Solo Hiking

Mountain Tuna - strums some 
and is fishing the trail

By all appearances I hike alone. It is true that a videographer who was following me on trail would not see me hiking within a few yards of another hiker except to pass them but only after pausing or pacing with them ... Hi! I'm Buddha. What are your names? How'd you get the name AquaTuna? Where ya headin today? All the while my right brain is doing a quick assessment of their health and safety on trail. How you guys for water?

If we've met before we check in effortlessly, "Pilgrim!! Good to cya my friend. See ya up trail." And, most will. As fast as I am on foot, I am equally as slow. ying-yang. I joke with Bill, “I don’t drive like this, but I hike like this! See ya up trail. And, I will. Like racing to the red light. It’s how my legs like to go.

Case in point. A couple days ago, I reach the Nantahala Outdoor Center and whose sitting there?  The Québécois I met my first night on trail.  Now, she is Grits, a hiker with a name I’ll remember when I see her up trail, again.

But, I digress. Ah, so it is with the attention span of a gnat. Or, living in the moment, if you’ll have it. 

Way above I began saying by all appearances I hike alone. But, I hike with soooo many people - people that nobody can see.  Tears well just thinking of all the people I hike with every day. It’s why I am so light on my feet every day, running the soft downs with my pack on my back and soft, squishy leafy mud underfoot.

And, here I save you from another tangent ~ my most natural mental formation ~ I promise to get to all these tangents and more in time. I’ll describe more clearly a day in the life on trail, my gear, why people do this thing, and a day in town. Promise. And gear, and orchids, birds, and bears. Later.

This post is about people. About love. About never being alone.

All the loving people in my charmed life hike with me every day. Let’s start with my teachers.

My 2018 Tramily

Littlefoot, as I mentioned in my first post taught me, by daily example, that you just don’t stop going up hill, recover on the downs. Just Josh - Don’t carry water to water. At 1 kg per liter you will carry an extra 2.2 pounds (for the Americans) up and down every hill. Harder ups and more painful steep downs. Ironman - long slow deep breaths always and the benefits of music on the trail! Fox - quiet confidence Pony Express - don’t count on Priority Mail to cover faster than you are! He sent his bounce box ahead a 60 miles by highway, but a couple weeks for him on trail. And, he beat the package. Sweet Tea & Moose - making me want to hike the southern.

2018 Tramily

Friends & Family

My family at home cheering me on, worrying appropriately and giving me short simple instructions like, “Put your sunscreen on in the morning before you start sweating." Thanks Deb and Lizzie. I chat with my boys Jake and Jonah every day … If they only knew. It’s like the sound a tree makes when it falls in the forest with nobody to hear it. The sound of one hand clapping as we talk and laugh as I climb Siler Bald. Not a sound beyond my long slow deep breaths. But I hear their voices all the same. Cousins, friends, my Uncle Ben and Aunt Marion. Oh, the power of love. Dips, who hiked last year, shook my pack down this year and unburdened me of pounds of fears I had planned to carry. Fear of norovirus on trail. Fear of cold and wet together. Fears of ice. “It happens all the time down here when your high up on the ridges and balds,” I’d defend my heavy gear choices. I’d heard the stories and watched YouTube vids - to excess. Dips calmly reassured me and told me what I needed and what I didn’t want to carry. March 9, one week on trail, the sun is setting and I’ve pitched my tent in a cold downpour at Muskrat Creek. I got in the pleasantly dry tent , switched from wet to dry and slid into my warm sleeping bag … with my fear of the cold and wet. I take my phone out of airplane mode so I can send a message via my Garmin Mini satellite transmitter letting Deb know my location for the night and that I was tucked in. Whoop! I had a bar, and a text appears. It’s Dips checking in on me and reviewing tips for keeping warm and dry. By the way, she’s a wonderful story teller. www.andtheniwalked.com

Strangers

Bob and I.   Delaware Water Gap, NJ 2018

The kindness of strangers blows me away. I stopped watching TV a few years ago. Too much hate. Real or imagined. It was a great start. Then while hiking the AT in 2018 north toward Maine from Delaware Water Gap, New Jersey I was blown away by the kindness of strangers. Over and over again. The father and son that pulled over and picked my brother Bob and I up, stinky and mud caked on the side of a country road and drove us a 20 minutes out of his way so we could get to the Ashford Cottage B&B after a hard and hot first week on the AT together. Unprepared and out of shape but together. And an ideal time for showers, laundry, pub food, blister care and air-conditioned rest.

Hike-Man and Lisa who refilled dozens of jugs with cold fresh spring water every couple of days and left them in the shade at several road crossings over a 20 mile dry stretch in New York.

And, the Mom and son restocking a cooler for hikers in Pomfret, Vermont.

Kindness in Pomfret, VT with Pony Express

The folk on Elm Street in Norwich, Vermont who placed cold drinks, food and invitations to use the pool.

Elm St, Norwich, VT 2018

Kindness of Strangers 2022

Kindness in 2022 is going strong as I’ve been offered rides into town from the trailhead to Hiawasee, Georgia and Franklin, North Carolina.

A trail angel Sunday morning breakfast buffet just north of Neel’s Gap, Georgia came with a prayer for our safety and well being on the trail.

Cold drinks by Bouncer waiting for hot hikers at several crossings in Georgia.

Last night, arriving late at Brown Gap Shelter in the dark after a long arduous 17 mile day, I did not look forward to slipping my way down to the creek to get water. Jerry, who I’d awoken, replied when I asked which direction the water was, said, I’ve got water right here for you. We can get more in the morning. 

Ranger, Jerry and I  Brown Fork Gap, NC

I’ve decided to stick with love. Hate is to great a burden to bear. ~ Martin Luther King, Jr

That’s my story for much of North Carolina. I’ll be in Tennessee and the Great … and cold … Smoky Mountains of Tennessee tomorrow. High country. And, I’m high on love. Love to all. Be well. Buddha

Catching Up

It’s March 11 and I’m in Franklin, North Carolina.  I woke at 4:45 this morning and with my headlamp making a small tunnel through the cold fog I started hiking toward Mt. Albert before 6:00 .  The last bit before the peak was the first “scramble” on the trail, where hands and arms become more useful than poles as you climb rather than hike over boulders.  This was a really small scramble for me and I love them anyway.  But I knew some hikers would look up the trail and say WTF!#@$!  And, some would make the decision this AT thing is not for them.  There are plenty of much bigger scrambles ahead. It’s not for everyone.

   

But whoa, Buddha.  You’re getting way ahead of yourself.  This is your first blog post since you started this thing.  Roll the tape back to March 2 and let everyone catch up. Early in the morning on March 2, I start out on the Approach Trail to the AT, climb stairs along the boisterous Amicolola Falls and have my feet on dirt for the next 8.8 miles to get to the southern terminus of the Appalachian Trail - the starting line for a thru-hike. 

The first hiker I met, still 7 miles from the top of Springer Mountain, wasn’t gonna make it.  I greeted him and introduced myself as he stopped for a rest on the wall I had dropped my pack on. I was shedding my light rain jacket.  He said his name was Old Crab and this was, he figured, "my last chance to do this thing." He wore a knee length green parka with fur, leather boots and a pack so large enough I could see it above his head as he approached.  It was chilly, but I was in shorts and a lightweight breathable long sleeve shirt and trail runners.  Sadly, I knew he wasn’t gonna make it to Katahdin.  Not to say, you can look at someone and know their future.  But, in this case, it was true.  He explained life’s responsibilities had kept him from trying this thing.  But, with blood clots in both lungs, bad knees and other problems he figured he was running out of time.  I wished him well and climbed to the top of Springer in a couple of hours.  Two hours later when I stopped for lunch at Stover Creek Shelter, I met a ridge runner (folks paid to walk sections of trail to make sure folks are OK, tidy and respectful). I asked her to make sure someone checked on Old Crab. I also met Dao there, as he was making his last stop before finishing his SOBO hike. He was already starting to feel sad and didn't want his hike to end. Buddha on his first day met Dao on his final day. 😄

I ended my first day at Hawk Mountain Shelter after 16.9 miles. I pitched my tent, collected water and bird bathed down at the nearby creek where I met a Quebecois named Ruby and showed her how to backwash her water filter. I heated up my ramen bomb dinner (ramen with stuffing mix) and was off to sleep by 6:30 as others were congregating around the fire circle near the shelter, camp chairs and an ukulele appear.

For the next week, the days were pretty much the same. Up early. Hike ~15 miles. In my sleeping bag by sundown. Hike for 10 hours. Sleep for 12. Repeat. Ahhh, sounds boring and repetitive. But it's actually commands all my attention. One foot in front of the other up the mountain. No stopping on the ups. Shorten steps if you have to but keeping moving. Recover on the downs. Thanks to Littlefoot for teaching me that. Take long deep breaths. Scan the rocks, roots and leaves ahead for any hints of dirt between em. My pack feels heavy but I'm moving well. I'm happy and drenched in sweat on 50 degree days. Wishing it was colder.

But, then there is this blog I've promised everyone. I couldn't get a couple of features to work before I hit trail, so I'm planning to find a computer. I scan my AT Guide for the 💻 symbol. Above the Clouds Hostel in Suches will do the trick. Lucky picks me up at Woody Gap and an hour later I'm clean, in pajamas being squeezed by a shiatsu massage chair, and drinking a Black & Tan from the hiker fridge. Turns out the laptop was broken but Michelle is washing my clothes, Nimrod is chopping vegetables (ahh the comforting aroma of a mirepoix. More massaging, more Yuengling and "dinner will be served in 20" I hear from the kitchen where the chat is light and quick and weaves together the Bolshoi Ballet and trail tales. Nimrod pokes his head from the kitchen and scans the pajama filled room as he advises "I just wanted to see who it was the drank all my beer! .... So, I know whose food to spit in". Yep, I drank almost all (3) of the cook's beer. Another hiker, following my lead had helped out, but his empty was out of site. It's OK, he says, "Just can't find good help", referring to the owner Lucky who had not given me a proper tour of the house when I arrived. I did hear him say there are "sodas, juice and drinks in the fridge. Mark down what you take on the clipboard. We'll settle up when you leave." I just figured beers were drinks. 😆

When I reached Neel’s gap on Friday after 10 miles in the heat I again thought of getting to a computer and made the call to the lovely Your Home in the Woods B&B with Bonnie & Paul Hayward. Lovely in every way. Back at Your Home in the Woods Hostel, I was again clean, napping by 4:00 and waking for dinner at 6:00. Met Billy Goat, a really cool guy who was starting his hike soon. I hope to see him u-p trail. A lovely homemade meal with Bonnie, Paul and Billy Goat was all I had in me, and I was again snoozing in a bed. The blog will have to wait. The next morning Bonnie and Paul awake at 5 to cook me poached eggs with parmesan twists, blueberry pancakes and a buttermilk cornbread while Billy Goat sleeps in. They pray over me and my journey and Paul drops me back at Neel's Gap where Paul took this picture.  

The next computer appeared to await at the Holiday Inn Express in Hiawasee I had hiked 78 miles in six days. Monday, March 7 I hiked 4 miles to Dick’s Creek Gap, caught a shuttle into Hiawassee, Georgia was in bathtub soaking by 9:50AM at the Holiday Inn Express for a NERO (near zero miles day) to rest after hiking 78 miles in 6 days.from camp and hiked ~ 4miles to a road where I was shuttled into town for $20. By 10:00 am I'm checked in, had the buffet breakfast and am soaking in a tub. Laundry gets washed, and I'm off the the computer center where I find a Gateway PC . Are you old enough to remember Gateway Computers? Next morning I wait for the Town County Library to open. I get on a modern computer and learn that my entire site (hikingbuddha.com) is locked, compromised and my situation has been elevated to top-level tech support. Check back in 48 hours. ENOUGH! I gotta go. And, I'm back NOBO after a lovely ride by JC who drove me the 11 miles back to the trailhead.

Looking back on my first week, it's been warmer than expected. I'm sweatin' all day. Sleeping all night. I've heard coyote and helicopters (the trail passes along Camp Merrill: 5th U.S. Army Ranger Training Battalion). It’s been warm - so I priority mailed my mittens, Merino Wool 250 base layers, and microspikes north to Fontana Dam, NC. I don't want to carry the extra couple pounds. I’ll be there in another week and will put my warmest layers back in my pack before I head into the often frigid Smoky Mountains. Looking ahead, I’ll reach North Carolina today and say goodbye to my first (of 14) states. Yay! Only ~2,100 miles to go!

The hike’s been hard but good so far, but the blogging and posting to instagram have been harder!  Since my hikingbuddha.com site has been a disaster, Debbie, my love, has helped me pull this together on Blogger. And, she's created the Google map where you can track my progress. Hope to post again in a week or so when I reach Fontana Dam, NC.