The Chronicles of Willapa...

Thursday, January 27

Appalachian Trail Retrospective - Pickle Branch Shelter to Damascus, Virginia

Day 87

Thursday, 9/14/00

Pickle Branch Shelter to Laurel Creek Shelter

22.2 miles

Another interesting day! It sprinkled a little last night. Cooled things down a bit, but didn’t make everything all wet…

Long, but easy climb up to the Murphy memorial. He was the most decorated soldier of WWII. He died in a plane crash here…

Long descent. Since I’m kind of into entomology, it was cool to see a cicada killer wasp eating a horse fly. I hate those even horse flies! Watched it for a few minutes. Quite fascinating.

Climbed up another ridge. Some decent views… if it hadn’t been foggy! Overcast most of the day… There were 3 billy goats up there too! The big one with horns started chasing me! Not quite like the bull yesterday, but still annoying. Scared them off eventually. These goats are infamous for coming up to hikers. Apparently they like to lick the sweat off them.

Walked along that ridge for a while… Came down into some fields. Hot with no shade! Came to a road where there was a note saying a nearby house had cold sodas and stuff for sale! What a great surprise!!! Sat there for over an hour, talking and drinking sodas (I had 5!). The father was away on an interview at MSU (Mississippi State University) of all places! I told them I was from there. Small world!

Talked about it quite a while. I told them it was a pretty nice place. Maybe I should have been more honest!

Started to rain a tad… While there an F-14 (navy jet) came screaming up the valley flying really low. I wonder where he was going…

Pretty boring the rest of the way here. I was going to go 5.8 miles farther but I spent too much time chatting and it looked like it was going to rain. Only a few sprinkles so far though.

Alone for the 4^th night in a row…

Mom, I’m loving Mark Twain’s Life on the Mississippi. Makes me want to canoe the whole river…

Isopropyl alcohol (rubbing alcohol) worked fine again. If I don’t have any problems, I’ll keep using it. It’s much cheaper and easy to find. Actually, rubbing alcohol doesn’t work anywhere near as denatured alcohol. It burns, but it has a lot of water in it, so it doesn’t burn nearly as hot. Takes a lot longer to cook, but I guess I wasn’t too worried about it.

Day 88

Friday, 9/15/00

Laurel Creek Shelter to Rice Field Shelter

30.5 miles

Pretty long day…

It got windy last night and cooled things down a lot. Got up a little earlier than usual, I think. Started climbing right away… should have done the extra 5.8 yesterday, it was easy!

Lots of up and down with ridge walks in between. The weather was perfect today! It was cool and breezy. Every now and then though a big ugly cloud would go over and make it look like it was going to snow! Never did of course…

Walked through a meadow with lots of apple trees and a plum tree too. The plums weren’t ripe but the apples were!

Got here around 5:00. Here with “Lionheart” who hiked Maine to Georgia in 1995 and was heading northbound this year. Nice sunset from here. Took a picture or two.

It’s going to be a cold windy night. To town tomorrow!...

Day 88 (Another repeat!)

Saturday, 9/16/00

Rice Field Shelter to Pearisburg, Virginia

7.3 miles

My goodness, it was COLD last nght! So, I just lit my sleeping bag on fire to keep warm…

Cold, windy and foggy this morning. Started hiking with long sleeves, t-shirt and raincoat on! I only stripped off the raincoat when I got below the clouds. It was still chilly! My hands got real cold…

Went to P.O., called home, and did laundry! Started walking to hostel and the guy that runs it picked me up! Saved me a little walking. Finally got to take a shower!! First one since staying with those folks in Boonesboro, Maryland! Felt GOOD! (I’m not going to take time to go back and tally it up, but I remember it being about 3.5 weeks without a shower or laundry).

Went to Wal-mart. Bought a cheap watch (only tells time, exact same watch I have now too), a case for my camera (so I’ll have easier access to it and therefore take more pics), some cheap wool socks to wear at night, and some $1.25 acrylic gloves with gripper dots!

Came back here and read for a long time… Here alone, of course. Poofoot, Peter Pan, and Tinkerbell all left from this shelter this morning. Just missed them. Flat-iron yellow-blazed (hitch-hiked) about 100 miles and is with Poofoot now. Slacker!

Feels great to be clean!!! Only 162 miles to Damascus, then no more Virginia! Yeehah! Might do a 30-mile day tomorrow, looks easy…

Day 89

Sunday, 9/17/00

Pearisburg, Virginia to Kimberling Creek

23.4 miles

I was SO comfortable last night! No wind, no cold, nice thick mattress, I didn’t stink…

Slept great! Woke up about 6:30. Got all my junk together and was ready to go by 8:00. “Bill” was supposed to be there but didn’t show until 8:30. So, I got a late start. Chilly this morning, nice and cool all day.

My legs just didn’t want to go anywhere today! And it wasn’t hard either. Would have been an easy 29.8 miles to the shelter.

I stopped at a shelter after 16+ miles. Almost decided to stay there! But, I pushed on to here. I’m camped out next to a stream and a road. Kind of noisy… No one seems to know I’m here (This is known as “stealth-camping”).

Looks like I’ll be camping again tomorrow unless I do a short day or a 30+ mile day…

Day 90

Monday, 9/18/00

Kimberling Creek to Jenkins Shelter

30.5 miles

Didn’t get too cold last night, and I was pretty comfortable. I sure have realized what a light sleeper I have become. The smallest noise will wake me up. Early this morning, a leaf fell onto the tarp and slid down it, and that was enough to wake me up!

Anyway, up at 6:30 and gone around 7:00. Once again, I found that the extra 6 miles I was going to do yesterday were easy…

Legs felt better today for a while. I had a feeling I just wasn’t getting enough to eat. So, I sat down and chowed my precious food supply. That helped but now I only have enough snacks (Little Debbies that is) to make it to Partnership shelter, 60+ miles from Damascus! Uh oh…

Hopefully I can find somewhere with an ATM.

Hiking was pretty boring today. Easy too. Big mountains to go over tomorrow! Almost caught up to Peter Pan and Tinkerbell, the last southbounders I can catch (There was a group of 3 that were several weeks ahead of me and traveling the same pace. I got to within a couple days of them at one point, but never caught them. At this point they were 300 miles ahead).

Passed some guy grouse-hunting on the AT. I thought that was supposed to be illegal. But, he had a big shotgun, so I wasn’t going to argue.

Got here about 4:30. That’s pretty fast! 2 other folks showed up – section hikers.

Planning on only 19 miles tomorrow.

Day 91

Tuesday 9/19/00

Jenkins Shelter to Knot Maul Shelter

18.8 miles

Pretty comfortable last night. Rain woke me up around 2:00am, rained until about 7:30. I left around 7:45. Uphill for quite a while, around 4 miles. Once up on the ridge, it was slow going – rocky, slippery, foggy… junk. I wasn’t enjoying it much…

Got to Walker Gap. Uphill 1.5 miles to Chesnut Knob (~4,400’). Great view from there. Chesnut Knob shelter was great! Met Peter Pan & Tinkerbell!!! The last southbounders I’ll pass. L. Met Trail-Monkey too. Nice folks.

Down from the knob was a nice scenic pasture-walk! I love those! Nothing else too noteworthy…

4 section hikers here and me, and Peter Pan & Tinkerbell and Trail Monkey are supposed to come but it’s 6:00 and they’re not here yet…

I cross I-81 again tomorrow. There had better be an ATM and groceries there or I’m screwed! All I have left is some mashed potatoes and some pea soup. That’s it!!! Still 70+ miles from Damascus! I don’t know what I’ll do if I can’t find some food…

Don’t know how far I’ll go tomorrow…

Day 92

Wednesday, 9/20/00

Knot Maul Shelter to Partnership Shelter

25.8 miles

What a day! Woke up early but my stove was acting pissy so I didn’t leave until 8:00. Nice weather today! Went through one cow pasture and got chased by a cow! I don’t mean she was walking in my direction, she was galloping! I was sprinting as fast as I could!! Chased me about 50 yards before I jumped over the stile to safety. Why do I get chased by everything?! (grouse in Maine, moose in Maine, hunting dogs, horse flies, etc…)

Anyway, came to another pasture and lost the trail. Spent about 15 minutes relocating it… Crossed 12 stiles (those A-frame fence crossing doo-dads). Made it to Atkins, VA around 1:00. They had an ATM! Hallelujah!!! Not much food selection, but enough to get me to Damascus.

Decided to stay at Chatfield shelter and went another 7 miles to here. One of the most talked-about shelters! You can order Pizza and have it delivered to the shelter (but I didn’t have enough money) and there’s a hot shower (which I’m about to go use)!

No one else here, of course… Hit some high elevation tomorrow!

Day 93

Thursday, 9/21/00

Partnership Shelter to Wise Shelter

30.6 miles

Another nice day! Took a nice hot shower last night. Felt so GOOD! Slept well until a good ol’ southern thunderstorm showed up. Lots of thunder and lightning. Felt like bombs were dropping right outside!

Took my time getting ready this morning. Left about 8:00. Made REAL good time the first 8 or 9 miles! Passed 2 shelters then ate lunch. Little Debbies with frosting on top! Yum! (Yet another high-calorie, low-cost fuel).

Climbed up and down and it was flat some too until Iron Mountain. A few easy miles up to 4,320’ then back down… Up to old orchard shelter (24.8 miles to there) where I was going to stay. But, there were some folks already, it was a small shelter, and it was only 3:30. So, I kept on goin’.

Up to Pine Mountain (5,000!). And kinda up and down from there. Lots of pretty, wide-open stuff. I’m getting into the Grayson Highlands. They have wild ponies here! I’ve already seen 7 or 8 of them.

The leaves are already getting colorful now! Lots of red and orange. Very pretty.

I’m eating 2 things of Mac & Cheese. I doubt I’ll finish it! Only 34 miles to Damascus!!!

I ate all that Mac & Cheese! Feels like its going to be cold tonight. I’m up at 4,460’…

Alone again…

Day 94

Friday 9/22/00

Wise Shelter to Saunders Shelter

23.8 miles

Ahhh… another interesting day. Got pretty chilly last night but I stayed comfy. Stars came out… 2 fighter jets flew by fast and low.

Got up early and left by 7:30. Terrain was wide open! Alpine pastures… wild horses… The Grayson Highlands! It was overcast but I could still see a lot! Got up to 5,440’! That’s higher than Katahdin! Highest thing I’ve been over since Mt. Washington in New Hampshire. Got to Thomas Knob shelter, bunch of fat old guys there. They gave me 2 Clif Bars! Nice guys out enjoying the mountains. By this point, I was really good at mooching food off people. Then again, I probably looked like I needed food pretty bad too. Also, maybe they gave me food to get me to leave since I probably smelled so bad!

Thought about taking the side trail up Mt. Rogers (5,749’), the highest point in Virginia, but I’d heard there were no views, and it was overcast anyway.

Saw a deer nearby, threw my pole at it to scare it off, but it ran right up to it! Someone’s been feeding the deer!

Saw lots of backpackers and other hikers. It is an incredible area! Typing this up has brought back memories of this place that hadn’t surfaced in a while. I really ought to go back there.

Went through some more cow fields. I’m afraid of cows after that one chased me!

Skirted Whitetop Mountain, the second highest point in Virginia.

At Lost Mountain Shelter, I met some ladies taking a break. Talked with them and got some food too! First a bag of M&M’s… then they poured it on! 2 Clif Bars, 1 Powerbar, 2 granola bars, 2 fruit snacks, 2 slim-jims w/cheese, 1 mozzarella cheese stick, a pack of crackers, a bag of peanuts, and a thing of hot chocolate!!! I love day-hikers!

Descended into a valley… followed the Virginia Creeper Trail for about a mile. It’s an old railroad bed, a “rail-trail” that goes to Damascus and then beyond.

Uneventful until I got here… Decided not to go another 9.5 miles to Damascus tonight. I can make it to the P.O. before 11:00.

Only 12.9 miles of Virginia! Less than a week before I get to see Courtney!!! (A buddy of mine from Maine whom I’m still friends with. She was going to school in Boone, NC.)

Day 95

Saturday 9/23/00

Saunders Shelter to Damascus, Virginia

9.4 miles

Woke up early. Rushed into town by 9:45. I had till 11:00, so I guess I pushed it harder than I needed to…

Picked up mail, dropped it off at “The Place” (the famous hiker hostel here). Poofoot and Flat Iron were just leaving. They’d skipped a big part of Virginia, so now they’re ahead…

Went to outfitter, bought another pair of shoes (this is pair #4), some fuel, and a beanie (starting to get cold). Shoes were only $40! They’ll last, I hope… These shoes were Garmont lowtop hiking shoes. They proved to be super comfortable and lasted me the rest of the trail, and then another 3 or 4 years after that!

Lounged around and read or ran errands… kinda boring…

Day 96

Sunday, 9/24/00

Damsacus, Virginia

0 miles!

Decided to take a zero day. I was going to rent a bike and ride the Creeper Trail, but it looked like it was going to rain… never did though.

More lounging around and drooling over gear at the Outfitter. Great place! Bike shop in town is nice too. I rode a Specialized P3. Cool bike!

Called Courtney. I have arranged to get there on Tuesday…

Tried to call Rachel (Rachel L., friend from Maine who I’d hiked Katahdin with at the beginning). Not home… same with Ford... (My twin brother Ford was in college at Lindsey-Wilson in Kentucky at the time)

I’ve been alone here for 2 days. Kinda boring. Wish I had someone to hang out with…

Eager to get back on the trail!

454.7 miles to go! I’ve gone 1,712.4 miles!!

Looking forward to Tennessee/North Carolina and especially seeing Courtney. This will be the first time since I left Gorham, NH on July 10^th that I’ve seen someone I know! Hope it works out…

Monday, January 17

Jamaica

Jamaica was a great time! Lots of relaxing, snorkeling, reading, and catching up with folks. Even a fishing trip, where we didn't catch any fish. The weather was perfect, probably mid-70's and breezy. Never really got hot. I spent enough time snorkeling that my waterproof camera got water in it. Oh well.

The place we stayed at was amazing. It was a house that we rented out. In addition, there was a gardner (who spent most of his time raking seaweed off the beach), 3 cook/housecleaners, and 2 lazy "guard" dogs. The ladies cooked some amazing stuff for us. I think my favorite thing they made was grilled red snapper steaks (the fish was big enough to feed 14 people with leftovers), but we also had Caribbean lobster. Both were caught fresh and brought to our place by the fisherman. So good...

I went snorkeling several times a day, right off the beach. Even off the beach, there was more than I remember seeing in the Bahamas. Then again, I didn't quite look as hard back then. We also took a boat ride out to a reef that was full of crazy critters, including an eagle ray! Really neat.

Chrissy's uncle Bob is an avid fisherman, and he arranged a deep-sea fishing trip. Got to see some pretty impressive tackle, but we never actually got a chance to use any of it. Motored around for 7 hours and didn't have a hit. None of the local fisherman did either. No worries though, we did get to see a leatherback turtle out at sea and tons of flying fish.

Also took a trip (after a loooooong bus ride) to a cool waterfall. Chrissy and her Aunt Kate and uncle Paul all went zip-lining down it. Looked lots of fun. Got to see lots of Jamaican countryside, and it's quite a pretty place. The people seem to be pretty poor and the sanitation is not so good. I wonder how they feel about tourists... I guess they probably feel like most locals do about tourists...

It's also quite an expensive place and the money conversion is confusing. The Jamaican dollar was supposed to be about 80 to 1 US. So a $1,000 bill in Jamaican is about $12.50 US. It was a little weird to take out $20,000 out of the ATM. The taxi drivers seem to use a 100 to 1 conversion. I'm not sure they did that because it's easier to calculate, or because they think we're stupid, or they think they can get away with it (which they did), or if they just really prefer American money. In any case, American money works just fine down there, and you get more out of it.

Came back home to 2 feet of snow and -10 degree weather this morning. Not so bad though, at least I've got a bit of a tan!

For all the pictures, go here and here. Here are some highlights:

Stef (L) and Chrissy (R) on the bus ride from the airport. It's getting harder to tell them apart!

The view from the front porch.

Y.S. Falls.

Chrissy really excited about doing the zip-line down the falls.

Near the end of our unsuccessful fishing trip...

View of the place from the water.

Bar jack.

Peacock flounder.

Evan, Andrea, Stef and Gary snorkeling.

Spotted eagle ray.

Freedom Love. Right on, mon!

Kentucky represent! This was on the snorkeling boat.

Sunday, January 2

Ta-da!

So, the family already knows this, but thought I'd mention it here too... Chrissy and I are now engaged! Pretty cool stuff... hasn't really sunk in yet, but I'm sure it's only a matter of time. Not really anything life changing since we already live together, but I guess it's a big deal because it's "official" now. Looking forward to it! Here's a picture of the ring I got her, which she had mentioned she really liked a month or two ago. It's not your generic diamond ring, which I really liked about it. It's just pretty and unique too...

Unfortunately, it's a bit too big, so I had to return it. The artist (a local Vermont guy) is in the process of making a new one. Should be a couple weeks. If you're curious, the band is titanium, and there are alternating turquoise stones and diamonds.

And now, here's a couple pictures of wintry scenery around here. It's actually been 40+ all weekend, so a lot of snow melted, but this was beforehand...

Good ol' Waterbury Reservoir. Not enough ice to ski on it yet.

Neat shadows on the way down the Pinnacle.

View to the SW from the Pinnacle. Camel's Hump is the high point to the left.

Mt. Mansfield and the Sterling Range from the Pinnacle. You can see the ski resort quite clearly. You can also see our house from up here, but it's hard to point out.

Tuesday, December 21

Mandles

Chrissy is one of those women who likes to have scented candles in strategic places around the house. The smell is usually pleasant in moderation, but we both always comment on how we love the smell of wood smoke, and someone should make a candle that smells like that. We were returning from a shopping trip to Burlington on Sunday, and I got to thinking more about it, some additional scents that you could do, and even a perfect name for it - Mandles, Candles for Men. It would obviously be a sort of gimmick, but heck, people will buy all sorts of ridiculous stuff, and that actually sounded kinda cool. Anywho, before investing my life savings ($0.00) into a candle making factory, I looked around to see if something like this existed. Lo and behold, they do! And they even have the same name I had in mind! Argh! There goes my chance to be a billionaire...
Anywho, they still sound kinda neat, and I might get one just to see if it's a total novelty, or something you'd actually want to light when company is around...
Mandles - Candles for Men
Some of the scents Chrissy and I thought of were wood smoke (#5 on their list), bacon (#4, "camp breakfast"), dirt (#7), Urinal cakes ("Space Cake") and a few others. Some of the more repulsive sounding ones they've got are: "Kegger", "Stogie", and others. There are some baffling ones in there too, like: "Slab" (cement?), "Cruise Ship Deck" (sun tan lotion?), "Jim, Jack, & Johnny" (whiskey I assume), and "Wild West".
Anywho, back to the drawing board.

England

I've been back about a week now from my work trip to England. Overall it was a successful project and we got a lot more done than expected. The working conditions were pretty crappy, and we didn't get to see too much, but it was an OK trip. There's a pretty good chance we'll be going back for more, I just hope it's not until it warms up. We were working mostly inside a building, but there was no heat, so we were sitting in freezing temps all day, without much moving around. Also, we were getting to work in the dark and heading home in the dark, so we didn't get to see much of the town either. Some unseasonably cold conditions while we were there and they don't deal with it very well. All I really took pictures of was the site, so here's a few of those:

Driving around Huddersfield in "Arctic Conditions".

Dave driving the Audi A6 we had. Front wheel drive with tires that had no tread (rain grooves only) = pathetic in the snow.

One of the rooms I was working in. Notice the big puddle in the foreground.

The roof above where I was working in one spot. This was an easy one to avoid, but many other places, I had to keep moving around my table as new leaks in the roof and sprinkler system dripped all over my equipment.

Another view of that first room.

At least they cleaned the place up for us...

Several of the rooms didn't have any light, so I was often working by headlamp.

One of the cleaner parts of the facility...

Pretty much all the stuff we usually have packed in one of those trucks, mounted on a pallet. Before we found these extra-long pallets, we had to move things around piece by piece. There's also a 200-lb nitrogen cylinder under the table that you can't see. The rod sticking out of the ground in the foreground is a hole I just finished.

Another room. I like the lighting on this picture.

More damp, cold and dirty stuff.

By the last day or so, it had warmed up enough, we could do a few holes outside. We had this van for that purpose. The machine in the foreground is a "geoprobe", which is what drives our rods into the ground. It's basically just a fancy, track-mounted, really fast and powerful jack-hammer. The drillers were from Belgium.

Another view of one of the outside holes, with a backdrop of some breathtaking English architecture.

The van had a manual transmission. The pedals were in the same place (gas right, clutch left), but shifting left handed took a bit of getting used to. That and the fact that the cab of this thing was super cramped for me.

We finished a day early and did some sightseeing in York. York had some neat sights to see, but I'd left my camera in the car. Here we have Vinny driving into the sunset on the way home, which was one of the few times we actually saw the sun...

Another crappy hotel room, the night before we left.

It's pretty glamorous being a globe-trotting geologist, let me tell ya...

Thursday, November 18

Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo

Well, I've been out in Nebraska for the past week. Just finished up the job here and I had to take a DOT-mandated day off to reset my clock before the drive home. Other times I've had to do this, I'd go for a bike ride, or check out a park or something. However, the hotel I'm at is in big box store hell, so there's not a lot to see nearby, and I didn't have a bike with me. So, I wound up taking a little trip to the Omaha zoo. I have to say it was probably the best zoo I've been to! Some cool critters I've never heard off and some I have that I've been wanting to see. I'll let the pictures do the talking...