Wow! 

Its been a huge chunk of time since I visited my BLOG.....Let me just say that every minute I wasn't 'blogging' was spent in some adventure or another.... all of which were awesome!

Quick summary from then until now.....

I left Arizona....I spent 4 winters in the Everglades functioning as a SWAMP guide.....YUP....stomping thru the swamp teaching folks about the wonders of the Everglades swamp and all that lies within.....Incredible experience!

(There was this one Halloween that I dressed up as a FAT over 50 FAIRY!!!  

You occasionally, if you were lucky and a sleuth....could catch a sighting of the FAIRY!

THERE SHE IS!

It was probably my very favorite place to be stationed for the winter months, and I enjoyed it for 4 seasons!  

Good times, folks....

From the Everglades to Maine.....for a summer...(Florida is too dang HOT and buggy for the summer months!

After Maine, and after my last season in the swamp, I decided it was time to turn in my surge protector, sewer lines and RV and settle myself down......Sooooooo, I sold the RV (along with the sewer lines) and bought a home in NC......and hence, begins my new adventures!..

...Hiking and backpacking with special attention to the AppalLECHian Trail, aka....the AppaLATCHian Trail.....aka.....THE 'A.T.'  

.....And, hence....the beginning of a NEW BLOG which I am starting out by naming:  

"Our VIRGINAL Adventure on the AT"

And, so it begins:

I met Kimberly by posting on a hiking group that I was going hiking to Hanging Rock and did anyone want to come.....she responded.....we hiked....got lost and instead of a 6 mile hike, we did a 12 mile hike.....and a friendship was forged. (Im the crazy one in the goofy face masks)

We laughed, we planned, we made it back to the car before dark!  

All great things, and to this day we hike together....twice a week to locations that we take turns choosing, and most recently we decided to section hike the AT.

APRIL 19, 2021- APRIL 22, 2021....a much anticipated week by both myself and my hiking partner extrodinaire, KIMBERLY.

We drove our vehicles from our perspective homes and parked one at Springer MT, and the other at Neel Gap. 

Our plan was to hike from Monday to Friday....

Off we went!  We didn't arrive to Springer until after 2pm, so we got a late start but were able to hike roughly 5 miles to Stover for our first backpacking night......

A few details are in order.

Prior to leaving we both had been buying equipment , and weighing everything right down to saftey pins and dental floss!  Overkill?  Maybe, but a phrase you will hear often is to 'hike your own hike' and in my opinion, that goes for your preparation and packing as well.....you will definitely learn in time what works and what stinks.....

What I discovered was that we had many unwarranted worries about our pack weights  (29-30 pounds) each. Our unwarranted worries collided with excitement, and guess which won outd??

EXCITEMENT!

Oh yeah, baby!

Almost immediately, Kimberley was granted a trail name....

She researches EVERYTHING.  You want to know something, ask Kimberly....she will find the information!

Sooooo, I gave her the trail name of:

For those that do not know, everyone seems to either choose or be assigned a 'trail name'.  Sometimes that names are great, and tell a story or at least are conversation starters....sometimes the names are not so great..........hmmmmmm

We named a few folks, albeit, not real trail names, but it did help us remember folks that we had crossed paths with.....One of the 1st couples that we ran into were newbies like us, however, they were carrying packs weighing 50 and 60 pounds respectively........Guess what we named them?

YUP....

"I wonder how 50 and 60 are doing!.......

We arrived at Stover at roughly 5pm and set up our tents etc....There are so many different types of set ups that it's crazy....I have a Big Agnes/Copper Spur which weighs in at around 3 pounds....

There are much lighter tents and of course there are heavier ones......the choices are numerous and it is yours to explore.....or find someone like "Gotta Know" and she'll PRO and CON the heck out of things for ya!

We saw hammock campers, tarp campers, and tent campers.....the options will spin your pretty little head....Kimberly and I both decided that we like a tent aound us......as you know it offers superior protection from the beasties of the night............ha ha!  

(But, there does seem to be some comfort for me at least, in 4 walls.) 

To each his own. 

If it works for you, then super groovy.

So, next up was cooking dinner with our spifey little stoves, and cook pouches!

First up the stove........

See those little 'toothed' projections?  That is what your cook pot sits on and you boil the water, or cook your meal in your pot.....your choice...(I will explain in a bit what we did.....no dirty dishes to wash!)

Those little projections have to be folded back in a way so that they fit back into the container....

.NOT AN EASY TASK....until you get the hang of it...which I did by the second day.....

The 1st day it offered me the opportunity to meet some lovely young men who all took turns with it until one of them lucked upon the folding magic that worked!

Kudos to him, and kudos to me for figuring it out the next day.....practice makes perfect.  

My stove is extremely light weight....and of course like any other piece of equipment, you will find lighter or heavier.....do your research.

Second....my cooking technique....not my original idea, but I adopted it after a trip to the Dry Tortugas many years ago where weight was also an issue.....

This is my cooking pouch:

The one pictured is one you can buy.....I made mine out of some reflective stuff such as that from a vehicle sun visor.....you make it in the shape of an envelope. Scissors and duct tape is all you need!

Then you choose food items such as Knorr or Lipton soup mixes, oatmeal, backpacking prepackaged meals or any other item that you add water to and it will cook.....

....Once you have chosen your meal, put the meal into a ziploc FREEZER quart sized bag....(make sure its the freezer bags as the other bags are too thin, and when it leaks out after you melt the bag with the water you will be boiling..... you will have created a soupy mess of bear bait).....I'm just sayin...

....I digress....

So, you put the food into a freezer zip lock, and with your nifty little stove, boil the appropriate amount of water.....pour the water into the ziplock, mix it up with that perfect little long handled spoon that you brought with you for this purpose, and close both bag and silver pouch.......wait the required time and like magic, you have a yummy meal.....clean up, you ask?  Throw that bag in your trash bag and you are done.

What I do,  is have all my necessary food already in the ziplocks from home....my favorite meals thus far are cous cous, and sweet potatoes with pulled pork......I add all the spices I might want when I am packing them up at home.......I like my coffee blond and sweet, just like I used to be.....so, I prepare snack sized zip locks with all the goodies already in it, so all I have to do in the AM is boil water.....easy peasy! 

No mess, no fuss!

Thats my 'recipe' for simple and effecient meal prep.....of course there are MANY other ways to do things, but this is MY blog after all...........😂

After we ate our meal, it was time to restock our water and test out our water filtration systems....I have a Sawyer and my buddy has the Be Free...

Both are extremely easy to use and neither of us have any issues with the once thought of as the DAUNTING task of water collection.....

It is VERY easy.

Just bring your filtration equipment of choice, a container for 'dirty' water, and a container to use to fill with the clean filtered water. 

 

Practice at home. 

You will chuckle at yourself over any previous worry you may have experienced!

Brushing your teeth.....interesting......I read that it was recommended that you brush your teeth away from your campsite so as not to attract the 'nocturnal four legged crowd'.......and you don't spit out the toothpaste, your 'spray' it out in a whoosh.........not good.....not good at all.....another thing to practice at home....glad I brought an extra shirt. I'm just sayin......

We were in bed by 730pm as was everyone else.....There is lots I could say about my first night sleeping with a group of hikers.....

I typically sleep alone, so am never concerned or bothered by my 'noises', be they private or public noises, if you know what I mean.

There were night noises galore!  It was an orchestra of sound generated from the creatures of the night as well as from our sleep accomodations! 

I LOVE my sleeping pad and my buddy loves hers......HOWEVER, they are so noisy!!!!  

I am told that in order to satisfy the LIGHT WEIGHT factor, noise is just a part of it.  

If anyone has a light weight NOISELESS pad, I will give you a dollar for the information!

Imagine if you will a giant sized bag of Doritos, and now imagine someone rolling back and forth over the Dorito bag which seems to have an ENDLESS supply of  crunchy Doritos.  

Lordy...sleep was challenging.

Funny story......my friend was a bit restless that first night and in the morning she told me she didn't sleep a lick....up all night......So, I asked her if she had heard that owl that had carried on for quite a stretch of the evening and she said 'NO'......she slept.....trust me, she slept.

I am told that the Doritos eventually die out.....I am patiently awaiting that day.

In addition to the noisy mat, another sleeping issue I dealt with were a very cold nose..it felt like frost bite was going to set in...........remember those nose warmers you had as a kid?  

I want one!.....

My head was toasty warm....and this brings us to my trail name!

It started out to be 'giraffe', for obvious reasons......This was my trail hat and my bed 'cap'....I didn't take it off for 3 days.....(imagine my bed head).....I looked very much like Kramer from the Seinfeld show. 

I ain't kidding!

Goodness gracious! 

Several folks asked me if my trail name was giraffe....and so....temporarily it was.....

Once again, I digress........

Back to the topic of sleeping....then on to the trail name....come on, Carol....get your act together!

Another night time issue is getting out of your toasty warm sleeping bag, or,  what I used was a toasty warm quilt and liner (LOVED IT).....and having to go make a number 1...........brrrrrrrrr

So, you may have heard about backpackers carrying a luxury item......here is mine!

This little novelty stretches out to accommodate even the most camel like bladder capacity!!!!  

The mouth fits perfectly over the "pee zone" so no spillage! 

It weighs in at a tish over 2 ounces!  A pure saving grace on a chilly night....

I have a friend who backpacks and her luxury item is a chair!  

Choices.... choices......my 'chair' is made out of that same silver reflective stuff that I used for my cooking pouch, double layered it weighs in at 1.8 oz, and packs nicely, is comfy, and I don't sit much.....my luxury choice.....the pee tube!

Since we are on the topic of peeing, I did want to mention that there are very light weight female urinating devices to use while you are hiking with full pack....you are quite top heavy with a pack on your back, so squatting to pee becomes an act of acrobatics....and its none to pretty.....options include hugging a tree and squatting.....doable, yes....easy to execute?  

Not for me!  

Good God, I am 66 years old, and bending while lugging my 29ish # pack is no easy feat.. 

...you can also stop and remove your pack....another pain in the tush......

OR you can get yourself a female urinal.....it kind of looks like a penis.....

well, no, it doesn't LOOK like a penis, but it FUNCTIONS like  a penis.....

This is mine......lifesaver..

I also was gifted a pee cloth! This is what one looks like....It attaches to your pack when not in use

Beats using TP which you have to lug out and you can rinse your pee cloth out as needed..there are different brands available so shop around...I did not bring these on our first leg but will indeed bring in on this months adventure...

..Ya live, and ya learn....just sayin

Another issue that needs to be addressed.....pooping......golly chamolly! Literally, you pray for Privy's...(CAN YOU SPY MY FRIENDS EYE?)

Though privy's can be rather foul smelling.....it's a given....it SURE BEATS THE ALTERNATIVES!

See that little shovel below....the pretty yellow one?  It is very light weight.....    0.5 oz......

I tried my darndest to dig a 'cat hole' in order to properly conceal my 'droppings'.  

Let me say this....apparently the ground in Georgia is NOTHING BUT ROOTS....at least the choice locations I landed myself in.....this shovel was equivelant to carrying a wee plastic spoon....

And, on that same subject,....if ANYONE, has stuck with me this far, and has actually read my BLOG, 

perhaps you can chime in on how the HECK do you perform proper hygienic cleaning of the derrierre?!

  

If it is a 'clean sweep'....no problem, easy clean up....but, with the dietic changes that you have made, and you make a 'plop plop plop' as I fondly call the messy ones, .....

How in the name of all that is sacred, do you clean without using your entire weeks worth of wet ones!?

Please!  

Send help!  

Speaking of wet ones....I dry them out before packing them...when you need to use it, just rehydrate it....saves a bit on carrying weight....every little bit helps!

.....

On each nite of our trip, the bear bag situation was a bit different..... a bear box on day one, hanging our URSAK (bear bag) on a tree day 2, and also hanging it from a cable day 3..

...There are sections that require a bear cannister, so be sure to know where these are.  

We hiked thru the bear cannister area and since we were not sleeping in that area, were not required to carry the cannister. Cannisters are heavy at about 2 pounds, while URSAKs weigh in at about 15oz.

You probably know, and anticipate seeing for yourself how friendly everyone on the trail truly is! 

 There was this guy....I believe he was in his 60's, and he was hiking alone. His trail name was GRAVY TRAIN.....it had to do with making some gravy for a group of hikers, and one of the ungrateful sots told our new friend that it tasted like dog food......hence the name GRAVY TRAIN....He was a good sport about it.. Anyway, he told us that we would be hiking behind us and that if we needed anything he would not be far.....At one point he passed us with the same message....I will be just ahead of you if you need anything.....Nice guy

If you run into him, tell him I said HEY.

On occasion some gracious folks will provide trail magic.......food, water, rides, any number of good deeds along the trail....We ran into some trail magic in the form of water before we trekked up BLOODMOUNTAIN!....aptly named, as you sweat blood before you are done.....we came upon a bounty of water bottles!  

People are just so darned kind.

Let me go back to my trail name .....

As I said it started out as 'giraffe', but that just didn't sit with me....so, after thinking about it for a while,

I became 'Dapple'.....giraffes are dappled....so is the sunshine thru the trees......there!

Now I can rest easy knowing that you  know who I am!!

I did want to mention some things that my co-hiker, Kimberley brought up.....

*Every night before retiring and BEFORE hanging up the bear bag, go through your pockets and all the little hidey places of your pack for anything that would tempt the creatures of the night.....snacks, candy wrappers, a summer sausage, cantaloupe.....anything.....

Do this religiously.  

Better to be safe then sorry...

*It is an absolute guarantee that you will overpack on your first adventure!  I came home with 4 pounds.....thats right, you heard right.....4 pounds of snacks....holy moly!  

I am packing much more realistically on our next outing.

*Kimberly experienced indigestion as her diet changed from 'home' eating to 'trail' eating....Tums or something similiar may be of great benefit.

*She experienced blisters....I did not, but did have some spots that were potential problem areas.....Leukotape has been packed for the next trip....the way I am carrying it is thus:

I took a sheet of address labels, and removed the labels....I cut various lengths of Leukotape and put them on the label sheet. It folds up nicely.....now, I know when you carry duct tape you just wrap it around your trekking pole or a straw....great plan....but if you do that with Leukotape you will never get it unstuck....it is MEANT to adhere against friction, so hopefully the label sheet idea will work out.

*In order to keep my pillow in place, I am using my already packed bug net. It perfectly fits over the extremely noisy sleep pad and the pillow....no chasing pillows in your dreams!

*There are some superior apps out there for your hiking navigation....The one my friend used, and I have since purchased in GUTHOOKS.  It is a saving grace. Worth the purchase. It will not only keep you on course, but you will know in advance many things, like where the next water source is, campsites, and PRIVY's,...and much more valuable info

*Think through what clothing you think are absolutely necessary.....for me, for the time that we were out, I was very glad I had my base layer....I did not bring an extra pair of pants, but will next time...or shorts, depending on the weather.....I did bring an extra T-shirt....wick dry is great. One extra pair of  socks, and I am throwing in a pair of sock liners this next go around.

*Phone battery conservation is utmost.....I had mine in airplane mode and also utilized the low battery feature.  I did bring a charger along which still had lots of juice left after our 4 days...a bit heavy at 9 oz but worth the weight... 

Day 1 Springer to Stover 5 miles

Day 2 Stover to Devils Kitchen 12ish miles

Day 3 Devils Kitchen to Lance Creek  9 miles

Day 4 Lance Creek to Neel Gap  7+ miles  (Blood Mountain is an experience!!!)

We finished a day early.....we were supposed to have arrived at Neel Gap on Friday, and since we got back early, we opted to eat pizza and hit the road home....to plan our next adventure!

Until next time!!!!

Dapple signing off!