Horse Gap to Lance Creek

The wind at horse gap was like being slapped in the face all night with the coldest palm in the world. no sleep all night. woke up to 28 degrees and a windchill of around 6 it seemed. i hated every second of waking up. today was supposed to be a hard day. we started with 2 big mountains to climb and then rolled into Gooch shelter for lunch, huge crowds at shelters. Ryan and I took a 2 hour lunch and then caught up with others before Woody Gap. at Woody we lounged for an hour  in the sun before climbing up to a awesome overlook before descending to lance creek. great day. exhausted but I probably lost 5 lbs today . I really like the others that I am hiking with, as Ryan is a nice, good looking bartender from LA, very smart and a strong hiker. Kelly is so small, but is a very fast pace setter, and in great condition. Matt lumbers a bit more, but is tall, and gets there even tho he has said he struggles on the climbs . 

Springer Mountain to Horse Gap GA

woke up at 7am after a sleepless night, and got a shuttle to Springer Mountain by 10:30am. hiked a mile to the summit of Springer, and then was off on my adventure. pretty good easy day, hiked with two young guys from Virginia, Ethan and Hunter. We had a great time all day, most people stopped at Hawk Mtn Shelter, but we moved on to Horse Gap. As campsite was Kelly, from asheville , matt from Pittsfield MA and Ryan from Los Angeles. Kelly is a pint sized sweet young lady who had a TarpTent, which required her trekking poles as support beams , but with the winds whipping at 60 mph, her shelter blew away 3 times. I felt so bad for her. it was very cold and the wind made cooking dinner problematic, but we all made do. Ethan and Hunter hung hammocks not far from where I set up tent . 

March 29 Hiker Hostel in Dahlonega

mile 0 on AT Got down to Georgia, was just getting to starting line of AT and ran into Paul and Bonnie Hakula from the Vineyard. small world. they were driving by the most remote area of Georgia? wow! serendipitous, but nice. love them to death. right now I'm sitting in the hostel so nervous or anxious for tommorrow. I'm here with a guy Ed, who just quit the trail after just 20 miles. he came from Switzerland and already off the trail. this trail is so tough, the steep grades just knock people out. I'm here also with a cat named "bear bag."

 anyway, I'm nervous as a theif in church. my arms are visibly shaking. I pray God gives me the strength bc I know I cannot do this on my own abilities .

hikers here: Bear Bag, Goose and Denise Austin, Frozen and a hiker to be named later, plus a father and son from New Mexico w/o names so far. plus Ed the Swiss, who is quitting after 20 miles. 

the pic is of the stairs in the log cabin hostel here, place is off the charts nice. 

 

AT thru hike 2014 attempt

FOR DANA DEGREGORIO 

I'll keep this part short because nobody really cares about it. I sold my business last month so I am doing something I always dreamed of doing. I'm not sure if I can, since thru hiking the Appalachian Trail is one of the hardest tests of ones mental and physical stamina. I have no doubts I was made to do this, excepting a very bad knee , which concerns me . I am not going through some existential crisis, as some assume, I just feel the need to measure my abilities and test my strength in an extreme way, and I love the outdoors and trees and plants. The AT as it's called is 2,189 mile footpath that runs over the appalachian mountain chain from Georgia to Maine. virtually every step is on a 20 inch wide strip of soil that covers countless peaks along the way. The AT is very steeply graded and is physically grueling . the vistas are not what you see out west, as the hiker is covered in a green tunnel of cold, wet, heat, humidity, bugs, mice, bears, deer, and hikers . the people are nice out there, living a Thoreau like life of natural splendor, and love and kindness to one another. it's a remarkable experience. 

I'll need luck and prayers, as somewhere between 10-25% of folks that set out to do this actually accomplish the task. I'm leaving April 1 from Springer Mountain in Georgia. I'm nervous but excited! 

I'm always going to remember to late brother Dana, I want to make him proud, he knew I always wanted to do this, thought I was crazy, but wanted this for me. it's been a year since he passed, and I miss my best friend tremendously.