Month: March 2019

It was an early morning. Hiker midnight for us looks like 6:00 pm today. We started early enough to start walking to the terminal from our hotel room at 3:30 a.m.

Eventually we got to an old fashioned airplane –walk across the tarmac to board, no snacks or drinks. Surprisingly smooth flight.

Eventually we ended up at the NOC. Got fuel for the stove (you can’t fly with it). Hiker box had lots of almost empty fuel canisters but mostly things that had weight.

The river was really cold. Those kids didn’t go swimming after all.

Beautiful day. Sunshine and barely a breeze. We met a German couple who were not finding the AT fun (they had an early start, ran into rain, cold and full shelters) and J-Man who cowboy camped all the way from the approach trail to the NOC.

He bought a new tent at the NOC (Nemo one person tent).

But it is a beautiful day. We start hiking tomorrow.

It was an early morning. Hiker midnight for us looks like 6:00 pm today. We started early enough to start walking to the terminal at 3:30 a.m.

Eventually we got to an old fashioned airplane –walk across the tarmac to board, no snacks or drinks. Surprisingly smooth flight.

With a shuttle we ended up at the NOC. Got fuel for the stove (you can’t fly with it). Hiker box had lots of almost empty fuel canisters but mostly things that had weight. So we passed on the box.

The river was really cold. Those kids didn’t go swimming after all.

Beautiful day. Sunshine and barely a breeze. Met a German couple who were not finding the AT fun (early start, rain, cold and full shelters) and J-Man who cowboy camped all the way from the approach trail to the NOC.

He bought a new tent at the NOC (Nemo one person tent).

But it is a beautiful day. Tomorrow we hike on after a night at the NOC.

Hiking in March can be difficult.

Weather is rough right now, predicted to break next week. Last year we just had rain and temperatures under 40 degrees. Had we started March 1st we would have hit temperatures under 10 degrees.

Our plan to hike Springer to the NOC late in the year then start at the NOC [a retroactive plan –I wish I was smart enough to do that on purpose], looks to get us on the trail with good weather and ahead of the bubble.

We were able to get shelter reservations all through the Smokies, and the entire thing is starting to look real for us.

Who would have thought it? I know I wouldn’t have and am glad things worked out.

Some times the best plans are accidents.

The actual weather at any place on the trail can be found here:

https://www.atweather.org/

A general chart of the “normal” weather is here:

http://trailquest.net/weather.html

Obviously some days are wetter than others.

Http://ethesis.blogspot.com is where I used to blog. I think I’ve said what I had to say there and WordPress lets me do things from my phone that I just cannot do otherwise.

But I have not forgotten.

Walking

Just getting some practice hiking in.