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Photos, At Last!

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Okay. I’ve got caught up with my photos. I’m afraid I was ridiculously hurried so the captions are sparse. My apologies. Fontana Dam to Erwin: http://picasaweb.google.com/affreeman1959/ATFontanaDamNCToErwinTN# Erwin to Damascus: http://picasaweb.google.com/affreeman1959/ATErwinTNToDamascusVA# A Day In The Life: http://picasaweb.google.com/affreeman1959/ATADayInTheLifeOfAThruHiker# — ~~~~~ Allen F. Freeman allen@allenf.com www.allenf.com allenf.blogspot.com

MonkeywrenchAllen Freemanallen@allenf.comwww.allenf.comallenf.blogspot.com

Thursday, 4/23 AT Miles = 15.9 / 452.8Other Miles = 0 / 20.1Total Miles = 15.9 / 472.9 Glorious Day! A great night's sleep, followed by a glorious day. Finally! Finally, we got some really, really nice weather. I woke up once during the night and had to get out to pee; the sky was […]

Wednesday, 4/22 AT Miles = 21.6 / 436.9Other Miles = 1.0 / 20.1Total Miles = 22.6 / 457.0 Today was mostly just about making miles. It's called "the post office marathon" on the trail, which is when you have to hike crazy miles in order to get to a town before the post office closes […]

Tuesday, 4/21 AT Miles = 8.7 / 415.3Other Miles = 1.4 / 19.1Total Miles = 10.1 / 434.4 When I originally planned my hike I think I had a mail-drop scheduled for the Kincora Hostel, in Dennis Cove, TN. At some point I decided I had too many mail-drops and in an effort to remove […]

Monday, 4/20 AT Miles = 18.4 / /406.6Other Miles = 0.3 / 17.7Total Miles = 18.7 / 424.3 Look! I've passed the 400 mile mark! Lately whenever I have slept indoors I inevitably wake up at 3:00 or 4:00 am and find it impossible to get back to sleep. Well, not last night. I slept […]

Roan Mountain Profile

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I wrote about the climb up Roan Mountain that I did yesterday. This is a rather poor cell phone photo of the elevation profile for that hike. I started my day where my finger is pointing at the left, and ended atop Roan Mountain where my pen is pointing. The start of the climb, at […]

Sunday, 4/19 AT Miles = 15.7 / 388.2Other Miles = 0.7 / 17.4Total Miles = 16.4 / 405.6 It was colder than I expected last night, although the fact that there are still patches of snow on top of Roan Mountain should probably have clued me in. I am a bit slow sometimes. When it […]

Saturday, 4/18 AT Miles = 15.6 / 372.5Other Miles = 1.5 / 16.7Total Miles = 17.1 / 389.2 I climbed Roan Mountain today. From Hughes Gap at 4040 feet, the trail climbs to Roan High Knob at 6285 feet in 3.3 miles. The first 1000 feet are gained in about a mile and a half, […]

Friday, 4/17 AT Miles = 17.0 / 356.9Other Miles = 0 / 15.2Total Miles = 17.0 / 372.1 The weather today is exactly what you woulkd envision if you were to imagine a splendid spring day on the AT. The sky was blue, the sun was warm with just a slight breeze, and the views […]

Thursday, 4/16 AT Miles = b6.3 / 339.9Other Miles = 0 / 15.2Total Miles = 6.3 / 355.1 Shoot! Technology is not being my friend today. I had typed up an entry for today and when sending it my phone reset and I lost the whole thing. I am not patient enough to do it […]

Wednesday, 4/15 AT Miles = 20.7 / 333.6Other Miles = 0 / 15.2Total Miles = 20.7 / 348.8 I had a terrible night last night. It was cold and damp and windy, andI spent most of the night lying in my sleeping bag just on the wrongside of the cold/warm line. I changed into dry […]

Tuesday, 4/14 AT Miles = 14.7 / 312.9Other Miles = 0 / 15.2Total Miles = 14.7 / 328.1 The wind died down last night, but the fog rolled in heavy and the saturated air blowing through my hammock made everything damp. I even forgot to change my socks before going to bed and I told […]

Monday, 4/13 AT Miles = 15.4 / 298.2Other Miles = 0.3 / 15.2Total Miles = 15.7 / 313.4 POWER Wow! The wind increased all night and about 5:30 this morning I woke up to the hammock bouncing up and down. It had been dead calm when I set up the hammock in the afternoon, but […]

Sunday, 4/12 AT Miles = 11.0 / 282.8Other Miles = 0.2 / 14.9Total Miles = 11.2 / 297.7 EASTER CANDY Most of the crew of hikers I have been with lately, left Hot Springs this morning. We had a nice breakfast at Elmer's, then headed through town, aqcross the French Broad River on the road […]

A Lazy Reading Day

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I bought a copy of Abbey's "Down The River" at the outfitter's this morning, and have spent a good part of the day sprawled out on my bed reading it. It's been a long time since I've read any Abbey — the bastard went and died, and therefore isn't writing any new books — and […]

Friday, 4/10 and Saturday, 4/11 AT Miles = 3.2 / 271.8Other Miles = 0 / 14.7Total Miles = 3.2 / 286.5 Thursday evening was wonderful; warm, calm, and relaxing. There were 5 or 6 of us sleeping in or camped around the shelter, and we passed a relaxing evening cooking, eating, and chatting around a […]

Thursday, 4/9 AT Miles = 14.8 / 268.6Other Miles = 0.5 / 14.7Total Miles = 15.3 / 283.3 Another great day! It was cold as I left camp this morning but it warmed up quickly and by mid-morning I was down to shorts and a T-Shirt. Up high there is still plenty of snow on […]

Wednesday, 4/8 AT Miles = 15.4 / 253.8Other Miles = 0.4 / 14.2Total Miles = 15.8 / 268.0 Glory! What a fantastic day! After spending the last few days in close company with the group I've been hiking with — close quarters because of all the snow and wind and cold, while we watched out […]

So, a couple days ago I passed the 200 mile mark, and the day afterthat I passed the 10% mark (2178 * 10% = 217.8). Ten percent. Itdoesn't seem like much, does it? It is still much too daunting tothink about the whole 2178.3 miles as a whole. I concentrate on muchmore immediate goals. For […]

Tuesday, 4/7 AT Miles = 10.4 / 238.4Other Miles = 0.1 / 13.7Total Miles = 10.5 /252.2 It had snowed all night and there was about 5" or 6" of snow on the ground, and it was still snowing. It was gorgeous out, but cold. As you can maybe imagine, 17 people trying to cook […]

Monday, 4/6 AT Miles = 20.3 / 228Other Miles = 0 / 13.7Total Miles = 20.3 / 241.7 In the morning the rain had stopped, but the wind was still whipping and the temperature was falling. I set out from the shelter with a group of six other hikers with the aim of reaching Tricorner […]

Sunday, 4/5 AT Miles = 15.5 / 205.7Other Miles = 0.3 / 13.7Total Miles = 15.8 / 221.4 Food Fantasies! Today was a beautiful day. Soon after leaving in the morning I made it to the summit of Clingmans Dome. There is a road to the summit and an observation tower, and being Sunday there […]

Friday, 4/3 AT Miles = 13.8 / 177.5Other Miles = 0 / 13.4Total Miles = 13.8 / 190.9 When I went to bed last night I had pretty much decided to take a zero at Fontana Dam, but apparently sometime while I was sleepibg I decided not to. I woke up about 3:30 this morning […]

Saturday, 4/4 HAPPY BIRTHDAY JODI! AT Miles = 14.7 / 192.2Other Miles = 0 / 13.4Total Miles = 14.7 / 205.6 It was still windy and cold this morning, but all the clouds had blown out and the sky was crystal clear. I ate a quick breakfast of cold cereal, packed up my gear, took […]