Monday, June 16, 2008

Changing Plans: Going to New York


Butterfly on Poison Hemlock


Watauga lake Shelter to Iron Mountain Shelter 14 Miles

One thing I’ve noticed out here is that people keep saying, “The next section is pretty easy, you’ve gotten over the hard part,” and they are always LYING BASTARDS!

We woke up late and in the morning everyone left us. Rolex got up earliest and left without me and Cyclone. We took off last and crossed the Watauga Dam. Two huge brown Eagles were on the dam and unfortunately they took off before we could get good pictures of them. It was a tough day and Cyclone and I had a lot of discussion about what we are going to do about our schedule. If we are going to get off the trail by August 24th, we are not going to make Maine, it’s just not possible. I want to skip ahead to New York and at least finish out to Maine but Rolex doesn’t want to do that. Cyclone seems cool with the idea but I just found out he has to get off the trail the first week in July. I wasn’t aware of this; I thought we were all clear to go all the way to August 24th.

When we got to the shelter we had decided we would talk to Rolex and try to convince him to skip ahead. This way we can start again next year at Damascus VA during what they call “Trail Days” which is a festival for Thru Hikers in the second week of May. That way if we decided to finish the trail next year, we can start then at Damascus and just finish up through PA. After talking to Rolex we discovered he’s planning on leaving the trail when Doug does so I guess I’ll be the only one on the trail. I’m not sure how I feel about that. That’s not true; I’m sure how it makes me feel, it pisses me off. I’m cool with hiking the trail alone; but I wasn’t planning on it, and I have trepidations about the situation. I really don’t have a problem with hiking alone, we’ve been having such a hard time getting along I would prefer it at this point. I’m planning on making it to Katahdin before I have to be back in San Diego in September. I’m not sure how it will affect the film but whatever happens is part of the story.

We met some folks at the shelter here tonight and they are marveling over the computer and we are showing them some of the videos that we’ve taken. Four are from Miami, their trail names are Sunshine Bee (who spotted a mossy gorilla at Laurel Fork Falls); Piecemeal (67) (It’s taken him 7 years to get from Springer to here); Burninator (who burns things); Sweat Heifer (who shot one of her ex-husbands) and a large group of young fellows from Greensboro who roasted tortillas over a custom Spit and Grille thing made out of wood.. Right now they are throwing knives. I may go over later and give them some lessons. For now, I’m going to post blogs since we have a good internet connection from this shelter out here in the middle of nowhere.

David AKA "Mister F. Gentle Spirit"


Website:
http://www.brotherproof.com
Blog:
http://brotherproof.blogspot.com
Pictures:
http://www.photobucket.com/brotherproof
Film:
http://www.youtube.com/wbaf1
Myspace:
http://www.myspace.com/brotherproof
David's Website:
http://www.davidpatrone.com

No comments: