Made it 50 miles

Today I've made it 50 miles. For me, a not so active person, this is a great accomplishment. I started on Sunday the fifth with my best friend Eric. We hiked amicalola falls and the approach trail and stopped at Stover Creek shelter the first night. This was it! I was on the AT after a year of planning and saving. The approach trail was pretty difficult for me. I wasn't used to, and I'm still not, the elevation. It's one thing to walk 12 miles, it's another to do it up and down. My ears popped a few times. My second day and first full day on the AT it rained all morning. Eric and I stopped at Hawk mountain shelter for lunch and we waited for the rain to slow down a bit. The first couple of days were beautiful in an eerie way. The trees were all shrouded in mist and I could barely see ten feet in front of me. I think the first time it cleared up was Woody gap. I came out of the trees and the were some picnic tables. We sat down to eat lunch, and slowly the mist cleared. We could see across the road to the bathrooms and the trail, and then on our left it cleared away into a breath taking view. The land rippled and rolled, small buildings dotted the landscape. Some trees were greener than others adding to the patchwork quilt that was Georgia. I'm born and raised in Miami and although I've traveled to North and South Carolina before I'm not used to how the world looks when it's not flat. The day I climbed and descended Blood Mountain was the first day I thought I might quit. The climb wasn't as bad as I thought it would be but the descent was knee breaking. It was all rock shelf and steep at that. Steps made of rocks that were a foot to high. I skinned my knees falling once and tore my thermals that I was wearing under my shirts. My ankles liked to roll. I have to concentrate on each step or I'm likely to roll them again. They don't talk about that much, the fact that your body is basically destroyed and rebuilt. My feet ache, legs are constantly sore and my back feels terrible. I was told on the trail by an old man who had section hiked the whole thing that if you made it 28 days on the trail it was in the bag. The rest of it was mental. I've been holding on to that thought. I spent the night after blood mountain at the cabins there with two other thru hikers, lucky charms and Ohio. We enjoyed some drinks on the back porch with Patches, Rosebud and Fitz. I think just that one night rejuvenated me and brought me out of the Blood Mountain funk. There is a reason that a good chunk of people quit at Neels Gap and I was almost one of them.   Eric, whose trail name is now yoohoo due to his undying love of the drink of the same name, felt really good after blood mountain and kept hiking. He's at least a day ahead of me now but that doesn't worry me. I've actually enjoyed hiking alone with my own plan. Yoohoo wants to finish by the time fall semester starts so he's being very aggressive with his miles. I've been given the trail name Rainman, because I knew the exact altitude of the summit of blood mountain when Jukebox asked. I'm in Hiawassee now, staying at Mulls. I've stocked up on enough food to get me through to Franklin. I've heard the beginning of North Carolina is tough but I'm looking forward to hitting my first state border. I have t mobile so reception is nonexistent. I will update as often as I can.

Pre trail questions

  As my April 3rd leave date approaches I figured now would be a good time to ask myself all the questions that people ask themselves before embarking on this trek.

Why are you hiking the Appalachian trail?

To prove to myself I can do something monumental.  I need a break from normality and want an adventure.

What are you feeling right now?

More than anything I'm nervous.  Nervous I won't have enough money saved up, nervous I won't have what it takes. 

How much hiking have you done?

Virtually none. I went on a two day hike in mid Florida as a shakedown hike but other than that, no experience.

Will you have a gun/weapon?

No. Other than a small pocket knife to open tuna packets.

Tuesday I Should have a post about my gear, as well as a video. www.youtube.com/renfailed will be where I post videos during the hike. My shakedown hike is already posted.

Every adventure begins somewhere

Every adventure begins somewhere and mine started when I was much younger. I read a travel book by Bill Bryson, my mother lent it to me and I devoured it. It was the writings of a man that decided to hike the Appalachian Trail, and all the small anecdotes that happened along the way. I really enjoyed the book, and thought maybe one day I'd do the trail. I never put much thought into it though, I was overweight, not the least bit athletically inclined and mostly just played video games and worked. That is until many many years later. This year in fact. January was the month, like many people still reeling from New Years Eve Guilt, I started working out. I previously had attempted P90X several years before (which lasted maybe 2 weeks) so I knew it was a bit too much for me. I decided to do the precurser program instead, Power 90. Boy am I glad I started there. Each workout was just the right enough of stuff, that I felt like I was doing something but not enough to kill me repeatedly. Each day I would get up and press play. Three weeks into the program my best friend who lives in Gainesville, Eric, came down to visit. We hung out in my girlfriends living room, chatting about life. By that point I had already lost 15 pounds and it was showing. Eric congratulated me on my weightloss, and we talked about how I felt more active. I jokingly said outloud that now that I was working out maybe I could try walking the Appalachian Trail like I always wanted to as a kid. Eric looked up at me, serious for a moment, and then said with a grin "Let's Do it." Now, Eric wasn't an athletically inclined individual either, in fact he weighed exactly what I did the day I started working out, 206 pounds. So we made a deal, if Eric and I got down to 170 pounds we would walk on the trail. He acquired Power 90 and started that Monday, following in my steps three weeks behind. We might have said if we lost the weight we'd do the hike but in our minds and hearts it was already decided. This hike would happen. So preliminary research was done. When would we do it, how long would it be, how much it would cost. The first thing we decided on is we needed at least a year, a year to save up the money, buy the gear and prepare our bodies. So April 2015 was the month we decided to take off. It'll be a six month hike, covering 14 states and two thousand two hundred miles of trail. We plan on passing every white blaze on foot. No hitching, or using Blue Blaze trails to take shortcuts. If we were going to do this, it would be the right way. On the trail, this blog will be used to tell tales and will contain the memories and ramblings of two best friends who decided to take a walk in the woods. Until then, I'll use this to document the way forward. Gear Purchases, reviews, P90X comments, anything to do relating to the trail or getting ready for it. Every adventure begins somewhere and this one began with a book.