April 23, 1999 - Hot Springs North Carolina
Folks,
Answers to a few asked questions :-)
How many people do you see.
The people traveling northbound seem to travel in clusters.
Most of the time you will see the people who stayed in the
same shelter or campsite where you stayed the night before.
You will run across people doing 5, or 8, 6 or 20 miles/day.
Eventually you seem to get synced to a certain group and may
see them for 5 out of 7 days.
In the smokies there were more section hikers going southbound
and you met more people. to answer the question. On a low day you
might only see 5 people, where the highest number I say was about 30
which were two groups of scouts/teenagers.
Biggest surprise. How hot it is. Coming from Washington State,
it appears that this is a warmer than normal spring.
I have had three nights with the temperature in the vestibule of
my tent was between 25 and 32, with one night of very light snow,
and about three nights of rain.
I have had to walk in the hard rain only once, and then it let up
enough for me to set up the tent.
How is the equipment working ?
My journey backpack is holding up very well. I am having trouble
keeping the aluminum stay in its proper place. During the day it
will break loose and come out of its desired location.
I have found that the best method is to load/fill all of the
compartments first, then fill the main compartment, and then adjust
the compress straps. It is the proverbial problem with 2.5 pounds
of sugar in the 2.0 pound sack.
The PUR hiker water filter is working well. I am surprised how easy
it is to pump. It has a one year guarantee against clogging, and
that is one reason that I bought it. I also needed to buy about
$30 worth of parts for my Sweetwater filter, so it was a good
tradeoff.
The crack about cookies in my first newsletter should have been
followed with a smiley. It is very expensive to ship items across
country with a guaranteed delivery date. Plus I have discovered
that I either have to eat them all at one time, or carry them in
such a way that they won't be crushed.
If you still insist:
Give yourself plenty of lead time, you can check with the
post office , but they are very noncommittal about deliver
unless you bump up to the priority mail. Most hikers are
surprised that you can walk to your next destination faster
than the post office will guarantee delivery unless you go
to the priority mail route.
You plenty of packing material
Those you know my hiking style know that I don't spend a lot of time
smelling the flowers. Combine this with my lack of appetite and
you find that I spend most of the day hiking, and am in my tent
within a half hour of setting up my tent. I try to listen to a little
NPR and look at what is happening on the next days hike.
I try to call my wife every 4 days or so, and she will know my
schedule better than anyone.
So far I am surprised that I have completed over 10% of the trail.
It has been easier than I expected, but everyone tells me that it
will get worse. The average climb is about 500ft/mile with the
max being 1000ft/mile. Of course this may be repeated 3 or 4 times
a day. I have passed the highest point on the trail, Clingman's Dome
at 6600 feet, and as they say, it is all downhill from there.
You almost have to treat it as a job and be prepared to walk 8 hours
a day, with the appropriate breaks.
They do have an interesting phenomena on the trail called "balds".
These are mountain tops covered by grass. They have their own treeline
which is below the normal treeline for this part of the country. When
you are going over them, you almost swear that someone is mowing them.
Again thanks for your support.
Mike Aken
"on the AT "
" No Pain No Rain No Maine "