May 14, 1999 - Marion Virginia
Folks,
I decided to stay in Marion Virginia ONE more day. It was raining
and thundering with an 80% chance of rain today and 30% tomorrow.
The motel was only $35 and I NEEDED to give my foot a rest.
My wife wanted me to write more about the trail.
Typical day.
Alarm goes off at 6:30
I try to get on the trail by 8:00
Breakfast is usually a Pop Tart or two and a quart of water.
(Pop Tarts make me thirsty )
The first 8 or 10 miles go by fairly fast.
The second half of the day seems to go slow, unless I am heading
into a road crossing and a stay in town. Then I switch to "town"
gear or as glenne likes to say "Turbo" gear.
The first thing at night is to set up the tent. I have procrastinated
in the past, and it has started to rain before I set it totally up.
I usually have a fruit pie or two for lunch, and a Snicker bar or
so.
At night I have some cheese and Sausage in the evening.
I throw a large amount of my gear in the tent, and put
the pack in the vestibule. That way if it rains during the night
I can pack up everything, but the tent, while I am still in the tent.
I have perfected the art of preassembling the tent in the shelter,
if it is raining, and then dashing out, throwing down the ground cloth,
staking out the tent ( which already has the poles inserted
and the rain fly attached) throwing the pack in the vestibule, and
getting in the tent for the night.
The opposite ( packing away the tent after a night of rain ) is not
so clean. Basically it means, taking out the poles, removing the
stakes and trying roll up everything. A wet tent is not the nicest
thing in the world, and so far I have been able to dry it out
in the evening, or use it as an excuse to go into town if one is
available.
About 95% of the shelters have tenting areas around them, and
local water sources.
I have alternated between filtering the water and drinking it
directly, depending on the water source and my mood. Previous
statistics have shown that there is not much difference between
people who filter and people who don't in terms of stomach
disorders. The PUR HIKER filter is working very well, and recently
I have added a coffee filter around the intake port to keep it from
clogging up.
My only forms of entertainment are NPR in the tent at night, and
newspapers and television in town when I am there. I have tried
listening to NPR while I was hiking, but the reception was so
variable that the FM kept locking in on different stations.
In town, I usually look for a motel or break and breakfast which
is "hiker friendly" this means that it has a "hiker box", may provide
shuttles back to the trailhead, is cheap, and a lot of the motels
are probably 40 years old.
Hiker box. A box usually in the back room where people unload what
they don't want, and others usually pick up what they do want.
The most I picked up, was a motel in Erwin where they had both
shampoo and Woolite in the hiker box. I used what I needed, and left
the rest for the next person.
Sometimes people leave food in the shelters the same way, but I
haven't been desperate enough to try it, although I once sampled
some gorp at a bread and breakfast.
About 97% of the people on the trail have "trail names"
People have tried to pin several names on me, but I never see them
long enough for any to stick.
Some of those are:
"Just Mike"
"HP Mike"
" Mr white on the trail with a treking pole " I think that this
refers to the game of clue.
Some of the other trail names that I have met
Hercules
FAL - Free at last
Not so Zippy
Permagrin
Minnesota Mike.
Bearbait
Barechest
Gruff
Spectrum ( I sort of liked that one )
Willow
Yellow Butterfly
Texas Tortoise
Load ( pronounced with a southern accent )
Frog
There are people on the trail who have started anywhere between
March 2nd and April 2nd. So there is a lot of passing of groups
as we march up the trail.
I would say that the age breakdown is:
< 25 40 %
> 50 40 %
Hopefully, I will be out of here tomorrow. I met someone at the post
office who will give me a ride back to the trailhead ( 8 miles )
I you stay to long in town, it can be addictive.
"Mike on the AT"
"No Rain No Pain No Maine"