A couple of years ago while we were on holiday in San Antonio, Matthew read Bill Bryson's A Walk in the Woods. He really enjoyed it, so Stephanie and I read it and then Matthew and I half-heartedly made plans to "do that some day". It was the kind of statement you make while lying on a beach chair in the sun reading, while wistfully thinking about how cool that would be. Hmmmm... Amazingly, that day will arrive on March 27, 2013. Now, I realize that this is the kind of "some day" that most people will never have the luxury to find. I am (we are) incredibly lucky to have a chance to do this. Our benefactor - my generous wife Stephanie, is supporting us on this journey. She's staying home with Samantha and working, while Matthew and I wander in the woods for half a year. I am the luckiest guy alive and am continually amazed that she puts up with me. Her only condition: If we start it, we have to finish it - all 2160-ish miles of it. I owe her the world.


We're committed. We have been buying equipment, walked some short (10-12 mile) segments of the AT in New York to see what it looks like, and we have our one-way airline tickets to Atlanta. Stephanie and Samantha will be flying down with us to drop us off at the starting point on Springer Mountain near Atlanta, Georgia and they plan to meet up with us a couple of times on the journey when we are near civilization - once again, supporting us all the way. Have I told you how lucky we are?


I am planning to keep track of where we are on this blog using BlogPress and GPS Location. Between these two apps, I'll be able to save drafts of posts with photos and our position even when we're off the cell network. This will allow anyone to see where we are and what we're doing (at least after I get back near enough to civilization and cell service to post the drafts). Ideally these updates will be daily; it will probably be more like weekly. I guess I'll find out how connected one can be from the wilderness. As I write this in February, it's less than six weeks until we're out there.


The first two posts are just a couple of tests from the AT in early January to try out the software. While doing this, I discovered that BlogPress fails to find your location when you are not on the cell network, so I'll be using the GPS Location app to add coordinates to the posts.


Here's a link to the current weather all along the trail.




Thursday, April 11, 2013

Third Trail Angel

April 11

Wednesday we were almost out of food and we were hearing severe thunderstorm and tornado warnings for Thursday night. Luckily Gatlinburg, TN was just about a 17 mile hike and 22 mile hitchhike West on route 441 away. As we're in the Smoky Mts still, we have to stay at shelters. The plan was to stay at the last shelter before 441 (about 4 miles) and walk to 441 this morning and hitchhike to town. At the shelter last night we found out that there was a mudslide that washed out about a 200 yard long section of 441. Damn... Gotta go for it anyway as we were low on food.
Luckily the slide was just east of where we came to 441 so the road to Gatlinburg was open, but with the road closed to the east, there were no cars traveling west. As we stood there at a parking lot on 441, a car in the lot started and the driver asked if we were headed to Gatlinburg. He is an avid hiker himself and said he figured hikers would have trouble getting to town and came out to help. He gave us a free ride to the grocery store in Gatlinburg and waited for us while we shopped. He told me he'd have lunch in the cafe in the store while we shopped, and when we were had all our supplies to find him there and he'd give us his loyalty card. He actually gave us his car keys with the card so we could check out while he finished his meal. Would you give your car keys to two scruffy hikers? His card saved us $8. He then drove us to our motel.

THANK YOU, David. You are a star!




Location:Gatlinburg, TN
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