trail journal

Gerald is a Hero

Gerald is a Hero

Mud Butt in Ecuador’ Day 1

Hello!!!

Well, I am here in Ecuador and life is good except for one big problem!!  The computers are all in Spanish!  The nerve!  🙂 Which means that it took approximately 2 minutes for me to figure out how to make that smiley face icon!  So, needless to say…..all of the smiles that I want to send your way will have to be understood.
In all seriousness, life is really fantastic.  Let me start by saying that Delta Airlines is the very best airline in the entire world and I will fly them always and forever!  Why, you ask? (And it took me 90 seconds just to find the qestion mark!!  This might be painful!!- at least you can all heave a huge sigh of relief, knowing that I did manage to find the exclamation mark!)
Anyway…..due to a series of unfortunate, stupid events on my part, I had to buy a last minute bag at the airport and check it on top of the other two I had already checked.  It was supposed to cost two hundred dollars!! When I told the guy that it was important and that doing volunteer work was expensive, he asked exactly what I am doing. After I explained, he waived the fee and told me to just buy him dinner sometime.  Seriously.  So I teared up, which made him nervous, and he shoo-ed me off towards the gate.  All I am saying is if you ever meet Gerald at Delta Check-In, tell him that he is a hero.
After a five hour flight, I landed in Quito, Ecuador in one of the scariest landings I have EVER experienced.  We went sideways back and forth across the runway and I really thought that I was going to need my pre-flight video training!  I always did want to slide down one of those slide-y things that attach to the side of a plane. (this would be one of those places that you assume a smiley face!!)   Turns out that the wind gusts from the two neighboring volcanoes make this an interesting landing at times.  Hey, it is all part of the adventure, right?
Customs and luggage were no problem, even though we are required to give customs the address where we are staying.  I have absolutely no idea where I am staying!  But I just write down something vague and head off to meet my ride.  A nice young man and his girlfriend are there, holding a sign with my name written on it and in two shakes, we were off in the Ecuadorian rain.  I try to catch glimpses of as much as I can, but the swirls of neon and honking horns come to a stop much to quickly as they drop me off at my residence.
Lizbeth, the woman that owns the house, shows me to my room and gives me a set of keys to the four locked doors between me and the street. My room is small and clean and has a private bath.   I am very happy to see it.  When asked how much the room costs, she says ´´ten dollars per night´´.  You´ve gotta love it!!  Tomorrow I am off to see FOSJE and to take on Quito.  Until then……my bed is calling!!
Love,   Anna

SHOE’s Hike in the Smokies- Day 3

Smokies ~ Day 3 (08/17/09) Little River Trail

by shoe

Surprisingly I slept pretty well for being on a slant. I think it was close to 8:00 before I rolled out of the tent. I felt blessed that it was not raining when I woke up so that I could get everything packed up. It was already going to be a mess to get all the wet gear packed up, the last think I needed was rain.

We got started at 9:20. We decided to start hiking in our camp shoes since we had several stream crossings right at the start. We ended up hiking about 2 miles in them before donning our boots. But within my first 5 steps I found my self going into the splits while trying to get down to the first water crossing. What a way to start the day.

It was a nice walk back to the car. The trail was mostly wide and well graded. It looked like it used to be an old road. And the trail meandered next to Little River which gave us sights and sounds to walk to.

All and all it was a great hike for a total of  15.6 miles. I knocked off 2 more trails on my Smokies list. The Little River Trail and Rough Creek Trail. And 4.8 miles of the Sugarland Mountain Trail.

We saw a bear on the side of Clingman’s Dome Road on the way back to my car.

Shoe’s Hike in The Smokies- Day 2

Smokies ~ Day 2 (08/15/09) Sugarland Mountain, Rough Creek, Little River Trails

by shoe

While we awoke pretty early to start hiking we didn’t get started hiking until around 10:30 since we had to do the car drop thing. We also had to run by the back country office at Sugarlands Visitor Center since I left the reservation information at home (turns out I didn’t need the #).

We finally made it back up to Clingman’s Dome Road to park our car at the Fork Ridge Trail  area. We had a short walk on the Appalachian Trail before we hit the Sugarland Mountain Trail. The elevation for this entire hike was mostly downhill. This doesn’t necessarily make a hike any easier. It may be easier on the lungs but it can be harder on the body.

The trail seemed out to get me right from the get go. The trail was kind of rough with alot of rocks and roots. Well I stepped on a root an lost my balance because it was wet. I didn’t fall but I felt something in the side of my knee feel wierd. It went away after a couple of minutes. All along the trail I was tripping on rocks, some parts of the trail were hard to see because of overgrown grass. It sure it made it alot more challenging than I thought it would be. We did 4.8 miles on this trail before connecting with the Rough Creek Trail.

We finally made it to the Rough Creek trail crossing. We opted to take lunch break here since the profile in The Little Brown book showed this as being a fairly steep descent. It was such a nice spot that I layed back and raised my feet up. I probably could have taken a nap.

Rough Creek Trail actually turned out to be a nice trail. The descent was much milder than the book let it own to be. It started raining a bit while we were walking so we put our pack covers on. It wasn’t enough rain to get us wet but who wants to rush in the even that a down pour occurs.

We made it the 2.8 miles on Rough Creek Trail to the Little River Trail. Only 1.8 miles to Camsite #30 for the night. We had a bit of an elevation gain on this but it was pretty gradual. The bigger challenge would be the stream crossings that the book talked about.

Well we finally make our way up the trail and hit the 1st of the 3 crossings. Sweet Pea made it across fine. I kind of slipped on the first rock and was quite nervous. I kept walking on the rock trying to figure out my strategy. I finally said to heck with it and took my boots off and put my Crocs on. While I was trying to kick my boot off with my other foot I realized that I had really hurt something in my knee, from that earlier slip in the day. I figured I could hike about a half a mile in my crocs since we had 2 other crossings. The second one was nothing but the third one was. Sweet Pea even put her crocs on. It was quite the adventure. Kind of reminded me of Maine but not as big.

Campsite #30…..we finally made it.

We picked a secluded spot through a little rhododenron tunnel. It had a place for a tent and her hammock. We proceeded to set up our home for the night and it started raining. I quickly stowed my stuff inside the tent. It quit shortly so we were able to cook dinner then it started raining again…sigh. I ate my dinner in my tent being very careful not to spill anything. Ramen with Babybel cheese melted into it. And dark chocolate cheesecake by Backpacker’s Pantry for desert. It finally stopped raining again so we packed up all our smelly stuff to hang on the bear cables.

A couple arrived around this time. They were setting their stuff up as we chatted with them for a minute when it started pouring down rain. I tried to run to my tent but that wasn’t happening. I could really feel my knee when I did that. I made it and zipped my fly shut. Layed back and relaxed listening to the rain. I look out my tent and realize there is a pond forming at the base of my tent. You have got be kidding me. I sat in my tent pondering what to do. I had water pooling under my tent. I finally dragged myself out of the tent to move it….I look around….the whole site is a freaking pond….I had about 2 feet I could my tent back to get it out of the pond. Which meant I was at an angle all night. I hate the combination of tents and rain…and the mess that goes with it.

SHOE’s Weekend in the Smokies

A weekend in the Smokies ~ Day 1 (08/14/09)

by shoe

The following is an excerpt from fellow Dame SHOE’s recent hike.  I hope you enjoy it!!

deerMe and Sweet Pea spent another weekend wandering around in the Smokies.

We met up at the park on Friday night at the Smokemount Campground. It was definitely cheaper than staying in the hotel room. I made it to the park and was worried…as I was driving into the park from the Cherokee NC side there was a flashing sign that said Little River was closed. This wasn’t a good thing as our get out point where the 2nd car was to be was to be at Elkmont off of Little River Road. I went into the visitor center and they called and assured me that we would be able to make it to Elkmont. So all was good.

I headed on down the way and there was a huge traffic jam. I figured it was some kind of wildlife ans I was right. On the left side of the road in a field was a whole bunch of elk. I pulled over like all the other tourists and got out to take pictures. I was really amazed at some of the people. One lady was dragging her young children closer and closer to the elk. I bet she was no more than 20 feet from them. Crazy crazy if you ask me.

SHOE (Slowest HIker On Earth)

Ho Rain Forest Part 2

P7270198We woke up this morning to a bright blue sky and the sounds of buzzing insects and swift water. My neck is stiff from waking every half hour last night to stick my head out of the tent to see the stars. They were spectacular! Silver
Lining remarked that at one point she got up and saw two shooting stars, one right after the other.  She said, “You know it is a clear, beautiful night when there are so many stars that you cannot pick out the milky Way!”.

This is yet another pay-off for hiking far enough away from civilization that there is no man-made light whatsoever. I wish that I had had the energy to just lay out and look at
the sky all night long.
As we got up and started fixing breakfast, filtering water and packing up stuff, the humor turned somewhat scatalogical.  I don’t know what it is about backpacking, but it tends to turn all three of us into 10 year old boys,
laughing hysterically at every burp and tee-hee-ing at references to privy humor. It really is funny! HBB says we are like 10 year old boys with jobs and credit cards.  How scary is that?   As we giggled our way through the final
packing up, it got hotter and hotter.  We finished wrapping up my feet and SL’s ankles in duct tape, (we are both having boot issues), and hit the trail.  HBB kindly let me lead the way, and I took off.  At one point, the others stopped to
filter some water, but in Silver Linings words, I had found my groove.
I felt like I was sailing down the trail, pack and all, and I keep thinking about the Trail Dames. This trail is so perfect for them! Those women are experts at recognizing beauty and they would absolutely love this.
It is so interesting how a trail can look the same from one evening to the next morning, yet feel so different. Of course, all of the usual cliches apply….everything is clean, fresh and new. You would hope that I could come up with some better references than that, but there it is.  But at the risk of
sounding like a junior high English essay, the trail feels hopeful. Between the
sun beams, fresh dew on the ferns and smell of moss, I feel like I can accomplish anything. I can walk for miles, jump over rocks, grow more, live better and love better.

Have you ever felt so much promise that you could barely contain it?  As my vacation is drawing to a close, I want to bottle this feeling, and hold it close so that when the stresses of rental season and bow rehairs come a-calling, I will have a secret talisman. I will recall this moment and let it glow brightly, coloring my attitude as needed.

The end of our hike finds us passing more and more day hikers, each smelling like fabric softner and perfume.  As we walked through the parking lot, with it’s clean tourists holding giant cameras and scolding their children, I ask HBB if it is wrong to feel just a bit superior. 🙂 I am really smelly, quite sweaty and sporting a magnificant “tan” line made of dirt, where my socks meet my legs.
I feel like I have truly experienced the Hoh Rain Forest.
Tomorrow it looks like we are going to spend the day sailing on the Puget Sound with HBB’s friend, Barney. If something remarkable happens, I will let you know, otherwise, it looks like our hiking/backpacking is done for now.  I did learn a few lessons during this vacation……I learned that flexibility is a trait I need to keep working on   I am still bummed at the disintegration
of my Wonderland Trail Adventure, but am managing to get over myself.  It is
like Greg Mortenson says in “Three Cups of Tea”, ‘my spirit did not fail, my body did’.  I think I can live with that.   I also learned that losing a little bit of weight can really mess your feet
up! My beloved boots are chewing up my feet like crazy and I feel like they are
old friends that have greatly let me down. So, would someone please let Winton
know that the next time I am at Mountain Crossings, I need to request a little
bit of his time for a boot fitting. I guess I had better get that done before
his status as a famous author spreads far and wide!   I have to go sailing
now, but hope you all have a wonderful dayand thank you for sharing my Washinton adventures!!
Anna
www.traildames.com