Cabin Fever

Finally we get to leave Gatlinburg! Yay I had to buy Snow shoes today due to the fact there is over a foot of snow on the mountain....hopefully they will make snow travel a bit easier.

The life of a hobo

Ok it's all getting really real. Ask yourself how long you can go starving with no shower ...goin 200 yards downhill to get water after hiking all day, and eating a breakfast at 15 deg. in the morning. Ha life has gotten hard, we had to get off trail at newfound gap due to ranger advice. I'm in Gatlinburg TN drying clothes. The fact that the men I'm hiking with have been humbled including I is so amazing...the story is good.......tomorrow we will see if the road is even open for us to get bk on trail they are looking at a 1ft. of snow so the icy trails above 6000ft will be worse. In words I cnt really explain how trail conditions are...it's just basically cold, slippery, and wet really wet...Hypothermia is the talk of the trail...alot of people are not ready for the big mountains they call The Great Smoky Mountains. Sorry for bein negative...probably just needed to vent lol. So on that hand 206 miles yay and the highest point of the AT...first thru hikers noticed at clingmans dome! (not the first for this year btw) I'm glad tallboy and heart rock got to see a decent view...

Thanks for your prayers and thoughts I know god is watching out for us.

Carpenter

Thanks momma!

Ok it's been a busy week... The NOC was the start to hard few days... I did a 18 mile day then a 16 mile day time catch up to tall boy and get ahead of the huge group. After the walk up to Wayah bald in the Dark I found tallboy set up camp and passed out. Woke up early on the bald to watch the sunrise with about 14 other hikers...it's was pretty cool. That day tallboy and I met up with heart rock and brad and did 7 miles woot! but we did have to climb Jacobs ladder which is a 600ft. climb in .5 miles...literally straight up. I have now been in Fontana for 3days resupply was a bit of a task here but thanks to my wonderful mother we were able to get to Maryville and get the job done. Mom you are officially a Trail angel. As of this moment I am sitting in my sleeping bag at the Fontana shelter for another day due to the fact that during the night my sleeping pad is slowly losing air and I'm not going into the smokies with failing gear. Especially when theRe is a "Artic Weather warning till Thursday, so I will attempt to fix it and venture into the big mountains tomorrow. Btw the temp above 4000 ft. is supposed to be -15 due to high winds till Thursday yay.

Enjoy life in the fake world :-)
Carpenter

It's just walking, it's not that hard!

Hey everyone! I'm actually in my tent right now at Wesser bald mile 131.4. Today has been a beautiful day I hiked 18 miles and it wasn't too bad. (my knees are getting a lot better) if you didn't know I had hikers knee that really hurt but I pushed through it. Anyhow my current elevation is 4227 ft. and it's not supposed to get colder than the high 30s tonight yay. I am now solo hiking again the team split into different groups I'm just kinda winging it. Tomorrow I will make the approx. 3500ft decent to the NOC have a hiker burger then start the grouling cliMb bk up to the ridge which is 6 miles up hill from 1740 ft to 4710 ft. a real "ball buster"... At this rate I should be bk in my mountains by Mon. or Tuesday at Fontana dam.... I did meet a father and daughter today who are really nice and are also staying at the camp tonight...turns out Chickadee ( the daughter) went to the same highschool my nanny Elliott worked at and just happens to know her...small world ide say.

That's all from the mountain
it's way past hiker midnight I need to be asleep.

Btw the pics are from a awesome fire tower I climbed earlier today.

Team Tally-wackers.

Snow Blows and hobos!

Hello from Helen GA. we are now 6 days and 60.8 miles in. First off the weather has been terrible rain, snow, blowing ice you name it we have walked through it. Last night we went to bed to high winds and rain, only to wake to high winds, fallen down trees and 3in of snow, nothing like waking up and digging out around your tent to find the tent stakes lol. As far as hiking goes it's the only time your warm other than in your sleeping bag, if you stop on trail your hands virtually freeze instantly and core temp drops quick. Miles are hard to crush as well due to the Ice it makes walking slow and sometimes pretty dangerous, no injury has thank god.

Now about the group (tally-wackers)
there is now 6 of us...
Tallboy
Roswell
operator
staples
smuggles
and me. The Carpenter

We have become a tight group, we all look out for one another and the jokes never stop even if it is 10 deg.  I hope we all make it to Maine, it will suck to loose a member but it happens. A few peeps are a little ill prepared but we are going to hit the outfitters tomorrow on our first Zero day! NO HIKING TOMORROW! lol but we need the rest, then Friday we are back up to Unicoi Gap for a bitch of a climb up to the ridge and on to North Carolina by Sunday.

We are off to resupply and hit the bar!
later folks
happy trails

Justin (the carpenter) Elliott

Freeze Frame

Hey everyone, I've made it to suches GA...I'm hiking with four other guys who are also solo hiking...they are from Ohio, Kentucky, Canada, and Georgia. The weather has been hell, no kidding the temp hasn't got above 28 deg. burrrr. We have been frozen for 3 days it's hard to stop blowing wind and ice from cutting through even the best of gear.  Everyone in the group is still strong and in high spirits and we can all pace ourselves to crush miles pretty quick.

As of now I'm laying on the floor of a hikers hostel we each paid 15$ with a shower and it's warm for once. We did 10 miles before 1pm so decided instead of sitting in the freezing wind all day at gooch shelter we made a team decision to hike down into the town and hit the hostel.

Happy Trails
Justin