Saturday 4/30/05
Start - Louisville, KY
Stop - Louisville, KY
Miles travelled 0
I just wanted to take the time to explain routine trail life. It really is life in the slow lane.
The day usually starts sometime between 7 and 8 when I finally get out of my sleeping bag. I am usually at a campsite or a trail shelter with between 2 and 12 other people. I have a breakfast of either instant oatmeal or a milk and cereal bar and start packing up my gear. I'm usually ready to start by about 9. This pattern will probably change as the weather warms. I'm not a fast hiker and I take frequent breaks. By noon most of my previous nights camp mates have long passed me and a far ahead and I spend most of the early afternoon hiking alone seeing few if any people. Lunch is usually a granola bar, cheese and crackers, and a foil envelope of tuna. I have no official designated lunch time. The lunch items are eaten in small quantities throughout the course of the morning and afternoon. At the first break I may have 2 bites of a granola bar and put the rest away for later. Next break may be 2 crackers with cheese, saving the rest for later and so on.
By mid-afternoon I start seeing people again as other groups of hikers overtake me. These are generally the real strong hikers who doe 15 to 20 miles per day. By 5 or 6 in the evening I find that I have caught up with the group that I camped with the night before and I stop for the night. The only difference between they and I are that they reached that point a few hours earlier. I have a quick dinner of a lipton pasta or rice side dish or macaroni and cheese or ramen noodles or sometimes a freeze dried meal and brush my teeth. I'm usually in my sleeping bag by 7 or so, not because I'm tired but because I'm cold. On real cold short days I'm sometimes in the bag by 4 or so. We usually lay around, in our bags sharing stories, learning more about each other and gradually drifting off to sleep. By 8:30 or so nearly everyone is asleep.
The pattern repeats the next day and basically doesn't change regardless of weather unless the weather is real severe.
I generally go into town once a week to re supply and get one or 2 decent meals before hitting the trail again. These re supply stops generally take a full day. The town may be 10 or so miles from the trail head. Once there I check at the post office for mail and supplies sent from home, find a hostel or inexpensive motel where I can take a shower, go to the laundry and wash clothes, check out one of the restaurants, go to the grocery and by supplies for the next leg, check out another restaurant, go back to the motel or hostel, check and repair equipment, check the long range weather forecast, go to sleep. I don't know why I bother getting the weather forcast. I figure it is right about 50 percent of the time. When the forcast is fro rain it rains. When the forcast calls for a clear day, it still rains. The next morning I have a final breakfast and make my way back to the trail head. Transportation to and from towns is frequently accomplished by hostel or motel shuttle. They don't necessarily come out to pick you up but they return hikers to the trail head at pre determined times and if you happen to be there at that time they will usually bring you back into town, hoping of course that you will stay at their place for the night.
Shared experiences create strong social bonds and the strangers you start hiking with quickly become acquaintances, then friends, and finally family. The strange thing is that we frequently don't know each others real names. Trail names are a tradition and a custom on the trail. Those that don't have one are quickly given one. The name usually has a story behind it at reveals some traits or characteristics about the individual. Gray Ghost is rarely seen through the day as he is slow and is far behind. He frequently shows up at camp after everyone is asleep and magically appears in the morning. When seen he is quiet during the day but frequently makes strange, eerie noises at night. It's an old name given to me by the scouts many years ago. It still fits so it has stuck. Brewmaster, Goat, Stovepipe, Grasshopper, Gumby, and Pokey and many others each have stories behind their names. We make for a strange crew