Backpacking Agenda

We're leaving Thursday morning and intending to return Sunday evening. The agenda is as follows:

Parking car 1 (most likely a grey VW Jetta) at Amicalola Falls State Park, GA

Parking car 2 (most likely a black Honda Civic) at Woody Gap, SR 60, near Suches, GA (possibly near 34.67650, -84.00050 but unconfirmed)

Thursday - Amicalola Falls State Park to Springer Mountain via AT Approach Trail (~9 miles)
Camping in or near Springer Mountain Shelter (~ 34.62680, -84.19350) depending on weather. We'll probably set up along the blue-blaze trail 100 or so paces to the east of the shelter. Bear country, but we have appropriate gear for hanging food, etc.

Friday - Springer Mountain to Hawk Mountain (~7.7 miles)
Camping near or in Hawk Mountain Shelter (~ 34.66120, -84.15570) depending on weather. We'll most likely continue north 100 or so paces and set up camp near the trail. Again, bear country.

Saturday - Hawk Mountain to Gooch Mountain (~7.1 miles)
Camping in or near Gooch Mountain Shelter (~ 34.65430, -84.03520) depending on weather. We'll most likely set up along the blue-blaze trail 100 or so paces to the west of the shelter. Again, bear country.

Sunday - Gooch Mountain to Woody Gap (~5 miles)
Taking car 2 back to Amicalola to pick up car 1, then heading home.

I'll plan on posting here Monday by midday or at least being online and accessible. If you don't see me, try to contact me. If you can't get in touch with me at all, contact:

Appalachian Trail Conservancy
799 Washington Street
P.O. Box 807
Harpers Ferry, WV 25425-0807
Phone: (304) 535-6331
Fax: (304) 535-2667

If an emergency arises, they should know that it's summer and that we'll be stopping to purify water and refill potentially every 3 to 4 miles along the way. We'll leave some amount of gear on the trail before exiting it to refill, so if gear is located on the trail, it means we left it at that point.

More to come.

FDA Approved Tomatoes

FDA Approved Tomatoes

Another fun part of home ownership is growing your own produce. =)

Trail worthy?

Trail worthy?

Still trying to decide if he can make it 29 miles in 3.5 days.

First post!

You know who you are: if you had an iPhone, you would have already updated your blog.

Good trip. Unfortunately I think we spent more time in the car than out. Spotted: 3 bears, 6 turkeys, countless deer, and more motorcycles than should be allowed on the road.

To-Do (Or Not-To-Do)

So I've determined that the iPhone is unable to sync my to-do list from Outlook. In fact, the iPhone itself has no to-do functionality whatsoever. My hypothesis? Apple users don't have enough to-do, so it's an unnecessary feature.

Oh, and I got an iPhone.

A Change of Scenery

Last Thursday morning we decided that we needed a change of scenery. We made a few phone calls at lunch time.

On Friday we got in the car and drove straight up the eastern side of the state and ended up in New York City.

We got into the city much later than we expected. We were hoping to get there in the wee hours of Saturday morning - around 2am - but ended up not getting there until closer to 8am. Stupid me didn't think to call the hotel to let them know we'd be so late, so they didn't have a room for us when we got there. They had our reservation... just not a room (yes, the lady at the desk actually said that). That scene from Seinfeld popped into my mind...

JERRY: I don't understand, I made a reservation, do you have my reservation?

RENTAL CAR AGENT: Yes, we do, unfortunately we ran out of cars.

JERRY: But the reservation keeps the car here. That's why you have the reservation.

RENTAL CAR AGENT: I know why we have reservations.

JERRY: I don't think you do. If you did, I'd have a car. See, you know how to take the reservation, you just don't know how to *hold* the reservation and that's really the most important part of the reservation, the holding. Anybody can just take them.

We were hoping to just crawl into bed and sleep for a while (after driving literally straight through the night), but instead we had to kill a couple of hours while they cleared out a room for us. So... we headed a few blocks over to Rockefeller Center and watched the ice skaters under the huge Christmas tree they have there, then we went over to a deli and got some breakfast. Back at the hotel, our room was finally available, so we crashed for the next 6-8 hours. When we got up that evening we explored the area. We were staying right in the middle of the theater district, just off of Broadway. A few blocks downtown is Times Square. A few blocks over towards the east side is Rockefeller Center. A few blocks north is Central Park. Not a bad location really.

About a block over was the Ambassador theater where the Broadway show Chicago was playing. We looked into tickets, thinking there'd be no way we'd be able to get them for the same evening. They had a few available so we picked some up, got some dinner, and went to the show. It was amazing... Vincent Pastore was playing Amos and Aida Turturro was playing Mama Morton (both are from the show Sopranos). We were sitting in the fourth row, orchestra level. At the end they were tossing out roses as part of the show and we caught the first one.

On Sunday it was raining so we headed out to the American Museum of Natural History, figuring that would be a good indoor activity to avoid the weather. When we got off the subway, the rain had paused for a bit, so we walked through Central Park for a while on our way to the museum, munching on a pretzel. The museum was crowded, but good. I'd never really seen anything like it before.

That evening we headed into Brooklyn to check out Revolution NYC out of curiosity. We'd seen a documentary on it some time ago on Sundance and thought it would be interesting. It was disappointing, but a new experience I guess. I'd never had a beer during a church service before...

After "church" (yeah, I have to use that term loosely there), we headed to the East Village and had dinner at Katz's Deli, a local favorite for ginormous sandwiches. We split a reuben and sat next to the table where Meg Ryan faked her orgasm in "When Harry Met Sally."

Monday morning we headed across town to another local favorite place to get a bagel (they serve them with salmon and cream cheese... very odd but surprisingly tasty). After accidentally breaking in line (I swear!) and eating, we headed out to the site of the World Trade Center. It was next to impossible to see anything with all the construction going on but was still worth the trip downtown. Afterwards we headed to Battery Park and caught the Staten Island Ferry (round trip) to check out the statue of liberty. Heading back uptown a bit we had pizza at John's of Bleeker Street in Greenwich Village, another local favorite.

After dinner we headed to Chinatown, where I held my wallet tighter than normal. We managed to avoid getting mugged or pickpocketed and headed back uptown to the Empire State Building to close out the evening with a trip to the top and a view of the city at night.

Tuesday (Christmas) morning we were up early and packed. We grabbed a bagel and some coffee and walked back over to the Rockefeller to see the tree lit up and hopped a subway back to Penn Station to catch the train out of town.

All in all it was a fantastic trip. I wish we could have spent longer there but even as short as it was it worked well as a "change of scenery."

I'll post pictures soon.

River Dolphin Now Extinct?

This blog isn't extinct (yet), but it looks like the elusive river dolphin is not so lucky.

A recent six-week search on the Yangtze failed to find any trace of the endangered dolphin species, leading scientists to announce that the animal is "functionally extinct."

The Yangtze?! Bah! That's soooo not the place to look for these things. Hello?! How about good ol' Charleston, SC for starters?

Wildcat Mountain and Raven Cliffs Falls

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I'm not sure why my leg is like that, but I think it has something to do with the fact that I was on the verge of falling off the mountain.

Contrary to popular belief, this blog is not forgotten. I report when news happens... and news hasn't been happening. At least not to me.

Last weekend, a few of us left early to head up to Hog Pen Gap (elevation 3485 feet) to hike "up" (I use that term loosely) Wildcat "Mountain" (also used loosely). After a disappointing "climb" (you get the idea, right?), we reached the "summit" which, fortunately enough, offered a fairly decent view of the gap. It was overcast all day, which created a bad photographic experience. But, the temperature was nice and there was no rain, which created a great hiking experience.

After tackling Wildcat Mountain, we hiked a little further to the shelter, then back to the cars.

With a whole afternoon of daylight still left, Wanda and I decided to take the gang to one of our favorite spots: Raven Cliffs.

Ben's idea of relaxing

My idea of relaxing

Ben and Josh made the climb up the side of the falls. It's fun to do and it's pretty cool once you get up there, but Wanda and I chose to just rest beside the falls and take some time to just soak in the air, the scenery, and the smell of hippies emanating from the tree line. After being rudely awoken by various objects being hurled at my face, I was informed that the hippies had overtaken us. With more insect bites than a single human should be able to survive, these individuals (we'll call them "The Others" for convenience) came out of nowhere, barefoot and shabbily dressed, with expert survival skills and straw hats. We decide against following them back to their city (with its gazebo and book club) and opt instead to hike back to our submarine car.

After eating at "That Homecooking Place in Helen," whatever it's called, we headed back home. Total round trip: about 15 hours. Not a bad way to spend a free Saturday.

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