[at-l] Erwin Shake Down Hike

[AHuthmaker@aol.com (AHuthmaker@aol.com)]

This trip report went out over sevral other lists and a request came out for
me to post it here, so for those of you who have already seen it, I apologize
for the cross post!!


    Well, the weekend started out with a fabulous surprise! I drove up to
Miss Janet's late Thursday and asked a woman that was pulling out of the
driveway if this was the right place.  She pointed at me and said, "Who are
you?!?"  and when I said "I am Anna" she said, "It's me.......Susie!!!!"
Snowbear!!!  My thru hiking partner!  We had never met face to face and I got
there just in time to officially meet her and give her a hug!  I was so
excited!  I had a million questions and things to say, but unfortunately, she
had to head home.  But I was happy!  What a great start to the weekend!!
    Well, during the comotion, a young woman came out to tell me where to
park.  It turns out that this is Caitlan, one of Miss Janet's daughters.  She
is so sweet!  She rode round with me to the back alley so that I could park
in the backyard.  She offered to take me on a tour of the neighborhood and
show me where all of the really cute boys lived, but, alas....it was too
late. :)  She was totally charming.  After parking, she took me in to show me
where to sleep.  After meeting Miss Janet and seeing Rogene again, I headed
for a bunk bed.  A voice came from up above, "Anna, is that you?".  It was
Jan, our fearless leader. *G*    I was so glad to see her and Bumpkin again!
I knew that this was going to be a great trip!
  Day one started with us all getting up and moving fairly early.  Miss Janet
made a wonderful breakfast, and has us all go around the table and introduce
ourselves and tell the one thing that was in our backpack that we were
embarrassed to tell about.  I remember something about men's underwear and a
blow-up doll........er, wait......a blow up mattress?  Oh well, you get the
general idea of how the conversation went.  :)  It was neat to meet the other
women face to face and before we knew it, we were jumbled in the back of Miss
Janet's van like a pile of puppies headed for the trail.
    I don't know about anyone else, but I was pretty nervous about this hike.
 I rarely hike with others cause I am slow and I wasn't sure at all about
this group hike thing.  It turned out to be so wonderful, though!  And so
hard!  Did I mention that it was hard?!  The first day was 8 miles long,
about 5 1/2 of which were uphill.  I didn't even know it was possible to have
that much uphill in one place!  However, the woods were stunning, the sky was
bright blue, and the hiking was awesome!  I hiked for a little while with
Bumpkin and a little while with Rogene.  After lunch, I ended up hiking alone
and really had the time of my life.  Unexpectedly, my ashtma (which had not
flared up for ten years!!) reared its ugly face and my normally slow pace got
slower and slower.  It turns out that breathing comes in handy when you are
walking uphil! :)  Regardless of that, I was having a great time as I hiked
my way toward Big Bald.  Snow started to appear on the ground as I climbed
higher and the temperatures dropped.  Have I mentioned that it was
beautiful!?  :)
    As the afternoon wore on, I kept thinking 'well, I will certainly be on
top of the bald by 3:00..........ok, maybe by 3:30.........4:00?'  I could
not believe that it was taking me so much time to hike up that mountain!!!!
But, when I did break through the trees and walk up there..........well,
words cannot describe it.  The wind was blowing like crazy, the sun was just
starting to set, the mountains around me were glowing purple, and I
...........well, I was just at the top of the world.  I proceeded to do the
'dance of the real woman' and laugh hysterically before making my way to the
other side.
    Lesson- Balds are really big.........when you get to the top, there is
still a long way to     go to get across to the other side!!"
About now, I start to get a little worried.  The sun is going down fairly
quickly and I still have a mile to go to camp!  I was perfectly equiped to
spend the night anywhere, and of course, I had my head lamp, but I knew that
there were nine women that might be wondering where I am!  I was starting to
pick up the pace when two voices cried out to me.  It was Jan and
Bumpkin!!!!!!  They were coming back to check and make sure that I was
all-right!  I cannot tell you how much those two women lifted my spirits!
They made the next mile fly by and before we knew it, we were at the shelter!
    Note:  It came to my attention later that when Jan said that she wanted
to go look for me (after hiking her own eight mile day!!), she asked who
wanted to come with her.  After no one volunteered, Bumpkin put down her hot
baked potato, put her boots back on, looked forlornly at her hot chocolate
realizing that it would not be hot when she got back, and said, "I'll come
with you".  Could anyone ask for two more wonderful women to hike with?!
Their effort did not go un-noticed by me!!!
    After a weak attempt at boiling water, I ate a dinner of sludge and Ramen
and sat back happily.  Jan had the fire going, and life was good. Most
everyone was already asleep by then so after hanging out for a little while,
I finally crashed as well.  I did not sleep well, cause by now I was worried
aobut tomorrow!  If it took me that long to do 8 miles and if my ashtma kept
up, how in the world was I going to do 10 miles tommorow?
With these thoughts blowing through my head and the wind blowing through the
trees, I finally fell asleep. (And in case I haven't mentioned it yet, I have
been having a great time so far!!)
    When I woke up it was about ten degrees!  Ok, so the thermometer said 40,
but that does not take into account the wind am I am postive that it was at
least ten degrees!!  It was cold!!  So after a little loosening of the
joints, a cold english muffin, and quick packing up, I hit the trail.  It
wasn't long before most people had passed me.  Bumpkin came up and told me
that Jan and Rogene were still behind me.  They later caught up to me and we
leapfrogged around each other til lunch.  At one point we came up on seven
hunters and their dogs and I asked them if I could pet thier dogs.  You could
tell that they didn't want me to, but they begrudgeingly nodded and I
proceeded to pet each dog that wasn't scared of me. I figured, they were
going to spend the day killing smoky the bear, least they could let me do is
give their dogs a little love! :) I seemed like a fair trade to me!  (Well,
maybe not a fair trade, but I was happy).  As it turned out, for the rest of
the hike every time I heard gun shots, I would shout, "Run, bears!!!  Run for
your life!!!!"  *G*  Maybe you had to be there, but it was pretty funny!!
    As I was hiking down toward the road where we were supposed to meet for
lunch and   drop off Rogene and pick up Swallowtail, I have to tell you, I
was hurting.  My knee was totally blown out by coming down off of Big Rocks
Mountain (?) and my whole body was tired.  I was also very worried about the
time.  It was looking more and more like it was going to be more night hiking
for me.  I finally asked Jan what she thought and she said, "Go for it!!
Let's hike together and if we have to night hike, so be it"!  So, it was
settled!  But I was still hurting!!  I thought we would never make it to the
road!!!  All of the sudden, we came around a corner and there was Miss Janet
standing there with ice cold drinks in each of her hands smiling and saying
'welcome to lunch'!!  My very first trail magic and trail angel all rolled
into one!!!  I am telling you, I could have cried right then and there!
    After a quick lunch, Bumpkin, Jan and I decided to hike the rest of the
day together.  Jan fed us some sort of pills and off we went.  The climb out
of the gap was merciless and I still couldn't breathe!!!  But it was awesome!
 The three of us leap-frogged for most of the day and it seemed like
everytime I came around a corner, Jan was playing in a stream or climbing on
some rocks grinning like mad!  Those magic pills of Jan's really did the
trick and we all seemed to have more energy!
    As the day went on we all got tireder and tireder!  I don't know about
the other women but I was seriously dragging! The sun went down, the head
lamps came out and my will to live pretty much left me!  *G*  We spent some
time hiking up hill....looking for the blue blaze to the shelter....hiking
some more up hill.....  Every now and then Jan would call up to Bumpkin, "Did
you find it?".  When she said no, I just had a few choice words of my own to
add!  When I truly felt like I could not lift another foot to take another
step, a loud chorus of 'whoo-hoo's came through the trees!  We had made
it!!!!  Again, I could have cried........
    A man walked up to us and said 'we have you some hot red beans and rice
here, just put your stuff down and have some dinner'.  Trail magic again!!! I
was so tired I couldn't function!  Someone came and got my cup and spoon and
brought me some beans and rice, (and might I just add....Yumm, Yummm!!!!
*G*), and Nancy came and helped me put up my tent.  This was really wonderful
of her cause I am telling  you, I would STILL be there trying to get that
tent up if she hadn't helped me!  I was just plain worn out!
    After getting into my tent, I talked to Jan for a while, who was tarped
next to me.  I asked her if this is what she thought a thru hike would be
like.  "Hmmmm, I am not sure" she said.  With that I went to sleep with the
sound of wind blowing through the trees.
(And in case i haven't mentioned it yet, I was still having a really good
time!!  *S*)
    Day three came with me not being able to move!!  Seriously!!!  I didn't
know that the human body could hurt so many ways in so many places!!!  The
worst was my knee!  I could barely flex it at all!  This was not good.  I
packed up quickly and took off after jan down the trail.  Today we had six
miles to do and 4+ of it was a rocky downhill.  I was not sure I had it in
me!  We had been shuffilig down the trail slowly for about 20 minutes when I
stepped on a rock and my right foot twisted.  A resounding crack came out of
it and Jan turned around with wide eyes and said, "What was that?!".  "I am
not sure" I said shakily as I tried to put weight on it.  I cringed as
pictures of myself crawling for 5 1/2 miles filed my head.  But, it held and
after walking for about ten minutes with it turned out at a right angle, it
slowly turned it's way back in.
    (Note- On Monday morning it was the size of a grapefruit and all kinds of
ineresting colors but it doesn't hurt at all!  Isn't that weird!?)
    As I hobbled along, really I just wanted to cry.  Poor me.........my
whole body ached....my left knee was trashed, ....my right foot was probably
broken into six pieces, .....I smelled bad.........and I was THIRSTY!!!!!
(did I mention I was out of water!)  About then, Bumpkin joined us, and she
and Jan shouted back to me that they had found the water source!!!
Hallelujah!!  After they assured me that they could get me back up once I sat
down, I sat down to fill my platypus.  A half hour later I hiked along
well-hydrated, my muscles loosening up, talking to my friends and my ankle
feeling great!  Life was good!  Everyone in the whole world should be as
lucky as I am!!!
    We spent the rest of the morning leap frogging up and down the trail,
sometimes talking, sometimes not.  It was great.  Don't get me wrong.......I
still hurt!  And Lord knows, I still smelled bad!  But I was really happy.
*S*  Hiking along, I came around the corner and found the two of them
sprawled out.  "Break time"  they said!  Jan passed out more
drugs.....Bumpkin passed out fudge.  Did I mention that life was good? :)
Before you know it we are talking like we have known each other forever.  Jan
looked up at me and said with a smile, "I think THIS is was thru hiking is
like".
    The day progressed with us hiking down hills, ouch, and hiking up them,
meeting at the top to do the 'dance of the real woman'.  Jan kept promising
us that it was all down hill from here til finally it was true.  We started
that long, long, long, downhill.  It went on forever, but in payment for our
battered knees, it gave us the most stuning views of the mountains and the
Nolichucky River that you can imagine.  It really was beauty that cannot be
described.  And before long we were hearing the noise of the train below us.
    Note:  I think there should be a rule that no road noise can be heard til
you are within a quarter of a mile of the road.  Otherwise, it's just cruel!
You come around another switch back and think for sure that you are at the
road and NO!!  You still have another mile to hike!!!  Would someone please
get on that as soon as possible!!!  :)
    Near the end Jan took off to go call Miss Janet and Bumpkin and I hiked
along.  We came to a tree that had fallen across the trail that was too high
to climb over and too low to walk under.  Bumpkin says, "No problem, Anna,
just swing under, like this".  She loops her arms around the tree and swings
her body under it to the other side.  I just stood back and said, "You might
as well get your camera out now!".  *G*  Sure enough, I grap ahold, swing
under, and plop!  Down I go!  Now I am like a June bug stuck on her back with
my legs and arms in the air!!  Well, I get tickled........then Bumpkin gets
tickled.  Before you know it we are laughing hysterically in the middle of
the trail....her standing and me still lying on my back!  I guess that is a
move I am going to have to work on before next spring!
    As we truly did get down to the end of the trail, we looked through the
trees and there was Swallowtail's van!!!!!!!!!!!  YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  As we
came down onto the road, I asked the other women through my tears if I had
actually just backpacked 24 miles of the AT.  They said yes, and after high
fives all the way around, the three of us commenced to do the 'dance of the
real woman' in the middle of the road. *G*
    After a quick trip to Sonic for some much-needed sustenance, we headed to
Miss Janet's to say our good-byes.  After giving Miss Janet a very smelly hug
goodbye, I was on the road back to Atlanta.  I wasn't even on the highway
before I missed the trail.  But then again, I bet you all understand that
part!
    That is it for now......I will add things as I remember them.  Til then,
I can't wait to get out there again!!!!!  Anna
PS- In case I forgot to mention it, I had a really good time!!!  :)