Manon's First Overnight

Manon and I went hiking in the Mount Rogers-Grayson Highlands area June 14-16. It was Manon's first overnight on the AT and only my second. We had a blast. We summited Mt. Rogers and saw plenty of wild ponies all weekend.

Lunch Time

Lunch With A View

More Lunch View

Manon Near The Summit Of Mt. Rogers

The Summit A Little Over 5700"

Siesta

Breakfast View

Saw Plenty Of Wild Ponies On Saturday

Our House For Saturday Night

Finishing Up Sunday Afternoon

The 1st weekend of June was awesome for me. I met The Goat and Rain Man in Wytheville, VA and rode down to Erwin, TN with them. We slept in the parking lot of Uncle Johnny's Hostel on Friday night. Saturday morning we spotted the motor home at Iron Mountain Gap and got shuttle service back to Spivey Gap where we started our hike. We actually had 2 different shuttle drivers, Sarge and 10K. They were both a wealth of knowledge, (which we took full advantage of). Sarge was really funny. He told us the story of Mary the elephant (google it). He also told us to watch out for the dreaded Hoop Snake, you know the snake that bites it's tail and then rolls down the trail chasing you? Very venomous he said. hhhhmmmm. I think this story probably works best on city folk. ha ha
The weather was really good Saturday. Sunny and hot. We were talking about how that it usually rains when they are hiking. That is how Rain Man got his name. I told them that they could thank me for the nice weather. I always bring the sunshine with me. They both said that should be my name. I like it. Sunshine, it is.

We got a pretty late start, because of all the driving, spotting the vehicle and getting shuttles, so we planed to hike back to Uncle Johnny's and eat lunch there.

We came across this. Apparently there is a lot of Norovirus going around on the trail this year.

Over looking the Nolichucky River Valley.

This was pretty gnarly.

We ate lunch and took off for the Curly Maple Shelter, where we were going to spend the night. We got there about 6 that evening. Plenty of time to purify water and cook supper. We were all tired. We were in our sleeping bags by 8:00

The Curly Maple Shelter

I woke up at about 11:00 that night to a hard rain. I didn't know it them, but that was a sign of what the weather would be like on Sunday.

We got up at 6:30 Sunday and had breakfast and packed up. We were on the trail by 7:30. It was overcast, but the weather forecast was for showers mid afternoon. We thought we would be done by then. Well we were wrong. It started raining about an hour later and it rained the rest of the day. Oh well, it can't always be sunny.

This was a really nice creek that we walked along

All in all it was a great weekend. That is the 1st time I carried a heavy pack. We covered about 15-16 miles both days. I had an awesome time. Can't wait till next time.



Thank God I Can Hike

I took a couple of months off from running and when I say off, I mean off. I did nothing but work. That is the only physical activity for the entire 2 months. The really sad and scary part for me, was that I really enjoyed not doing any exercise. After all the miles that I have been able to cover in the last 10 years, I just stopped. I lost ALL desire to run.
For several years I have been reading books written by thru hikers. I am very intrigued by their journeys. I have been wanting to do some section hikes, but just couldn't fit it in with running too. Last year I helped a
friend with some shuttling while he was doing a section in VA on the AT. (he did all of VA last year) He invited me to go with him sometime. When I saw him at Promise Land in April he again invited me to go. This year he is doing NC and TN. So a few weeks ago, I started researching backpacking gear. So far I have bought a really good pack and some other essentials and next weekend I am going to do my first section hike on the AT, with Dr. Wortley and Larry Watson.
I am totally stoked. I got my new pack on Friday and I already have 10 miles on it. I have been in the woods every possible minute this weekend, with and without the pack. I am loving it. Walking in the woods doesn't hurt near as much as running and I am enjoying it like a runner, when they first discover and fall in love with trails. I am falling in love again, just at a slower pace.....he he.
Will I run again? Time will tell, for now I am going to enjoy some hikes in the woods with friends. Oh yeh, nest month my wife and I are planning a 3 day 2 night trip, somewhere on the AT.
I feel really good right now and I am really glad to be out there, moving again.

Happy Trails

Still Thinking

I am enjoying my time off from running. My back is still hurting, but my knees are feeling better. I might try running a little next week. We will see.

Cross Roads

Sometimes you come to a cross roads in life. Well, I find myself there now. One way leads to more running. One leads to cycling (yuck). The others lead to ????????
This Winter was tough. Because of the bad weather, working 3 jobs and my failure to properly manage my time. I have managed to lose my base mileage. And then there were the injuries, because I was still trying to do long runs and races without a strong base. These have not been like my other running injuries. These completely effected my life. For weeks at a time I was in so much pain that I couldn't sleep or work. It's been 10 weeks and I am still not fully recovered.
I have to figure out whether it is worth all I would have to go thru to build that base back. (long distance runners know what I am talking about). The really bad part is, I am enjoying not running. I have more time to get stuff done and I don't beat my self up constantly, because I got busy and didn't run that day.
What will I do? I don't know yet, but check back later.

Can't Believe How Long It Has Been

Once again it has been WAY too long since I posted anything. I know I have said it before, but I really will try to post more often.
Terrapin Mountain 50K was last Saturday. The weather was really good, bookended by a lot of bad weather. Once again we dodged a bullitt with the weather. The race went pretty well for me. I was really under trained and just wanted to survive. I came out of it with a really nasty blister and a bad dose of runners knee.
Time to heal and then start training for Promise Land