April 29th, 10:37am

Fl0-Mo and I crossed Dick’s Creek this morning with pizza on our minds.We realized it was only a .2 mile road walk down to Top of Georgia so we visited again for some late, breakfast pizza!

Flo is on the left and that’s Black Sheep on the right. We are waiting for the delicious pizza! Black Sheep is headed into town to get his back looked at, but will hopefully be back soon.

Yum!

It is really hard to leave this place!

Cheers!

April 28th 8:01pm

Unicoi to Deep Gap Shelter. Should be crossing into North Carolina tomorrow. One state almost down. I have my Smokies permit printed and ready to go.

Flo and I dialed it back today. The repeated advice from SirPacksALot was “slow down”. Said it more in the manner of “slow the f’ down”!

The reality is, half of us will not make it out of the Smokies, and that 18 miler we did the other day did more harm than good.

Flo has a friend who pulled 20 miles too early and it put her off the trail for three weeks..

So we came back to the trail with a very different attitude today. We took our time. I have double blisters on both heels and Flo has one so bad that her sock was covered in blood.

I can do a 37 mile weekend, but out here, there is no Monday- Wednesday recovery at the office.

We had some great views today and a wonderful time just sitting in the woods, feeling the breeze on our faces.

Black Sheep and Canadian met back up with us having just come back from a night in Helen. Canadian is a beast and pushed on. So the three of us have our own street amid a small town of other tents tonight.

The girl who shuttled us back in from the hostel talked about her trail family during her thru hike in 2012. If this is my trail family, well, I’m very grateful!

Good Night All.

Cheers

 

(Hi all! This is Ryan’s sister, Kelly. When Ryan doesn’t have internet access he is going to text me what he’d like you to know and I will write it on here for you.)

I have started my journey!  (April, 23rd around 11:30am EST)

(You can see his “Dirty Girl Gaitors” really well in these photos! )

Sunday, April 24th 12:08pm

Made it 12 miles yesterday.

 

Raven Cliff Falls.

Tuesday, April 26th 12:49pm

At Mountain Crossings eating pizza! Yay! Trail Angels! Earlier we had Angels bring us Snickers bars and Dr. Peppers!

Headed to Whitley Gap after this.

Wednesday, April 27th 8:34 am

I pulled 18 miles yesterday from Lance Creek to Low Gap Shelter. Headed to Unicoi. Met some awesome people: Canadian, Black Sheep and Flo-Mo. I haven’t gotten a trail name yet but today could be the day!

(So that catches you up to where he is now. He is headed to Tray Mountain today. I will keep you posted, unless he does first! ~ Kelly)

Shuttled back in from Ingles hours ago. I was kind of down on myself for heading to a hostel so early in my trip. That changed after a quesadilla and three tall glasses of sweet tea. I walked around town shoulders back, confident and happier than I can remember being in over a year.

“Hey! Dirty Girl!” Flo-Mo called from a nearby restaurant. Apparently that has been my trail name for days now, unknown to me, and confirmed by three others. I wear Dirty Girl Gaitors to keep the sand and rocks out of my boots. Honestly, it so contrasts my bearded face that I cannot help but adore my new name. Besides, who doesn’t like a dirty girl?

SirPacksALot, the owner of Top  of Georgia Hostel, gave us a mini lecture that was easily worth the overnight rate on it’s own. I won’t go into specifics but the advice will pop up in future posts, I’m sure.

I found out that roughly 22% of the 5,500 thru-hikers this year have already quit before the point I made it to this afternoon.

Flo and I have the next week or so roughly planned out. Hopefully we’ll pass the hundred mile mark together. I’m so happy to have someone to hike with.

The biggest thing I’ve learned about myself in the last 9 months is that I am not the Lone Ranger badass I’ve always thought myself to be. I need people.

That’s it for now. I need to be up in seven hours to print my Smokies permit.

Cheers

 

 

Hey guys,

 

Sorry for the delay, I am currently at Unicoi, heading out towards Tray Mountain.  I stayed the night at Top of Georgia, as five days without a shower was getting old!  I’m sorry for the lack of posts, I am getting the logistics of doing that with VERY limited internet/ 3G figured out.

Thank you for your patience.  Yesterday I learned 22% of the 5500 thru-hikers this year have already bailed by Unicoi!

I have a hiking buddy named Flo-Mo, and we have the next 50 miles planned.  My trail name is Dirty Girl.  More on that later…

I can see my breath with every labored step. I hear the gravel crunch underneath my feet. My eyes move upward, trying to see the destination hidden somewhere in the gray overcast above.

“Hi there.” I say to the wind. My best friend and foe. Really, it would be better if it just made up its mind! A friend on scorching days, but this morning it rips through my clothing, stealing warmth from every hole it can find.

A silhouette appears from the mist. What looks like two pallets nailed together in an upside down “V.” The famous sign I’ve walked so long to see. Katahdin.

Lynx Vilden talks about achieving through visualization. I hope to have her as a teacher someday (I’ve spent time visualizing that too). Basically, imagine the image of success in your mind, whatever the task may be. See it, see yourself in it. Feel it, hear it, taste it. I’ve seen myself next to that sign many, many times in the past few months.

Katahdin is impossibly far away right now, but it’s closer than it was three weeks ago. It’s closer than it was three months ago.

“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”

Lao Tzu’s, often hackneyed phrase, is quite apropos at this particular life juncture. That “single step” is taken far before the trail. Sometimes it’s a half-step or an infinitesimally-small step. As long as it’s in the right direction, it counts.

Tonight I find myself enjoying my usual vices. I don’t do “idle” very well. I should have started days ago, but I had a few set backs. I’ll never look at “stuff” the same way again. Probably 95% of my stress in the past few months has had to do with finding a place for my “stuff” or the process of getting rid of it.

“The things you own, end up owning you.” -Chuck Palahniuk (Tyler Durden)

It’s so true. Don’t even get me started on cars.

I get a million questions about my hike, but oddly enough, no one ever asks why I’m doing it. To be honest, a large part of me is walking the trail with the aim to become some kind of Stoic badass. I want to distill my life needs to their essence, and live in that essence for a time.

As Thoreau put it:

“A man is rich in proportion to the number of things which he can afford to let alone.”

That is the only wealth I desire. Capability.

Thanks for reading my ramblings. Hopefully the next post will actually come from the trail.

Take Care,

–Ryan