'll put the bracelet on my left arm as a reminder to turn left when I start the trail the next morning.  It's easy to get turned around the wrong way in the woods ... at least for me. Winkle wears a rubber bracelet too but she told me she's never gone the wrong way.  If I can remember to use the bracelet, it should help me.  On the fitpacking.com trip, I went the wrong way one morning and our guide gently reminded me to turn left instead of going right -- thanks, Bear Ninja.

 Meet Winkle.  It was a beautiful morning to be walking. I saw some beautiful scenery but didn't take out my camera to capture it. A young man, named Chris, passed us on the trail. He stopped to talk a few minutes and headed on. I think Winkle asked him were he was headed and he said to Maine. She asked if he had a trail. He hopes the trail will name him and if not, he liked the name "Frost." I told him my name was PrayerWalker and I was a thru-hiker wanna be. I responded that way because I don't know if I can make it all the way. He said that anyone who has the intent to thru-hike should consider themselves a thru-hiker. So I should reply in the future that I am a thru-hiker. I appreciated his kind words.   

Winkle enjoying a little lunch at Chattahoochee Gap

Winkle and I stopped at Chattahooche Gap for lunch after walking about 5 miles. The sun was out and the sky was beautiful.  It felt good to drop the pack and sit down. Before we finished lunch, the clouds started to build and the temperature dropped a little. Rain was forecast for the night. Winkle had planned to walk with me to Blue Mountain Shelter but she decided it would be best for her to hike out via Jacks Knob Trail where her husband would come to pick her up. She was carrying a little more pack weight than normal and couldn't get her pack to feel comfortable.  I thanked her for walking with me on my first two days on the trail and we hugged. We said our good-byes and I headed down the trail for the first time by myself. I missed her presence immediately.

I had about 2.3 miles until Blue Mountain Shelter.  The trail was narrow and I was walking at a good clip until my right foot stepped too close to the edge (I guess), slipped on the leaves and fell backwards into the hill rather than down the ravine. I landed on my backpack on the side with my big sleeping pad. It fell out. It happened so quickly. I sat there a couple of minutes, thanked God and my guardian angel for protecting me. I unhooked my backpack (Buddy) and stood up and thought about how best to put Buddy back on in such a narrow space. When I lift up Buddy, I bend forward a little to get it in the right place and to hook the waist belt.  In that narrow space, I felt like I might tumble forward and I didn't want to go that way... so I moved down the trail a short way and stood in front of a tree so if I pitched forward as I put on my pack, the tree would catch me. It worked.

  



That's where Buddy landed and the orange thing is my air mattress that plopped out of the side pocket when I hit the ground. Picture me on my back facing forward. Yes, it frightened me ... and I slowed my pace.

The trail was rocky a good part of the way. I had long underwear on under my skirt when I started out in the morning and almost took them off when I warmed up but it was too much effort to remove my socks and shoes. When the temperature grew colder mid afternoon and the wind picked up I was glad to be wearing them. I drank all the water in my bladder inside my pack just after lunch. I had passed some good water areas but I didn't know I was low until I sucked on the tube and got only air... I began looking for water and finally settled on some that might not have been the best but I needed water so I used my cup to dip it up, sifted out the floaties with a piece of knee-high hosiery, purified it, drank it, stored some and continued on.

I literally prayed every step of the way during the last mile. I was very tired and the rocks seemed to never end. I prayed that God would place each footstep because I didn't know where to step with all the rocks. Some were wet, some places were really muddy. I twisted my ankles so many times that there was no way to count. I saw a place to put up my tent but I knew Roy (friend I made from the fitpacking.trip was waiting for me at Blue Mountain Shelter) and I had to continue on. I came across a site for water where it comes straight out of a spring with a water pipe. I filled my water containers and then realized I'd read in the guide book that the water source for Blue Mountain Shelter was just before the shelter. When I looked up, I could see the shelter. That's it in the pic below at the top of the tree line in the center.  Was it a mirage like people see in the desert because they are so tired?  No, it was the shelter.   Doug and Patrick (the hammock hangers) approached just as I was turning onto the shelter trail and I asked them to tell me it really was the shelter and not a mirage. Doug thru-hiked the entire trail in the 90's and he gave me some much needed encouragement. Thanks, Doug.

Blue Mountain Shelter with blue tarp across part of front

Roy took a day off work on Friday and our plan was to hike thru Sunday morning to Dick Creek's Gap where his wife had helped him shuttle his car before bringing him to Unicoi Gap to hike up to Blue Mountain Shelter. It was good to see him and I hugged him. I was tired but there was work to be done. So I chose a site and set up my tent for night 2 on the AT. Roy had set up for the night because he knew our original plan to hike on to Rocky Mountain tent site was not possible with my late arrival. 

 

The ground was soft and muddy and some of my tent stakes didn't want to stay in the ground.

About 5 PM I took my food bag and cat can alcohol stove to the shelter. I had 1/2 of a Mountain House Spaghetti dinner. Because they serve 2 people, I split them. Keep part in in the original foil zip lock and 1/2 in a heavy duty zip lock so I get two dinners from one meal.  I boil water, dump it into the bag, let it sit 10 min. in my Cannon Cozy and eat out of the bag. No dishes to be done. I lick the spoon clean and dry the water from my little cooking cup and that's it.  The empty zip lock goes in my bigger heavy duty zip lock trash bag that I carry with me until I find a garbage can to put it in (which means I carry it with me for a long time).  Leave No Trace. I learned a lot from  Bruce Cannon- Wilderness Medicine certified Wilderness First Responder and a Leave No Trace Master Educator.
Scroll down the page to find his name and see his picture. He's a great educator, a very kind man, and it's a blessing to be able to call him my friend. I asked so many questions on the fitpacking trip and he answered each one. If anyone is reading my blog and interested in hiking, I recommend taking a hike led by Bruce. This trip in April should be beautiful. Great Smoky Mountains - Wildflowers

Before dinner, Doug shared with me part of his thru-hike in the early 90's. He was a SOBO (starting in Maine and walking to Georgia). Beginning in that direction really left no easy out for him. He had a couple of days in the White Mountains (I think, excuse me if I didn't get that correct) when he was so tired that he literally slept, ate, walked around his tent a little and repeated the sequence until he was strong enough to move on. He understands why so many don't make it out of Georgia because there are many easy places to leave the trail. He was glad not to have had that option.

 It started to rain about 6 PM and then came some sleet (first time to hear that sound in a tent) and then a little snow. I put on layers of clothes and crawled into my liner inside my quilt and put my child's synthetic 15 degree quilt over the top and hoped to stay warm. In the night I added another layer under my down jacket and slept.  

I prayed the Second Station of the Cross - Jesus Takes Up His Cross

Lord, there will be no turning back. Your fate is placed before you, crudely fashioned from the wood of a tree. It isn't glamorous. It is ugly and hateful and promises only pain. Yet you summon your remaining strength and with a supreme act of will, reach out for what had to be yours, for there is no one else to carry this cross.

There aren't any romantic notions of the cross left for the elderly. Those are for the young who haven't tasted the increasingly steady diet of loss and pain that aging often seems to entail. Now I am faced with the latest version of the cross in my life. It does not seem at all noble. I stand before its demands and experience only dread and a need for compassion.

Lord, how hard this is. Steady my gaze as I attempt to confront this cross with courage. Support my arms as I reach out to accept it in faith. Fortify my heart as I struggle to carry it without leaving love behind.

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I don't consider walking the Appalachian Trail a cross. I consider it a gift God has invited me to experience. However, I will face times when it may feel like a cross.  When I asked Him to give me His strength to make it to Blue Mountain Shelter and to place each footstep in a safe place over the rocks, I believe He heard me and guided each foot placement. Thank you, Heavenly Father; Thank You, Jesus; Thank You, Holy Spirit.  Thank you, Guardian Angel and Thank You, St. Bernard.  Thank you, as well, to all who are praying for me.