Hello everyone. Apologies for the infrequency of our posts. W haven’t exactly had as much access to internet as we had anticipated. We are currently in Kent, Conneticut, and are going to be flying out of NYC on Monday. We’ll be posting more pics and stories later, hopefully this weekend, but if you want the exculsive, live, in person update and stories, we’ll be at the Library in Norman, OK at 1 PM on Tuesday August 12th. Be there! We’d love to see you!
3 photos that wouldn’t load to the last post July 13, 2009
but I’m determined, so here they are.
Leslie had goats for the kids she'll soon be hosting at her home of goodness. I liked this goat in the window. I didn't like the one that headbutted Slackass in the back of his leg,
4th of July in Stephens City, VA: juicy watermelon, a fun if mediocre Dave Matthew's cover band, great fire works, and some of the best people watching I have ever experienced.
We sprawled on the senate house lawn in DC, not jealous of all the stuffy suits passing us by, just wishing for a pretzel vendor.
Warning: TMI, TMI!!!! Blog Gone Crazy!!! July 13, 2009
Greetings from D.C!! First things first, we apologize from the bottom of our hearts for not posting, ever. Also for not hitting the Spot. We forgot civilization existed. We’ve been busy fighting bears, losing our naivete, and consuming copious amounts of ice cream whenever the opportunity presents itself. But now, we’re in an Apple store. Prepare yourself for way more information than you ever wanted to know about our trip. Special thanks to Sarah McWhorter for her detailed chronologuing.
June 21: The one where we don’t hike naked
That’s right, summer solstice on the trail is celebrated by hiking naked. Don’t worry, we are party poopers and kept our clothes on. We did however take some pretty convincing faux naked pictures behind signs at scenic outlooks. Also spotted a bear and continued hiking with our trail friends Croc, Slackass, and Kelly. That night, Croc goes a little crazy dancing to the IPOD and almost drops Shannon on her head in the fire while flipping her.
June 22: The one where Shannon takes forever to get ready, oh wait, that’s every day.
People head out of camp in a hurry to get to a swimming hole 6 miles away. Turns out to be 10 miles. Slackass and Croc get there first and apparently go skinnydipping. Sarah and Kelly show up in time to swim and lay out. Shannon talks on her phone and arrives as everyone is ready to go. Sad day. The guys go get water, plus hot dogs and smores for later. Sarah gets her first taste of Slack’s snickers/hot sauce/peanut butter/tortilla wrap. Slackass makes a point to tell everyone he meets about his ingenious concoction.
June 23: The one where Sarah pukes on her crocs
Shannon wakes up 5 minutes after everyone and freaks out, assuming everyone has been up for a while. She whines about not wanting to hike by herself through rattlesnake territory so Slackass waits for her, then she ditches him 2 minutes into the 3000 ft. climb. Hey, when you’re slow on the downhills you gotta work the ups. Sarah also gets her trail legs. The 3000 foot climb she thought might kill her only made her pass out for 5 minutes. She loves the downhills though. We meet Turtleback, a breed of his own, broadcasting his inability to get dates and his urinary tract infection. Any connection? Maybe. We get to the shelter and find a swimming hole, tainted only by a Highway Man’s threats to call the authorities if Slackass goes skinnydipping. That night, Sarah projectile vomits her favorite dinner of refried beans and cheese and rice out of the shelter. . .onto her crocs. Shannon pats her back helplessly.
June 24: The one where we all “jump” over the fire
It’s time for a resupply, so the girls hitch into Glasgow while the guys go get new boots. Glasgow is the saddest podunk virginia town we’ve ever seen. We gorge ourselves on non-trail food and resupply, then get a truck to turn around and drive us over a mountain back to the trail. Two guys hikers resent the fact that we got a hitch, “just because we’re girls.” Well, that’s not actually what they said, but children could be reading this. We try to hike but apparently forgot how to. We crash like beach whales and groan about the food in our stomachs. Resentful guys blow past us, we tell them to tell Slack and Croc we’re not gonna make it. Sarah actually has an excuse because she is still sick. We hole up in a shelter until a chubby boy scout and his entourage roll in. They are headed to the road and offer to give sarah a hitch up the trail. Kelly and Shannon hit a tough climb while Sarah picks up the world’s smallest watermelon. Shannon gets to the top of the mountain and is sad to find a memorial for a child that wandered away from a schoolhouse and died. Shannon gets increasingly worried as the sun sets and she realizes she has no idea if she’s passed the shelter and Sarah has the data book. Anyway, we all end up at Punchbowl Shelter, very happy to be together, especially in light of the fact the it is John the Baptist day. According to Celtic tradition, we all jump over the fire to let go of all our regrets. Croc’s idea. We even share our pudding (thanks Mrs. McWhorter) with the rude resentful boys. Shannon goes the extra mile and shares her spoon. Good thing they figured that “if regular people do 20 miles a day they could do 30″. We haven’t seen them since and we’re not complaining.
June 25th: The one where Shannon calls Tracy Roberts a drunk in front of his friend
Yep. oops. We find an abused, abandoned, sick, limping, starving bear dog with a $300 transponder around his neck. We spend the majority of the day trying to get him to his owner, Tracy Roberts. A lady informs us that the Roberts are drunks, all of them. We name him Yogi, and he yogies our beef jerky right off of us. He tries to yogi food from Croc, but Croc freaks out, kicking the dog while protecting his food bag and throwing morsels away from himself. Sarah catches it on video. We discover the beauty of wild blueberries on marshmellows. It’s delicious.
June 26: The one where Michael Jackson dies
At lunch Kelly informs us Michael Jackson and Ferrah Faucet are dead. Slackass is not sad. Kelly and Croc take off with lofty aspirations of hiking a marathon that day, we have no such aspirations and stop at 18 to cowboy camp on some cliffs. Amazing fire and sunset. The “Grim Reaper” shows up and relates lots of “fun” stories, all relating to people dying on various trails. ”Grim Reaper” talks on cell phone in woods, the next morning Shannon believes Sarah and Slackass that the Grim Reaper didn’t have a cell phone and was talking to himself.
June 27: The one with the gay guys with Terret’s.
Shannon feels sick, again, and barely makes it down a hill before throwing herself on a rock and crying in front of Sarah and Slackass. Embarrassing. She hitchhikes up the trail with three gay runners training for Pikes Peak marathon. Ok, they might not have been gay, but they definitely had Terret’s. Sarah actually enjoys a 3000 ft climb! It’s a miracle! She is convinced she stole Shannon’s energy. The three are reunited and enjoy a well yogied pizza and beer. Thanks Slack.
June 28: The one with the naked man
We hike into Waynesboro, passing a 60 yr. old man hiking naked. To each his own. Slackass has a strange altercation with a very hostile ice cream man and excuses himself by saying, “I’m sorry, I guess I’ve been in the woods too long”. Everyone lets out the breath they were holding. We reunite with Croc and Kelly and hit up an AYCE buffet, successfully not gorging ourselves.
June 29: The one with Sarah’s knock knock joke gone very wrong
Croc pushes the group out of Waynesboro at warp speed. Once we are dropped off at the trail, everyone but Croc responds by taking the ultimate “zero civilization” day. We kick it off with some frisbee and fencing with hiking poles. We then climb up to an overlook, but it turns out to not be one, so we play a game of “Giants, Elves, and Wizards” in a field. High on “zero civilization,” Sarah forces a joke on a very uncooperative overseer.
Sarah: “Knock knock”
Overseer (reluctantly): ”Who’s there?”
Sarah: ”interrupting starfish”
Overseer: <grunts>, “I dunno what that is”
Sarah, carried away by the craziness of zero civilization, persists in placing her hand on the overseer’s face and explains, “It’s a starfish, it’s interrupting you.”
Zero civ culminates appropriately w/ hot dogs roasted over a camp stove because the Shenandoah forest is vehemently opposed to campfires.
June 30: The one where the bear snaps at us
In our excitement to tell you about the next day, we will make this one short. We saw 5 bears, got blackberry shakes, and lived to tell about it. Barely.
July 1: The heavenly one
Leslie Nichols, the holiest trail angel ever to live, rescues us and takes us to her utopia. She is a friend of a friend of Croc’s and happened to live in Elkton. After we swim in her salt water pool, she feeds us a meal Slackass describes as “Thanksgiving on crack.” Salmon that melts in your mouth, mozzerella and tomatoes, green beans with fancy cheese, pasta with fancy chesse, the heartiest, healthiest bread you’ve ever tasted, Shenandoah valley wine, and cheesecake with fresh strawberries. Sarah almost cries when we sit down at the candlelit table. We’d tell you about the orderves but it would take to long. While Leslie stays up washing poison ivy off of Slack’s gear we sleep in luxury rooms that will eventually be part of her refuge for troubled foster children. A truly amazing and inspiring woman.
July 2nd: The one where Slackass is on steroids
I think we probably talked about Leslie most of this day. Group communication breaks down towards the end of the day and we end up making Kelly pack everything up and put her shoes back on to hike only .5 miles away from a shelter. All so we can camp on a mountain. Surprisingly, she continues to speak to us.
July 3: The one with the one-winged fly
We recover from a late night by taking a nappative in a cemetery. We attempt to push on, but are distracted by burgers and shakes at a nearby campground restaurant. At 4:00 we realize we have 14 miles left. The trail takes us along a beautiful ridge and we stop to spot fireworks in the valley below. Sarah and Slack attempt night hiking without head lamps, for fun. Shannon isn’t in the mood for “fun” and refuses to participate. And happy birthday Greg! You are awesome.
July 4: The one with the upside-down heart
We all want to see fireworks. Sarah really really really wants to. The situation doesn’t look promising until Slack strikes up a conversation with a guy who loves thru hikers and apparently reads about thru-hiking in all his free time. He drives us 45 minutes to Stephen’s City, a city that we know has fireworks, we just didn’t know how to get there. John is the awesome kind of crazy, and has way too much fun taking us to a grocery store, waiting while we shop, then taking us to a campground. The night of the 4th includes a Dave Matthews tribute band, a firework show with an upside-down heart,ridiculously intense patriotic music, and lots of little boys with mohawks.
July 5
Foggy. Lazy. Lay around. Play spades. Nappative. Kelly wakes whole shelter screaming “NOOOOO” when Shannon wins a trick.
July 6
Long day. Learn how to start fire with cotton ball soaked in vaseline. Burns for 13 to 14 minutes.
July 7: The one with the Winks
We hike 29 miles to reach a third generation family-owned pub. Slack bets that we won’t make it in time and has to buy dinner. Owner (Tracee Wink) sings for 3 hours with a sultry smoker’s voice, by the end we are the only people in the place not singing or playing an instrument. Tracee lets us camp in her back yard, we hit the trail in the morning.
July 8
We have no cash to pay for our omelets but the owner says just send him money when we get it.
July 9-13: The one where we are tired of blogging.
Well, all posts must end sometime, and this one has definitely gone far beyond what it should have. We got to D.C. on the 10th, heard Elton John and Billy Joel from outside the Nationals stadium, did some touristy things, enjoyed still more hospitality from Sarah’s friend Lucas Zenega, and are now about to catch a train back to Harper’s Ferry. We will miss our friends. . .Kelly off the trail for a week at her brother’s wedding, Croc off the trail in Alaska on cruise with his wife, Slackass now probably pushing ahead of us. The woods make us miss two things: running water, and you. Love you all, one more month!!
Feast your eyes! July 13, 2009
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One of the snazziest shelters we stayed in, with two stories, a porch and plexiglass windows upstairs. Livin Large. This is where we had the s'mores hot dog partyHitching into Glasgow. Always an adventure...
Yogi, our mangey, malnurished, slow hiking dog for a day. How we loved him.
Sarah's favorite flower, the columbine, also known as the interrupting starfish
Around one of Kelly, the fire master's, glowing fires. She can start a fire in the rain.
The night we cowboy camped on the cliffs with the grim reaper...and lived to tell about it.
The sunset the night of the cowboy camp (ok, when we way the "night" of cowboy camping, we really mean, the hour. We kind of got scared it was going to rain and hightailed it for our tents...oh well)
we've developed a deep love of tent camping in grassy clearings on the tops of mountains. It's glorious.
Entering the Shenandoahs, the lad flowing with milk and honey...or blackberry shakes, burgers, and sodas at camp stores.
- Bed at Leslie Nichols, trail angel extraordinaire
Salt water pool at Leslie's, good for the feet, good for the soul.
Leslie’s house. Our palace for a night. Sorry to overload with pictures from this excursion, but it made quite an impression on us
The Shenandoah valley in all its glory
I think I found the reason I came on the trail
The pub at the end of our 29 mile day. This is the owner of the pub. She had a great sultry smoker voice and did great old classic folk songs with her own twist.
Dictionary of Terms July 13, 2009
Just so we’re all on the same page here, we have decided to post a dictionary of terms that you may or may not be familiar with/we may or may not have made up. We don’t want you to be confused by future posts, so here goes:
Yogi- (v) to convince someone that they want to give you something–water, food, rides, directions, a place to stay, just because you are an AT hiker. The true yogi masters (i.e. slackass) have the power to yogi so well that people are convinced it was their idea to give in the first place.
Zero civilization (n)- Defines our style of hiking. We take few zero days (we think they’re often pointless and dull) But while hiking, we take as many zero minutes and hours as we want–swimming, enjoying scenic overlooks, yoging or chatting with day hikers, taking nappatives in cemeteries, eating, playing games, or doing whatever we please. It makes hiking enjoyable rather than exhausting.
Nappative- (n) originated when Shannon was trying to take a nap but couldn’t because Sarah and Slackass were talking too much. Slackass informed Shannon that it was just a nap with a narrative. And so was coined the term nappative. It has since morphed into referring to when someone reads aloud to someone else who is lying down. (don’t question the zero civilization epistemology)
AYCE- (adj.) the thing hikers love and crave the most until they’re sprawled on the front lawn of a restaurant puking afterwards. Stands for “All you can eat”
Trail Angel- (n.) Refers to Leslie Nichols and all those who bend over backwards to meet the every need and whim of the AT hiker (as they should 
Among other things they give rides, leave food and drinks on the trail, let you stay at your house, let you send the money later when you only have a credit card and they only take cash. We are eternally grateful to all those who have come to our aid over and over again.
Pillsbury- (n.) refers to when someone trips over a rock or root on the trail but doesn’t completely wipe out (that is referred to as a superman or woman). It is so called because the sound the person makes often resembles the sound the Pillsbury doughboy makes when tickled
News from Daleville June 21, 2009
Greetings from the thriving metropolis of Daleville, Virginia, site of our second zero Day. We actually technically could end our hike here because yesterday, hiking into town, we found what we were looking for. A black bear! Ok, so we’re not coming home with a bear skin rug or coat or anything, but we saw it…well, I (Sarah) did, and it was a couple hundred yards off running away from us down the trail, but we saw one gosh darn it. I guess if it was running away from us, what they say is true, bears are more scared of us than we are of them. So ironically enough, I can say that I am less scared of bears after my first sighting than before.
Well my parents left us in Pearisburg, VA 6 days ago. We loved the time with them, and their nice relaxed pace, but obviously not enough to stick to it. We have hiked about 86 miles in the pas 5 days. We hiked the past week with our friends, Slackass, Kelly, and Croc, whom me love. (see the photo) In that time, one of those days was a 24 miler on my 24th birthday! (well, closer to 23, but for the sake of my birthday we’ll say 23). That day left us pretty dead, but happy. We’ve had some rough times of dehydration, blisters, bad circulation (shannon) and fear of tics (shannon) and bears (sarah), and I think my mom is worried about us because of all that, but don’t worry mom, we are still loving it, and I think the hard stuff is a huge part of what makes this so great!
Well, I wish I had time to include more details, but once again we’ve stayed up obcenely late updating this. (8:30 is sometimes called the hiker midnight) I think the pictures tell the stories well, so be sure and check them out. Hope you enjoy them. Love and miss you all! more soon…
86 miles, 5 days, here’s what we have to show for it. June 21, 2009
The pre-wash, just trying to help out the hotel's washing machine
- 4 straight girls
we LOVE these girls!! Juice's greatest moments included getting her arm stuck under the passenger seat, getting green frosting all over our hotel room, and picturing in her head that the folks at Applebees enjoyed our Karaoke. They definitely did not.
- We didn’t camp here. . .we just took up the entire pavilion drying out and reorganizing 5 people’s gearThe pre-wash, just trying to help out the hotel’s washing machine
- flaming azaleas. . .beautiful
- toms
moles are fun to catch, because they are blind
we found an old cemetery and shannon got excited, it included the grave of a general in the revolutionary war.
you can't really see, but the pit bull is definitely drooling. Shannon was too heartless to share.
dwarf wife? creepy. . .
2 hour lunch break, including flight of the concords, phil rice, and yoga.
TEXAS!!
oh, back to the two hour lunch break
the blisters are healing!! soon sarah will not have to hike in crocs!!
Sarah's favorite flower is the mountain laurel, mostly because it grows on the tops of mountains. haha, she's so great.
we get to climb over these!
pretty awesome
- Shannon gets weird pain/itching/aching/throbbing/pins and needles in her big toes when she takes her boots off. Sarah wants to help but is powerless.
There was a bench on top of the 2nd mountain of our 23 mile day. We laughed hard.
Sarah had 6 nose bleeds over 20 miles. Shannon loved the extra breaks. Sarah also sprinted the last 5 of the 20 miles because she saw bear and wanted to get in to Daleville before dark. Shannon doesn't like sprinting. Because she is bad at it.
The trail goes along some cliffs, one of our favorite parts so far.
Proof! we have made some friends out here! Can you believe it? Croc, John, and Kelly. They are great.
Hilarious. We went to a mexican restaurant and this is what they do to celebrate people's birthdays. What you can't see is the 20 other employees watching with smirks on their faces.
While we were all taking pictures Sarah was yelling, "Shannon, help me get this stuff off!" We kept taking pictures.
photos! June 13, 2009
our first rain. squishy!
"what are we doing????" shannon after our first "long" day.
Susie!!!!
team green takes on the cows
I AM a Texan, people! and proud of it.
Juicy!
mmmmm CHicken of the woods. "old school" smoked these...in a pan.
Yes I forgot to buy a stuff sack for my thermarest.
Wild Strawberries!!!!!!!!!!
- our first blaze. whooo!
Our First shelter
our first lunch
our first night. Scary!
team green!
the parents. they're troopers.
Goofball's kneebrace and his 90 lb pack making shannon's pack look bad
most beautiful place on earth...garden of eden-like. the picture doesn't do it justice.
awesome view. wish you could see it.
we love ponies!!!!!!!!!!!
check out our new photos.
June 13, 2009
Well, how to summarize the first week and a half of the trail? I’m sitting here in a hotel in Christiansburg, VA after two unplanned zero days (days off the trail). I’ll let you guess whether it was because a) Shannon got sick and threw up a pot full of food in out tent two nights ago*, or b) because my parents came to visit us and turned out not too be quite as tough as they thought they were when faced with a day of hiking in the rain followed by a 3,000 foot climb over 5 miles, and a vicious bout of diarrhea, or c) because shannon’s and my feet were numb and bleeding because of ill-fitting boots and we had to get new ones.
But despite or because of all that and more, it has been a great adventure so far. And we are both SO very glad to be out here living simply in the wild. We have me some great people. Some of our favorites: “Fletch”, one 40 year old out here because his 18 year old cat died and he had nothing left to tie him down, “Old School” a guy who says he was drugged and dropped off by the trail head with a pack by his side and decided to start hiking with just a machete and whatever gear he can collect along the way, “Goofball”, an engineering school drop-out who carries a 90-lb pack (about which he brags and complains consistently) and is about the funniest person we’ve ever met. “Texas Turtle” a redheaded (mohawked) stepchild revered for his 3 year marriage which he sustains by never actually seeing his wife (he’s been deployed and hiking the trail since he’s been married), and “Shepherd” who was given that trail name by a batty old lady because he was “searching.” (get it? we don’t)
The trail and the community and culture that surround it are so easy to fall in love with. Hiking in peaceful solitude all day and living it up at the shelters** with fellow hikers at night is a perfect combination. Gosh there’s so much more we could say, we ate bright orange wild mushrooms (“the chicken of the woods”), were licked by wild ponies, were terrified by the sounds of bear growls our first night (oh wait, those were airplanes, and oh wait, it was just Sarah who was terrified). We’ve come so far since that first night. The day before my parents got here we rocked 20 miles (or smiles as we like to call them) in one day on the heels of one very intellectual, eccentric, and …pant pant…fast paced ”Father Mendoza” from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. We arrived exhausted but proud of our accomplishment, and happy that we had sent money ahead to assure that a Large Pepperoni Pizza from the nearest town was awaiting us. We miss you all and we love you and are having an amazing time. Wish you were here.
*that was the night after she peed in the tent because we were laughing so hard. apparently she has trouble controlling her bodily functions on the trail…to much info? sorry.
**Shelters are just three sided cabins good for packing in hikers like sardines.
***By the way, if you’re on the spot list, we just figured out how to use it. sorry if you thought we were dead this whole time.
June 1, 2009
Mail Drops:
Ok, these are the estimated dates that we will be passing through each city and picking up food drops. We would love to hear from you! For our exact location, ask Jessica Brennan or Kristin Kleinkort. They’ve got our coordinates, thanks to satellite technology. If you send us something, address it to : our name, c/o General Delivery, City, State, ZIP code, and the notation “hold for A.T. Hiker” followed by the expected arrival date. Do not send UPS of Fed Ex.
Bland, Va, 24315 6/10
Pearisburg, Va, 24134 6/13
Catawba, Va, 24070 6/17
Glasgow, Va, 24555 6/23
Montebello, Va, 24464 6/26
Waynesboro, Va, 22980 6/30
Front Royal, Va, 22630 7/4
Harpers Ferry, WV, 25425 7/9
Blue Ridge Summit, PA, 17214 7/12
Duncannon, PA, 17020 7/17
Port Clinton, PA, 19549 7/22
Palmerton, PA, 18071 7/25
Delaware Water Gap, PA, 18327 7/29
Unionville, NY, 10988 7/31
Fort Montgomery, NY, 10922 8/6
End at Grand Central Station 8/8
