owaijef;oij!!

i feel like there's so much to update! i've been having cell phone issues and i've not really been in any position to have computer access for a while. plus there was trail days in damascus and hiking with my cousin and getting to see nick and jolie and roxanne for a bit. i also got a new pack today!!! the cheap pack i started out with just wasn't cutting it as far as comfort goes, so i requested an early birthday present from my parents today and bought an osprey 65l. so excited! i will try to keep the updates more regular, for my sake and memory as well as y'all's, but for now i gotta say my goodbyes to my cousin and then hit the mountain. thank God for sunshine! =)

gsmnp should be reported for illegal hazing activities

to sum up the last little bit... i've learned that if you make ramen noodles and then add instant mashed potatoes to it and a little more hot water, then cover it in a few ketchup packets, it actually makes a heck of a carb-loaded meal. also, the kennel came and picked swayze up (since she can't go into the smokies) and she started cryin' and it almost made me cry. when we got to the fontana dam shelter the other night, the shelter was nearly full so we all just decided to cowboy camp (just sleeping bags under the stars, no tent) by the fire. it was awesome. :)

i do believe i'll be in damascus this upcoming weekend for trail days! :) my awesome cousin volunteered to drop by wherever we are and pick us up and take us. i would love to see as many bristol people as i can, so drop by and come see us! i won't have a car, but maybe i can convince my cousin we need a coffee date at starbucks or something.

i don't think i like the smokies. or maybe it's just because yesterday was my longest day yet and it included the monster uphill to shuckstack fire tower. yesterday was the first day where i actually got grumpy and felt like a two year old. i was tired and the shelters felt more and more spread out ........

i crave ketchup.

this upcoming tuesday will make two weeks that i've been on the trail. i may not be as far along as i'd like to be, but i'll take it because i haven't had any injuries other than some minor blisters, a few bruised toenails, and a case of sunburn. some of these people out here try and do big miles from the get go and end up blowing their knees out and having to pull off the trail within the first week. there was a kid that came all the way over here from tiawan and he slipped and messed his knee up on the first day out and had to go back home. and just tonight, we had to go pick up a guy that we met three days ago at the hospital because he sliced his knee to the bone. four stitches inside, seven out, and he's off the trail just like that.

a lot of things change when you live in the woods for right at two weeks. the number one thing i can think of right now is how you view grocery stores. walking into a grocery store is SO overwhelming... knowing you can have any food in the store that you want almost seems too good to be true. and i'm so aware of prices and weights. generic poptarts are only $1.25ish, whereas name brand can be upwards of $2 a box. and the other day i wanted some fig newtons, but the only generic pack they had was a two pound pack. they had it advertised on the pack as "2 pounds!" like it was a good thing or something. i don't know a single person who would willingly carry two pounds of fig newtons. ounces make pounds.

my "hiker hunger" hasn't really set in just yet. apparently, when you're in the woods, you get cravings like a pregnant woman and your appetite increases tenfold. the only thing i've been craving in the woods thus far has been ketchup. i stocked up on plenty of that from wendy's tonight so i'll have it when i fix my hashbrowns sometimme this week. maybe i'll add it to my fake mashed potatoes as well.

i'm having a really great time out here. yesterday, i did some of my first ever night hiking. had the trail not been as well-blazed as it was, it might've been a little unnerving, but it was really awesome. when we got done, it was neat to just sit down and look up at the stars and know that i had nowhere to be and nothing i needed to be doing.

i'm also meeting some really awesome people. i met ranger and slow snail, a mother and daughter from vermont. the mother fell coming off blood mountain and really hurt her knee, but instead of packing up and going home, they're taking their time and doing just a few miles a day. i met a guy named dwight from alabama. he reminded me so much of mr. tommy. :) he and i got to talkin' SEC football and he was telling me that he loves it when the players get so into the game that they cry. he told me if i ever get the chance, i should watch the ole miss vs. alabama game where it was neck and neck until the last minute where alabama held the lead and archie manning cried. as he described the game to me, he teared up and didn't apologize for it. :) his family is all accounted for from the tornadoes except for his mother in a nursing home. y'all please pray for dwight and slow snail. dwight's wife picked him up this morning (he was only section hiking), so he should have some news about his mama, but everybody affected by the alabama storms still needs so much prayer. and yesterday we did some of our first rock scrambling (having to use all fours to climb), and i don't know how slow snail will safely be able to manage with her bum knee.

i haven't really gotten a firm trail name yet... till and miss janet both called me patrick ("hey look... it's patrick and swayze") so i signed a few log books as patrick, but then tonight "our" group of four were standing around in the parking lot just havin' a good ol' time and they called me giggles 'cause i tend to laugh... a lot. so we'll see... maybe i'll give it some more time?

andddd i finally found a raincoat/jacket for swayze tonight. i'm so excited that she won't be cold anymore and that i won't have to share my fleece. :)

zero days are good for the soul

so i hope everybody back home in mississippi, alabama, and tennessee is okay! i've seen some of the footage of the rough weather that y'all are having. we're getting some of that tonight, so swayze and i are staying off the trail until tomorrow morning. my budget didn't account for tornados.

yesterday was awesome. :) we had a tiny hike into a parking lot that was roughly eleven miles from the town that i was supposed to resupply in. i had planned on maybe getting to the town early, resupplying, and then getting a ride back to the trail to camp last night, but we had absolutely no cell phone reception when we got to the parking lot. boo that, haha. so a guy that i've met on the trail and i started walking into town. we had just enough cell phone reception to send and receive texts, but not make phone calls, so he sent his mama a text message and she called the hotel that provided shuttle services into town. they came to pick us up, and i'll be danged if it wasn't miss janet that was driving the bus!!! :) that might not mean a lot to y'all, but i was starstruck! hahaha... miss janet is pretty much famous on the AT and whiteblaze. when one of the guys got dropped off at the place he was staying, he was like, "bye miss janet!" and i was like, "are you THE miss janet?" i got her autograph and a picture with her and she even gave swayze dog treats! :) she also fussed at us about how we were going about hitchhiking the whole wrong way. she said the three rules of hitchhiking are:

1) stop walking. if you're walking, that means you're okay and you don't need help.

2) get to a place where people can pull over. even if they want to, if they can't get to you, you're screwed.

3) smile and act happy. no one wants to pick up a freak.

also! it turns out that the people who gave us the lemon cookies and root beer the other day is actually a guy named taylor who is slackpacking the whole way to maine and his wife is meeting him at trailheads and driving him to an rv every night. they are SO nice! he came and found us at the hotel last night and drove me to the vet clinic that was three miles up the road so i could get swayze some tick medicine and then took me to mcdonalds. it might not've been a homemade or five guys burger, but i finally got that cheeseburger and sweet tea. :) he's also offered to pick us up in the morning to drive us to the trailhead.

and today has been wonderful. zero days, man. i think it's just what i've needed. granted, i probably shouldn't take many in towns because towns are expensive, but even swayze seems to feel better. i've had a nap and two hot showers within the last twenty-four hours. it kind of sucks because almost all day today the weather was pretty (it's starting to look pretty rough here now), and in the back of my mind i was thinking the whole time, "man. you're not getting any miles in today. you should be hiking. what're you doing?" but hopefully i'll feel better in the long run for doing it. i've heard it said, "start out slow, and then go slower." well... you can't get much slower than 0.

and for those of y'all who've been asking... i will let y'all know where i'll be soon, i promise! (just so y'all know.. i will only be posting WHEN i will be places on facebook and only my friends will be able to see it... just to deter any creepers.) i will say that my list has changed... i'm no longer asking for ground coffee. that was dumb. i don't feel like waking up in the morning and boiling water and filtering coffee. i'm slow enough as it is at breaking camp. if the whole wide world depended on me to break camp in less than fifteen minutes, we'd all be screwed. i've not built a fire since i started, so i no longer need dryer lint, hahaha. and i think i hate peanut butter now so i've taken that off the list. (nutella is still a go, though. ;D) snickers are always welcome in any shape or size. they're pretty much payment between hikers. ("i'll trade you a couple of snickers for some hot water for my oatmeal.") but i think i've sworn off oatmeal, too, so i don't need any of that.

thank y'all so much for all y'all's support thus far. i love y'all and miss y'all. :)

oh, those prayers

roarrr. y'all pray for swayze please. her pack is rubbing her and she's really tired. i gave her some pain meds tonight, but i'm out of duct tape and athletic tape just isn't cutting it. maybe i'll trade somebody a few feet of duct tape for a few snickers tomorrow.

happy easter, y'all. today was a gorgeous hiking day. it was hot and i got sunburned but i'll take sunshine over rain anyday. i'm exhausted, though. since swayze's having trouble with her pack, i let her slackpack (go without a pack) a few times on the uphills. i'm sure she loved it, but i weighed MY pack the other day at the hostel and it weighed 43 lbs. adding her pack to mine today probably put me in the neighborhood of 50. needless to say, i'll be knocking myself out with a hydrocodone here in a few minutes. i'm too tired to even eat tonight.

thank all y'all for any prayers y'all are sending our way. you know, it's absolutely amazing, but all of my prayers have been answered on this trip thus far. God rocks. :) in reverse order, i was really prayin' there'd be a trail angel in the parking lot when i came off a mountain today. a trail angel is anyone who helps a hiker out, whether it's food or shelter or a ride into town. swayze and i came down the mountain today and there was a couple sitting in a car. they rolled the windows down and asked if we needed a ride into town, but i don't really need a resupply just yet and i'm still kinda skeptical of hitching (even though just about everybody on the trail does it), so i told them i was fine, thanked them, then swayze and i sat down in the shade to have lunch. right as they were leaving, the lady called out to me and offered me some lemon cookies and half a root beer. yes, ma'am... i'll take that. swayze was a fan as well. :)

one of my absolute pet peeves is a sparsely-marked trail. yesterday we pretty much hiked alone all day, and when we got to the last four miles or so, the blazes became few and far between. i was tired and hungry and all i could think of was, "Lord, just show me a blaze. let me know i'm goin in the right direction." and sure enough, every time i'd ask, there would be a blaze soon after. also last night, i was praying that there'd either be a familiar face or no one at all at the shelter. when i got there, there were two people from our "group" and two new people. i breathed a huge sigh of relief. the same exact thing happened again tonight. when i got to the campsite, it was just me and a guy i haven't seen yet. i specifically asked for someone in our group to show up, and not half an hour later, i heard a familar voice.

there've also been two instances where it's poured down rain at night and i've laid there in my tent and said, "God, just please let it be gone by daylight," and it quits at sunrise. :)

so whatever y'all have been praying, keep doing it 'cause it's working. thank y'all so much. maybe we should start working on a big, fat, juicy hamburger with lettuce and tomato and pickles and ketchup with a really ginormous glass of sweet tea and some salt & vinegar chips. at this point, that'd basically be heaven on earth.