Photos #4

4/22 Day 42: Lunch break

(Will finnish loading the pics next time)

4/21 Day 41: full shelter.

4/20 Day 40

4/20 Day 40

4/20 Day 40: Schmuk & Ducky with the ponies

4/20 Day 40

4/20 Day 40: Found a climbing route

4/20 Day 40: Pony poop baseball

4/20 Day 40: Grayson Highlands

4/20 Day 40: Our first pony!

4/19 Day 39: Schmuk in the tree.

4/19 Day 39: The mission to get the carabiner that was stuck in the tree.

4/19 Day 39: Is this a Shanendoah Salamander?

19 Day 39: Leaving Damascus. Crazy Goose (Cole), Darvey, and Schmuk

18 Day 38: music jam at Dave's Hostel

18 Day 38: Creeper Trail

4/18 Day 38

4/18 Day 38: Biking the Virginia Creeper Trail

4/18 Day 38: The Place

4/17 Day 37: Dead Man and his Sour Spray candy

4/17 Day 37

4/17 Day 37: Damascus

4/17 Day 37: Spring in Damascus

4/17 Day 37: Tennessee-Virginia line!

4/16 Day 36: The holiday inn.

4/15 Day 35: Trail Dog got tired and decided to lie down a few miles before we got to camp.

4/15 Day 35: Trail Dog!

4/14 Day 34: Grilled Cheese sandwiches for dinner. Yum!!!

4/14 Day 34: Almost our first swim of the trip

4/14 Day 34

4/14 Day 34

4/14 Day 34: Northern Dusky Salamander

4/13 Day 33: Pudding AT cake

4/13 Day 33: Dessert party at Kincora hostel!

4/13 Day 33

4/12 Day 32

4/12 Day 32

4/11 Day 31

4/11 Day 31:

4/11 Day 31: View

Map Updated

In Pearisburg VA, Almost 1/3 done with the trail! Ash will post pics shortly, check out the total map. ENJOY!

http://www.spotadventures.com/trip/view?trip_id=241430

Our First Zero Day, Damascus Again!

Hello readers! Today is day 38 of our adventure and I'm proud to say that we're NOT hiking today. We seem to be the only ones at this point who have not taken a day off. Apparently that's crazy, but we've just been pushing through, and now we're taking a well deserved day off.

We're in Damascus, VA (yes VA, our 4th state), a place that I came through when I biked across the US. It's very cool to be here again, on a different trip. We stayed at the same hostel I stayed at with Dugg and Sonny 2 years back. Today we are relaxing, and actually renting mountain bikes and riding the Creeper Trail. I think we are the only people who still put miles in even on our "day off", albeit on wheels instead of boots.

We are both feeling pretty good, legs are strong, feet and knees could definitely use a break right now though. We have hiked a little bit over 464 miles so far. At about 500 miles, that's about a quarter of the entire AT. It's amazing because it doesn't quite seem like it's been that long, but man it flies. We've met a lot of hikers, heard some ridiculous stories, and received some amazing trail magic (free food) from people. I get so bottle necked when we sit down to update the blog, because we have such a long time in between computer stops. So I'm often trying to figure out which story to tell. I think I'll do a quick jaunt about our Dog that we acquired, for one day (thankfully).

Basically, I love dogs, I came onto the trail talking to Ash about how awesome it would be to just acquire a trail dog (trust me it happens) and have a loyal hound. Well, a couple of days ago, we see two of our friends hike by our campsite in the morning, and there is a little dog with them, which neither of them own. We asked "whose dog is that?" and they reply "it just started following us." I thought this was interesting, and that it would probably run back down the trail to its owner shortly. Well, later in the day, we catch up with a hiker Sherpa (she had the name first, hence why I changed mine). She tells us the dog just started following her near the lake miles back, and just kept following her. I take a look at the dog, excited at the prospect, but I'm sadly disappointed. I read a while back: 'the closer to a wolf the dog is, the better it will be on the trail'. Well, this thing was like a Dachshund/collie mix, long, short, and long hair that picked up pounds of leaves. Pretty much, this thing was as far away fro ma wolf, and as close to a guinea pig as a dog can get. Well to my chagrin, this little thing follows US when we leave Sherpa after lunch. Oh No. Now we can't really leave it, but this thing would NEVER make it to Maine. My dream of a rugged beefy German Shepherd following me and rescuing me from bear attacks was fading fast. This little thing would not eat, but was amazingly agile and well trail mannered. But I still did not want her. We ended up getting a cell phone from a hiker and calling the rabies hotline on her collar, but all they could tell us based on her ID number was that Mark was her owner, and his phone number was disconnected. Great, obviously this poor little over grown hamster had been dumped and left to the wild, and was now following whatever poor hiker crossed her path. She was a sweet dog, and that's about it. We decided we would take her to Damascus (another 30 miles from where we were) and call animal control to come take her. So she slept with us in the shelter that night to keep out of a storm, but in the morning she promptly left with yet a different hiker. Well, she was off our hands now, but man were we surprised when we see her coming back southbound with 4 trail runners. Hahahaha this thing was ridiculous. So Clifton, a local, tells us he sees this kind of thing all the time, and takes her back to his truck and assures us he'll take care of her until he finds out where she belongs, if not he'll have to give her to the pound after a bit. So it was a mediocre end to this little dog's story for us. We hope someone will take her, because honestly she was a sweet dog, but she did not belong in the woods hiking to Maine. I guess from now on, I'll think a bit more about acquiring a trail dog, I just hope that rugged tough husky comes wandering our way, and that it will be a different experience than toting a huge Furby down the trail.

-Cole Bear aka Crazy Goose out

Photos #3

4/11 Day 31: Views!

And there are more photos to load but they will have to wait till next time because the library computers are really slow.

4/11 Day 31: Third Highest peak on the AT. with no view.

4/10 Day 30: Roasting marshmallows!

4/10 Day 30: I knew hiking out a handful of marshmallows was a good idea!

4/10 Day 30: Eff.

4/10 Day 30: Hop Along's camping spot for the night.

4/10 Day 30: Lots of pressure behind that water.

4/10 Day 30: Spring!

4/10 Day 30: Cole crashed after an 1160 calorie first snack eaten in under 2 minutes.

4/9 Day 29: We found a flat spot and set up camp just before the storm upened up on us! Then it turned to hail!

4/9 Day 29: Hail.

4/9 Day 29: Cole's fuel.

4/9 Day 29: Cole's dessert wrap.

4/9 Day 29: Snack break.

4/9 Day 29: Millipede.

4/9 Day 29: Sward fight!

4/9 Day 29: Sward fight!

4/9 Day 29: Is this a Shenandoah Salamander?

4/9 Day 29: This train woke us up alot that night.

4/9 Day 29: Uncle Johnny's Hostel in Erwin, TN.

4/8 Day 28: Erwin, TN

4/8 Day 28: Poem about some of the Trail characters Written by Raspberry.

4/8 Day 28: Beetle.

4/8 Day 28

4/8 Day 28: View from the bald.

4/8 Day 28: Breakfast on the bald.

4/8 Day 28: Morning on a bald.

4/7 Day 27: Fence crossing.

4/6 Day 26: Cole just fit in the privy!

4/6 Day 26

4/6 Day 26: Catching Newts.

4/6 Day 26: Catching critters.

4/6 Day 26

4/6 Day 26: Ridge Hike.

4/5 Day 25: Trail Magic Dessert!

4/5 Day 25: First Trail Magic of the Day. Followed by A 45 minute hitch into Ashville AND back by our best Trail Angel Susan Vaughn, who also left us with some wonderful Starbucks sweets! Thank you Susan!

4/4 Day 24: Lizard on our way out of Hot Springs.