Tue, Mar 29, 2016 It was a good, kind and informative group at the Groundhog Creek Shelter, if one there seemed excessively busy and reminiscent of the vast load of responsibilities we all carry in the daily crush of what can be the overwhelming society in which we participate. Pictures tell me that I was […]

Mon, Mar 28, 2016 I don’t remember breakfast this morning in particular but I do remember that One Mile and Birdie had the tent away from the stream and that they cooked up a storm and were still at it when I left. I still had Theo’s boots – I should say he had them […]

Sun, Mar 27, 2016 We did the ususal wake-up things: brushed teeth; made breakfast, packed up and we were off for day 36. As I hiked out of the deep depression where I’d camped to the shelter and then passed it and up toward the trail, someone wished me: “Happy Easter!” “Oh, yea!  Happy Easter […]

Sat, Mar 26, 2016 The sun was bright in the morning as hikers got themselves ready for the day’s journey.  My tent neighbor was a gal named “Justice.”  We’d see each other quite a bit over the next several hundred miles.  People from the shelter filtered by as I had breakfast, packed up and headed […]

Thu, Mar 24, 2016 I had breakfast at Crockett’s Breakfast Camp – again – always after Theo’s relief and feeding – and then sometime this day, I made my way to the NOC Outfitters on the main drag, not too far from the motel.  We were only about 70 trail miles from the original NOC […]

Wed, Mar 23, 2016 Other than that first day and night at Gatlinburg, I have a dull memory of what went on there.  I got to know the town a little.  I had one of the MREs for lunch and another for supper and I took a little walk on the path in the woods.  […]

Tue, Mar 22, 2016 I awoke early.  The water in a Gatorade bottle just outside my sleeping bag had frozen.  I melted it by the fire and permanently deformed the bottle sparing its orange lid.  Theo and I ate breakfast and we were on our way – very glad to be the first out in […]

Mon, Mar 21, 2016 There were several inches of snow on the ground in the morning – another kind of wonderland.  Theo and I off in the woods, away from civilization.  The shelter looked cozy and secure as we left it behind for winter in the wild. It was an overcast day surrounding – a […]

Sat, Mar 19, 2016 Bic left before I did.  I took more time than younger hikers.  I never saw her again. The sky was clear through barren branches outside my tent but it would cloud over as the day progressed.  While we hadn’t yet seen any bears that fact that they had been in the […]

Fri, Mar 18, 2016 Theo and I awoke to a beautiful sunrise over the lake as the intense, bright-white light of a new day cast a restful lemon-orange glow over morning’s rippling clouds and the lake’s quick-silver depths and distant mountain peaks rising into the dawn while nearby forests clung to the fragile dark of […]