BrotherPROOF

Polar Bear Club

2011-06-27T07:11:00.000-04:00

I woke up to one of the greatest campsites I've ever seen. I was on a bluff at 10,400 feet overlooking the western range of the Sierras as the sun illuminated their tips and began to move down the slopes. I got up really early because I needed to get across Forester which was 10 miles away through really rough terrain and high altitude. I knew I was going to need all day wandering around, looking for the trail. I hoped to be able to get up Forester before it got too soft. I didn't want to spent the whole day post-holing and getting nowhere. I was out of camp by 6am and really anxious to get to town.I was only ten miles from Forester pass and only 18 miles to the side trail that would take me out of the Sierra.

After about 20 minutes I came up to Wright Creek. Normally in the mornings the creeks aren't as swollen and easier to cross, although much colder. At 6:20 in the morning Wright Creek was still raging. It's not good to have your feet wet for days at a time and mine were beginning to feel the effects of it so I really didn't want to get them wet first thing in the morning. I walked up the creek bank trying to find a fallen log or some way to cross without getting wet. The manzanita on the banks was coated with ice and I couldn't find any obvious place to cross. About 100 yards upstream I saw a spot that looked like I could jump to. A rock that was sticking up about a foot above the rushing stream. I would have to jump about 4 feet across a deep channel of 35 degree water. I'm not sure what I was thinking but I decided to go for it. With my poles in one hand, I made a jump for the rock, not knowing that it had an invisible coting of ice on it just like the bushes on the banks. When my foot hit the rock, it slipped right over it and I landed on the rock in a split. I tried to hold on to the rock but it was covered in ice and I was pulled over backwards by the extremely powerful current. I went from bad decision to a life threatening situation in the blink of an eye. The freezing water took my breath away as I was quickly swept downstream. I had to get out of the water but first I had to keep from smashing my head on a rock. I got my feet downstream and flipped over, trying desperately to get my foot or hand on something. Suddenly my leg got caught between two rocks and the current flipped me over it. I thought my shin was going to break as the current pulled on me. My leg was stuck and my back hit another rock. The current had me pinned down and I was facing upstream with the water rushing over the front of my body. I knew a had only minutes to get out of the 35 degree water. I threw my oles over the the bank and tried to get my leg unstuck and still keep from getting swept downstream again. My hands were frozen and I couldn't grab anything. My fingers were useless. I was probably yelling and I managed to thrash through and get to an overhanging bush which I grabbed onto and dragged myself onto the shore. I was safe. I had to keep moving though. I grabbed my poles and hustled up the bank and into the woods, trying to jump and run and flex all of my muscles. I got to the trail and dropped my pack. MY PHONE! AHHHH! it was in my chest pocket and I managed to get it out with my frozen fingers. I had to get the battery out! My fingers were worthless, forget the phone, I needed to get some gloves on. They were wet but at least it was something. My clothes were all dripping. I opened up my pack and at least everything was dry inside. I managed to get my phone apart. It was soaked. I didn't allow myself to think about the consequences of that. I needed to get warm. I tried to hike a while, thinking maybe the clothes would dry but in a few minutes I decided it would be a good idea to get out of those clothes. I pulled out anything dry and put it on while I hung up all of my clothes on a tree as the sun climbed in the sky. I was going to be alright; however, I was going to lose a lot of time.

I took that time to eat some food and get warmed up. My clothes took about an hour to dry and then I moved on. Losing the phone was a big deal though, it had all my maps in it. I now had zero navigational tools. I knew I could get out by going east but it really wasn't as simple as that. I still had to find and cross Forester Pass and Kearsarge Pass and I had no idea where they were and there was no real path to follow. I was hoping someone would come up behind me but from what I had seen, the closest person to me was at least a full day behind. I was going to have to keep going, blind.

I knew I had to cross another river and that the climb to Forester began after that so I just did my best to find old footsteps or marks that looked like footsteps. It was scary and much of the day I spent in despair but I managed to somehow find the trail occasionally.I came to Bighorn Plateau and there was no way whatsoever to tell where the trail went. I just guessed and got lucky. Eventually I found some tracks that hadn't been melted and I followed them all the way to Tyndall Creek. I wasted about two hours wandering around, trying to find the Ranger Station, hoping for a map or anything. There were bear boxes and I looked inside them for maps or anything that might help. The only thing I had was the section from Yogi's guidebook which gave a written explanation of the approach to Forester Pass but no maps. I got across the creek and laid out my phone, hoping the hot sun might dry it. It did help but there was a lot of moisture under the screen and I wasn't going to try to turn it on until it was totally dry. I had no idea what it looked like over Forester Pss but I was hoping that maybe I might see a fire or tents or something. I sat at the creek crossing and ate lunch, drying my feet and hoping that someone might come walking up.

Most people camp there and leave early in the morning while the snow is very hard. It was 1:30 in the afternoon when I decided to make a run for Forester Pass. The snow was soggy and the sun had been very bright for the last several days and the snow was soft. Figuring out where the trail went was an exercise in voodoo and the snow made it really difficult to traipse around looking for it. The altitude became a huge factor and once I figured out the general direction I was going, I stopped looking for the trail and just headed toward the huge wall of granite in front of me. Just about when I stopped looking for the trail, that's when I found the tracks that would get me up and over Forester Pass.

I found what seemed to be a large person's tracks and I stayed in them exactly; hoping to avoid post-holing every step for five miles. It took me about 4 hours to go 5 miles. The climb up Forester Pass was grueling. Between the altitude, the snow, the steep climb, the uncertainty and the sun, I was exhausted when I got over the pass. Fortunately, the trail was more obvious going down Forester into King's Canyon National Park.

It was about 6PM when I started down toward Vivette Creek, although I didn't know that's where I was going because I had no maps. I followed the tracks down and it looked like just about everyone took the shortcut and glissaded right down into the valley. The glissade should have saved a lot of time but the snow was soft and I couldn't really slide. I ended up having to kinda run, post-holing and crossing the wide open valley. At some point it occurred to me that I could put my phone in a bag of ramen to dry it out. Man, I wish I had thought of it earlier. I put the ramen and my phone in a ziplock and continued into the woods. The trail was impossible to find but I followed the river and saw a tent. It wasn't a thru-hiker tent but it was pitched on the only flat, dry ground I'd seen in days so I hailed them and one of them poked their head out of the tent and didn't mind me camping there. He thought I was a ranger. They were section hikers going SoBo. I figured I'd ask them if I could borrow their map from the section they just did. I was so relieved. I cooked some Idahoans and went to bed.

David AKA “Mister F. Gentle Spirit”
Website
http://www.davidpatrone.com/PCT
Videos:
http://www.youtube.com/davidpatrone

Lost and Solo

2011-06-19T21:00:00.000-04:00

I was hoping the diarrhea had passed but I didn't think it had. I was too psyched out to sleep in. I just hoped that it was from something I ate and not Giardia or some other problem. It took a while for Bandit and Sprinkles to get up. I couldn't sleep and it looked like this river was going to be tough to cross. Fortunately Sprinkles found a big tree to cross about 200 yards upstream.

After we packed up camp, we crossed on the big log and headed up toward Crabtree Meadows. When we got there there was a large creek with lots of golden trout hanging out along the banks. Of course the fellas wanted to catch some fish and they were going to camp there and get up early the next morning to go up Mt. Whitney, the tallest mountain in the continental US at 14,505 ft. I climbed it last year so I wasn't planning on climbing it again; besides, I needed to get out a couple days early so I could call my musicians and arrange for the gigs I had the next weekend. I reluctantly got my stuff together and headed out. I didn't realize the trail was on this side of the stream so I crossed it two more times before I got out of there. I was trying for the campsite at Wallace Creek which was about four miles away. I didn't realize that it was the beginning of a harrowing three day journey.

The trail to Wallace creek was completely obscured by snow and no map was going to help me get there; although my maps were on my phone and I was trying to save batteries so I rarely consulted them. I had no compass, no GPS and my maps were PDF Files on a phone. I had just started to simmer a recipe for disaster.

I have no idea how I even found Wallace creek. Three times I had to backtrack and restart to find the trail since the footsteps in the snow were completely lost in the sun cups. Sometimes you could find the trail by old notches on the trees from the John Muir Trail (JMT); however, the JMT often strays from the PCT and you could get yourself even more lost.. Finding the campsite at the river crossing was going to be nearly impossible. Eventually I found Wallace Creek but it was late in the day, the sun had dropped on the other side of the mountains and everything was covered with five feet of snow. The creek was deep and torrential. I couldn't find the crossing and so I weaved upstream through manzanita and snowdrifts to try and find a fallen log or rock formation to jump across. It was hard work and slow going as each step was a logistical puzzle. It became apparent that I was going to have to make a decision soon to actually go across the creek or camp in the snow and wait until morning. I tried to cross several places but it was very dangerous. Time was running out, I thought I found a good spot where the river had split in three smaller but still treacherous streams. I fought through thick bushes and snow just to get to the creek edge. The water was shockingly frigid and soon it was creeping up to the bottom of my kilt. I had left the snow baskets on my trekking poles and the strong current tried to pull the poles from my hands as I sought for good holds in the fast moving water. I tried to get across but soon found myself with a deep channel of impassable water in front of me. Backing up was looking even worse. I couldn't let anxiety turn to panic I couldn't go down. I was in big trouble and there was no one who would be missing me for days. I had to stay upright. I had to get across. I wasn't going to let this river get me. Out loud I yelled at the river, "This is not how I die! This is bullshit! C'mon, let's go" I was trying to psyche myself up. I spotted a possible route and managed to get across the deep channel without losing my footing. I don't actually remember how but I finally got across, wet and cold and lost. I had no idea where the trail crossed the creek. The sun was gone and dusk was making it impossible to find the trail. I might actually cross the trail and never know it as I wandered around the snow-covered banks, searching. I pulled up the maps from my phone and made a guess as to my position based upon a recognizable mountain bowl to the south. I methodically traversed along the river until I actually found the trail and the campsite. I was very relieved; but, what areas weren't covered in snow were soggy and not what I was looking for. I decided to hike for as long in the dark as I could and was rewarded with an amazing campsite about a half mile up the trail overlooking just about everything... I was too tired to eat or to make food. I put up my tent, put my bear cannister a couple of yards away and crawled into my sleeping bag.

David AKA “Mister F. Gentle Spirit”
Website
http://www.davidpatrone.com/PCT
Videos:
http://www.youtube.com/davidpatrone

Golden Trout Dinner

2011-06-18T21:00:00.001-04:00

Sleep was great on the soft sand and my bag is so warm that I haven't yet had to actually get in it, I just lay it on top of me like a blanket. It's a unique bag that can be unzipped fully to make a blanket so that's how I've been using it. While we were eating, the hikers from Trail Pass came by and they were off the trail. I yelled across the meadow to tell them where it was and I watched them carefully because I wasn't sure where it went to. according to the map there was a shortcut through a pass above the spring where that fed the meadow and I planned to go due west over the little saddle and reconnect with the trail instead of going all the way around. Sprinkles and Bandit originally agreed with this and then they decided against it. I got stubborn and I went over the saddle and sat in the trail and waited for them.

Later that day we went by Chicken Spring Lake and the fellas were really itching to go fishin so we went up there. It was totally frozen. We kinda lost the trail after that and continued to lose it all day. We encountered a few other lakes which weren't frozen and Sprinkles was really trying to get us to stay there so they could fish but I really wanted to try and et down to a legit campsite and get some real mileage in so they conceded and we headed down to Rock Spring Camp. My feet had been soggy almost all day it was starting to take it's toll on the condition of my skin. I started to just walk in every stream to cool my feet, reduce swelling and create some squishyness in there. When we finally got to Rock Creek we were glad we did because it was huge and there were plenty of trout. I'm going to have to get a backpacking rod.

After I set up my tent I set about to collect some wood for a fire. The fellas went fishing and I knew we were going to need some coals. It was really difficult to find wood of any significant size because obviously this campsite had been camped out. Even the branches in the trees had been taken. I managed to get enough for a decent fire and got it going. Bandit and Sprinkles caught 6 small trout (Golden Trout). Dinner was going to be interesting! Bandit cut up some garlic and onions and made 3 trout packets for cooking. It was cool eating fresh fish but of course we were worried about bears so we had to burn everything.

Then came the diarrhea. At some point my bowels decided to go haywire. I don't know if it was the fish or something else but it continued through the night and I had to get up and sneak through the woods and cut cat holes several times. I was pretty worried. I had four or five days of hiking left and certainly not enough toilet paper for this kind of activity. I hoped I wouldn't have to resort to using snow; although, at least there was plenty of that around...

David AKA “Mister F. Gentle Spirit”
Website
http://www.davidpatrone.com/PCT
Videos:
http://www.youtube.com/davidpatrone

Frog Beach at Poison Meadow

2011-06-17T21:00:00.000-04:00

My headache was still going strong in the morning despite a good night's rest. Topsy Turvy gave me three Advil and I accepted them greedily. Later we go tinto a political argument about immigration and I'll bet she wished that she could take those Advil back. Occasionally I get into arguments with people out here on the trail about political issues. There are all types of people out here. Granola types, conservatives, eco-fascists, religious fanatics, you name it, they're out here. I think Bandit and Sprinkles would appreciate it if I didn't ransack everyone I meet who has a different opinion than I do but sometimes I can't help myself. It starts as a civil discussion but sometimes escalates to an unproductive argument. That's not what happened in this case. I think we had a civil disagreement but then again I'm an east coast cat and sometimes what we think is a civil disagreement is looked at like a vicious argument by Westies.

I had some more gastrointestinal issues before we got on our way and I hope I brought enough paper.

We hiked through varying levels of snow and passed several places where people are going from and coming back onto the trail. At one point we found an old corral by a swampy lake where we got some food. We saw some trout in the stream and the fellas got very excited to do some fishing. They both brought rods with them and can't wait to catch something.

Nearing the end of the day, we passed up a good campsite at "Trail Pass" where a bunch of hikers had stopped including Mother Goose, Sunshine and a few others. We decided to get a little further on down the line. Unfortunately we ran into a LOT of snow. This is pretty much where the turning point was. After Trail Pass the trail really began to be covered mostly in snow. It took us a while to get anywhere because we kept losing the trail and there were no places to camp that were either flat or not snow-covered. We were following footprints and sometimes they were and sometimes they weren't on the actual trail. We followed the footsteps into a flat area but we were way off the trail. We heard a shout from our left and it was Yankee with Swiss Miss telling us that the trail was up the hill a little to our left. Up ahead the footsteps led to a large meadow that was wet, muddy and full of cow patties. Bandit's cattle resentment was coming back. On the other side of "Poison Meadow" we saw what looked sort of like a beach. We suspected that the sandy area was dry and so we made for it. We were in Bear Country now and this looked like a prime spot to find one. We had to cross a creek in the middle of the meadow and Bandit pulled off a daring leap across a big gap. I filmed it. WE found a great spot on the other side of the meadow and we set up camp and started a fire. It was getting pretty cold. We sat around the fire and dried our soaking wet shoes and socks. The roar of the stream was seasoned with the chirping of thousands of frogs as the stars came out. It was like being on some strange beach at 10,000 feet.

David AKA “Mister F. Gentle Spirit”
Website
http://www.davidpatrone.com/PCT
Videos:
http://www.youtube.com/davidpatrone

Of Meadows and Mosquitoes

2011-06-16T00:49:00.001-04:00

It was the first time I got to use my new sleeping bag in the wild. It kept me fantastically warm. It was wet though, and the inside of my tent was covered in a fine layer of ice. I didn't want to get up. I was hoping the sun would come out and dry the whole thing up. The night before the moon had been so bright I thought someone was standing outside of my tent with a spotlight. Unfortunately my bowels had other ideas and I was going to have to get out of this tent and find a tree to water. when packing up I tried to dry everything out but eventually had to just accept that it was going to be wet. Maybe sleeping in a hige meadow with a creek running through it was not the best idea.

We hiked along hige meadows all day and crossed the winding Kern river which kind of reminded me of a high altitude Missouri. Fortunately there was a bridge there although it was marauded by swallows who dive-bombed us as we crossed it. I imagined what it would be like to get in a tube and float down the Kern all the way to wherever it eventually led.

We eventually got in to a campsite that was just along another creek. I objected to camping there but I was overruled. I really didn't want to get marauded by a hundred mosquitoes. The fellas use Deet but I'm not a fan. As we got in to camp my head started to pound. I hadn't been drinking as much water as I should have been and I didn't feel like getting water in a cloud of skeeters. Sprinkles came over and sprayed me down with deet and I hate the smell but I ended up just climbing into my tent and trying to rest. It was early and the fellas wondered what was wrong with me. Data Muffin and Topsy Turvy came in to camp and I finally got out of my tent to get something to eat. I couldn't tell if the headache was from altitude or dehydration but I suspected that it was probably a combination of both. I'm still on antibiotics too and I've just started to get some diarrhea so I'm a little worried about it but I've got about 6 more days of walking til a town so I guess I'll just wait it out.

We made a fire and sat around eating. Our food cannisters are very heavy and I'm torn between conserving food and dropping weight. It's weird knowing I have so far to walk just to get back to civilization. I realize now that I'm also not going to have zero cellphone signal the entire time I'm out here. I have a gig on the 23rd, so I must be able to get out of the Sierra by the night of the 22nd. I'm shooting for Kearsarge Pass by the town of Independence on I-395. That means I'm going to have to walk about 10 miles off the PCT to get there and over the Kearsarge Pass and down to my car in time to get back to San Diego for my gigs on the 23rd, 24th and 25th. I actually haven't called my musicians for the gig yet so I'm going to have to get out in time to get that stuff together too. These are the things that keep me awake at night...

David AKA “Mister F. Gentle Spirit”
Website
http://www.davidpatrone.com/PCT
Videos:
http://www.youtube.com/davidpatrone

Into the Sierra, finally.

2011-06-15T22:47:00.003-04:00

The time for campsite shenanigans was over. We got back on the trail today and we into the Sierra officially. There should be some daunting terrain in the next 9-day segment including the highest mountain in the Contiguous United States. Mt. Whitney, at 14,505 ft. has been a problem for lot of thru-hikers and many have gone up only to return without summiting. It's not on the actual trail though so you don't have to do it if you don't want to. We'll have to cross the highest mountain pass on the Pacific Crest Trail in about 6 days; Forester Pass at 13,200 ft which means it's surrounded by mountains that are higher than that. I've heard the snow levels are making it really tough to get through and the creeks are more like raging rivers. Since I've never hiked through this kind of terrain, I'm interested to see what it will be like with all of the rumors floating around about how tough the Sierras are going to be with all of this snow.

We had a pretty steady climb all day starting around 6000 feet in Kennedy Meadows. You could feel the altitude becoming a factor. It's always tough entering the woods again after a bunch of days sitting on your butt and playing bored games and eating smores.

Near the end of the day we came up through a stream-cut valley and crested a pass around 8000 feet into an amazing meadow. We'd been waiting to get some water and there was an interesting stream that had cut a deep, mud gully through this immense valley (later to tribute to the Kern). The sun was soon to go down and it was like something out of a movie. There was a group of people in the woods on the edge of the valley across the gully stream and a couple girls getting water. I didn't recognize them but they waved and we waved back and we were going to go over there to get some water when a guy walked from out of the woods and intercepted us. We figured out that he was a guide for a high school group and he was probably trying to keep us from coming over and interacting with his 11th graders. Pretty funny but a prudent move on his part. Me and Sprinkles and Bandit surely don't pose a risk but you never know what kind of people are running around out here; or of course, what kind of kids you have in your group for that matter. Haha! Maybe he was protecting us!

We decided to drop camp in this awesome meadow about a 1/4 mile north of them. There were cow patties everywhere. I wasn't aware that some people actually herd livestock up into these mountain meadows and they feed on the delicious grasses, clean air and sparkling mountain streams. Unfortunately, they poop EVERYWHERE. I did some research and it turns out that high altitude cattle grazing has been going on since the 1850's since these areas were basically otherwise unusable; however, it's widely known that this causes a lot of problems with water quality for people who rely on the water that comes from the Sierras (Basically all of Southern California). In fact, one of the reasons for the establishment of Yosemite National Park was to try to alleviate cattle grazing in that area. Cattle Poop creates increased bacteria blooms in the drinking water supply and has the greatest impact at high altitude because of the fragile ecosystems. I'm against it and Bandit was ranting about it all night.

For more information, check this out: Reducing the impact of summer cattle grazing on water quality in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California: a proposal

Anyway, the HS retreat guide told us they were going to be hiking out south in about an hour so we knew it would be quiet. A few other hikers hiked through and Spice Rack and Caveman dropped in on us. Bandit was passing out Peppermint Patties (Peppermint Schnapps and Hot Coco) and after something like that, it's tough not to drop your tent and hang out for the night. A full moon was on it's way and the stars on the ceiling of this meadow were spectacular. The floor; however, was still littered with hubcap-sized cow droppings.

David AKA “Mister F. Gentle Spirit”
Website
http://www.davidpatrone.com/PCT
Videos:
http://www.youtube.com/davidpatrone

Wilson Mobile Command Center

2011-06-14T22:52:00.000-04:00

I'm, sitting in the mobile command headquarters of the Wilson Conglomerate while we escape from the heat of Kennedy Meadows and await the arrival of more Thru-Hikers to arrive for the evening festivities. Rum Tim, Janimal and Grandma Sprinkles have graciously offered their tine and energy to set up a mobile trail magic station of which we are the principal beneficiaries. Alina, Sprinkles' GF just showed up from Vegas and Amy is here for Bandit and I have my iPad and guitar. Some hikers just came in so I'm going outside to meet them all.

Later

I spent the majority of e day throwing bean bags at little holes, I'm getting a little antsy. I have no transportation and we're not quite ready to go out to the trail but just sitting around is starting to get to me. this section will be the longest I've been out without a town and you know me, I LOVES ME SOME TOWNS!

We went down to the store and I got reall ticked off at these people. I tried to buy a 99 cent Arizona Iced Tea and they charged me $ 1.52! How can you charge me $ 1.52 when it says 99 cents right on the can? Granted, I can understand that they have some expenses getting the stuff way out here but a 53% mark up? And why is it 53% and not like an even 51 cent mark up. That's what really got me was the 2 extra pennies. It's adding insult to injury! Another think that really chaps my buttons is that these folks tried to tell us it was illegal for Sprinkles' family to offer trail magic to the hikers because they were charging for dinner. Ridiculous! They were having some sort of $ 5 potluck, supposedly to benefit the local fire station. I don't believe it for a second. These shuysters rung my bell and I'm going to do some further investigatin'

I wonder if the food inspector wants to take a little trip out there to see if they have all their ducks in a row while they're selling burgers cooked over there in the corner on that ratty grille. I would hate to mess it up for the other hikers but these Children of LT. Schmidt are just taking advantage of the desperation of hundreds of tired, homesick hikers. Someone has to do something!

David AKA “Mister F. Gentle Spirit”
Website
http://www.davidpatrone.com/PCT
Videos:
http://www.youtube.com/davidpatrone

Shuttle my bounce box to lone pine and back

2011-06-13T20:00:00.000-04:00

They had breakfast cooking when I got up. The campsite was teeming with thru-hikers and I met Sprinkles' Dad "Rum Tim", Stepmom "Janimal" and Grandmom Sprinkles. They are super down to earth and we had a great breakfast with a bunch off hikers. Ninja and Drop&Roll were there with K-Bomb, Push, Sparrow, Beacon, and a bunch of others I can't remember. Amy found a bird in the grille of my car and it was a really cool looking bird. I felt bad for hitting it, it was about midnight the night before and i was zooming down thislittle road in the middle of nowhere and I remember noticing him on the side of the road and as I was about to go by I was like, "don't do it!".

Well, he did it,

I tried to miss him but apparently I failed. I'll show you a pic later. I got my pack all packed up which took a while cause I really didn't want to forget anything in this section. We all drove up to Lone Pine where I dropped my car off and we resupplied and helped Buttercup get some shoes. We had dinner at the Whitney Restaurant and came back to the campsite. A bunch more people were there and especially Pepe and Bootz! Sweet, we were going to have a great singalong tonight I could tell. The campfire was long and full of song as we stayed up all night. My tooth is still bothering me a little and I think it's just healing itches but I hope it doesn't get infected while I'm out there. I doubt it will, cause I'm taking ampicillin but I can't say I'm not thinking about it... Sleepin in the RV again... Damn Im spoiled

David AKA “Mister F. Gentle Spirit”
Website
http://www.davidpatrone.com/PCT
Videos:
http://www.youtube.com/davidpatrone

Back on the trail at Kennedy Meadows

2011-06-12T22:55:00.000-04:00

I hung around for a while with Laura and split much later than I had planned. I repacked my car with less stuff cause I wan't going to need any of it before I was coming back again for another gig on the 23rd. Sprinkles' parents drove up to Kennedy Meadows and brought their RV and Bandit's GF Amy is coming up so we're not going to leave Kennedy Meadows (KM) until Wednesday. There's absolutely no service there so I'm probably going to be out of touch until the 23rd or so. We'll be hiking up from Kennedy Meadows to Kearsarge Pass and summiting Mt Whitney on the way. It's about 87 miles plus 10 to get back out and it'll probably take about 8 days with all of the snow and river crossings. It'll be cool to meet Sprinkles' Dad and Stepmom. I finally got on the road at like 6PM and headed up. The drive was boring although I almost hit an owl and 2 little birds (turns out a I actually did hit one of them) and I got to camp and everyone was around the fire. I briefly met Sprinkles' Dad and then we pretty much headed to bed. They let me stay in their camper and it was really nice. I definitely want to get something like that when I grow up.

David AKA “Mister F. Gentle Spirit”
Website
http://www.davidpatrone.com/PCT
Videos:
http://www.youtube.com/davidpatrone

Mexican Teeth Pt 2

2011-06-09T20:00:00.000-04:00

I decided to take public transportation for the dental excursion. I jumped on the Red trolley and took it to the border. I jumped in a cab and they took me to Washington Dental on Revolucion. It was about 11am when I got there but they took care of me quickly. they looked at the tooth and informed me they were going to have to remove it. While they were at it, they recommended I get a cleaning since I hadn't had one in a while. Grand total for a tooth extraction and a deep cleaning: $ 60 Man I love these guys. They gave me all the novocain I needed so that I felt nothing. It was awesome, except for the fact that I had a tooth removed and that can suck while it's healing; but, no more pain! Whew! About an hour later I was finished and on my way back to the US. They let me have the tooth, I want to put it under my pillow and see if the tooth fairy sends me a couple grand for an implant... I will probably get one down there, it's only about $ 1300 for each tooth including the crown and everything. It's like 3 or 4 grand per tooth in the US. The quality of Mexican Dental work is excellent as well. You're not sacrificing anything except for exorbitant bills by going down there.

I came back on the trolley and dropped myself off at Laura's pad. She had a great little place with my buddy Pat. Actually he's the reason I met her and I like it there. It's comfortable and clean and her little husky Mieka is one of the best behaved dogs I've ever met. I'm going to be home for a couple of days because if the tooth and I( have a performance on the 11th in San Diego. I'll head back up to meet Sprinkles and Bandit at Kennedy Meadows on Sunday the 12th. I've been trying to catch up on b logs while I'm home and don't have much to do. It's tough to remember all the stuff that happened out there, especially when I'm taking vicodin. that's stuff messes with my memory and makes me tired. I don't see what all the hullaballoo is about this drug though, it doesn't really do anything to me. Then again, I'm only taking like a half of the prescribed dosage but I don't really need much, it just helps to take the edge off of the pain enough that I don't mind it so much. It does help me to stay focused on writing though. I just sit here and write away and watch TV.

David AKA “Mister F. Gentle Spirit”
Website
http://www.davidpatrone.com/PCT
Videos:
http://www.youtube.com/davidpatrone

San Diego Serenade

2011-06-08T22:58:00.000-04:00

We got up pretty late and there was a Padres game that she wanted to go to so we went to that and since I've been off of the antibiotics for a few days, the tooth started to throb again. it's pretty bad this time and I can't concentrate on the game at all. I was starting to get really annoyed with everything and Laura decided to go get me a few Advil. Thirty mounts later the pain was almost gone but I'm glad I didn't get rid of those vicodin the VA gave me for the tooth. I called my Dentistador in Mexico from the game. I didn't need an appointment. I love those guys. The Mexican Dental system is awesome! I would head down tomorrow. We split from the game early cause the Padres took a turn for the worse in the 8th inning. Now, I'm not one to leave a game early when my team is down. I feel like that's just bad form. You gotta hang in there and root for them when they really need you; however, the Padres are not my team and besides not really liking baseball, my mouth was really bothering me so I agreed to split early. We went down to the Ralphs on the way home and picked up supplies so Laura could make some crazy concoction she calls a "Taco Ring" or something like that. It was pretty damn good. I picked up some goat cheese and blueberries which I turned into some homemade jam and we watched TV and ate and passed out with the help of Mother's little helper.

David AKA “Mister F. Gentle Spirit”
Website
http://www.davidpatrone.com/PCT
Videos:
http://www.youtube.com/davidpatrone

Back off trail and on tour to Burbak

2011-06-07T20:00:00.000-04:00

woke up at the campsite at walker pass, hung out with everyone, warner springs Monty was there and setting up his camp. I was going to shuttle Balls and Sunshine but another guy took care of that. I tried to talk to the guy that has the internet thing at Kennedy Meadows to maybe set up a gig but he was in a rush to go back I think his name was Tom,

got on the road in the early afternoon and headed down to Burbank. I made pretty good time and I dropped in to Joe's Great American Bar and grill where the gig was going to be that night. I realized at that time that I hadn't sent Torch any promo material so he didn't have anything up on the walls, oh well, I know he has a good following at these gigs , I've seen it before and there are usually a ton of people there so I wasn't worried about it... ok maybe a little

I dropped off most of my gear on the stage and looked around a little before I went over to Torch's place to take a shower and wash some clothes. We caught up and I realized I hadn't posted the gig on Facebook so I took care of that and we sat around listening to a bunch of old records he picked up at a thrift store. You can get all these old vinyl albums with random stuff on them for like 25 cents a piece and you never know when you're going to run into some little gem you wouldn't have ever heard of otherwise. You just need to have an old record player is all...

We headed out to get a haircut from a giel at a salon, it was pretty sweet. they had great coffee and m&ms in a glass jar. I was in hiker heaven. I told the girl at the desk the joke about a day hiker. section hiker and a thru hiker and the M&M.

Got down to Joe's, I met everyone and then we sound checked. I had three amazing players with me that night. David Miller on Bass (who called the other two cats) Mark Cally on Guitar and Paul Lines on drums. These guys are all superstars and it was a real pleasure to play with them. the crowd was jumping too and I had a great time messin around and playing music. I love nights like that, the crowd was aces.
I was going to crash at Torch's but I really wanted to get home and sleep in Laura's bed (she was pretty stoked about it too) and despite my best efforts, we didn't get out of the club til two and then I had to go back to torch's to pack up the stuff and drive back to SD. Needless to say I took a nap or two in random parking lots when I was doing touch-and-go on the steering wheel. I got in as the sun was coming up and jumped into a warm, soft bed with a warm, soft girlfriend. She was glad I took a long shower at Torch's.

Just notes, not an actual entry:
Trail angel mama and her son Jayhawk,
Warner Springs Monty showed up and we set him up , then I split for Burbank. I had a gig at Joe's Great American Bar and Grill for Mark Tortorici aka "Torch" and his regular Tuesday night event. When I got in to town, I hung out at his place, did laundry, got ready and went to the gig refreshed. It was packed and a great night for swing dancing. Torch really has a good thing going there.

funny how my legs and feet are trashed but as soon as I get on that stage i'm dancing around like afoo and I can't feel any pain. I had a killer-diller band with David Miller and Mark Cally from Royal Crown revue and Paul Lines ondrums. Man i wish I had guys like that all the time...

After the gig I drove back to San Diego but kept passing out on the side of the road and didn't get in til late the next morning. My tooth was really starting to throb, two days ago I had run out of the amoxicillin I got at the VA back in May. I had a lot of stuff to do to catch up with work and get to Mexico and see what was going to have to happen. They're probably going to have to pull the bastard... Oh well, sleep first...

David AKA “Mister F. Gentle Spirit”
Website
http://www.davidpatrone.com/PCT
Videos:
http://www.youtube.com/davidpatrone

Notes: Trail magic at the Bridge

2011-06-05T21:00:00.000-04:00

This entry is not written yet, these are just notes:
Section Notes:
Started out heard spoonman and others going by, we were sluggish to get out
It was wet and cold again
Had to #2 a third day in a row, strange
Headed up to Cottonwood o creek to get water, turns out
Cottonwood Creek bridge Trail magic with Good Spot and Wonka
Dice game Box Something
hung out inthe shade, finally got going again we had some climbing ahead of us. Cricket joined us the weather kept threatening,
as we got up in the mountains looking for the water source at Tyler Horse canyon but it looked like it was definitely going to rain. We wanted to get more miles in but I didn't want to get all wet. we were trying to get to the Tehachapi pass rd at Rt 58 where Pepe and Bootz were going to meet me with my car but if we stopped here we would have 20+ miles to get to that rd and that wasn't likely. it was 16 miles to the willow creek rd and i could just have Pepe and Bootz pick us up there. We were still beat from the 30 miler the day before so it wasn't hard to convince Bandit and Sprinkles to stay here and cook some dinner.
we met a cat named Joe who just recently got back on the trail after taking a week or two to let his legs heal.

I was a little worried because this canyon looked like it had the potential to flash flood like crazy. It was the only canyon with drainage that we had seen or knew of for many miles and the mountains above it were vast so that means that it didn't even have to raon at all in the actual campsite for it to be completely flooded from rainfall anywhere in the mountains above

Hikers here:
Gourmet, Hot Rod, joe, cricket, etc.

I was glad we stopped because it did rain in the night although nowhere near as bad as it looked like it was going to.

David AKA “Mister F. Gentle Spirit”
Website
http://www.davidpatrone.com/PCT
Videos:
http://www.youtube.com/davidpatrone

Notes: 30 miler on a desert night hike

2011-06-04T00:05:00.000-04:00

This entry is not written yet, these are just notes:
It was a wet night and as much as I wanted to wait until the sun warmed and dried the tent, I also had to go to the bathroom really bad
got up hear spoonman
#2 in the woods again
bandit then sprinkles too
walked tot he tank cgot confused, it wasn't the one
walked to the guzzler
filmed it,
Dirt Bike Riders on the trail
gourmet yelled at them
missed the campsite at Bear
met up with Gourmet and Krista and Hotrod, cricket etc at the Horse springs camp
ate lunch
got back on and went down. Cows, fields, goats, long ass hike along the range til we finally go down because of the shooting club.
Hikertown:
Describe it,, full facilities, shower, laundry, funky little prop buildings, roosters dogs, garage with couches, tv lot of hiker box goodies and food
coffee maker incident
bunch of people were there, we ordered food from the market and Doug picked us up in his RV ans took us to the store.
I got a pastrami sandwich and picked up a few walking snacks
We got showers and washed clothes at Hikertown but the owner wasn't there.
caretaker
had a lot of conspiracy stories
Didn't want to head out so early but bandit and Sprinkles wanted to get on the road we were going for 34 mile day
going to follow the Aqueduct for most of the second part
huge group of us, everyone was drinking and wearing glow sticks and glow bracelets
we were way out in front all night, worried they would get lost, we actually made a wrong turn in the dark and had to follow another road to get back to the trail.
Cold and wind kicking up dust
we could hear the aqueduct rushing below us
stopped for dinner on one of the way stations
So tired, zombie walking
at about 30 miles decided to call it quits, looked around for campsite all we found was broken glass and shotgun shells
looked for spots with shade because the sun would be killer in the am

David AKA “Mister F. Gentle Spirit”
Website
http://www.davidpatrone.com/PCT
Videos:
http://www.youtube.com/davidpatrone

Escape from Casa De Luna

2011-06-03T21:00:00.000-04:00

We finally bid a fond farewell to Joe, Terry and the Casa de Luna although we had to wait until about 2pm for a ride to the trailhead. We got back on where we slacked from over at Lake Hughes. There was some climbing and wind but all in all it was nice (except that the trail always seems like a mother after four days sitting on a couch in some strange town)

We ran into some counselors from a local Christian Day Camp that were hiking around. We got some lunch after the first major climb although we got such a late start we knew we weren't going to get very far before sundown. We passed mile 500 and some of the guys were camped out at the road there. Someone had made a "500!" out of pinecones and we wanted to cook some dinner but it was just too damn windy. We hiked on until we finally found a spot to cook out of the wind right by the old PCT 500 mile marker. It got pretty dark and we wanted to get some more miles in so we kept going in the dark until we crested the hill. We knew there was a water source nearby but we wouldn't be able to find it in the dark so when we came upon this meadow in the saddle with a bunch of tents in it, we set up camp. It turned out it was Spoonman, Cerveza, Tick-ette, and a few others. It had been a sort of cold evening so we were hoping that the winds weren't bringing in rain. We set up camp in the dark and I was out cold in about a minute flat.

David AKA “Mister F. Gentle Spirit”
Website
http://www.davidpatrone.com/PCT
Videos:
http://www.youtube.com/davidpatrone

Casa De Luna Part 4

2011-06-02T21:00:00.000-04:00

I dropped off Pepe and Bootz at the trailhead near Tehachapi and came back to Casa De Luna only to realize we weren't getting out of there today. We did end up slacking an 8 mile section but coming back to stay at CDL. I did manage to take care of a few important things like ordering new pole sections for my broken trekking pole and also a new pole section for my tent. I contacted Melanie at Leki and was all set to give her my credit card information to get a new pole segment sent to me and she said "forget about it, I already sent it out free of charge." Obviously I'm a huge fan of Leki and I recommend that you use their stuff. I emailed Tarp Tent about a cracking pole segment on my tent and was contacted back directly by the owner, Henry Shires. He also sent me a segment free of charge and it got to me right away at the Anderson's. With customer service like that, you'd be crazy not to use their stuff. Not to mention it's functionally superior to all of the other mainstream lightweight tents out there. I have the "moment" tarp tent. I'm posting a picture from inside the tent so you can get a mosquito's-eye view of my living quarters. I just updated my gear list and you can see everything that I'm carrying or wearing by clicking on "Gearlist" over there to the right --->

David AKA “Mister F. Gentle Spirit”
Website
http://www.davidpatrone.com/PCT
Videos:
http://www.youtube.com/davidpatrone

Casa De Luna Part 3

2011-06-01T00:02:00.000-04:00

Another Day at the Anderson's began with pancakes and ended with a great night around the fire playing music til late. I think I figured out what I'm going to do about leapfrogging the car. Pepe and Bootz want to do the next section southbound so I'm going to drop them off at Route 58 and bring my car back here to Casa De Luna. It will take them about 4 days to walk back south to the Anderson's and I will travel north to the 58 and they will then drive my car up to me. I like this idea. We had another great night of jamming around the fire with a whole new group of people. I hope Pepe is around a lot more cause it's great to have someone to play Jazz with and that's rare on the trail. Tomorrow I'll drop them off and come back to finally split from the Casa... Hopefully...

David AKA “Mister F. Gentle Spirit”
Website
http://www.davidpatrone.com/PCT
Videos:
http://www.youtube.com/davidpatrone

Waking up to a Murder (of Crows)

2011-05-30T00:01:00.000-04:00

By 7am I found myself throwing pinecones at a murder of crows but by then the damage was already done. I was up. We goofed around a bit with the family and said our goodbyes and nice to have met ya's and I drove up to the Anderson's and Casa De Luna. My plan was to drop my car off and get a ride back to the Saufley's so i could do the 24 & 24 challenge with Sprinkles and Bandit.

The Saufleys and the Andersons are two of the most notorious hiker refuges on the PCT. Although they are only separated by 24 hiking miles, they are about a thousand miles apart in their approach to hiker hospitality and trail angelics. The Saufley's are the first of the two that you hit on the trail and they have an efficient operation where you roll in, take of your clothes, put on some "Saufley Electric" sweats while they wash all your stuff. They have racks with at least a hundred mail drop packages in alphabetical order (including my brand new sleeping bag), tents with cots that you can stay in and by the time you're settled in, your clothes are done. They have a lot of resources for you there, information boards and gentle music playing out over the "Compound." There's a piano, a guitar, and it's all very well organized. It's very nice and they've made it very convenient to stay there. They have a rule though, you can only stay for two nights.

The Andersons have a similar rule: You have to stay there at least 2 nights and to be honest I think they'd rather see you stay there than finish the trail. Their place is called Casa De Luna and is also affectionately referred to as "The Vortex." They have a couple of couches out front and a large back yard with a big Manzanita Forest with campsites strewn throughout. You basically just plop your stuff down and sleep wherever you end up. The booze is flowing, the people are loud and it's basically like a big hippie compound. Joe and Terry Anderson are crazy and fun. There are hammocks, instruments, a frizbee golf course and strange games like chocolate syrup wrestling and the 24 in 24 challenge.

The 24/24 challenge is where you hike out from the Saufley's with a case of beer and you consume one every mile until you reach the road that goes to the Anderson's. I don't drink so I was just going to accompany Sprinkles and Bandit as they did the challenge but it was so hard to get back to the Saufley's after I got my car there and so, instead of asking Bandit's girlfriend to drive all that way and back, I decided to stay at the Anderson's and skip that 24 mile section and wait for Bandit and Sprinkles. Meanwhile I would help trail angel and shuttle some hikers.

That night I pulled out a bunch of instruments and we had a great jam session and about 25 hikers sat around the fire and we sang all night long. There are a few good guitarists and singers here and this cat Pepe is a really good guitarist and we are able to do jazz tunes. Virgo was there and he filmed it and even sat in on my drum kit. It was an amazing night and everyone had a great time. I passed out on the futon in the front yard in my brand-new Exped Dreamwalker 20 degree sleeping bag.

David AKA “Mister F. Gentle Spirit”
Website
http://www.davidpatrone.com/PCT
Videos:
http://www.youtube.com/davidpatrone

Cries of the crows

2011-05-29T21:00:00.001-04:00

The crows were relentless with their cackles and cries of the future or whatever it is they yell about in their half-human voices and unintelligible prognostications that only the medicine man and his ilk knew how to decipher. This is the kind of thing I peruse as the Crows' mumblings intermingle with my own inner voices which usually start their litany of fear mongering even before I'm fully awake.

The birds are always waking me up with their impossible melodic intervals and shrill tweets that are not limited to 140 characters and especially not a common musical scale. I've been known to get out of my tent to throw pine cones and even water bottles the them just for five more minutes of wrapping my head in my bag.

The campgrounds had a community center and a pool and a jacuzzi so we went down there and the people were trying to wrap their head around a Marine in a kilt. I guess this campground allows you to be a member or something and they had community events and karaoke and steak dinners and stuff here.

Back at the campground I was soon hunched over coloring books with Bandit's Nephew and Niece, Liam and Luna in washable crayola markers of unbelievable hues. I remember when it was just the primary colors but these days they have all kinds of colors and I was trying to figure out how I could use lavender and orange highlights in a lizard's scales and to convince Liam that eagles normally have purple feathers and blue beaks.

He wasn't buying it.

We decided to go pick up my car from the Saufley's and we were going to shuttle it up to the Anderson's but it turned out that only 24 miles walking turns into over an hour of driving in this part of California. That makes about as much sense as my coloring theory. I wanted to walk the two sections, but it was going to be a logistical headache so I brought my car back to the campground and figured we'd do the Harlem Shuttle Shuffle tomorrow.

David AKA “Mister F. Gentle Spirit”
Website
http://www.davidpatrone.com/PCT
Videos:
http://www.youtube.com/davidpatrone

Road Walkin the 2 to Memorial Day

2011-05-28T23:59:00.000-04:00

We got out of camp pretty late as usual. After a few miles we found ourselves down at the permanently closed Angeles Crest Highway CA Rt 2. Much of this road has been closed on and off since 2004 due to landslides and fires. According to the locals, they are supposed to open it back up any day but it was closed for now. There are two re-routes for the PCT in this section due to a protected frog's habitat and for landslides. Looking at the maps, we noticed that the reroutes added quite a few extra miles and using the road instead of the old trail so we decided we were just going to walk the closed HWY 2 all the way in to three points. I'm starting to get sick and tired of the way this trail has been routed here in Southern California. There is an awful lot of unnecessary walking going on. This may sound like a stupid statement coming from a person who has decided to walk from Mexico to Canada but the way I look at it is this, I've already committed to walk 2600 miles or more this summer but there's no reason why I should have to walk unnecessary miles for no reason at all. These trails have you walking back and forth and back and forth for no reason. It's extremely frustrating.

I am totally down to walk to exciting views and interesting geological structures or historical points of interest. That's actually what I was hoping that the people who created this trail had in mind. I also understand the ecological significance of switchbacks as well as the benefit of not having to walk straight up a hill; however, I'm frequently wondering to myself, "Were the hell are we going?" and inexorably the trail will go three miles out of the way for no reason at all. I find myself staring at the same mountain or desert view over and over again as I go around corner after corner for what seems like no other reason than to add miles to the trail. Some guys are like, "It's just the trail man, you're gonna do the miles anyway, why does it matter?" and to that I say, "Balderdash!" It does matter to me because if I was navigating to Canada without the PCT, expediency and conservation of route as well as other resources would be contingent upon my success. Anyway, we decided to hike the road instead of wasting 18 extra miles on re-routes. If it's a re-route anyway, we decided we would do our own re-route. I think it's my new philosophy. If the PCT re-routes, I'll decide which way I re-route. I'm starting to think that I can't wait to finish this trail so I can start badmouthing it but hey, why wait?

We spent all day hiking down the road, spearing pine cones and launching them at each other and walking this surreal, deserted road. There were tunnels going through the rock and I was singing Gregorian chants in the amazing echo chamber. We discussed doing a rave or a wedding or something like that right on the road or in the tunnel. I got some great footage of a rattler that we would have just walked right by but he got all ornery and started shaking his tail when we were practically past him.

There looked to be a storm front coming in soon and it was getting cold. When we got to Three Points we knew there was a restaurant a couple of miles from the trail. We walked it down to Newcomb's Ranch and got some food, played pool and waited out the storm. Bandit got a hold of his girlfriend and she offered to come pick us up because his family were going to hang out at a campground for Memorial Day Weekend. Bandit didn't have to try hard to convince me to come and stay with them. Actually he didn't even have to ask...

I felt a little guilty at taking all this time off but I figured I'm a vet and it's Memorial Day so I can take a little R&R.

We set up our tents and I got to take a cold shower. Me and Sprinkles met the whole family. I decided to take a walk around the huge campground. There were hundreds of campsites and a lot of different kinds of people hanging out here. It was weird. There were a ton of Mexican families partying and listening to Latin music. There were a couple of Church groups and a couple of campsites with all black families watching Def Comedy Jam on an improvised projector screen.

One thing that struck me as very strange: I didn't hear a single musician playing any live instruments. It really bothered me. Nobody was so much as strumming a guitar. I walked around to every campsite that night and didn't hear a harmonica, guitar, or even a person singing around a campfire. It was kinda depressing. The next day I saw a dilapidated guitar leaning up against a trailer but I think it was probably only used as a prop.

I slept in my tent in the campground. It was kind of weird being there with my ultralight gear and thru-hiking, spartan efficiency in the midst of all these huge luxurious tents and $ 500,000 RVs with satellite TV and Internet access. I was amused, imagining how none of these "campers" had any idea that there were three international men of mystery in their company, unobtrusively nestled in these meagre little tents with stinky, dirty clothes and scruffy demeanor. I drifted to sleep, feeling like the alter-ego of some strange super hero with no real powers. Like Forest Gump or something.

Just some guy dumb enough to walk across the country.

David AKA “Mister F. Gentle Spirit”
Website
http://www.davidpatrone.com/PCT
Videos:
http://www.youtube.com/davidpatrone

Summiting Mt. Baden Powell

2011-05-27T21:00:00.000-04:00

We sat around the campground all morning waiting for some of our friends to show up. Kevin said he was driving them up in the morning but he drove up on his scooter and told us he'd be bringing a bunch of people up around noon. They started at a different point and Kevin came back with his camper and slacked us down to the Rt 2 parking lot before you climb up to Baden Powell. It was going to be the a heck of a climb and we ran into a few people on the way up. We knew there was a lot of snow up near the top and we wondered how much it would affect the climb. About three miles up, the snow completely obscured the trail and Sprinkles and I were constantly scouting around to try and find it. Eventually we gave up and just decided to start climbing straight up the hill. It was steep and difficult to climb in the deep, soft snow. I kept post-holing up to my thighs which were freezing since I was wearing my kilt commando. Near the top, we ran into early girl and Water Boy who were doing the same thing that we were, trying to climb a really steep section. They're one of the older couples out here on the trail and I was worried that they might not make it up the hill. Early Girl looked really worried so Sprinkles and I hurried up the hill to help them out. I tried to cut some steps as I climbed the nearly vertical wall but it was tough and even though I'm not a very tall guy, I was still cutting them a but too far apart for Early Girl. I took some video of the section that I was trying to climb and it's hard to see in the video just how vertical the slope was but trust me, it was pretty tough, especially without crampons or any other climbing equipment. Here's another Video

We all made it up the tough section and the slope got more gentle near the summit. We came upon a very old Limber Pine tree called the "Wally Waldron tree" which is supposed to be about 1,500 years old. We got a couple of shots of that and then set off to summit Baden Powell. The wind was severe at the top and I have a video of my hat flying off of my head. It would have been long gone but I was lucky enough that it hit the only tree at the top and I managed to recover it from the scree-strewn slope where the wind was less severe. We stuck around until a whole bunch of us got up there, ate lunch and finally the cool wind was annoying me enough that I took off before everyone else.

The slope down was covered with deep snow and I tried to "ski" it in my sneakers. I managed to pull it off sort of and descended very quickly. the snow on the trail was making it really tough to find the trail in some spots. Bandit had mentioned that it was "all downhill" after the Baden Powell summit so I ended up getting pretty lost thinking I should keep descending when I lost the trail. I had to bushwhack up a really steep hill and it took me forever. I finally found the trail and ended up being behind al of the people I had left in front of.

The hike seemed to take forever, considering it was only about 6 miles. At one point I was trying to find the trail and I went through a big snow field and I suddenly post-holed, and I felt my shin begin to scrape against a boulder. I thought I was going to break my leg as my weight was coming down on it. I jammed my trekking pole down quickly, getting my leg out of the way. Fortunately I got my leg to the ground safe, unfortunately I snapped my uphill trekking pole in half over the boulder. It took me a minute of so to get back on top of the snow and it took me a few minuted to find the trail but I eventually got to Little Jimmmy Campground" where I met up with a ton of people. Someone started a fire which about 20 people sat around, eating food and talking about all sorts of things. A few heated discussions ensued about Canada denying a few of us entry due to previous DUIs. One of the hikers was very adamant about Canada not wanting "Stupid Americans" in to Canada and so any excuse to deny entry would be exploited, especially not letting "Convicted Criminals" in. This thru-hiker was confident that we would never be granted permission. It was pissing me off and since I'm actually going through the complicated and expensive process of getting "Rehabilitated" I was trying to explain that there was a procedure in place and she wouldn't have any of it; adamantly insisting that we would NEVER be let in to Canada under ANY circumstances. Eventually everyone went to bed. I was really full because one of the hikers was trying to get rid of some food which I happily ate.

It was going to be a cold night. There was snow all over the campsite, in fact, we scooped up a lot of snow to put out the fire. Tomorrow was going to be a long road hike because the PCT is rerouted due to a recent firs and also a protected species of frog has made the original PCT off-limits. I need a warmer sleeping bad BADLY.

David AKA “Mister F. Gentle Spirit”
Website
http://www.davidpatrone.com/PCT
Videos:
http://www.youtube.com/davidpatrone

Out of Wrightwood

2011-05-26T21:00:00.000-04:00

We woke up eventually and Kevin drove us down to the Evergreen restaurant to get some breakfast. If you ever go there I recommend the "Evergreen Breakfast" you'll never finish it and it's got everything except pancakes. I couldn't finish it.

We tooled around Wrightwood for a few hours, picking up supplies and generally trying to psych ourselves up to get on the trail.

We piled in to Kevin's camper and he took us up to one of the campsites and we settled in without hiking. We just decided to stay there. There was water and firepits so we figured that was a great place to stay. At least we're out on the trail and not ini town again. These towns are tough to get out of. Especially when you have great great hosts like Kevin and Linda to make you all comfortable and clean and fed and on top of comfortable mattresses.

I'm sitting at a picnic table right now with Bandit, Sprinkles, Dusty and Camel. We're lighting a fire and heading to bed. This is actually the first time that I've used my iPad on the trail instead of in town. I have to buy a new iPad charging cable though, we should be at the Saufley's in about four or five days and I can get all the stuff I left in my car.

David AKA “Mister F. Gentle Spirit”
Website
http://www.davidpatrone.com/PCT
Videos:
http://www.youtube.com/davidpatrone

Surviving into Wrightwood

2011-05-25T21:00:00.000-04:00

IT was a good night's sleep and I felt much better. I was still having diarrhea but I got out of camp by 7:40 with hopes to reach Guffy campground and a fresh spring by 11am

Nader and Bait got out of camp about an hour and a half before me. It's crazy how some people get up at like 4:30 in the morning. Crazy.

hiking was rough. My cell phone was dead and I know there were some people worried about me from my texts. I spent a lot of time resting in the shade and taking it easy. I think the amoxicillin actually messes with my cardio-vascular system too. I seem to be out of breath much more than usual and sweating more than usual too. I ran out of water about three or four miles before the campground but the hiking wasn't very tough. I passed the turnoff to the spring but I finally found it. It was a steep climb down and then back up but the water was amazing. I ate a ton of food and drank a ton of water. I had another six miles to get to CA RT 2 which was supposed to be an easy hitch in to Wrightwood.

I pushed on and found myself at the top of Mountain High Ski resort. Apparently it's at Wrightwood and I didn't know that. I've never skied there but I'll have to go this winter.

Right before I got to the highway, I ran in to a king snake, the kind that looks like a coral snake. It was cool, I got some footage and kept going. I really needed to get in to town.

I got a ride from the second car that come by, although that still took about 30 minutes. Rt 2 is not a very busy road.

Wrightwood is great, it has everything you need all within a block of everything else. I found Bandit and Sprinkles at the Yodeler Tavern and soon all my old pals were there. They had gotten a ride from Kevin and he and his wife Linda were hosting them, I asked if he had any room and he did so I ended up going with them back to their awesome house. They cooked us dinner and we watched the final night of American Idol. If you ask me, casey should have won, not that fake basso country douchebag but hey of course I'm going to be partial to a jazz guy.

ANyway, I feel much better and now we're trying to figure out whether or not I'm staying in Wrightwood for another day...

David AKA “Mister F. Gentle Spirit”
Website
http://www.davidpatrone.com/PCT
Videos:
http://www.youtube.com/davidpatrone

Running on empty and crashing.

2011-05-24T21:00:00.000-04:00

Today could have been my last day on the trail.

I started out by getting up really late. I didn't get out of camp until about 10:30. I had to deal with some uncomfortable bowel movement before I could even get my tent down. It had me worried that I might have been dealing with a mild version of Giardia or dysentery. I finally got moving and I knew that Bandit and Sprinkles would be a couple hours ahead of me so I was going to try to push to keep up. I realized I hhad stopped short of the actual campsite and I found a cool water cache that was being resupplied by Joanna. I left my name at the book and drank about a half a liter, I thought about filling up but I figured I would have an opportunity to get some water later. I would be wrong.

I was having a tough time climbing and although it wasn't hot, I was sweating like crazy. I wasn't really drinking much water or eating. I just couldn't seem to get my pace going. Every step seemed like a chore and I was trudging along, felling pretty bad. Eventually, after about six or seven miles I decided to take a break. My pack felt really heavy and I sat it down on a rock. The trail was very narrow here and the sides were steep going up and down on either side of the trail. there was nowhere to sit really, so I tried to find a rock or something. Normally I feel better as soon as I stop but I just couldn't get my breath. I sat on this rock but it wasn't really comfortable and then I heard the ringing in my ears start. I know that means I'm going to pass out so I tried to lay across the rock.

I came to with dirt, rocks and plants in my mouth and I was sliding down the hill to the trail. I was delirious but I was trying to get whatever was in my mouth out and spitting and dry-heaving. I was afraid I might fall off the side of the trail so I kind of sat down and laid back on the only flat spot: the trail. I don't know how long I lay there in and out of consciousness. I eventually tried to get up and got really dizzy again so I lay back down. At some point a couple of people came by and stepped over me, asking if I was alright. OIf course I said "Yeah man I'm fine!"

It took two hours until I was able to get my pack on and walk a little. I got about a half mile up and got woozy again so I pulled out my pad at a wider spot and plopped back down. I wasn't sure how much water I had but two angels came by, Spoonman and Cerveza. They insisted that I take some of their water and they sat with me for a bit. I thought I had giardia for sure. I tried some texting. I was so angry and beat down that all I could think about was getting off trail and going home. I texted some people and was planning to get off trail if I made it out of there. Nader and Mosquito Bait showed up and they told me they were camping at a spot about a mile ahead. I eventually got up and made it to that camping spot while they were setting up. We spoke for a while and Mosquito Bait told me some more about amoxicillin and how it wears you down, gives you diarrhea and makes you way more sensitive to the sun. I was so relieved! I thought I had Giardia but here it was probably just the antibiotics. I had some dinner and tried to hydrate slowly with what water I had. I knew I had to go another 7 miles in the morning until I could get a good water source. I had about a liter left and I was just hoping the trail wasn't too bad. Nader and Bait gave me some of their couscous and I lost my spark so I had to try and eat with my drumsticks as chopsticks.

I climbed into bed with a full stomach and some horrible gas that smelled like I was dying inside. I wonder if I'm going to have this gastrointestinal issue the whole time I'm taking my ABs

I feel better but I'm still a little sour on the trail. We'll see how I feel tomorrow.

David AKA “Mister F. Gentle Spirit”
Website
http://www.davidpatrone.com/PCT
Videos:
http://www.youtube.com/davidpatrone

Back at Cajon Pass

2011-05-23T21:00:00.000-04:00

I ended up going to San Diego and the VA Hospital doesn't do dental so they gave me some amoxicillin and told me to go find a dentist. I'm not sure when I'm going to have time to do it but at least it'll take care of the abcess in the meantime. The gig at Big Bear was great but there wasn't a ton of attendance because the Hostel was closed to hikers for the weekend so basically it was just people I already knew from Big bear and guests of the hotel. Craig let me crash at the resort. I dropped in on my old stomping grounds and Murray's. The next night I had a gig in Newport Beach which was cold as hell, we were outside on a hilltop and the fog came in. It sucked pretty bad. That night I was going to go up and drop my car at a hiker hostel called the Saufley's in Agua Dulce but I decided to detour out to Vegas and spend the night with Laura before I get back on the trail. It'll be a while before I get to see her again.

The next day I drove out to The Saufley's and stayed there. I slept in one of their tents and the next morning I found a cool hiker named Blaze who was willing to do the shuttle thing with me. He and I drove out to the REI in Rancho Cucuamonga to see if they had a pair of shoes for him. Then we went to a Henry's and a Ralph's to pick up supplies. At Cajon Pass there is a MacDonalds and we had some burgers. I met a guy named Soft Walker who apparently hikes barefoot a lot. I bid my car and Blaze adieu and used the bathroom and then got on the trail, planning to hike a few miles in the dark. It was looking like rain and I was really not looking forward to a climb up in rain and possibly snow but I really needed to get back on the trail.

Soft Walker was ahead of me and I had to turn my headlamp on to go under the bridge of the I-15. it was a little strange doing that in the dark, wondering what was under here and there was some running water that turned into a regular stream. I had some difficulty not stepping in the water in the dark but once I was out from under the bridge and re-found the trail, I was able to hike with my headlamp off. I hadn't intended to get all the way to the first campsite at 5 miles but somehow I managed to get there... around midnight. I found a bunch of tents on the side of the trail and just pitched my tent in some low bushes because I thought it was the campsite I had been looking for. It wasn't. It was close though, just about a 1/4 mile away. I have been experiencing some gastrointestinal abnormalities lately and I'm hoping it's not Giardia which is one of the reasons why people treat water. It comes from Raccoon Feces and it's like Montezuma's revenge on steroids. It takes about 7 days to ferment in your body before symptoms show up and I had some untreated water about a week ago so... I just hope that it's not a problem. I guess we'll see.

David AKA “Mister F. Gentle Spirit”
Website
http://www.davidpatrone.com/PCT
Videos:
http://www.youtube.com/davidpatrone

Zero in Vegas...

2011-05-17T21:00:00.001-04:00

I stayed at the Big Bear Hostel and woke up with a toothache. I've been feeling something in there for a couple of days but today it was really bothering me. coincidentally it's was the same tooth that I had root-canaled beck before I did the Appalachian Trail. I hope it's not an abscessed tooth but it's feeling like it might be. I decided to go visit Laura in Vegas before my gig on Friday and maybe I'll check in with the VA in Vegas and see what they can do for me.

I stopped at the trailhead on the way out and ran into Sprinkles and Bandit. They were getting a ride already so I just drove out to Vegas and found Laura's apartment and we went and ate but the tooth was killing me. It turned out I forgot to pack my sound system so I'm going to have to go to San Diego anyway. It turns o ut they don't have VA clinics there in Vegas so I will go to the VA in La Jolla. I have to get back on the trail but it's so tempting to just blow it off and enjoy the civilian world.

David AKA “Mister F. Gentle Spirit”
Website
http://www.davidpatrone.com/PCT
Videos:
http://www.youtube.com/davidpatrone

Slackin off to Big Bear Lake

2011-05-16T21:00:00.000-04:00

That was the coldest night so far. This 40 degree sleeping bag isn't going to cut it very long. I'm pretty sure I need to get a warmer bag most kosh or sooner. I've been looking at this killer bag, the Dreamwalker from Exped. It's the warmer version of the bag I have which is unlike any other sleeping bag I've ever seen. You can put your arms out of it and wear it like a jacket so you never have to get out of your sleeping bag to get up and get ready in the morning.

Check it out here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBjPVoAYV0o

Anyway, I lay there freezing, I think it went down to like 20 or 25 and I waited until the sun started to melt the frost on my tent before I roused myself. I started walking, I was hoping to get 27 miles to rt 18 by nighttime but when I get to this cabin I see Natural (a guy I met the other day on the trail) and he's there with his car. We start talking and he tells me it's supposed to snow tonight and maybe tomorrow. My car is in Big Bear and I'm thinking, "this would be a good time to hang out in Big Bear for a couple of days."

SO I caught a ride from Natural and it's a good thing I did because apparently i forgot to load my sound system in the car! I'm going to have to head back to SD and pick it up and then back up here. I have to figure out how I'm going to afford to buy a warm sleeping bag. Laura's in Vegas for the week and Vegas is about the same distance from Big bear as San Diego is...

Maybe it's a good time to hang out in Vegas for a day, head back to SD to pick up the gear and then head to Big Bear for the gig on Friday...

I think I hear a Hunter S. Thompson quote coming on...

David AKA “Mister F. Gentle Spirit”
Website
http://www.davidpatrone.com/PCT
Videos:
http://www.youtube.com/davidpatrone

Climbing into the Blizzard

2011-05-15T21:00:00.000-04:00

I had probably my best night of sleep on the trail so far. The temperature was great and I was on flat ground. It was going to be a long hike today uphill all the way. I was climbing up toward Big Bear and there was rumor of weather. In two or three days I should be in Big Bear so I wasn't too worried about it. I didn't realize what I was in for...

It's interesting to not how the mind works. I knew from looking at other people's maps and elevation profiles that it was a 20 mile section of almost all climbing but once you get on the trail you're thinking, "I wonder what the trail has for me today?" Then it's almost like you're surprised when the maps are right. An all day climb is kind of unbelievable. when you're on mile 14 or 15 and you normally get 20 - 25 miles you get frustrated as the landmarks come by much more slowly. In your hiking head you're thinking that you have come 7 miles and then you come up to some hikers at a stream and find out you've only gone 4. Nearing the end of the day, the last few miles into camp are excruciating as you come around another turn and there's another stretch of uphill that turns toward a peak you couldn't see earlier.

I've heard that the climbing section into Big Bear is one of the hardest on the whole trail and that it's the reason that many people get off the trail permanently in Big Bear. Well, I can definitely see that. I thought I was lucky because it was an overcast day with a lot of wind when typically this part of the trail is extremely hot; however, in the afternoon the temperature began to drop very quickly. As a ski instructor and frequent traveler in the mountains I pride myself in being able to tell the temperature without a thermometer. I'm rarely off by more than three degrees in the 10 - 50 degree range, even with wind but as I climbed and the temperature dropped I was afraid to believe my guesses. It felt like 40 degrees at 4pm! It couldn't be! It felt like 35 degrees at 5pm as I pulled in to a campsite that had some water. There were a couple of packs sitting by a horse "burro" or "Hitching Rail" and a tall hiker there. In my kilt and thin shirt I was quickly shivering.

"How cold is it man?" I asked Pepe who was getting ready to go further up the trail
"Pretty cold, somebody had a thermometer on their pack and it said 39 about a half hour ago"
"Man I can't believe it!" It's gonna go below freezing tonight and yesterday I thought I was going to get heat stroke!"
"Yeah man I'm trying to get to 146 to some shelter they have there."
"Man I think I'm just gonna wrap up in everything I have and pass out. Is there water here?"
"Yeah, it's about a 1/4 mile past the campsite. Catch ya later"
"Later"

There were a couple of people at the campsite and I started gathering raking up pine needles with my trekking poles to try and get better insulation to sleep on. It was going to suck tonight.

Seahorse and her boyfriend who doesn't have a trail name yet walked up, he was the one with the thermometer. He told me it was 35 and dropping quickly. Shit

I got a bunch of water and then collected wood and we all started a fire with pinecones. I stayed up late with the fire, not wanting to face the cold. I was guessing it was now about 28 degrees at 9Pm which meant it could go down to 20 or even lower by 3am. I got into my tent and put on everything I had and tried to go to sleep. I blew all the water back into my bladder so my drink tube wouldn't freeze and I was not looking forward to this night cause I only have a 40 degree bag and a Patagonia down sweater. Shit.

David AKA “Mister F. Gentle Spirit”
Website
http://www.davidpatrone.com/PCT
Videos:
http://www.youtube.com/davidpatrone

Whitewater Trail Magic!

2011-05-14T21:00:00.000-04:00

I awoke to the sounds of the I-10 and the screeching brakes of the Burlington Northern Santa Fe on it's way to St Louis from somewhere beyond San Diego. I can only assume it was using it's brakes to rouse we hikers for there is nothing but desert and uninterrupted track for many a mile. We had a lofty climb in front of us, eventually to 9000 feet on the way to Big Bear. The wind was howling but I hardly noticed because the howl had been a constant since I arrived here the afternoon prior. I knew I was headed toward the wind farm up the hill and then to some river beyond that but I had no idea what was actually in store for me.

I climbed quickly the stiff and windblown flora and passed the defunct carcass of the Pink Motel, which was for a short while a hiker hostel and junkyard. The corroded corpses of cars and what looked like a former Hostess delivery truck stood out from the various flotsam of you-name-it and what-did-we-used-to-call-its. There was a hiker register there on a lonely post beside the trail and I stopped with a few other hikers to sign it, like Seahorse, Chili-dog and Bubbles, Das Boots was ahead and I ran into him at the wind farm office which was closed. The wind was dangerously close to blowing my sun helmet off and into the sky so I took an extra shoelace and lashed it to my pack strap. It saved the day on several occasions. The wind was relentless and I peeled a sour apple blowpop, wrapper fluttering violently, while I tried not to let it litter the hills and destroy my hiker karma.

After a goodish climb and the regular meander, I descended into a canyon where the wind was not so severe. When the winds blow strong, the perspiration is evaporated and my chafing is cured; however, in lesser winds, the rubbing and stinging sets in. I walked past a few civilians, out for the day with their rottweiler and doberman and they were surprised to hear about the enormity of the PCT. Shortly after that I saw a note, a glorious not in a ziplock bag laying in the center of the trail.

"Trail Magic Ahead at the Trout Farm.
Hamburgers, hot dogs, veggie burgers, sodas
Buck-30"

There was a junction and a nice, new sign that said Whitewater Preserve 0.5 mi and under that it said, "Hiker's Welcome"

There would be more trail magic today! I didn't know how much though...

I hiked the half mile in to the preserve and there were a few others already there at a wading pool that you could do some stealth rinsing in. Ninja, Drop&Roll, K-Bomb, etc. they directed me to the pavilion where Buck-30 (a triple crowner) was grillin up burgers and other delectables and he had a book about he CDT. A triple crowner is someone who has hiked all three of the long trails in the US: The Appalachian Trail (AT), The Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) and the Continental Divide Trail (CDT) which goes up the middle and is the most remote of the three. Buck 30 lives in San Diego and decided to come up and do trail magic for a few days and he is the man! I'm starting to think about the CDT now... Ahh shoot. get back on the PCT!

There were a lot of day hikers and casual campers with lots of kids there and trout pools with HUGE trout in them. They were so docile I put my hand in there and they would actually rub up against you.

After that, just about a million people showed up at the magnificent preserve with our Ranger Jose who pulled out a scope and let us check out bighorn sheep on the hillside. Rain was looming and we still had a big climb ahead of us...

Just as we depleted Buck-30's trail magic, another trail angel dropped in with pesto tortellini, baked chicken, watermelon for days and pies of various flavors. It seems we are not going out to hike any more today... The moon was nearly full and the wind had the smell of rain on it...

David AKA “Mister F. Gentle Spirit”
Website
http://www.davidpatrone.com/PCT
Videos:
http://www.youtube.com/davidpatrone

Sleeping under the Bridge

2011-05-13T21:00:00.000-04:00

Got up early because I heard it was going to be a hot climb. We had to drop 8000 feet into the desert and it was going to take about 19 miles, so I knew it would be a typical PCT indirect route.

The PCT is starting to irritate me with it's rambling, meandering route that unnecessarily winds back and forth and over and around ridges for seemingly no reason at all. Unlike the Appalachian Trail, it doesn't take you up to every peak and scenic view. Instead it takes you around every little canyon and hill so you can see everything from every different angle. In a word: UNNECESSARY. I would be much happier if we would just go to ur destination or go to something interesting. The AT might have been like this except you could never really see it because all the shrubs and trees were too high. Out here you can see where the trail goes and you're thinking, "Why the hell am I going all the way over there to come back here just a few feet below?" There's nothing wrong with switchbacks, just make them shorter, a LOT shorter.

I was right, this trail did in 15 miles what it could have easily done in 8 and I spent all day fighting heavy brush and descending into the hot valley below. It was so strange, yesterday I was hiking through five feet of snow and today it was 94 degrees at 10 AM. I cut a few switchbacks and bushwhacked a little. I'm not ashamed to say it. I cut up my legs and probably risked some Rattlesnake encounters but it was worth it. F the PCTA and their ridiculous switchbacks that go a half mile out and back to put you 50 feet lower on the same slope. Total BS!

By the time I got to the bottom I was waxed and chafed and pissed. I refilled my water at the fountain they have there at Snow Creek and I saw these crazy clouds coming over San Jacinto. I knew it was going to rain so I waited til the clouds were in the right spot and I headed across the steaming valley with cloud cover to cool me. It was a good idea and as I got to the bridge where the trains and the I-10 pass over a desert wash I saw some strange birds like owls or hawks burrowed into the desert bluffs along the RR tracks. I shot a picture but it turned out pretty bad.

The wind through that valley is extremely strong nearly 100 percent of the time (which is why there are all of those huge windmills there) and the old creek-bed wash I was walking in was hard to move against the wind while hiking in the deep, loose sand but eventually I got to the bridge where some awesome people had dropped off sodas and beers and other snacks for us PCT hikers. I was chillin there cause I had some cell service and then Bandit and Sprinkles walked up. Bandit and I decided we were going to hitch to the next exit down on the I-10 where we heard there was a Burger King: Cabazon. Some students from Redlands were filming a zombie movie nearby and after sticking our thumbs out on a deserted frontage road for an hour I decided to ask them if they would give us a lift. They did. There were cool and all bloodied up for the filming so we really made an interesting combination. Lots of other hikers had showed up at the bridge so Bandit and I decided to conjure up some of our own Trail Magic. We got in to Burger King in Cabazon (where those huge dinosaur replicas are) and ordered 25 cheeseburgers, 12 Chicken Sandwiches, 6 big orders of fries, 12 dutch apple pies and lots of condiments. We had no idea how we were getting back but we had our hands very full of food. Bandit got us a ride from this guy Jeff towing a sand rail and when we arrived back under the bridge, there was a cacophony of adulation that barely rose above the highway drone.

We feasted all night and fell asleep in the dirty sand under the bridge, about 20 of us, fat, warm and happy, with another day of climbing toward San Gorgonio ahead of us...

David AKA “Mister F. Gentle Spirit”
Website
http://www.davidpatrone.com/PCT
Videos:
http://www.youtube.com/davidpatrone

Snow Trekking the Ridges

2011-05-12T21:00:00.001-04:00

Getting out of Idyllwild was tough but I managed to get breakfast at the Red Kettle again and get a ride up from the owner of the Idyllwild Inn around 8:15 AM I was worried about the hike back up devil's slide but it proved to be not so bad. I ran into Ninja and Drop&Roll after Saddle Junction and we all headed up to San Jacinto. I decided I didn't want to summit San Jacinto despite John Muir's glowing recommendations. I was experiencing a lot of chafe from the kilt but the feet were fine as we came down toward the feared "Fuller Ridge" where we hiked through a lot of snow which really slowed me down but wasn't very dangerous. Once, I post-holed all the way in and my bare bottom and balls were treated to the exhilarating sensation of a frosty cradle since I'm going commando under my kilt. WOW! That was something I'll never forget (I'll bet I just gave you a visual you won't soon forget either).

After fuller ridge we came into the Fuller Ridge campground and I was just too tired to keep going. I really wanted to because there was a lot more daylight left but the chafing was just to intense.

About a million people showed up and we had a great campfire with Seahorse, New Homes, Side Track, Sprinkles, Bandit, Ramblin Rose, Half Step, Roger, Bubbles, Murphy, Dump Truck, and a bunch more I can't remember.

I took some great video of me on top of a rock formation on Fuller Ridge and you can check it out here:
Rotary view of San Jacinto and San Gorgonio

David AKA “Mister F. Gentle Spirit”
Website
http://www.davidpatrone.com/PCT
Videos:
http://www.youtube.com/davidpatrone

Back to Idyllwild

2011-05-11T23:31:00.003-04:00

I have been feeling pretty good lately and I've been getting big miles but today I felt the strain. I've been climbing up at much higher elevations so I am finally starting to slow down, not to mention I ran into a ton of snow today, so much that I actually lost the trail and bushwhacked a half mile up a mountainside, pretty much lost, until I found a trail which I assumed was the PCT (it was) but I ended up going the wrong way on it until i ran into some people who set me straight. It may seem like it's hard to go south instead of north but it's actually pretty easy because I don't have a GPS to tell me where on the trail I actually am and even when you're going north on the PCT, a lot of the time, you're going any direction BUT North. It's frustrating but the trail is dictated by terrain so you just have to deal with it. Today had amazing views though and it's evident that the people who work on this trail have done so much hard work to maintain and build this trail. It's amazing.

The altitude climbs and the snow hiking made for a really tough day and I had to drop back down into Idyllwild to pick up enough food to make the next 130 miles to Big Bear. It's going to be rough because in two days I descend 8000 feet into the desert, only to have to climb it all again after I cross the I-10.

When I got into Idyllwild I was planning on resupplying and then going right back up but I had to hike an extra 5 miles just to get in to town and I decided to just take a break and tackle the re-entry (2.5 miles straight up) in the morning. I piggybacked in a cabin with 5 other guys and I hit the market to resupply. 6 days of food is heavy and I have a lot of altitude to cover both up and down. It'll be rough but the views are spectacular. You can follow my progress on my website at http://www.davidpatrone.com/PCT For some reason the GPS map isn't working in some browsers but if you give the page a minute to load it usually works.

Tomorrow also has a lot of snowy and icy spots that have a lot of hikers worried. I don't have crampons or micro-spikes but I figure enough people have gone over that the footprints will be easy to hike in. We'll see! If my GPS tracker loses a couple thousand feet of altitude in less than a minute, you better call the coroner to come pick up my body.

David AKA “Mister F. Gentle Spirit”
Website
http://www.davidpatrone.com/PCT
Videos:
http://www.youtube.com/davidpatrone

Windy Strollin to Apache

2011-05-10T23:30:00.000-04:00

We got a late start after breakfast that the Red Kettle and met the owner's dog, Cody Bear or something like that. It was a long-haired Akita. It was HUGE and it was a really cool dog. Now it's Laura's favorite kind of dog and she wants one. We finally got out to the trailhead around 11:30am after picking up Sweet Pea and taking him with us. The climb wasn't too bad but I got a late start so I knew I wasn't going to get too far. Near the end of the day dark clouds were coming in and it was getting very cold. It wasn't supposed to do that! I sat at a switchback and cooked some ramen and salmon so I could just keep hiking until dark but that didn't happen, around 6pm I holed up in a really cool tree alcove just off the trail that I later discovered (after getting up to pee at 3 am) overlooked all of Palm Springs and the desert.

The night was REALLY cold, the coldest yet but I managed to stay alive.

David AKA “Mister F. Gentle Spirit”
Website
http://www.davidpatrone.com/PCT
Videos:
http://www.youtube.com/davidpatrone

Zero in Idyllwild = Conjugal Visit

2011-05-09T23:29:00.000-04:00

I caught up on blogs at the coffee shop in town and Laura decided to come out so I got a cabin at the Idyllwild Inn. Cabin #9 where literally hundreds of people have carved their names over the years in the walls, ceiling and even the fireplace. It's one thing to imagine how many people have had romantic encounters in your hotel room. It's another thing altogether to actually see their names... We ate dinner at Cafe Aroma and it was really nice I had the Angels on Horseback. I recommend it highly.

David AKA “Mister F. Gentle Spirit”
Website
http://www.davidpatrone.com/PCT
Videos:
http://www.youtube.com/davidpatrone

Trail Magic mambo

2011-05-08T20:00:00.001-04:00

On Saturday Jeff brought me back out to the Casa after I BSed all day, washing my clothes and getting food. I made it out to Mike's and it started to get really cold. There were no spots in the shack so I camped outside on the ground and it rained. I hate getting started in the rain so I dallied finally getting out later with a long hike ahead. I wasn't sure where I was going to stop but my blisters were gone and I was feeling great physically. It was pretty cold but great weather for hiking so I was cruising fast. The day sweetened up and I got in a great groove. In the afternoon it started to get colder and storm clouds were looming so I picked it up, so fast, in fact that I actually strained my hamstring and got a gnarly shin-splint on my left leg. I hobbled in to the Rt 74 campsite at 6:40 and saw an RV there. More trail angels! Boomer and Dr. Sole were there and they were about to shuttle a group of thur-hikers to the Paradise Cafe Boomer did the PCT b2b 2008 and 2009. He's a private chef and it turns out we've done events together. I didn't have time to set up the tent and I just hoped it wouldn't rain until I came back. WRONG!

We got to the Paradise Cafe and I think I had the biggest damn burger I've ever seen. It was the Motherlode Burger with 2 half pound patties of meat. They also had Bunderberg Ginger Ale and I couldn't have been happier at that moment. That is, of course, until I looked outside and saw that it was pouring rain. My pack was just sitting under an awning and from the looks of the blowing wind, would be doing nothing to protect my pack and it's contents. SHIT!

My leg hurt so bad I didn't really care, I just wanted to chill. When I got back the rain had not totally soaked my pack but the outside was pretty wet. Luckily I had waterproofed most of the contents but I still had to set up in the rain. I bent a tent stake and had a little trouble but finally got the tent up eventually I was pretty wet and climbed into the tent and began the process of setting up for wet, windy, sleeping conditions. It took forever to get situated and I hoped my bag was dry enough to keep me warm in the night. I really hoped the sun would come out in the morning. I knew that I wouldn't want to get out of the shelter unless it was warm and sunny.

David AKA “Mister F. Gentle Spirit”
Website
http://www.davidpatrone.com/PCT
Videos:
http://www.youtube.com/davidpatrone

Long way around

2011-05-07T23:24:00.001-04:00

It took us all day to figure out how to get to Mike Herrera's house. Jeff took a guy back who was having some knee issues and this is when I met Sprinkles and Bandit.

I'm no longer wearing this damn Flyers sweater. Those guys don't deserve it after getting swept by the Bruins...

David AKA “Mister F. Gentle Spirit”
Website
http://www.davidpatrone.com/PCT
Videos:
http://www.youtube.com/davidpatrone

San Diego Magazine Party

2011-05-06T21:00:00.001-04:00

In the morning we waited for Jeff and at 8am he wasn't there so we decided to try and find a ride back to the main HWY. There was a trail crew working from Mike's Casa and this cat Lyle showed up in a blue jeep that was converted to carry tools in the back. He graciously consented to drive us out to the road but he only had one seat so Dave and I threw our packs on the back and both of us jumped in the front seat. Dave was kinda on my lap for 6 REALLY bumpy miles and then we convinced Lyle to take us even further out to the main road where I had some cell service. It turned out that Jeff had been driving all over those roads with his faithful companion Flo. trying desperately to find us when some hikers told him we had split in the blue jeep. When Dave and I got to the road we decided to try to walk and hitch to Warner Springs where his bike was parked. We finally got a hold of Jeff and he picked us up and we all got where we had to go. I had a gig for San Diego Magazine's "Best of North County" that night and I was really looking forward to all of the amazing food that the restaurants cook for the event. Ramen wasn't going to cut it for me that night. Ahi sliders and the chocolate fountain were what I was waiting for. It took me about an hour and a half in the shower to get the grime off, scrub the blisters clean and shave everything. The gig was great, the lines for the food were too long though and Jeff and I went to Bully's East in Del Mar to get some steak. It was mediocre, they gave him the wrong thing but Flo ate great the next day. Still, mediocre steak beats ramen noodles any day of the week. I get to crash in a bed tonight and see my girlfriend Laura and her dog Mieka, maybe watch some TV. The Flyers got swept in the series by the Bruins so my hockey hopes were dashed. I'm going to burn the Flyers sweater I was wearing every day out there. Maybe that was the problem.

David AKA “Mister F. Gentle Spirit”
Website
http://www.davidpatrone.com/PCT
Videos:
http://www.youtube.com/davidpatrone

Headin to Herrera's Casa with Mr.Davis

2011-05-05T23:20:00.001-04:00

We got up and went to breakfast at the cafe. It was great but it seems they celebrate Cinco De Mayo on Siete De Mayo around here. We got on the trail eventually and it turns out Dave is a pretty fast hiker so I figured we'd try to make it all the way to Mike Herrera's Casa by nightfall, then Jeff could just pick us up there as early as he wanted to (he had to work at 10am and we were about an hour 20 out of SD)

We followed a Agua Caliente Creek for the first five miles or so, leaving it once for a nervous hour (I forgot to fill up) but we came back to it several more times before finally climbing up to the ridges. It was a hot day and I really wanted to jump in the creek and soak but I didn't want to foul up other hikers' water source. We hung out for an hour or sow in the midday to avoid the heat and I made some ramen. that stuff just never seems to get old to me.

Back on the trail the climbs where hot and dry; but Dave was really killing it so we just kept trudging on. It took us till nightfall to get to Mike's Casa where we had heard there was trouble between the caretaker and some Thru-Hikers a couple of days ago so we weren't sure what to expect. When we got to the road we still had a frustrating half-mile or so to walk and it was really hard to find the house. We could see the lights but we couldn't figure out how to get there. Eventually we figured it out. Cell service was unavailable all day so there was no way for me to communicate to Jeff our location. It turned out that we were 6 miles down a remote dirt road that was very hard to find and so I had to beam my satellite location up and message my emergency contact list to contact Jeff with our location but since it's not a 2-way link, I would have no way of knowing whether or not it was actually working. I guess we would know in the morning. Dave and I got the last two bunks in the little barn house and we crashed, grateful to have a spot to sleep that wasn't full of rocks.

David AKA “Mister F. Gentle Spirit”
Website
http://www.davidpatrone.com/PCT
Videos:
http://www.youtube.com/davidpatrone

Ancient Indian Sacred Hot Springs

2011-05-04T23:18:00.001-04:00

My earliest day yet, I was off at 6:30. Unbelievable! It was gonna be a long one though. I had about 2 cups of water for 5 miles until the water cache at "Third Gate" and it got hot early. By mile 3.5 I was shuffling, a little delirious from dehydration and sucking at the sweat on my hands and face for a little relief for my dry mouth and cracked lips. This girl Keilly came up behind me and gave me a little bottle of water. She could tell I was all messed up and shortly thereafter I made it to the cache. There was a little left and I wanted to get out of there because I needed to do 24 miles today to get to Warner Spring to meet David Davis. We agreed to meet there and hike a section tomorrow. My blisters are still open and burning and I have some weird pain in the millde of my foot whenever I stop. Simple solution: Don't Stop.

It seemed like it took forever to get to the next water area (Barrel Springs mile 101) which was purported to have a questionable water supply. As I came in I noticed that there were a couple of RVs parked on the roadside plus Spring Guy's shortie. It looked like a party was developing and a couple of people were holding a camp/cookout for PCT hikers. It was a bunch of retired pilots who did this every year and cooked all kinds of stuff including chilidogs, sodas etc... I ended up staying there for about three hours with all these people that kept coming in off the trail. We set all of our packs down by these bushes and a big Pacific Rattlesnake showed up to check them out. I put my helmet cam on a trekking pole and got some footage of it all rattlin and stuff. The footage wasn't that great but I'll probably post it later.

I had 8 miles or so left and I had to get to Warner Springs by 8:30 when Dave was going to meet me there. Warner Springs is a place they built on hot springs and they actually have an olympic sized pool fed by the hot spring. I couldn't wait to try it out but if I didn't get there in time it would be closed.

By the time I got in it was dark and David was already there. He had driven his motorcycle. It turned out that I still had to hike another 1.2 miles on the road to get to the resort. I called him and he offered to pick me up so he rolled down on his bike and got me to the resort on the Harley with my backpack and all. it was cool. Fortunately we go in in time to enjoy the hot pool for an hour. Unfortunately we weren't in time for a steak...

I was hobbling around so badly that Dave was thinking, "How the hell is he gonna hike tomorrow?" but I know that there's a big difference between tonight and tomorrow when it comes to hikers' feet. Besides the sulfurous pool was gonna fix everything (or so the Indians say). I wasn't sure how fast Dave was going to be able to hike tomorrow but hopefully we can get close to a road so Jeff can pick us up the next morning because I have a gig tomorrow night.

David AKA “Mister F. Gentle Spirit”
Website
http://www.davidpatrone.com/PCT
Videos:
http://www.youtube.com/davidpatrone

Cowboy Camping on the Ridge

2011-05-03T23:17:00.000-04:00

Woke up and got out an hour earlier than the day before. O don't think I've ever started hiking at 7:30am without major provocation before. I wasn't sure where I was going but I have just gotten used to listening to other people talk out here and following their directions. I have maps in my iPad but I don't ever feel like looking at them.

It turned out I was going for a place called scissors crossing at the 79 where you could go in to Julian if you wanted to. I know how these towns acan suck you in so I wasn't trying to go into julian and waste money on a hotel; however, as I got closer I kept thinking that lunch would be nice if I could get a hitch in pretty quickly. When I finally got to scissors crossing it was extrememely hot and I didn't see a good way to hitch in at all. I walked down the road a but and so many others were trying to hitch that I would have to wait until at least three cars stopped. Out of frustration I decided to start walking to Julian; however, the more I thought about it the more I realized I had no plans to actually walk the 12 miles in and there was much less of a chance of a car stopping because there was no real shoulder on the road here. I was about a mile down the road when I decided to go back. Just about the time I got back there, two trucks showed up and we all git rides in to Julian.

Ate lunch at Mom's Cafe and it turns out they give a free lunch to PCT Thru-hikers! Awesome! I grabbed some candy in the general store for the walk and went down to the post office to see if I could get a hitch back to Scissors Crossing. As I got in to the post office, a short RV pulled out and stopped for me. It was the notorious "Spring Guy" who maintains many of the springs here on the SoCal sections of the PCT. There were already a bunch of people in the van and I piled in for the trip back to SC

Back at SC there were a ton of Thru-Hikers lounging in the sun. Sugar Mama came up with some oranges and I learned that orange peels don't degrade in the wild. I wasn't too sure about that but whatever, I threw them in the trash instead of the bushes anyway. I BSed for a bit and then finally headed out.

The climb was rough. It was hot as hell and I really didn't bring enough water. I was caught by a crew of 5 fast hikers including two girls that hiked way faster than I was capable of with my beat-up kicks and dehydrated head. I caught them again just before we decided to camp. I was going for "Third Gate but it was still 5 mikes away so I just dropped with them at a bare spot and didn't even bother to pitch my tent. (cowboy Camping for those of you who are unfamiliar with the term) The stars were amazing; but there was some light-pollution from San Diego so we couldn't really see the milky way. Maybe later as we get closer to the remote wilderness.

David AKA “Mister F. Gentle Spirit”
Website
http://www.davidpatrone.com/PCT
Videos:
http://www.youtube.com/davidpatrone

Long day to Rodriguez Truck Road

2011-05-02T23:15:00.000-04:00

Jeff drove me to a campsite just off the trail in Mt. Laguna at 2 am and I pitched my tent in a maelstrom of wind but thankfully no rain. At some point in the night a tent peg came up and the tent sort of collapsed on me and I had to re set it; but other than that the night was uneventful. I don't think I was supposed to be camping in that campsite but I was up and out by 8:30. Met up with a few thru-hikers along the way and decided to make it a long one all the way out to Rodriguez truck trail. while we were hiking, in the distance you could see a snow-covered peak. I'm assumuing it was San Jacinto or Gorgonio. both of which I'll climb within the next two weeks. I'm not looking forward to the ice climbing but that's too far away to think about yet. I hooked up with a few guys that were super fast hikers and got some mileage. Stopped for lunch at some dry creek and decided not to camp. Came in to RTT in the dark because I got some cell service on the ridge and spent too long texting and emailing while I had the chance. There was a weird spigot thing at RTT and I got some water before setting up the tent in the dark. There were a lot of people there cowboy camping, but I wouldn't be shamed into it. I set up the tent and crashed.

David AKA “Mister F. Gentle Spirit”
Website
http://www.davidpatrone.com/PCT
Videos:
http://www.youtube.com/davidpatrone

Annual Day Zero PCT kickoff

2011-04-30T20:03:00.000-04:00

Hangin at the kickoff, gonna get back on the trail May 2nd. Bought a new tent (tarp tent moment) and a new pack (ULA) and I love them. I'm probably going to need a new Sleeping bag soon because it's been colder than I was expecting. There are a ton of vendors here. You should check it out ADZPCTKO and come meet all these crazy bastards who are about to hiike the hike of their lives...

David AKA “Mister F. Gentle Spirit”
Website
http://www.davidpatrone.com/PCT
Videos:
http://www.youtube.com/davidpatrone

Slackpacking to the 8

2011-04-28T23:05:00.000-04:00

Slackpacking today and a late start but I'm not worried. The hike was nice with only about 20 lbs. I wish I could do that all the time. I left some stuff in there, unfortunately I forgot to put any food in there so I went 17 miles with no food. It wasn't too bad but I did have to stop for some burgers on my way back to SD. I ran into a bunch of hikers coming north and I stopped to talk to most of them. I had to remind myself that I wasn't going to make it if I didn't shut my mouth and start walking. The Kickoff party starts tonight at Lake Morena but I probably won't be able to go. I met some trail workers just north of Cibbetts that were extracting a rock from the middle of the trail. These guys and girls amaze me, small teams of volunteers who work for 3 months at a time maintaining the trail. They were as dirty as thru-hikers if not dirtier and I watched move a 200 pound boulder before I continued on.

Tomorrow I'l go out to the ADZPCTKO party which stands for "Annual Day Zero Pacific Crest Trail Kick Off" and I heard there are a record number of people coming. You get to meet a whole bunch of the hikers who will be making the attempt this year. they also have seminars, presentations, vendors and a silent auction so you can really get a lot done in one weekend. I'm looking forward to seeing the Stick Pic guy. He had some cool stuff last year.

David AKA “Mister F. Gentle Spirit”
Website
http://www.davidpatrone.com/PCT
Videos:
http://www.youtube.com/davidpatrone

Viejas Casino Gig

2011-04-27T23:04:00.000-04:00

The gig for KIFM 98.1 San Diego went great. The room was packed and the sound system was great. Of course you could hear the C arpeggio of clot machines in the constant background but it was cool otherwise. Mikan and I had Rockstar juiced, he for the first time, and that got the gig of to a flying start. Mikan, Evona and I played all night and then Collen and Olin drove me up to their house in Mt. Laguna. I crashed on their couch, tomorrow I'll slackpack down to the 8 and then they're going to shuttle my car to me so I can start next Monday from Mt Laguna, right about where the herd ought to be.

David AKA “Mister F. Gentle Spirit”
Website
http://www.davidpatrone.com/PCT
Videos:
http://www.youtube.com/davidpatrone

Back Home for Supplies

2011-04-26T23:03:00.000-04:00

I'm here in my office/bedroom/storage unit, downloading all of Half-Mile's maps on my iPad and Droid. That's probably the way to go. I moved everything I own into my office so that I don't any rent while on the trail. I'm here fixing the last of the logistical problems that popped up. The spot tracker was working it's just that I had the wrong map embedded on my website. I forgot a bowl so I picked one up at REI last night, I have some last minute stuff coming in the mail and I hate this backpack. I got a medium and I need a large. Even with the hip pad on the straps are pulling on my shoulders. I'm going to bring my other pack until I get something better. Maybe someone at the Kickoff will want to trade. It'll weight a lot more but my shoulders are trashed so I'll use my Gregory pack. I'll take off all of the junk that I don't need and try to get my pack under 5 pounds. Warner Springs Monty has an entire base weight that's lighter than my pack is. Jesus! Tomorrow is the first gig on the Pacific Crest Jazz Tour and I'm really excited about it. It's finally here!

David AKA “Mister F. Gentle Spirit”
Website
http://www.davidpatrone.com/PCT
Videos:
http://www.youtube.com/davidpatrone

I-8

2011-04-25T23:03:00.000-04:00

The temperature went way down in the night and I was damn cold; however, I left my feet outside of the bag and I think that kept them from swelling. I met a few other hikers from North Carolina and San Diego and I ate a couple of pop tarts and packed up for this 1000 foot climb out of Hauser Creek.

The 4 miles to Morena lake were longer than regular miles. I'm not sure how this happens but it does. (it turns out it was actually 4.8 miles so maybe that's the thing) anyway I was glad to see something I could actually sit on. I got something to eat and somehow I started to think that this was Tuesday and not Monday so I was freaking out about how I was going to get to Mt Laguna in time to get back to my gig on Wednesday at Viejas. I was going to have to get off at the 8. Bummer.

Along the way I realized my spot tracker is not sending updates the way it should and I also forgot my bowl to eat from. Man! I called in a carlift and My buddy Andy came and picked me up on the 8. He brought all this great stuff like apples and oranges. It was awesome.

Not until later that night when I was getting some dinner and there was no piano player at the restaurant did I realize, it's MONDAY!!! AHHH man I stillhad another extra day! I felt so stupid. That's what I get for not having a watch or a map or any of that stuff. So I changed plans, I'm going to play my gig on Wednesday night then get a ride up to Mt Laguna and hike in to the Kickoff party Thursday. In the meantime I'll be taking care of last minute things before I get back on the trail. I'm really looking forward to going to the kickoff as a Thru-Hiker, not some stooge walking around "researching his hike for next year"

David AKA “Mister F. Gentle Spirit”
Website
http://www.davidpatrone.com/PCT
Videos:
http://www.youtube.com/davidpatrone

Mile 1

2011-04-24T07:45:00.001-04:00

The wind was moderate, although not as bad as I've seen in some videos when Thru-Hikers climb the monument and somehow balance on the top with 40 mph winds rippling their clothing and beards.

It was 2 pm by the time we got to the monument and my hopes for reaching Lake Morena on the first day were slim. I hadn't hiked anything longer than 5 or six miles since I left the Appalachian Trail in August of '08 Even then, 20 milers were rough on the feet; however, this year I was going much lighter. I plan on picking up a map at the Kickoff party this weekend but I don't have one yet. I'm confident I can figure it out. I need to get a wristwatch too. I'm sure I've forgotten a few things. Time will tell...

The clouds were threatening rain and the temperature swung from hot to cool with the wind gusting at times as I moved along. There are several burn areas where the foliage has begin to finally take hold and decorating the black, burnt, skeletons of trees were beautiful purple and sage-colored flowers, like some sort of macabre funeral. It was amazing. I would have taken some pictures but I was rushed for time and I was sure the pictures won't do it justice, you'll have to go see it for yourself, it's only a couple of miles in...

I mistook the first campsite at 14 miles for a makeshift campfire pit. I was planning on stopping there but 2 miles later, when I got to Hauser Creek, I realized I had passed it. One one hand, I had gone further than I expected, on the other hand, it was already getting dark and I hadn't setup this hammock in a couple of years. By the time I finished it was pitch black, I was cursing, dirty, tired and hungry but I decided to go to bed without fixing any of those problems. I was on the PCT!

David AKA “Mister F. Gentle Spirit”
Website
http://www.davidpatrone.com/PCT
Videos:
http://www.youtube.com/davidpatrone

Getting Started

2011-04-23T07:43:00.000-04:00

I was up all night with my packup and I crashed on the couch, luckily my ride was out all night too and didn't mind getting lunch before we headed out. We grabbed a bite in San Diego and then drove out to the trailhead. We had no idea where it was so we asked for directions a couple of times. We had his beautiful, white Mercedes and he really wasn't looking forward to driving on the unimproved dirt roads but I convinced him that it was an adventure for his car, just like it was an adventure for me. The border patrol was all excited to see a blacked-out Mercedes racing for the border on a dirt road in the middle of nowhere. We made sure to stop one of them so they would know it was just us, hanging out at the border, you know, just chillin'
Mike dropped me off around 2pm; late start, which is standard for me (or just "Standard" as my brother Michael says). We did the picture/pose thing and I began my trek on the Pacific Crest Trail...

David AKA “Mister F. Gentle Spirit”
Website
http://www.davidpatrone.com/PCT
Videos:
http://www.youtube.com/davidpatrone

Of Course it's snowing again!

2011-04-20T07:29:00.001-04:00

Of Course it's Snowing again!!!

Driving home tonight from the village at around 7000 feet there was snow on the ground and all of the cars, not much maybe a half an inch but it was laying and it looked like there was more to come. Accuweather says there's 4 inches on the way and that's not what I was hoping to hear. Now that my skiing season is over I want the snow to melt FAST for my PCT bid.

I am up all night packing my room up. I'll be loading my car in the morning, writing for a few things to arrive in the mail and then heading out to San Diego to prepare for the hike. I have a gig tomorrow night and I have a few gigs before I officially embark although I might try to section hike a bit up front before the ADZPCTKO begins April 29. I have a gig on the 30th and the 1st of May and I think my buddy JG is going to drive my car ip to Big Bear with my equipment in it. I have a gig on the 20th in Big Bear at Nottingham and I hope I've timed it right to have some thru-hikers there. I have been checking the snow pack and it looks like it's about 300 inches in much of the Sierras right now. I don't think that's a very good sign but I'll cross that snow when I come to it.

If any thru-hiker needs a ride to the ADZPCTKO I'll take you there, just call me

MFGS

David AKA “Mister F. Gentle Spirit”
Website
http://www.davidpatrone.com/PCT
Videos:
http://www.youtube.com/davidpatrone

Snowpack in the sierras

2011-04-15T07:27:00.000-04:00

Snowpack in the sierras is huge right now. It makes me a bit worried I have to say. I'm wishing I could ski through them because I know when I crest those passes and see the slopes down that I'm going to be wishing I had my skis... But who wants to carry skis through the sierras if there is a lot of dry ground? I doubt there will be any, if they even let us in around June 15. I took this picture today at about 10,000 feet at Heavenly Ski Resort in South Lake Tahoe. The snow wall is over 20 feet high. Sure, it's not like that everywhere but it's at least 10 feet in the places where snow generally stays... I wonder what this will mean for the class of 2011?

David AKA “Mister F. Gentle Spirit”
Website
http://www.davidpatrone.com/PCT
Videos:
http://www.youtube.com/davidpatrone

On the way to PCT

2011-04-14T07:26:00.000-04:00

I'm in the office setting up the Pacific Crest Jazz tour. It's coming along slowly. I'm hearing rumors that the snow pack in the Sierra this year is the heaviest in 30 years; maybe record-breaking. Yesterday we had another four inches here at Heavenly but it's a terrifically sunny day today. I'm hoping enough snow melts that we don't have to skip the sierra and then doing it out of order, later in the summer.

Here is the gig schedule (later dates are tentative due to the snowpack)
April 27 Viejas Casino 7-10 5000 Willows Rd. Alpine CA 91901 (San Diego)
April 30 Wesgate Hotel 9-12 3rd and Broadway, San Diego, CA 92101
April 29-May 1 ADZPCTKO weekend in Lake Morena (kickoff weekend no performance)
May 20 Nottingham's Big Bear Lake, CA 92315
June 7 Joe's in Burbank. CA
June 11 Private (San Diego)
June 24 Michael Flohr Show (San Diego)
June 25 Private (San Diego)
Jul 16th Rafters in Mammoth Lakes
?Jul ? Mobile Station in Lee Vining
Jul 23rd Plan B in Carson City
July/Aug Barrelhouse in Weed, CA
August 6/7 Jade's Jazz Festival, La Pine Oregon
?Portland (Still in the works)
?Tacoma (Still in the works)
?Seattle (Still in the works)

I'm working on a few other gigs but I definitely want to focus on the trail and not get to hung up on making dates. I know from experience that doesn't work out there on the trail. The Sierra is going to be the deciding factor. I may have to push the gig at Rafters in Mammoth and the gigs in Tahoe around a little bit. I'll probably add a few dates in Lake Tahoe and take a break there since I have been living there this winter. I have a lot of friends there and it will be good to take a little break at the 1100 mile mark.

MFGS

David AKA “Mister F. Gentle Spirit”
Website
http://www.davidpatrone.com/PCT
Videos:
http://www.youtube.com/davidpatrone

2011-04-07T07:20:00.000-04:00

My name is Mr. F. Gentle Spirit and I'm a professional Jazz Musician, writer and a Thru-Hiker. In 2008 I did 1100 miles of the AT but had to get off because I ran out of money and I had a hernia from falling off a cliff at the ledges of St. John in Connecticut. I got surgery and they say I'm better than new!

This year I consolidated everything I own into a 10'x10' room, paid off my car and put everything I have into thru-hiking the PCT but with a little twist: I'm going to be performing in some of the cities and little towns along the way. I'm calling it the Pacific Crest Jazz Tour and I hope you dig it. You can find out more information about it here:
www.davidpatrone.com/PCT

Or here:
Facebook.com/PacificCrestJazzTour

It's going to be a rough one with the record setting snowfall and heavy snow pack in the Sierra Nevada Mountains but Nevada means "Snow Covered" so I guess it's only fitting. I'll do my best to get through and I hope you find this adventure interesting.

I received my denial of admission in to Canada today due to some past issues with driving offenses. Had to do a bunch of paperwork to assure them I'm not a danger to Canadians. Oh Canada, I assure you, I'm not a danger to Canadians, unless of course you don't let me in... I think they're just jealous because Vancouver hasn't won the Stanley Cup since 1915. I wonder how hard it is to sneak across?

I registered for the ADZPCTKO 2011 which stands for "Annual Day Zero Pacific Crest Trail Kick Off" and it's basically a party for those about to hike the trail, those who have already hiked the trail, those who support and dig those who hike the trail, oh yeah and don't forget the vendors who are selling you trippy ultralight gear for the trail.

registration is full so I may be sleeping in my car for the weekend but it's cool, I don't mind a bit. Had to turn down a gig for Sunday night as well, oh well, I get to party with my fellow thru-hikers and watch the final presentation.

See you on the trail!
Mister F. Gentle Spirit
www.davidpatrone.com/PCT

David AKA “Mister F. Gentle Spirit”

Website http://www.davidpatrone.com/PCT

Videos: http://www.youtube.com/davidpatrone

Pacific Crest Jazz Tour

2011-03-17T03:13:00.004-04:00

I'm sitting in the Moutain Headquarters by the Stagecoach lift at Heavenly in Stateline NV. (South Lake Tahoe for all you noobs) It snowed here last night about a foot and I was suffering from a gnarly bout of something that made me act like a little girl and hide under the covers for two days. I seem to be mostly over it but we'll see in the AM. I'm working on my Pacific Crest Trail trip and Facebook is driving me nuts. They just changed the policy on inviting people to your events and it now takes literally 5 minuted to add 30 people to an event. It's horrible. I have thousands of people to invite to these events coming up and I can't afford to spend six hours a day clicking on check boxes that take five minutes to appear because of the slow-ass java script. Anyway.

I think I'll be transferring this blog over to another blog just for the Pacific Crest Trail gig. For those of you not hip to the new thing, I'll be hiking the entire Pacific Crest Trail, a 2600 mile wilderness trek through the mountains of California, Oregon and Washington states from Mexico to Canada. This would be a tough enough journey but I've decided to up the ante and make it a music tour as well, performing gigs along the way with local musicians.

you can check it out here: http://www.davidpatrone.com/PCT please be sure to like the facebook page for it and I'll keep you updated that way as well..

On a side note I applied for the gig as Charlie Sheen's social media intern and if they should offer me the gig, it'll be a tough decision to forego the PCT trip this year... It's gonna be tough cause you know I have Tiger's Blood and I'm winning over here, over there and up high too. I actually dig this new Charlie Sheen. Some people are making all kinds of assumptions about him but maybe he's just fed up with all the BS! I know I am!

anyway, I'm heading to the rack for shuteye, I gotta teach some cats how to ski the steeps tomorrow.

David AKA “Mister F. Gentle Spirit”
Website http://www.wbafinc.org
Photos: http://www.photobucket.com/brotherproof
Videos: http://www.youtube.com/WBAF1

The Ultimate Mountain Gig

2010-11-27T01:12:00.001-05:00

From the Desk of David Patrone:

Ladies and Gentlemen of the Benevolent Order of Patrones [BOoP]

I was cruising the Internet the other day when I came upon an intriguing proposition that seemed like God himself logged in and typed the job description with exactly me in mind...

The Canyons, a very large and popular ski resort in Park City, Utah is is offering a job called "The Ultimate Mountain Gig". They are looking for someone who is a good writer, an adventurer, good with people, likes to blog and video blog, loves the mountains, loves a challenge and loves to ski and snowboard...

"WHAT!!" you say?

You heard me! I couldn't believe it either!

What's more, they are offering pretty nice compensation:

Season Pass to The Canyons

Superior (Suite) Lodging at the Waldorf Astoria
Salary of $40,000 for just four months of "Hard Work"
Use of Camera, Video Camera and Laptop
Head to toe ski or snowboard gear
Canyons Club Access
Airfare to and from Canyons
Spa treatments
Ski School and Avalanche Training clinics
First Tracks and Heli-Skiing access
VIP credentials for all Canyons Events

Many of you know me as a former Marine and Jazz singer, entertainer and musician in San Diego who occasionally tours here and there when the opportunity arises; however, many of you don't know that I am a PSIA certified L2 Alpine Ski Instructor and Advanced Children's Specialist

All I had to do was turn in a writing sample and a 2 minute video... Well, here's the video I turned in:

And here is my under 500 word writing sample...

I see mountains everywhere; literally, figuratively and emotionally. Born in Philadelphia in the early 70's when John Denver cried, "Aspen!" and Pocono retreats were en vogue, earthtones are the palate of my childhood. We moved to the mountains of Pennsylvania first, as a boy, and I've spent my life trading time between the steel canyons of the big city, the sun-speckled hiking trails and the snow-covered, pothole-riddled swerves, leading from the city to the hills. Although the tests said I was a smart boy, I was terrible in school, daydreaming adventures, reading books and studying naturalism from Tom Brown in city schoolrooms while teachers tried in vain to turn my attention back to scholastics. My family had no money for tuition so, I had a decision to make: Hit the Rockies to teach skiing or join the Marine Corps, to quench a thirst for purpose and adventure.

A charismatic recruiter won and I enlisted the week I turned 17. Sacrficing skiing for desert campaigns and exciting lands, I climbed many kinds of mountains as a Marine. I served as an explosives tech in Norway, Japan, Bosnia, Persian Gulf and the USS Thoedore Roosevelt. I ended up in Camp Pendleton, and left the Marine Corps after 10 successful years, to pursue another dream: a career as a professional musician and entertainer. Once embarked upon that journey I knew I'd never stop exploring the wilderness that is Entertainment.

Success blossomed; but, the sordid lifestyle took its toll. In desperation I remembered my youth and sought solutions in the mountains. I rediscovered skiing and became an instructor Big Bear Lake, California. Still lost, I came to a crossroads and chose sobriety; yet, remained in Show Business. The next winter I made a promise to get my national credentials as a Ski Instructor. Three years later I found myself a PSIA Level 2 instructor, Children's and Senior Specialist that taught in Spanish! In 2008 more mountains: The Appalachian Trail with my two brothers. We blogged, photographed, posted and filmed everything: http://brotherproof.blogspot.com

Another year, another mountain: PSIA Full Certification and in 2011 The Pacific Crest Trail.

I approach mountains in my life similarly, with almost enough planning and a thirst for spontaneous adventure. Facing tremendous obstacles, I've failed and succeeded with equal dynamic but learned the value/danger of both:

Kilimanjaro 2000: Altitude sickness a few hours from the summit forced me to turn back; yet, I bonded with the Wachagga tribe, learning songs, language and tribal customs.

Appalachian Trail 2008: slipped off a rainy cliff and got injured, ran out of money and had to return to salvage a bankrupt company.

Swung from busiest musician in Southern California to destitute; then, sobriety and the San Diego Music Awards for "Best Jazz."

I'm self taught: published writer, musician, skier, computer geek and an entrepreneur with knowledge of marketing and technology, social media, blogging, SEO, twitter, foursquare, YouTube etc.. In short, I am PERFECT for the Ultimate Mountain Gig.

David AKA “Mister Gentle Spirit”
Website http://www.davidpatrone.com
Photos: http://www.photobucket.com/brotherproof
Videos: http://www.youtube.com/WBAF1

Around the Lake in 80 days

2009-10-31T11:44:00.003-04:00

The stories at the breakfast table were full of impossibilities and childish wordplay with two witty and intelligent adversaries, Noah and Mason. I posted a little video on the site of us talking about “Cat Bacon.” We were very happy to have had a home to crash at with hospitable animals and humans alike. We got on the road a little late and since they had stopped ferry service only the day before, we were going to have to drive all the way around Lake Michigan to the other side to get to the Stacy Adams headquarters above Milwaukee. Mike started out driving while I uploaded pictures and charged batteries and ignored all of his requests to help navigate. With the time change to Central Standard we ended up getting to Milwaukee very early and we met Ben at Stacy Adams. Ben gave us the lowdown in the showroom and the warehouse operations. We got to take a look at next year’s models and some prototypes. They really know how to excite me with extravagant, two-tone magnificence.

We got a hold of my old Marine Buddy, Steve and I met his beautiful little daughter, Camille. Man, she is a firecracker and she’s probably going to be a UFC fighter by the time she turns seven! Steve’s Mom is exactly how I remembered her and she cooked up a Filipino feast for us. It was awesome and it was the first time Mike ever had Lumpia and rice noodles.

After dinner we decided to go into Chicago and catch the Swing Band at Green Mill. They were doing radio broadcast which is cool although I thought it was a The place looked like it was a regular hotspot and then it really got slammed since Bob Dylan was playing across the street. After it let out the place was unbearably packed so we split and decided to embark upon our journey on the Mother Road, Route 66.

The rain was cata doxis and we could barely see the lines in the road but we kept pluggin’ down Lake Shore Drive until it met Jackson and the tour began through south Chicago and past industry and slum and quarries until we finally got down to the outskirts and navigated the downpour into Joliet where we were turned away at Harrah’s and then found a Motel 6 and crashed for the night. There were floods everywhere and when we finally got into our room and into beds, I coughed steadily until about 5 am when I thing I determined that I am allergic to the pillow and I wrapped my face in a wet t-shirt and passed out on the other end of the bed. When will this sickness relent?

David AKA “Mister F. Gentle Spirit”
Website
http://www.wbafinc.org
Photos:
http://www.photobucket.com/brotherproof
Videos:
http://www.youtube.com/WBAF1

Grand Rapids Diversion

2009-10-29T12:57:00.004-04:00

Breakfast at The Eat'n Park

Sleep on the couch was better than expected. Mike was on the floor below me and I asked him to put his feet down where my head was so I wouldn’t be breathing on him al night. Danielle and James were already gone when we got up but we got ready cause I was going to take them to breakfast when they came back from their errands. We ate at an interesting place called Eat’n Park. It was like a local version of I-HOP or something. I had an egg sandwich with a fruit cup. I was in a CVS bathroom about 30 minutes later. I think I’m just starting to get over this flu; just in time for Route 66.

Lisa Parker is a Teacher and edits my serious writing when I come up with something I’d really like to have published. She edited “Mexican Teeth” and I credit her for its publishing. I met her online years ago and I’ve never seen her in person; but it looked like it was only about a few hours out of our way to swing by and see her so I sent her a message and she offered her guest room for the night. I was really excited to meet her husband and kids. Her daughter Katherine sent me a nice bear who is standing watch over my office while I’m away.

Gettin loaded at Dr. Bob's

While we were driving I saw signs for Akron and I remembered that AA was born there in a small house owned by Dr. Bob Smith and I heard that you can go and visit it; so another DAVE DIVERSION occurred. So far, no MIKE DIVERSIONS have occurred but I’m waiting for one. We found Dr. Bob’s house and although it was closed, the back door was ajar and I snuck in. I wanted to get few pictures of me sitting at the table where the first AAs got sober, drinking coffee and smoking cigarettes in the 1930s. There was a guy in the gift shop downstairs and he was gracious enough to let me buy a mug that said “I drank at Dr. Bob’s” I loved it. We then found out that the Mayflower Hotel was now the Mayflower Manor low income housing; but, if you said the password they’d let you in. We went down there and stood in the lobby where Bill W. made the fateful decision to make a phone call rather than join the revelry at the noisy, adjacent bar. We also got to see the actual typriter which churned out the original text of “Alcoholics Anonymous” in 1935. I touched the “D” key. It felt nice.

A few rumble strips later, we hit route 80/90 through Ohio to Michigan. We stopped at a nice rest stop before Toledo and I marveled at the amount of pure government waste in such a beautiful rest stop. Somebody made a lot of money from the government contracts to procure these modern marvels of empty buildings and spacious lawns. I hate wasteful government spending!

I talked to Stacy Adams and they agreed to let me come by tomorrow and tour the facility with Mike. We’re going to meet up with an old Marine buddy of mine; Steve Hilgar aka “Porky.” He’s not fat but he can put away some serious amounts of food and he’s a hell of a dart player. So am I but he doesn’t know that yet hehehe…

We got to Lisa and Scott Parker’s residence around 21:45 and the kids were still up. We goofed and played some guitar and Katherine pulled out the flute and there were cats and fiddles and hey diddle diddles and a Jack Russell named Sofie that had more energy than an Iranian Centrifuge. Finally everyone was worn out and we crashed in the guest room with the cats all trying to get in to hang out with the curious new residents. I had to rebuild my cell phone OS last night and I couldn’t get the bastard to sync with my computer so all these messages were coming in from just numbers and I didn’t know who anyone was. I finally removed the windows firewall from my laptop and that seemed to do the trick. Mike was already asleep as I settled down to let my computer load my phone with all the pertinents. I dreamed that I was in San Diego and we had somehow not taken the trip. I knew I was sleeping but I couldn’t convince myself that it was true. I was even pinching myself in the dream; but, I woke up in the morning right where I left off, with a cat crawling over my legs and crusty eyelids.

David AKA “Mister F. Gentle Spirit”
Website
http://www.wbafinc.org
Photos:
http://www.photobucket.com/brotherproof
Videos:
http://www.youtube.com/WBAF1

Storm Chasing

2009-10-28T10:54:00.006-04:00

Route 66 one day away:

The storms are rolling in and what else is new. The cold front across the US seems to frame our route precisely. We'll be riding on the edge of the storms like a sailboat in reach position. Whenever the brothers get on the road, the skies get turbulent and the heavens weep, cleansing the path for our journey. I'm hoping we'll get a taste of the cold Chicago wind as we commence on the Mother Road.

We're traveling to Grand Rapids Michigan today and then we may take the ferry across Lake Michigan and join an old Marine Corps buddy and visit our sponsor, Stacy Adams to check out the shoe factory :) This morning we're taking Danielle, James and James' Mom to breakfast and then we're heading up north. With any luck we'll be in Milwaukee tonight and commencing to Route 66 on Thursday.. More details later...

David AKA “Mister F. Gentle Spirit”
Website
http://www.wbafinc.org
Photos:
http://www.photobucket.com/brotherproof
Videos:
http://www.youtube.com/WBAF1

Commencing Journey...

2009-10-27T11:06:00.002-04:00

Sleep was rough, last night’s show at Lafayette Hill was great. The band was a lot better than I thought it was going to be. They were great in fact and now I have guys I can call when I get to Philly. Mike and I drove to LBI to meet up with Dad and I crashed. Sleep was rough but at least my lungs aren’t wheezing anymore. WE got up and it was pouring rain. Dad drove us down to the beach and we jumped into the Atlantic Ocean to cleanse ourselves for the journey and officially begin out trip. Dad cooked up breakfast and we are jumping on the road to meet with Stetson’s CEO today and take some more video. We’ll put up some low res stuff on youtube soon. See you guys on the Mother Road…

Later:

We made it to New York in one piece although we go lost as soon as we got to Manhattan because the GPS lost signal and didn’t acquire it for a bit after we came out from under the tunnel and we had no idea where we were gong but we couldn’t just stop in the middle of the road and wait for the thing to re-acquire. We found the Stetson office and it was under construction but there was a bunch of really cool stuff in there. My great-grandmother Anna Sikocz worked at the Stetson factory back in the 30’s and they have records of the workers in the factory. I tried on a few shirts and checked out all the old hats and other vintage Stetson stuff. It was really strange to be in the corporate headquarters of Stetson, meeting with the CEO (who was extremely cool by the way) and talking about the history of my favorite hat company!

Pam insisted that we get the heck out of there before the traffic clogged the Lincoln tunnel and we almost made it out of there unscathed but sure enough we got stuck but it wasn’t too bad. We got on the road toward Pittsburgh to rendezvous with my little sister in South Park.

The rain was making it a tedious ride but we did get a chance to stop at a Roy Rogers in the Alexander Hamilton rest stop just outside NYC. I really miss those burgers. There’s just something about the simplicity of a Roy Rogers burger that makes me so happy. I love the rolls too. We arrived at Danielle’s place about 10:30 Mike and I each pulled a three hour shift at the wheel. Danielle and her husband James were there with James’ Mom and we sat down for a great dinner. After finding receptacles for all of the command center recharge, we sat around and BS’d while I checked email and uploaded and tried not to cough on everything. This swine flu just won’t go away!

David AKA “Mister F. Gentle Spirit”
Website
http://www.wbafinc.org
Photos:
http://www.photobucket.com/brotherproof
Videos:
http://www.youtube.com/WBAF1

New Adventure!

2009-10-26T10:29:00.003-04:00

Jolted awake. My head kept sliding along the plastic window cover on the plane until I got to the place where the crick in my neck became intolerable. Normally a window seat was perfect for sleep but the sweat beading on my head from the fever was making it slippery and I couldn’t rest. I was trying not to exhibit signs of fever, coughing and general flu-like symptoms cause I know how that freaks people out on the plane. I could care less whether or not they caught swine flu; however, I was going home.

The five hour flight was a punishing ordeal of about a hundred false sleeps and overheard boring conversation. I bought a fruit tray for the equivalent of 2 gallons of gas. The yogurt exploded on my powder-blue pyjamas. Whatever…

The last 2 weeks has been a blur of Ski/snowboard training, double feature gigs and hoarse performances while simultaneously moving into an office from my house, getting the flu, no sleep and dealing with over-protective booking agents, inexperienced event coordinators and a club manager who can’t see the forest for the trees. All in a day’s work. Except of course for the flu. I can handle anything when I feel OK but I hate not feeling right inside.

The plane touches down in mid-thought and I’m glad I didn’t have ear-pressure problems. I have some heavy bags and my youngest brother Mike is picking me up at PHL. I haven’t been home since I came off the trail in August of ’08.

I’m feeling like dirt and I probably look like a mental patient wandering the halls of PHL with too many bags and a pale demeanor. We meet and greet, I pull out the HD and start filming cutaways as we drive past downtown Philly and the Ben Franklin Bridge. My stepmom is home and it’s great to see her. I take a nap and Doug comes over while I’m setting up the command center: adapters, chargers and computers so I can remotely administer my affairs.

We decide on bowling and of course I run out of tape before we actually get there. We had a blast and I somehow managed to roll a 194 with a plastic lane ball. Some guys from Uzbekistan were clapping and watching. IT was pretty cool.

We got back and I took over the couch and it was a rough night of flu lungs and crusty eyelids when I finally woke up to the East Coast sun which was up three hours too early.

We are now heading to Sam Ash to pick up some equipment before I play a surprise show at my Grandmother’s retirement home. She doesn’t even know I’m coming…

Tomorrow, Michael and I will be embarking on a journey across the United States. First to New York City to meet with the CEO of the Stetson Hat Company, our newest sponsor and then on to Pittsburg to meet with my best friends little sister. Eventually we will be in Chicago where we will travel along the old Route 66 and see what we can come up with. Adventure never comes planned so we’re not planning for much.

I’ll be posting here as we go along with video, blogs, pictures and other stuff so if yo’re along the way, join us!

David AKA “Mister F. Gentle Spirit”
Website
http://www.wbafinc.org
Photos:
http://www.photobucket.com/brotherproof
Videos:
http://www.youtube.com/WBAF1

The Longest Summer:

2008-08-20T14:25:00.003-04:00

An account of the Appalachian Trail.

My cell buzzed on the table, next to an obnoxiously large carabiner-turned-keyholder that said, in words too small to read, “For Mountaineering Use Only” as if the stocky red and gray 'biner with an extra clip on the back didn’t get the message across. I let the buzzing go on long enough to manifest a raised eyebrow on a neatly-suited businessman at the next table before I lazily reached up and clicked on my Bluetooth. I was in a crowded cafe in the “Little Italy” section of San Diego, watching the tourists go by while I enjoyed a double espresso. I hate it when people call it “eX-spresso.” It’s one thing when a person does something incorrectly because it’s complicated, like finding a cure for impotence for instance. It’s another thing altogether when they mess up something as simple as a word that they see printed everywhere. People have become so lazy, they don’t even see the letter “s” in the beginning of the word. They just slide right past it like that thing from Carnegie-Mellon University where all the words are misspelled but you can read it anyway as long as the first and last letters are correct.

“EX-spresso” people are just one of the many things that bother me on a daily basis. Another is when people use the word “irregardless,” when they mean to say, simply, “regardless.” A testimony to the limp-wristed “sheeple” we Americans have become, some weasel at Websters Dictionary included “irregardless” in the dictionary as an alternate for “regardless,” capitulating to the illiterate and imprecise. I discovered this once while trying to express my displeasure to someone when there was a dictionary nearby. God knows, we wouldn’t want someone to learn from their mistakes.

I’m disgusted at Webster as I answer the phone,

Sup Mickey?

My youngest brother Michael is probably the only 21 year old male in this word that I enjoy speaking with on a regular basis and he sounds excited.

I thought of an adventure!

Earlier this year, Michael came out from Philly and spent his last “underage” summer with me in San Diego. We started a habit of “adventures” by going to Tijuana while he was here because he was too young to get into the clubs in the US where I earn my living as a Jazz singer. The real adventure for me that summer was trying to find a way to entertain him that didn’t involve places he couldn’t go. I probably could have slipped him in to most places. I’ve worked with most of the bouncers and club owners in town; but, I felt like that would have been a violation of the trust that I enjoy from their acquaintance; besides, I enjoyed the challenge. He certainly piqued my interest with his opening line.

Whaddaya got?

The Appalachian Trail…

I thought for a moment of the miles and miles I’d hiked with our Scoutmaster Father and Grandfather and the rest of Huntingdon Valley Troop 208. Rainy days and nights, painfully slogging along the rock piles of Eastern Pennsylvania with a vintage BSA backpack and bulky boots, were somehow forgotten in the romantic notion of the legendary footpath that stretches from Maine to Georgia. I figured he wanted to do a few of the sections that our other brother Doug and I had hiked since he was too young to come along when we did it as teenagers.

Sure Bro, we can do that. We can do Sunfish Pond or Wind Gap when I come home this summer. Maybe we can get Doug to come along.

I wasn’t quite aware of the enormity of his plan:

No man, the WHOLE THING!

The whole trail? disbelief

Yeah man, I read about it in school last week.

My thinker kicked into gear: It hadn’t even occurred to me to do the whole trail. Sure, I had thought about it as a kid, just grabbin’ a pack and starting in Georgia; walking all the way to Maine; through the woods and the mountains like some kind of Thoreau Brothers. The WHOLE TRAIL? What was that, like a thousand miles or something? Two thousand miles? I thought about it for a minute. Maybe I could swing it. I wondered how long it would take… Was he serious?

Let me do some research Mikey, I might be able to take off for a couple of months.

I think we need like six months.

SIX MONTHS? I thought. It can’t take that long. How the hell do people do it? Take off for six months? Nah, we could get it done quicker than that. I was a Marine wasn’t I? I had to get online as soon as possible. My laptop was in the car. He lit a fire in my imagination and suddenly I reclaimed a forgotten dream with the force of ten sledgehammers.

Our adventures were like that; spontaneously catapulting from impossible to mandatory in the space of a few blinding moments of irrational speculation and inaccurate calculation.

As far as I was concerned, we were going; and Doug was coming with us.

(for the rest of this story, please start at the bottom of this blog:)

Acceptance: Time to go home

2008-08-14T22:42:00.000-04:00

Acceptance: Time to go home

Hiker’s Paradise, Gorham NH to Dad’s House in Philly

I woke up thinking I might try to get a ride back up to the top of Mt Washington but it looked like it was going to be too much of a pain in the rear. I called my Dad while eating the “hiker special” to discuss options. He surprised me, saying he could be there in 10 hours, so I gave in and said, “OK, come and Get me. I’m ready to come home.”

This trip has by far been the hardest achievement I’ve ever attempted in my life. I knew when I began that it would be rough; but, I really had no idea what I was in for. It goes without saying that I experienced a truly unique adventure. I have met diverse and deliberate people who treat the trail with respect and awe. I walked a thousand miles, up mountains and through valleys of mud-slick rocks and roots and streets through both rural communities, remote wilderness and heavily populated National Parks in the last three months. I faced the surety of defeat almost from the beginning of my trip, knowing I would not be able to realize my dream and complete the entire trail; striving regardless, even when my brothers left me for reasons that angered and saddened me at the time. I spent an unhealthy amount of time in constant dialogue with myself and became even more acquainted with character flaws and attributes I was already familiar with. I’m not sure if this even served a purpose. Self Knowledge seems so trivial in the bigger scheme of life. It seems to only obscure God’s Will which I admit is still unfathomable to me; although, I hope my travails will serve us both in the future. I am beginning to know nothing. I gained a level of fitness that I am both proud of and fearful to lose. I know it will be hard to motivate myself to maintain a regimen that will keep my physical being in this kind of shape and I will surely lament its decline. Acceptance. My body is damaged and broken in places and probably will be for months before I can use my legs and feet normally again. I’ll need surgery to fix my hernia and my financial situation is dire. I’m not really worried though. I have spent the last few years in a program that emphasizes Acceptance and I have grown in unbelievable ways. Despite the peace I feel from accepting that my trail is at its end for this year, I cannot ignore the visceral feelings of guilt, loss and unease at not having gone further or longer. I catch myself glancing upward at the surrounding mountains as if I might grab my pack and do another twenty miles; continue on and tell my family I’m going further. I know the next year’s thoughts will be full of deliberation concerning completion and or closure on this Appalachian Trail. For the fifteenth time this morning, I resign myself to go down to the Laundromat and scrub my clothing and gear so that it won’t contaminate Mike’s car when they come to pick me up. I wish they were here already. I continue to glance at the mountains I have left to climb, alternating between humility and resentment. I have learned that you cannot feel both at the same time; however, they can relentlessly switch back and forth; some kind of emotional strobe light, flickering jitters in my soul. Ahhhhhh Acceptance… When will you come?

David AKA "Mister F. Gentle Spirit"
Website
http://www.wbafinc.org/
Photos:
http://www.photobucket.com/brotherproof
Videos:
http://www.youtube.com/WBAF1

Lakes of the Clouds

2008-08-13T22:33:00.001-04:00

Lakes of the Clouds
Mitzpah Hut to Mount Washington:

The moon drifted in and out, much like my sleep. The temperature went pretty low, even in the hut, and I was definitely glad to be inside. I’m concerned with the hernia situation so I’m going to see how it feels today. The weather was supposed to clear up but this morning the report came in and it was looking ugly. I didn’t know if I would be able to summit Mt Washington today. Mount Washington is the tallest mountain in the Northwest. Before it was called Mount Washington, it was called Agiocochook by the local indigenous tribes; which means “home of the Great Spirit” and stands at 6288 feet above sea level. It is the most prominent peak on the East Coast. It is the first land seen by sailors approaching America. The weather here is arguably the most erratic in the US since Mt Washington not only creates its own weather; but stands at the apex of three different, common, weather fronts (the Jet Stream being one of them). It spends over 50% of the time in a cloud and lately, has been covered in clouds for the last three weeks. New England has already broken the record for the rainiest summer in recorded history, and I had to pick this year to attempt to thru-hike the White Mountains.

I left the Hut with a heavy heart and full rain gear. It was COLD. Everything was fogged in; but, the fog kept lifting and coming back again. Some moments it would get sunny and then the mist would drift back in and get bitter cold. I got in to Lakes of the Clouds hut and it looked like Mt Washington was clear for the first time in weeks. I couldn’t believe it. Lakes of the Clouds Hut is spectacular. I can’t even describe the view. I took some pictures but as usual you can’t compare the actual view with pictures. Mt. Washington kept getting cloudy and then clear again so I stopped in the Hut and got some soup and bread before I attempted the climb up the boulder strewn pitch up to the commerce riddled summit. I started up the wrong trail and had to bushwhack back over to the AT. It took me longer than I thought to get up to the top but it was awesome. All day today I was rewarded with amazing views of the White Mountains and it made the day so nice to climb among these spectacular summits all around you. It really makes it a joy to climb when you are surrounded by so much majesty. I decided not to try for the next hut and get a ride into town from the peak and hitch a ride to Gorham where I will probably slack-pack the last sections of The Whites and then go home for the year. Hopefully I will have the funding and the time to come back next year for the rest of the Trail.

The Appalachian Money Club doesn’t let anyone hitchhike down from the summit of Washington because they have an overpriced shuttle service that they run there. I hitchhiked anyway. I am so unimpressed with the AMC it’s not even funny. And now they want to take over Maine’s sections of the AT as well in case you haven’t heard. This cool family took me down the hill and dropped me off. I got out on Rt 16 and hitched in to Gorham with two cats from Massachusetts who are here doing some work here. They dropped me off at Hiker’s Paradise, a hostel in Gorham and I got a shower and set up the command center since my cell phone isn’t working anywhere around here. I keep getting some weird message that says I’m not registered on this network or something like that. At least I can get the Internet here. I really want to try to get some sleep though so I can slack-pack tomorrow. I’ll have to get up early and catch a bus in to Pinkham Notch at 0750.. HaHa! We’ll see if THAT happens! I think I need to go out and get a Coke or something. I’m thirsty.

There are some really weird cats here at the hostel. This cat from England named Dave who I think is a little off his rocker and this other guy Maurice who is a really funny guy but he’s got something going on too. He was talking about wanting to book me for a gig here but I’m not sure how to take him. He seems sharp but he’s a little crazy too. There were supposed to be a bunch of hikers coming here tonight but they never showed up. I am feeling restless and a little out of place as I lay down on the narrow mattress that rustles from the plastic sheath under the cartoon-design cotton sheets.

David AKA "Mister F. Gentle Spirit"
Website
http://www.wbafinc.org/
Photos:
http://www.photobucket.com/brotherproof
Videos:
http://www.youtube.com/WBAF1

Friends in High places

2008-08-12T22:14:00.004-04:00

Friends in High places
Crawford Notch to Mitzpah Hut: 7 miles

It didn’t rain last night and I was so happy I got up early. The pad worked well and I had a great rest. It turned out that Shawn and Sage were in the campsite across from me and they invited me to coffee. We talked for a good while until I felt the tug of the trail and I had to get out of there and pack up all my stuff. The two of them were very cool. It was refreshing to see Dad and daughter having that kind of report and getting along so well.
I got up to the store and one of the guys gave me a ride out to the trailhead. The climb was tough up Webster Cliffs to Mt. Webster. It was ping-ponging back and forth from sun to rain and I kept changing my wardrobe to match, finally I resigned to just keep all my raingear on and to hell with it. I am glad I did. Last night when I was taking a shower I was checking out my hernia and it looks like it’s getting worse. The climb up this mountain was not helping things. There were many times I had to just climb up over rock faces or throw my poles down and scramble over wet boulders. Knowing I have the hernia was making me climb cautiously and that was dropping my progress to about one mile an hour. I ran into some cool people and took the opportunity to rest and talk.
Eventually I got to the Mitzpah Hut. I was intending to go another 5 miles to the Lakes of the Clouds Hut just before Mt. Washngton but I was beat up and dripping when I got there. They let me do a Work-For-Stay even though I was an hour early. I took it. At the rate I was traveling, it would take me 5 hours to get the 5 miles to Lakes of the Clouds and than it would be almost dark and I would have to stay in a dank basement there (or so I heard). Mitzpah was the Mitzvah for me! The “Croo” there was very cool.
I washed dishes again and the Lasagne was really good. They do everything vegetarian here because you can’t put meat in the compost. They really take their conservation seriously up here. Everything is considered and all green technologies are used. It’s very interesting to see how easy it is once you get it going to be “low impact.” The weather is rumored to improve; but, I’ll believe that when I see it. I did get glimpse of the half-moon as I fell asleep on one of the dining room tables. The clouds were moving very fast; however, and soon it was gone; appearing occasionally in the night through the mist and rain.

David AKA "Mister F. Gentle Spirit"
Website
http://www.wbafinc.org/
Photos:
http://www.photobucket.com/brotherproof
Videos:
http://www.youtube.com/WBAF1

Frozen Underwear

2008-08-11T23:57:00.000-04:00

Galehead Hut to Crawford Notch General Store and Campground

It was still raining when I woke up. The mist pervaded everything and I hadn’t slept very soundly due to the sound of the wind-generated electrical harnesser thing on the roof that moaned and whined all night with the gusts that came up the valley. The “Croo” got breakfast together and the regular folks ate breakfast while we thru-hikers sat over in the corner like hungry dogs waiting for a scrap from their master. This is the way it goes at the huts so I guess it’s cool, at least, we knew it would be thins way so there’s not much to complain about. At least we’re not paying $89 to stay there for the night. We do work-for-stay (WFS) at the huts but technically there are only two slots at each hut for Thru-Hikers and so invariable there are many more than two Thru-Hikers coming through, looking for WFS and sometimes we get turned away and have to hike on to the next hut or camp out in the woods; which they discourage due to the fragility of the alpine environment. It’s a hypocritical situation and it all has to deal with money. The Appalachian Mountain Club (AMC) runs the section of the Appalachian Trail that goes through the White Mountains. Basically you have no choice but to stay at one of their facilities be it a campground or a “Hut” which is actually more like a chalet and costs about a hundred bucks a night to stay there. They charge to stay in the campsites too although for Thru-Hikers it’s only $8-12. If you get to a “hut” at the right time, you c an get WFS and do dishes, sweep, scrub the oven or clean out the freezer for your stay and for dinner and breakfast. Of course, the normal guests are served first and they want you to go sit outside or disappear while they eat, like peasants or something. The thing is, the “Day Hikers” all want to talk to you and hear about what it’s like to be a Thru-Hiker so sometimes your WFS can involve giving a presentation to the group after dinner. Most of the people who come here are very well-to-do and I guess the AMC figures they don’t want to be bothered by a bunch of rough-and-tumble, smelly Thru-Hikers. We’ve known it would be like this but the fact that the AMC offers no alternatives for Thru-Hikers gets us a little pissed off and there we were, over in the corner; at least they didn’t make us sit outside in the freezing rain. That would have been pretty rough at 7AM and I have heard of it happening to a lot of Thru-Hikers. After the gentry were served, we got to eat all of the leftovers; basically, Pancakes. I’m just glad I got to sleep in a building last night rather than some dilapidated shelter. The temperature has been going down to the low 40s with a wind chill factor in the low 30s. Add to that the rain and hail and you’ve got yourself a hell of a night in the wilderness. After breakfast I did some journaling and everyone was marveling over the computer. That always seems to happen. Most of the Thru-Hikers I know are used to it by now. I was hoping the skies would clear up but it didn’t look probable. Eventually I got my wet clothes back on and got ready to head out. There’s something very harrowing about putting on cold, wet underwear that really bothers me. Obviously it the same underwear as the day before; but, that part doesn’t phase me anymore. I’ve been doing that for three months now. You generate a lot of heat out there once you start hiking and if you are like me, you hate to stop and take off your pack once you are going so you try o wear the clothes that you would want to be wearing once you are all hot and exerting yourself. The problem with that is that you put on clothing that doesn’t keep you warm until you’re climbing a hill and as soon as you stop, you start getting cold again. The constant rain we’ve been subjected to makes it so that nothing ever gets dry so not only it is it skimpy, but it’s wet and REALLY COLD when you put it on. Bitter cold, wet underwear is one hell of a shock in the morning; more effective than the strongest cup of coffee. I got out on the trail later than most but managed to pass almost all of the day hikers before the next hut where I was treated a hot cup of $3 “bottomless” soup. I threw in a packet of tuna to up my protein. The sun had come out and I ran into some of the younger day hikers and sat at the table with them while we discussed life and they gave me pieces of their bread. It was cool and I hated to split but I had to get down to Crawford Notch and hitch in to a place to stay. I had no idea where I would go and thankfully the trail down was easy. When I got to the road, there was a hostel 3 miles to the left and a hostel three miles to the right. I stuck my thumb out to both directions of traffic and let the fates decide which one I would go to. A day hiker who was passing by picked me up and took me to the right: The Crawford Notch General Store and Campground. The place was full of Thru-Hikers so I had to rent a campsite and pitch my tent. I hope it doesn’t rain. The folks there were very accommodating and I got a shower and did my laundry; although I was up ‘til about midnight getting it done. While I was in the General Store picking up some Ben and Jerry’s and some Reece’s Peanut Butter Cups I met Shawn and Sage. Sage was a cute little girl accompanied by her Dad Shawn who had taken her fishing that say and she caught a rather large “Native” trout. She was extremely excited about that and I was struck by how cool that was. They brought their catch in to show us. I guess I have never seen a Native Trout before; but, they have a bright orange underbelly and to hear Sage tell it, they put up a darn good fight. I set up my hammock in the dark and got to try out the Big Agnes inflatable pad that I modified for the hammock.

David AKA “Mister F. Gentle Spirit”
Website
http://www.wbafinc.org
Photos:
http://www.photobucket.com/brotherproof
Videos:
http://www.youtube.com/WBAF1

Into the Great Whites, North

2008-08-10T10:29:00.004-04:00

Lafayette, I think

Franconia Notch to Galehead Hut: 13 Miles

I convinced everyone to go to Mr. W’s Pancake House again and we had a full table. All the usual suspects were there: Creek Diver, Whisper, Blazing Socks, Superman, Crosby, and two other guys I can’t remember right now. Breakfast was just as good as it was the day before. I had the Mr. W’s Big Breakfast: two of everything; including chocolate chip pancakes. It looked like we were going to get on the trail late and we did. Dutch dropped us off at the bike path and we had to walk a mile to get to the trailhead and we didn’t get there until about 11AM.

The day was sunny and clear. I was so happy. The forecast said thunderstorms but it looked like the sun might hold out until we got to where we were going. I hadn’t anticipated the difficulty of the terrain however and it seemed like I couldn’t get any faster than about 1.5 MPH. I got up to Franconia ridge and I was still in the trees. Every once in a while you could see out across the White Mountains and it was hinting spectacular. I couldn’t wait to get above tree line so I could view the whole scene. Clouds continued to threaten and I was really worried I might get hemmed in before I could see it but eventually I summitted an unnamed peak and although it was getting cold, I was rewarded with my first unrestricted view of The Whites. The clouds were just above the peaks and it created an amazing effect like you were in a small room; just you and the tallest mountains in New England. Once you get above tree line, there are a series of peaks: Little Haystack, Mt. Lincoln and Mt. Lafayette, each hidden behind the one you are climbing and each higher than the next. Just as you summit one, you are rewarded with a beautiful view of the ominous climb you are about to endure. The climbs are tough but the view is encouraging. The descents are painful, joint-pounding scrambles. It looked like me might get through the day unscathed and dry; although, there were thundering rainstorms off to the south and to the east. You could see everything from Mt. Lafayette and as we went over, a huge cloud enveloped us and dropped a little rain; but, it passed and kept moving westward. We descended back into the thick trees and shortly thereafter the rain and hail started pounding down without any warning. I was pissed because I hadn’t seen any other clouds anywhere. It’s like the rain just materialized out of nowhere. It would make the going slow and I was trying to get to the Galehead Hut before 6. The climb over Mt. Garfield was brutal, with scrambles and face climbs that didn’t seem fair somehow. It seemed like it took forever to get to the hut. I had seen it from Mt. Garfield and it seemed encouragingly close. I got in around 7:30 and it looked like they might turn me away because there were already a bunch of thru-hikers there, including two guys I hadn’t yet met named Hammer and Smokin’ Joe.

Due to the weather conditions they took mercy on me and allowed me to stay. The place was packed with day hikers and people up for the weekend. We had to disappear while the guests ate dinner. I guess nobody wants to look at a hungry thru-hiker while they are trying to savor their dinner. After they ate dinner and went in to their bunkhouse, we set up in the dining area and went to sleep. I slept great on a table using Doug’s Big Agnes air mattress thing that he sent to me. I hope the weather is better tomorrow. The forecast said it might be nice but it’s still raining and blowing hard as I go to bed.

David AKA “Mister F. Gentle Spirit”
Website
http://www.wbafinc.org/
Photos:
http://www.photobucket.com/brotherproof
Videos:
http://www.youtube.com/WBAF1

Punishing, Grueling Climbs punctuated by beautiful views completely obscured by fog and rain.

2008-08-09T21:03:00.002-04:00

Chet

Chet’s Garage Hostel

Zero Day. Blazing socks and I went down toe Mr. W’s Pancake house and had a great breakfast. On the TV, the Olympics were being broadcast and it was some kind of game I had never seen before. I went back and looked it up and it turned out to be Team Handball or Field handball. It was cool. France was beating up on Angola but it was more the fact that I was trying to figure out the rules of the game by watching it that was so intriguing. We hit a couple of outfitters. I busted a shoelace and needed to get a new pair. They have like six Lahout’s stores her and each one has a different slant on it. One is a ski shop, one is a Columbia clothing outlet, one is a true outfitter and I don’t know about the other ones; but, I think they carry a lot of the same gear. We made it back to the hostel around 11 and I figured I would just take a zero day. The weather is intermittent and I’d like to be able to see something interesting if I’m going to punish myself with the climb.

David AKA “Mister F. Gentle Spirit”
Website
http://www.wbafinc.org
Photos:
http://www.photobucket.com/brotherproof
Videos:
http://www.youtube.com/WBAF1

Steeper than it Looks

2008-08-08T23:09:00.000-04:00

This is much more steep than it looks

Kinsman Notch to Franconia Notch: 17 Miles

A couple of people were going out to Kinsman Notch so I got ready and got a ride with them. “Dutch” is a girl from PA who is taking a break from the trail and does some shuttling for hikers here at an incredibly reasonable cost. She swung by the post office so I could pick up a package and then took us out to Kinsman’s Notch. I went north and the other two; Songbird and ? continued SoBo and I headed North for another rough climb. The climb out of Kinsman’s notch would have been horrible with a full pack and I was damn glad to be slack packing. The second climb was really tough and I have to say it made Albert Mountain look like something you would give your kids to play with from McDonalds. The weather was nearly identical to when I did Albert Mountain and it was another day of grueling, painful climbs punctuated by a magnificent view, completely obscured by fog and mist and rain. I actually like the way it looks up at these treeless peaks with nothing but fog drifting over the scrub; however, for taking pictures or sharing it with anyone, it doesn’t do any good at all. There’s a unique solitude up there when you are hemmed in by cold, blowing mist and I really enjoy it; however, I always feel like I’m missing an opportunity to film a great vista for people back home. The day was very hard due to the terrain and mud. At one point I put my foot in mud up over my knee and missed smashing my kneecap on a big log by a millimeter. Needless to say I wasn’t too happy about that. There were several high-altitude ponds and the sun came out a few times so that you could see the surrounding mountains; but, nothing that presented a good picture. During the roughest climb, part of it followed alongside another series of waterfalls and I was glad to be going up it this time so I could enjoy the rushing stream and waterfalls without risking my life on a precarious descent; still, the climb was technical and difficult. I’ve heard that this particular stretch I’m in is the toughest on the trail and I hope they are right.

I got to see my first AMC hut today and although it was impressive, I hardly think it’s worth the 80 bucks it would cost to stay there if I wasn’t a thru-hiker. Maybe the other ones will be better. I got a bowl of soup there for a dollar and that was cool. Just before the hut I ran into Mike, Snake Charmer, Shelter Monkey, Dust In The Wind, and a few other hikers I had been running into for the last week or so. We all hung out at the hut for a minute and then I took off. I wanted to get to the road and get in so I could go to McDonalds. They have one in Lincoln and I was really dying for a Double Quarter-Pounder and Fries. I’m getting too skinny!

The trailhead at Franconia Notch was confusing. I ended up walking about a mile in the wrong direction down the Highway and then I came all the way back to find I hadn’t been walking in the wrong direction technically; however I wasn’t on the AT, so I redid that part and got a ride in with Mike. We were all soaked and Mike is a section hiker who had his car there. Thank God! We would have been walking a long time if he hadn’t been there.
Back at the hostel I got a shower and went to McDonalds, grocery and pharmacy. Tomorrow I need to get a new shoelace and mail a bunch of stuff back to Doug If I can get all of that done early enough I’m going to get back in to the Whites for the remainder, probably another week. The climb back in is going to be rough. The next hundred and fifty miles is supposed to be both harrowing and beautiful. Let’s hope the weather allows me to enjoy the views and my hernia doesn’t interfere with my endurance.

David AKA “Mister F. Gentle Spirit”
Website
http://www.wbafinc.org/
Photos:
http://www.photobucket.com/brotherproof
Videos:
http://www.youtube.com/WBAF1

Moosilauke in the Rain

2008-08-07T23:04:00.000-04:00

Hikers Welcome Hostel to Kinsman Notch then Chet’s House: 10 miles

I spent the morning finishing up an email update and sent that out so I didn’t get out on the trail until about 11 or later. I can’t remember. I had to ford Jeffers Brook and that meant taking off my shoes. The water was about knee-deep and I wore my Crocs to get across. While putting my shoes back on I was marauded by a gand of street wise Mosquitoes. They knew where to bite me without me being able to get them or see them until it was too late. I got the boots on and picked up the pace. They stayed vigilant until I got some elevation. The climb was rough but I had psyched myself up for it so it wasn;t too bad. That only works once in a while. After it works once or twice you start to expect that it will work and then of course it doesn’t. This is why I’m not a pro athelete. I can’t figure out how to trick myself every time yet.

I passed a ton of day hikers on the way up; lots of kids from local camps. The weather cleared up nicely but by the time I got to the top is got all fogged in and cold again. I met some cool people and was talking to them and so by the time I got up there the sun had gone and I was alone at the summit. It was very surreal as the mist drifted across and all you could see was shadowy cairns through the mist. I caught some of it on tape and then I kept on. I had a short day in miles but I knew that the final section was a scary downhill even when it’s not raining, and as I got closer, the thunder got closer and the rain began to fall.

I dropped by the Beaver Brook shelter and ran into two people who told me the climb down was going to be really tough. I only had a mile and a half to get to the road but they said it was taking people two hours to go that far. I found out they were not exaggerating. It took me over an hour just to do a mile of the section. It was crazy. There were weird wooden blocks drilled with Rebar into the side of igneous rock flows that looked almost like they were there at the time of the original lava flow. Sometimes I see the stone work people have done to make these trails passable and I can’t believe the tings that people have accomplished. Other times I wonder if anyone has done anything at all. The climb down was treacherous and frustrating. The rain made everything tougher and believe me this descent would have been tough enough on dry rocks. For a long time the trail joined a long series of cascades and it was absolutely awesome to climb down the rocks with this huge series of waterfalls alongside you. It was distracting though and the last thing you need in a place like that is distractions. I had to keep telling myself to concentrate. I fell down about four times but I’ve learned to take the little falls without trying to save myself. When you try to save yourself, that’s when you get in trouble. Wild recoveries only put you in more perilous positions and so I’ve figured out to just take the unbalanced fall and drop onto my pack instead of flailing and trying some wild recovery.

I eventually made it to the road and there were hardly any cars going toward Lincoln. It was something like a ten mile walk too. I had walked about two miles and only four cars and one motorcycle had passed in almost forty minutes. Things were not looking goods and then this Forerunner that was going the other direction put on his signal and pulled over and asked me if I was a thru-hiker. It turns out this guy and his buddy were going to be doing trial magic up at Kinsman Notch this weekend and he had some time to kill so he decided to pick me up and take me in to town. His trail name was “Gold Thumb” and he was returning the magic he had been given in the past. We got in to town and found out where the hostel was and dropped off stuff and went back out. I eventually got dinner and he dropped me back off at the hostel. Chet’s Place is great. A bunch of people where there. I found out that the night before he had a record 31 people all staying there. Tonight there weren’t so many and I got a spot so I wouldn’t have to sleep on the floor. I decided I would slackpack the next section north from Kinsman Notch to Franconia Notch and settled in to get some sleep.

David AKA “Mister F. Gentle Spirit”
Website
http://www.wbafinc.org/
Photos:
http://www.photobucket.com/brotherproof
Videos:
http://www.youtube.com/WBAF1

Feeling Wellcome

2008-08-06T23:39:00.002-04:00

The Mosquitoes in New Hampshire are HUGE!

Zero in Glencliffe
Hikers welcome Hostel: 0 miles

I stayed up most of the night and finally got to bed around 3 or 4 am so it was interesting to me that I still woke up at 7AM to the sounds of people getting ready to get out to the trail. This cat Phat Chap is doing a bunch of shuttling but it’s kind of expensive unless you get a bunch of people to go with you. I’m teetering on the verge of leaving the trail and I’ll be talking to Doug today about the logistics of getting off. I’m hoping I get re-motivated; but, at the same time I would just love to go home and chill and get my hernia fixed. I’m willing to bet that I won’t be able to do it though. I know how I am. I’ll sit here for a day and get all fretful thinking about how horrible I’ll feel about myself if I do get off the trail and I’ll be dwelling on how I should have kept going. I know how I am. I’ll go crazy unless I go as far as I can; however, today that’s not how I feel yet so I’m going to blog and work on the pictures and talk to Doug about how soon he could get up here. Doug called and he didn’t offer any motivation; he just said I can be there on Saturday to pick you up. I felt funny about that as soon as he said it. I figured he would give me a boost or something but instead he just said, “I’ll come get you.” It made me want to keep going actually. I can’t explain it; but it did. We’re watching a marathon of movies here while it pours rain outside. There are seven or eight hummingbird all hanging around the feeder at the same time. I’ve never seen hummingbirds do that before. Usually there’s only one at the feeder at a time and then another comes and chases that one away. These ones are swarming at the feeder and they are reminding me of the Mosquitoes in Connecticut and Massachusetts. We watched about six movies today and I finally decided to keep going. I’m going to hike out tomorrow morning instead of slackpacking because this place is costing money. There’s another Hostel at the end of the next section that is free and Fat Chap charges too much to shuttle you around. This place is very cool though and I’m going to hike over Moosilauke tomorrow. It’s a rough one; 3800 feet up and 3500 feet down. I’ve heard the downward section on the north side is horrific, especially when wet. I figure it will probably rain all day tomorrow but I’m going out anyway. I had better get some sleep.

David AKA “Mister F. Gentle Spirit”
Website
http://www.wbafinc.org/
Photos:
http://www.photobucket.com/brotherproof
Videos:
http://www.youtube.com/WBAF1

Hikers Welcome Hostel

2008-08-05T22:28:00.002-04:00

Hexacube Shelter to Hiker’s Welcome Hostel, Glenclliff NH: 15 Miles

I got up very early. I was actually the first one up. I find that this happens a lot when I’m about to go into a town. I’m a sucker for town. Actually, I won’t even go into town but I’ll get a shower and laundry and be able to sleep on a bed; that is, if I’m not up all night doing my internet stuff and blogging. Since it’s currently 2:26 AM and I’m still typing I guess we both already know the answer to that one. The trail was as muddy as ever and although it didn’t rain, I heard it was going to rain later tonight so I wanted to get in to town early and secure a space for myself at the hostel. I also thought I might be able to get there in time to pick up the stuff Doug sent to me. I met a lot of Southbounders today and I made good time. I got to the road and it looked like it was going to be a close call to get to the post office before closing but the hostel was loaded up with people. I found an available couch and dropped some gear there to lay claim to it. I was standing there in my underwear and apparently I offended Phat Chap, the guy who runs the hostel here and drives people all over the place. I bonded with im later but I was a little put off thathe suggested I put on a pair of pants. I’ve been grumpy lately and I’m not the only one. In fact, I’m more sick of people’s attitudes out here than I am of the rain. I keep running into all these sensitive people and they are pissing me off. It’s annoying when you’re at these hostels with people that can’t lighten up. Phat Chap took us in to the grocery store and I picked up a resupply and got some steak to cook for dinner. Some people had cooked up a hug feast and eventually we had a big campfire. I was up all night trying to get stuff together from the gear that Doug sent me and update all of my blogs. The weather is not looking good. It looks like sever weather out here every day until next Friday. That’s 10 more days of rain. Some of the rivers are too very high and have to be waded through. It’s actually kind of dangerous and it started raining again a few hours ago. I’m really sick of the rain and I’m having serious thoughts of getting off the trail.

David AKA “Mister F. Gentle Spirit”
Website
http://www.wbafinc.org/
Photos:
http://www.photobucket.com/brotherproof
Videos:
http://www.youtube.com/WBAF1

New Hampshire is Melting!

2008-08-04T23:27:00.003-04:00

Someone is hiking in Bare Feet?

Moose Mountain Shelter to Hexacube Shelter

I slept on the hard floor of the shelter again. Doug is sending me his sleeping pad and I can’t wait. With all of this rain I have been using the shelters instead of getting my hammock all wet and having to break it down and carry a wet tent for days. Last night while I was hanging my bear bag I got the line stuck way up in a tree and I had to climb up there on this wet, mossy tree that I wasn’t sure could actually hold my weight. I was a little worried about the hernia but I couldn’t lose my bear line and I tried everything to get it down. The rock I tied to the line got miraculously stuck in a fork of branches. I couldn’t believe it except that it was just another thing to make the day a little worse. I managed to get up there and get it down but it was treacherous going. I think I popped a stitch or two but I’ll be alright. I tossed and turned a little on the cold, hard floor but I’m getting used to it. Rain was splattering on the shelter roof all night and it sounded like someone dropping pebbles on a tin roof. That surely didn’t help anyone sleep. I got up and ate all of my Pop-Tarts and got on the trail by 10 or so. The climb was treacherous as usual. The skies kept threatening; but, it never really rained. It got sunny for a second or two and then it kept getting colder and colder. I thought Vermont was bad, it has nothing on New Hampshire in terms of mud and muck. Sometimes I can’t believe it; the trail is horrible. You find yourself foolishly trying to balance on these slippery, wobbling logs that are in the middle of deep mud fields or foolishly trying to skirt them by walking on the crumbling sides of the trail that have you inevitably sliding right back in to the deep bogs. This has been the case for a month but now the bogs last for hundreds and hundreds of yards and you just can’t escape getting mud all over everything. The climb up to Smarts Mountain was rough. There was a cool looking fire tower up there though and I wanted to get some good views on film since it wasn’t all foggy for a change. IT was windy and cold up top but the fire tower’s windows were intact and it was cool to be up there with the wind howling and views of all the surrounding mountains. I was thinking of calling it a day at the Fire Warden’s Cabin but it was only like 10 miles when I got there and saw a whole bunch of girl scouts or explorers or something. They were taking up the whole cabin and I was standing there in my soaking wet underwear when it occurred to me that it probably would be prudent for Mister F. Gentle Spirit to sleep elsewhere tonight. I had planned on making the next shelter anyway but I was damn hungry and out of water but I singed the register and kept moving. It was going to be a good haul to the shelter and I was starting to chafe pretty badly. It was another five miles and I was seriously thinking of going Au Naturale but I was worried about running in to more girl scouts. We weren’t in Vermont anymore. By the time I got to the Hexacube Shelter, I was seriously chafed in my nether regions; another side effect of being wet for 48 hours straight. Site, Bandai, Newt, Butters, Hard Rock and some SoBos were there but it was a huge shelter. I spent a while getting washed up and applying a ton of Neosporin to the affected locations and cooked dinner in the dark. I felt sick for a little while and I thought I might pass out for a minute. I lay down for a minute before I resumed eating my Ramen and Salmon. I am almost totally out of food and I have a good hike ahead tomorrow. It’s going to be a rough one. I’m going to have to eat a lot of blueberries or something. I’m even out of GORP which NEVER happens. At least I’ll be really light tomorrow and I’ll be able to move quickly up the hills. The next section after tomorrow is going to be very rough. Mount Moosilauke is a 3800 foot climb which then goes back down to 1900 feet in only 9 miles. This will be the first test to see if I can handle a tough climb with the hernia.

David AKA “Mister F. Gentle Spirit”
Website
http://www.wbafinc.org/
Photos:
http://www.photobucket.com/brotherproof
Videos:
http://www.youtube.com/WBAF1

New Hampshire: River of Mud

2008-08-03T23:43:00.001-04:00

This was the trail

Newton’s House to Moose Mountain Shelter: 11 Miles

It looked like the rain might hold off. Newton made some espresso and I started packing while we discussed lots of musical things with Beau in the kitchen. Beau is a drummer and he’s young but cooler than anyone I’ve met at his age. I was getting the itch and had to get out of there today. I some little toast and peanut butter at Newton’s; basically, I skipped breakfast and got on the trail sometime around 10 or 11; which was easy because the trail was just outside of Newton’s door. The Trail goes right through the center of Hanover and I would have to say that Hanover is the nicest town that the trail actually goes through. The trail was a river that trickled some places and flowed two inches deep in others. The muck and mud was constant except where there was a running stream so it often made sense to just walk in the stream rather than the soft mud on the sides. Someone had tied a climbing rope in one section but they had it wrapped around a tree at the top so it was no use for going up. Maybe it was for SoBos who had to go down that crazy, slippery boulder. I ran into a bunch of guys, Grizzly, Site, Bandai and Newt. Before I even got a mile in the woods it started pouring again so I rushed to the Velvet Rocks Shelter to wait it out. Grizzly was there with his Martin Guitar and he played a little. Some other folks showed up and we had a conversation on sexism and political correctness. I hate talking about that stuff but it’s so hard not to chime in. The rain eventually let up and I rushed out to try to get to the next shelter before it rained again. I ran into my old friend ATV again and we talked for a while but I eventually took off so I could get to the shelter before the rain. There were a lot of people there and I decided to stay in the shelter because it was raining again. I’m so damn sick of rain. I heard on the news that this has been the heaviest rain in July on record for Vermont and that probably means New Hampshire too; it figures. I hung my bear bag and got to bed fairly early. I’m going to get up early and blog in the morning before I get on the trail. I need to catch up about four days. I hope it’s not to crappy tomorrow but I know it will be. The rain is depressing as well as a hazard. It’s really tough to stay motivated when you can’t get warm, your feet are always wet and even when your spirits would have been uplifted by some of these spectacular views, you are hemmed in with fog so you get a great view of the mist and rain for at least five feet. Slipping through ankle-deep mud for miles on end is a frustrating way to decrease your mileage potential; which never helps. The forecast looks like rain for the next week as well. My knee hurts and I can’t maintain enough mileage in this terrain. I spent a good mile or two cursing God today. Then I got wise and thanked him for making me tougher. I hope that works…

David AKA “Mister F. Gentle Spirit”
Website
http://www.wbafinc.org/
Photos:
http://www.photobucket.com/brotherproof
Videos:
http://www.youtube.com/WBAF1

Newtonian Hospitality

2008-08-02T23:05:00.002-04:00

Beau and Newton Eyeing the Waitress

Newton to Newton

I awoke and changed my laundry to the dryer even though I didn’t really need to since all of my clothing is hiker stuff that’s practically dry right out of the washer. I lay back down and eventually roused myself to the sound of Paul making espresso in one of those aluminum steamer things that go on the stove. He offered me some and he took some up to Newton who was feeling the effects of the Fin Du Mondes from the night before. I got out the computer and started to fix some of the pictures and blogs while I had an electrical outlet and the internet. It was one of those lazy Saturdays and it didn’t seem like very long before I looked at the time and it was 2PM. Newton offered to let me stay another night and although I really wanted to get on the trail, it was still raining on and off and it would be nice to chill out another day. We went out and got a Hamburger at the Irish Pub and there some kind of big High School all-star football game going on at Dartmouth between Vermont and New Hampshire. We got back to the house and eventually went to catch some dinner where we ran into Beau and he joined us. Then we went to see the X-Files movie which I though was really no better than a regular episode. I’ve missed a few years of the X-Files so I might have been in the dark about some things. There were no aliens. That was surprising. One guy really looked like an alien when they flashed to him and the girl whacked him with a garden tool. I thought they were going somewhere with that; but, NOPE! We walked the trail back to Ben and Jerry’s and I met a nice Romanian girl with a “Body by Ben and Jerry’s” T-shirt on. If you had told me she had a body by Ben and Jerry’s I wouldn’t have believed you. She had a body by Hefner if you asked me. I’m glad she didn’t ask me if I wanted my cone Hand Dipped. I might have taken her up on that. We got back to the house in more pouring rain while they both pulled out umbrellas. These guys were on the ball! All I had was a parka and I had to try very hard not to get too much rain in my Mint Chocolate Chunk. I again went to sleep to the rolling thunder and rain pounding on a tin roof somewhere nearby. It’s hard for me to stay awake when the rain is zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

David AKA “Mister F. Gentle Spirit”
Website
http://www.wbafinc.org/
Photos:
http://www.photobucket.com/brotherproof
Videos:
http://www.youtube.com/WBAF1

Ivy League Wanderings

2008-08-01T23:58:00.003-04:00

Dartmouth: 0 miles

Got up on the couch and Augie Doggie was sniffin around and growlin at us so I made friends and then brushed my teeth. The girls were cool for letting us stay and we thanked them. I went to Lou’s to get some breakfast and everyone was bustling around and the food was great. I stayed there for hours and talked to so many people my teeth were falling out. Actually that’s not true but it sounded good. I had to go to West Lebanon to pick up some more HDV tapes for the camera because they didn’t have any in Hanover. It was a public transportation situation. The public transport here is totally free and that was really surprising. I got a ride to the Best Buy from a cool girl I met on the bus whose husband works for the Appalachian Trail Council. You gotta love the camaraderie surrounding the trail. I got back to town and set up the command center at the DOC so I could blog and stuff. Shelter Monkey showed up with her pal whose name I keep forgetting to ask. They decided to get a hotel and they split. I sat at the DOC and typed blogs for hours. I got some dinner at Molly’s and I wasn’t really impressed with the particular pizza I ordered. It was some weird, new pizza and it had a strange combination of toppings. The bartenders and waitresses were cool though and they were asking some questions about the trail. The manager allowed me to put my pack in her office which was very cool. The place was packed but I wasn’t feelin’ my kind of vibe so I split and went over to Babba’s place; India Queen. India Queen is a hookah bar and Indian Restaurant which has Samosas. I love samosas ever since I first had them in Africa back in 2000. Delicious meat and Lamb Samosas are like an Indian Version of the Philadelphia Steak Sandwich; just like Carne Asada Burritos are the San Diego version of the Philly Cheesesteak. I ordered a couple of Samosas and ran into Paul from the night before. A very cool couple invited me to stay at their table and we talked about the trail a lot. I’m having trouble remembering their names since I’m typing about four days later right now. They finally split and I ended up talking with a bunch of people that kept showing up until I finally met these two cool cats Newton and Paul. Newton is a professor here in Dartmouth and specializes in Electronic Music. Paul is a Philosophy Professor at another college but they were roommates back in their college days. We had a lot to talk about; music and Philosophy. Before I knew it, it was raining and it was 2AM. Newton asked me if I needed a place to crash and I accepted his offer. It seems we knew a few of the same Musicians on the West Coast. His place was very cool and he really hooked me up with sheets and a futon mattress and comforters when I could have just slept on the tile floor in my sleeping bag. He also had a washer and dryer; which really comes in handy at a time like this. I was in heaven. The window was open and I could hear the torrential downpour rage and I wasn’t experiencing it from a tent for a change. Bliss, sweet bliss! I slept like the dead.

David AKA “Mister F. Gentle Spirit”
Website
http://www.wbafinc.org/
Photos:
http://www.photobucket.com/brotherproof
Videos:
http://www.youtube.com/WBAF1

Dartmouth Outing Club

2008-07-31T22:51:00.002-04:00

Jammin' at Panarchy

Happy Hill Shelter to Hanover: 6 miles

It was raining when I awoke. I had no urge to rush out of the shelter. The rain held off all night until the morning. I actually got out of bed uncharacteristically early at 7AM and packed up pretty early; however, I ended up BSing all morning and didn’t get out of there until 9 or so. It was going to be a short one into town and I figured I wouldn’t go anywhere. I was very interested to see what Dartmouth is like and this would be the nicest town I would pass through on the trail yet. After a few miles I got out on some roads and it was road hiking from then on in. Several miles of road gets kind of boring and I eventually crossed the river into Hanover. The town is beautiful. The campus is clean and there are tons of students here since they have a requirement that their third year students spend a summer session here. The campus is so well groomed I feel like a dirty interloper, eyes wide open for a lodging opportunity and trying not of obviously ogle the beautiful female student body(s). Man I feel like a dirty, old man all of a sudden. It must be the beard. Summer is a great place for Dartmouth to be and I’m glad we coincide at this moment. I looked around and easily identified the thru-hikers among the clean bodies and intellectuals. Dartmouth has an awesome organization called the Dartmouth Outing Club (DOC) and they have maintained the trails around here for a long time. One of the halls is open to Thru-hikers to drop in and get a bathroom and drop the packs but it’s tough to find lodging here. I had a long chat with Sam and he hipped me to the haps ion the town. Tomorrow they are doing this 50 mile marathon Hike to Mt. Moosilauke where they hike for 24 hours and 54 miles. CRAZY! I tried to sign up but it’s a lottery and only 30 peeps can do it so I was out of luck. That’s alright; I have to pick up a mail drop in a town before Mt Moose anyway. I’m probably going to Zero here tomorrow. During the week, the Phi Tau house offers hikers a place to stay but when I got down there they informed me that Thursday through Saturday, they don’t do it. I wasn’t sure what to do at this point but I came back to the DOC and dropped my pack and went tooling around, looking for a place to crash. If all else fails I’ll sleep at the soccer field where they allow tenting. I ran into this cat Billy and a few other guys: Butters, Rock Steady, etc. I went down to get free pizza at Ramuntos. They offer a free slice to Thru-hikers who sign the log. IT started raining again and I figured I was going to need to hook up with someone cool and crash at their pad so I flew back to the DOC, picked up my pack and headed down to the India Queen, a local hookah bar and restaurant. I met some cool peeps; Rachel, Ed, Peter and Paul who invited me to hang with them and smoke the hookah. Tomorrow is my one year anniversary of quitting smoking. I don’t miss it at all so I figured what the hell. I hit the hookah a couple of times and we talked about tattoos and the trail until they split and I went to find food. I roamed around and ended up in some place called 5 Olde Nugget Alley Bar. I got some skins and Billy came in and told me he found a place to sleep. Eventually I went back with him and we met a bunch of girls living in this huge place that used to be a frat house. It was interesting and after much guitar playing and general tomfoolery, they went to bed and we crashed on the couches.

David AKA “Mister F. Gentle Spirit”
Website
http://www.wbafinc.org/
Photos:
http://www.photobucket.com/brotherproof
Videos:
http://www.youtube.com/WBAF1

Holdin’ it in

2008-07-30T22:46:00.002-04:00

Which one should I water?

Vermont Route 12 to Happy Hill Shelter: 17 Miles

I got up and went down to another fabulous breakfast. I’m finally going to get the heck out of here. Shelter Monkey and her friend were going to join me on the ride and slack back. Tom came by and was very patient, waiting for me to pack my gear. I wish I would have done it the night before. The girls were already packed and had their stuff downstairs. If history is any indication, I should have known better than to rush when packing. That’s when I am most vulnerable to forgetful mishaps and today was no exception. We got on the road; Tom is a Retired Army Lt Col and we had a lot to talk about. He drives a ton of hikers out to slack pack and he’s got a trail name like “Never Sleeps” or something like that, I can’t remember what it is. I got on the trail and it w3as later than I had wanted but I figured I would go far. The day was pretty nice and although rain was threatening, it never really manifested. The report said it would rain tonight so I figured I would just crash in the shelter. Passing through West Hartford, I stopped in the village store and signed the register and ate dinner. That way I wouldn’t have to cook up at the shelter because it looked like it was going to be late when I got there. I had some hot dogs and ice cream and filled my water bottle at their hose. As soon as I got on the trail I tasted the water and realized I had made a big mistake. It tasted horrible. I hadn’t let the water drain out of the hose and it tasted like it had been sitting in there for a long time. I dumped it all out cause it was a big hill I was climbing and I’d be damned if I was going to carry crappy water all the way up a big hill. Eventually I got to nice stream where I ran into two other thru-hikers bedding down for the night. I had about another hour to go so I got a liter of water and headed out. I got there after dark and there were a bunch of SoBos there. I got to bed fairly early and didn’t have a chance to blog. I jokingly complained because there was no picnic table to sit at and they seemed surprised, “Picnic Table?” I’m assuming that this means there won’t be any more picnic tables up north. Blogging at night will be that much tougher. Rain is expected…

David AKA “Mister F. Gentle Spirit”
Website
http://www.wbafinc.org/
Photos:
http://www.photobucket.com/brotherproof
Videos:
http://www.youtube.com/WBAF1

Back Home Again Again

2008-07-29T22:42:00.001-04:00

Back Home Again Again
Back Home Again Café

I got up and decided to stay another day here because I couldn’t get a hold of Tom to drive me out to the Trailhead on Vermont Route 12. I rested and took care of some business. I wanted to get out today but I went and saw a movie instead. I saw the worst movie I have ever seen in my life. Don’t go to see Step Brothers. You will wish you spent two hours grinding salt in your eyes instead. I got back to the hostel and did some more work. I went to a meeting, ate dinner and ended up talking to Shelter Monkey for a few hours before bed. I really need to pack but I guess I’ll do it in the morning. Tom is going to pick me up at 8:30 and I’ll be on my way to Hanover.

David AKA “Mister F. Gentle Spirit”
Website
http://www.wbafinc.org/
Photos:
http://www.photobucket.com/brotherproof
Videos:
http://www.youtube.com/WBAF1

White River Junction Veterans’ Hospital

2008-07-28T23:24:00.003-04:00

Back Home Again Café/Hostel

I got up and went down for breakfast which was breakfast burritos that were very good despite the fact that it’s the East Coast. Someone around here must have spent time in California. I needed a ride to the VA hospital to get my Hernia looked at and to figure out what my next step was. Should I go back to Philly and get the operation there so I could recoup at a place where I had full amenities? Should I get the operation here since there are less people around here I could probably get the operation sooner and then I could either fly home or recoup at the hostel and then maybe get back on the trail? Maybe I should just fly back to San Diego and get in line for an operation there so I could start working again and making money. Four months with no income has left me in a pretty tough predicament financially. I have gigs coming in so I’ll be fine once I start working but I’d have to lay low for a few weeks until that happens; not to mention the price of gas is so horrible that I probably would have to walk everywhere so I might as well stay on the trail. I did some work here at the hostel to earn my keep and I caught up on blogs. I talked to Yohanan and Ranan and they said they would take me out to the VA after the lunchtime rush. We didn’t get out til 3:30 and I figured they would be closed. White River Junction is about an hour away by car and Indy came with me since he’s going to catch a bus back to Boston and get off the trail. It sucks when money runs out. It de-motivates you. You figure, “What’s the use in doing big miles today? I’m not going to make it to the finish anyway.” I hope he can finish it next year. I hope I can finish it next year. At the hospital they were waiting for me. For some reason my records were messed up and it says I don’t have Combat Status History which is BS so I talked to the guy and I’ll have to get that fixed when I get back to San Diego where I have my records. I’ll have to get all that updated. The wait was pretty short (compared to San Diego) and I was seen within an hour. The doc was a woman and I was thinking, “this is the first time in a long time I’m going to have my pants down in front of a woman. I hope nothing weird happens.” Well, that’s not exactly what I was thinking but you know the deal. I managed to keep things under control (probably because I was afraid of the pain she might inflict on me during the examination). She said I definitely had a hernia although it wasn’t an emergency to fix it. I asked the big question, “Can I stay on the trail?” She looked t me for a minute and then said, “let me see if I can get surgery down here to take a look at it.” It turns out she was a hiker and knowing I was a Marine she called surgery to get them to tell me their opinion. The guy came down and did the examination and actually said that many people live a regular life without getting the surgery; however, climbing the White Mountains of New Hampshire is far from a regular life and he recommended that I not strain it and get the surgery when I could. He didn’t say NOT to hike The Whites. I was really listening too. The conversation went a little like this:

Doctor: You have a hernia but it’s not an emergency. You can get it fixed sometime in the future.
Me: I’m climbing the AT
Doctor: What’s that?
Me: I’m hiking over 2000 miles through the mountains with a backpack
Doctor: That’s insane. Really?
Me: Yeah; but what I really want to know is, can I keep going? I only have 400 miles left; but, it’s really the toughest terrain coming up. The White Mountains are very strenuous.
Doctor: Ummmmmm
Me: If I’m climbing and moving my legs would that make me more susceptible than doing something like bench presses?
Doctor: No, any strain will cause it to pop out. The position of your legs shouldn’t make a difference. Right now it’s popping right back in on its own once you relax your abdomen.
Me: If it pops out and stays out, should I just push it back in?
Doctor: Yes
Me: What if it doesn’t go back in.
Doctor: Go to a hospital. Immediately.
Me: Can I keep Hiking.
Doctor: Ummmmmm
Me: I mean, I’ve hiked a hundred miles since I noticed it.
Doctor: You should try to avoid straining it.
Me: OK sounds good!

I’m going to keep hiking for a while and see how it goes. Ranan came and picked me up after I gorged myself at the China Moon Buffet next to the Vermont Bus Station in White River Junction. These guys are unbelievable in their accommodational behavior. He drove an hour back just to pick me up and take me back to the hostel. I’m going to have to come back here for sure. I was in the bus station and looking at all the destinations and I kept thinking how easy it would be to just jump on a bus and go to Boston and fly back to Philly or San Diego and just chill out. I’m having trouble distinguishing the right voice to listen to here. I don’t want to bail out if I could have done it. I don’t want to do it as a matter of pride or Machismo. I want to keep going if this is nothing to really worry about; otherwise, I’ll be lamenting my decision until I come back and finish it. It will be hard to get back to New Hampshire to finish it. To be honest, the odds are probably slim that I finish the rest of this trail. I feel like I should get it while I can and knock out The Whites and as far as I can go into Maine. This is such a hard decision. I guess I’ll have to sleep on it. It talked to my Mom and she’s obviously against me continuing on and she brought up a good point. If I strangulate it in the wilderness I could die. If I blow it out I could mess up my ski season and I wouldn’t be able to teach this year. I just got my Level 2 PSIA and I was really looking forward to teaching this year up in Tahoe. Leave it to Mom to find the one leverage point that could undermine my recklessness. She’s a darn smart one, my Mom. I think I’ll hike to Hanover (23 miles) with my full pack and see how I feel. My knee has been really bothering me and if that is acting up too, I may just pack it in for the year.

David AKA “Mister F. Gentle Spirit”
Website
http://www.wbafinc.org/
Photos:
http://www.photobucket.com/brotherproof
Videos:
http://www.youtube.com/WBAF1

Killington Peak and Cafe

2008-07-27T23:07:00.005-04:00

Killington Trail Sign

Slackpack US Rt 4 to VT Rt 103: 18 miles

I got up early and got breakfast before I headed out on the shuttle with Papa Bear and the Preacher Boys. They were going north from US 4 and I was going south. I took my time and ran into a bunch of people I knew. I finally ran into Indy again, he had stayed at the Shelter right at Killington. When I was a Junior in High School, I saved up a bunch of money to go on my school ski trip and I got grounded for staying home “sick” two days before the trip. After my Mom put her foot down, I decided I was going to go anyway and my Mom flipped out and we had a major confrontation involving police and sirens and fireworks and a few Kung-Fu moves. Needless to say, my Jedi Master Mother prevailed and I never made it to Killington (a situation I have lamented for almost twenty years. Well, I finally made it to Killington, Mom, and it took me months to walk here. I hope you’re happy! I summitted Mt. Killington from a very steep side trail. For just a few moments, the clouds broke, the sun came out and I got a few good shots of the surrounding countryside. I walked the ridge to the gondola and had a burger at the café. The guide book says it has prices to match the altitude and although it wasn’t as bad as some places I’ve been, it was steep and delicious.

Despite the imptroved weather, the trail condition is horrible. Mud, muck and streams are what make up the trail and when you’re on the rocks or roots, they are so slippery it feels like you’re Scooby Doo, trying to run from the swamp Monster on a frozen lake; legs going every which way while you frantically try to maintain an upright position and not stab yourself with your trekking poles. The only thing missing is the slide-whistle sound effect and marimba tinkling footsteps as you jangle down the slope from wet root to moss covered rock. I also ran into ATV after I came down from Killington and we talked for a while with another hiker who was doing the Long Trail which goes from the Massachusetts/Vermont border to Canada and utilizes the same trail as the AT for the first hundred or so miles before the AT turns east and heads to New Hampshire. I got out to the road around 1730 and for the first time since I have started this trail, I went 18 miles without refilling water or changing my socks. It was great. I didn’t even eat any of the food that I brought since I had that burger at lunch. I got changed into Hitchhiking Clothes and started down the road, thumb out and smile beaming.

It took forever to get a ride. I finally got one from this nice guy after I had walked about two miles. He wasn’t going all the way in though and he dropped me off at the town’s edge. The next time I hitch I’m going to ask about that first. It was terrible; I had to walk SO FAR to get downtown. No one gives you a ride when you are in the city area. You have to be outside on the highway to get a ride. Next time I’m going to have the guys stop just outside the city and I’ll get another hitch from outside from someone going all the way to where I’m going. If I was a normal hitchhiker I wouldn’t mind; but, when you’ve already done 20 miles on the day, walking on pavement another four is depressing as hell. I finally broke down and called a cab. I had her drop me off a block away from the hostel though. It wouldn’t be dignified to show up in a cab. I’d probably get made fun of; but, I wasn’t walking another mile in this town. I got in and the town was D.E.A.D. No one was there. I took a shower and got cleaned up for dinner. I ended up at the “Two Shea’s” pub down the street watching Boston Kick the tar out of the Yankees. I got to bed early, tomorrow someone would be taking me to the hospital.

David AKA “Mister F. Gentle Spirit”
Website
http://www.wbafinc.org/
Photos:
http://www.photobucket.com/brotherproof
Videos:
http://www.youtube.com/WBAF1

Twelve Tribes Medicine and Maté Bar

2008-07-26T23:21:00.003-04:00

Yohanan and Ranan

Back Home Again Hostel

I zeroed today. I didn’t feel like I could get up and catch the shuttle to RT4 in time and do another 18 miles. I thought it would be too messy and slippery after the rain last night and the weather report was looking grim. It was the Shabbat for Twelve Tribes so everyone was off. Ranan still made breakfast though. It was very fattening. He made delicious Cream cheese-stuffed French Toast which was slathered with Vermont Maple syrup. I learned how to make Maple Syrup. Down the street was an open market and they had lots of vegetables but hardly any fruit. I found a guy who made Samosas! I haven’t had a good Samosa since Africa! I still haven’t! Just kidding, it was good but they didn’t have the same kind as they did in Africa. I miss those little, delicious goat-meat triangles. There was a movie theatre and I eventually went to see Hancock which I thought had much more potential. I called the family and talked to them all about the Hernia Situation and what I was going to do. I’m still not sure; I think I’m going to slackpack the last section over Killington and the next day go to the VA and see what they can do for me. I don’t even know if I have coverage for something like this. It’ll probably cost me 10K just to get operated on. I think all Vets should have full coverage. I’m not a fan of socialized medicine because of the poor quality of service in places like Canada and the UK; however, I think that all Vets with an Honorable Discharge should have full medical and dental coverage and I think they shouldn’t have to pay taxes. HAHA! Now that would be awesome. Maybe if they gave Vets a tax break for the rest of their lives that would be better; but basically, unless we retire, we don’t get jack and I think there should be something more. Then again, since I’ve never even really looked into Veterans’ Benefits, maybe there already is something cool and I just don’t know about it; but, I doubt it. We’ll see in a couple of days. I wish I could cut a deal with some doctor or hospital; like, I’ll sing for free at your Daughter’s Wedding or your Hospital Christmas party if you fix my hernia for free. What a nice world it would be for me if I could work out those kind of deals. I eventually went to another celebration at the Twelve Tribes house and came back to the Café/Hostel later. Yohanan offered to take me to the hospital again and I found out it’s right near Hanover, NH which is where my next section would take me. I’m considering hiking the last section and just hiking right to the VA Hospital; but, I’d probably look like one of those homeless, alcoholic Vets comin’ in for a handout. My beard is getting long.

David AKA “Mister Gentle Spirit”
Website
http://www.wbafinc.org/
Photos:
http://www.photobucket.com/brotherproof
Videos:
http://www.youtube.com/WBAF1

Slackpackin’ SOBO in the Mud and Crud

2008-07-25T22:45:00.001-04:00

Killington Hydroelectric

Slackpack VT Rt 12 to US Rt 4: 23 Miles

Last night I found out that a bunch of the guys here were going to slackpack a large section from North to south and I decided to go with them. I’m still bringing my Guitar and camera with me so my pack will still weigh about 25 pounds with water and a day’s food. Some guys carry that much as their regular pack. I want that guitar to go every mile with me. It’s a backpacker guitar, it deserves to go the whole trail. We got out in Tom’s Truck and drove for a half an hour. My feet were completely asleep by the time we rounded the second turn. It was painful and cold with the wind blowing all over us and our packs. We got out at the trailhead about 30 minutes later and guess who was standing right there? You guessed it; Cubit. She and Kat have been hiking together and she was about to go in to Hanover NH. I was hiking south. We talked for a little bit and then I split, trying to catch up with Croce Hunter who was too fast for me. I got to the top of the first big hill on the way to Wintturi Shelter. It was a nice climb with only 25 pounds. A fella could get used to this. My hernia didn’t seem to be bothering me even though I kept thinking about it twelve times a second. For food I had only brought with me a half a bag of Gorp and one of those Maté bars which is supposed to have 540 calories and lots of good stuff in it. I passed the shelter turn off and got up to “Lookout Cabin” which was a tenth of a mile off trail but I decided to go check it out. I would have to be quick though. I was attempting a 23 mile day with a hernia. I got to the cabin and everyone was there who had come on the truck except for Daddy-O and Peacock. There was an old, dilapidated, grey cabin with a little platform on the roof accessible by a long, rickety ladder. Top hat was sitting up there on his phone, presumably the best spot for service and I climbed up to peep the view, which was spectacular. You could see all of the distant mountains you had climbed as all of the distant mountains you were going to have to climb in the coming weeks. I got back on the trail and it was tough going through ankle-deep mudslides and the trail had turned into a full-blown stream in some places. You couldn’t avoid it; however, I did relish the lack of mosquitoes and flies I might normally have expected to have to deal with under the circumstances. The day was long and I stopped once to change socks and cool my feet in a rushing stream of perfectly clear water. I crossed by Killington Hydroelectric and got some great shots of a nice set of Falls nearby. I realized that the trail and my maps were not the same. Then I looked at the date on the map and discovered that my maps are seven years old and the ATC moves the trail around all of the time. I was getting a little ticked off as I would expect a climb here or flats there and be completely off. I’m going to have to try to find better maps for the next section north. The day was long and I finally got to US4 too late to catch the shuttle so I had to hitch in; but first, I had to clean up. I hiked about a mile to a small pond on the side of the road and cleaned of and changed into dry, clean clothes so as not to offend whomever picked me up. I got back on th road and started walking and hitching. It didn’t go so well. I must have walked a couple miles before I caught a ride from a nice girl who was home from college for a week. I think her name was Anna. She got me beck to the hostel and the road was closed because they have this thing on Friday Nights where they downtown closes and they have bands and vendors and stuff. I got a shower and roamed the street, checking out all the sights and sounds. Then I heard that the Twelve tribes Community was having a special Shabbat Celebration at their house. I thought it was closer than it was and I walked there, putting my total miles for the day around 27. My feet were throbbing as I got up to the house. They were having a service inside but it was more like a gathering. It was cool, they had songs and dancing and eventually Lasagna. Six or seven people were playing a variety of instruments and the songs were very reminiscent of a Hebrew/Middle eastern sound. The dances were like that too, people dancing around in circles, holding hands and leaping and stuff. The kids and adults were all together just havin’ a blast. I would have joined in; but, my feet said, “what you talkin’ ‘bout Willis?” We had delicious lasagna and good conversation until late. I got a ride back to the hostel and eventually went to check out the bar I had heard the blues paying at the night before. It was a variety band this time and it wasn’t long before I was back at the hostel. The door was locked; but there was a note:

“Mister F****** Gentle Spirit,
If you need to get in,
call ***-***-****
-Team Awesome.”

That meant Magnus and BrüHawk were here! I yelled up to the open windows but I woke up some of the Café residents on the top floor. I hadn’t meant to do that. One of the girls from the community came down and unlocked the door for me. I could have shimmied up the drainpipe but it didn’t seem appropriate somehow in this spiritual place. I got to bed and considered taking Yohanon’s offer to take me to the VA Hospital in Nearby White River Junction to get checked out. I wanted to do the Killington Section tomorrow but then it started raining and I figured, the last thing I wanted to do was to slip off a rock with a hernia.

David AKA “Mister Gentle Spirit”
Website
http://www.wbafinc.org/
Photos:
http://www.photobucket.com/brotherproof
Videos:
http://www.youtube.com/WBAF1

Rain Fugitive and Back Home Again

2008-07-24T15:34:00.001-04:00

Greenwall Shelter to Back Home Again Hostel: 8 Miles

I guess I’ll get out of here sometime. I’m sitting here waiting for the rain to ease, and it has, several times. I’ve been updating my journal for the last four days. I’ll post them I think and then get going. It’s already 1210. I didn’t feel like getting water this morning. I ate a little bit and killed a few hundred mosquitoes. They are slower here in Vermont than they were in Massachusetts. I thank God for that. Maybe it’s all the moisture in the air?

Later

I got out of there around 1230 and walked over mud and slides and twisted, gnarled roots that provided conundrical stepping situations as I went down toward Vermont Route 103. The hike up and over Bear Mountain was difficult. There seems to be a Bear Mountain in every state and I have to go over it. Every Bear Mountain is also a tough climb either up or down. Maybe there’s something to this. I’ll investigate it later. At some point I was investigating the map and I realized that at Rt 103 I could just hitch a ride in to Rutland and it would actually be closer than it would if I passed over Killington where the book suggests you hitch in from Route 4. Rt 103 is a smaller highway but it’s still significant and has lots of traffic so I decided I would stop there and go in to the town of Rutland. I’ve been hearing about this hostel called “Back Home Again.” It’s run by a religious group called The Twelve Tribes. I’d been hearing all about these guys from people on the trail. They offer work-for-stay which is great ‘cause I’m almost completely out of money and I have plenty of energy to work with. I can work all day long I just can’t make any money while I’m out here. They feed you too; so it seems like all of my issues would be solved, including the “wet socks” and “soggy, muddy life” issues. I heard there is a guy who will slack pack you too. Slack packing is when you hike a section of the trail with the bare essentials in your pack for the day; basically, water, camera and lunch. Sometimes a person will drive you out to a trailhead about 20 or 30 miles from the hostel and you hike much faster and more miles back in to the place you are going to stay. There are many ways to do this but basically it allows you the benefits of staying in town without losing miles for the day. My brothers and I slackpacked one three mile section back in Franklin but I’ve resisted the temptation to slackpack so far on this trip. I hear temptation calling…
I got down to the road and the effects of the rain were evident as I crossed the last bridge over the Mill River. It was incredibly loud as the bloated river rushed throught he rock channels. It looked like the Colorado River. The narrow rock chutes took a 90 degree turn and sloshed back and forth in what looked to me to be class-four or five rapids. I wanted to take some pictures but my camera was packed up tight to keep it safe from the rain so I thought about it and kept moving; Town was beckoning.

After I got on the road and changed into Hitchiking Clothes, I got a ride pretty quick from a guy who took me all the way into where I needed to go. I’m really glad he did because where they said the town was only 4 miles away was just the very outskirts and it would have been another four miles or so to get downtown to the Back Home Again Café. I called and made sure I could get a bed and the response I got was “we’ll make room” so I anticipated it to be pretty full but there were like 25 people there; many of whom I knew like Croc Hunter and Leonides Shadow Cast; but there were also a bunch of SOBOs and non-hikers. They set me up with a great bed by the window to the main street and I would fall asleep later that night to the comforting sounds of Blues emanating from one of the local pubs across the street. Ranan greeted me as I came into the café and showed me to my bed and around the café. They have dinner for everyone at 8:30PM and then we all clean up and do various chores afterwards. Rutland is a pretty cool town that once boasted the most bars per capita in the US. The WAL-MART and the Grocery Store were only a block away so re-supply would be easy. I went and hung out in the WAL-MART among the brightly colored boxed to re-acclimate myself to society. I like doing that when I get into a town. Just like I need to be silent and listen to the forest when I get back into it. I also need to get amongst commerce and air-conditioning for a while before I can “Be” in society again. It’s kind of weird but it’s definitely something I’ve noticed since I’ve been on this trip.

The café has its own bakery and when I got upstairs I found the Preacher boys wrapping up muffins, huge ginger snaps and Maté energy bars. I had heard about these energy bars from Greta in the Green Mountain House. My work-for-stay involved moving a bunch of stuff and I was really starting to feel this hernia thing in my groin. When I lifted a box and the edge of it was against my pelvis I could feel it popping and one of the other hikers is a doctor and he cursorily diagnosed it as a hernia. I guess I better figure out where a VA hospital is. I looked up the treatment for hernia on the Internet and it looks like I’m going to need surgery. There is a chance that they can just pop it back in and I can keep going but I’m not counting on it. I’m afraid after coming all this way, I may have to get off the trail. I was really ready for the White Mountains too. I’m about to enter the most difficult section of the Appalachian Trail and I’ve been psyching myself up for it. I would hate to have to get off now. We had a delicious dinner and we had a long discussion with Ranan and Yohanan about their community which is basically like Messianic Jews but they live in a neat community which is linked to many other communities just like it all over the world. They make some awesome liquid soaps and amazing Yerba Maté drinks and baked goods. The café is awesome; made from an old barn that they disassembled and cannibalized for their décor and furniture. They have an amazing fellowship and connection with each other and their God. It’s very neat to see how the community operates and thrives with every family member playing a role.

David AKA “Mister Gentle Spirit”
Website
http://www.wbafinc.org/
Photos:
http://www.photobucket.com/brotherproof
Videos:
http://www.youtube.com/WBAF1

Ver-mud, Ver-muck, Vermont

2008-07-23T23:11:00.002-04:00

Cairns, Carns, everywhere is Cairns

Peru Peak Shelter to Greenwall Shelter: 15 miles

Dawn came slowly, over a period of hours, or so it seemed from under the bundle of my sleeping bag where I had wrapped myself fitfully through the night to avoid the onslaught of mosquitoes that bit through sock and sleeve and attacked any exposed surface. bearded though it may be. The rainsong mingled with the sound of the pregnant stream and as I finally peered from my bag, roused by the packing of my temporary companions, I was greeted by the rain-jangling foliage that surrounded the shelter. The rain on the tin roof morphed from piiter-patter to frenzy and back again all morning and I assuaged my psyche by burrowing further into my bag. I had no desire to put that wet shirt on and sling a pack on my shoulder and navigate over wet, slime-covered rocks and slip-trip down steep winding staircases of roots and rubble with a cumbersome pack swaying from left to right like the smaller of the trees I passed in the stormswept forest. My dreams were of this and other horrible things unrelated like unrequited love and naked speeches as I waited for the day to brighten. All alone in the shelter now, I tried to get it going. I got up and relieved myself in the wet bushes, avoiding raindrops and trying not to brush against the soaking pine branches. I had some breakfast; pepperoni, sharp provologne and pita, only to return pitifully to the sleeping bag, half dressed and half packed and half- hoping for the sun to break through. I knew it wouldn’t. They said that the rain would last until Friday. I wondered briefly if I had enough food to last me here til Friday. I did; but, then I would still have to walk 50 Miles to Killington on M&Ms and whatever mushrooms I could find along the way. I entertained the idea during yet another roll-over on to yet another uncomfortable position and finally decided to get up and get the hell out of there while the rain was only pittering rather than pounding. I didn’t get out of the shelter until about 1230, maybe later. I knew I had to make some miles. I was also out of toilet paper and I had three days to go. I had some moist wipes but I knew it wouldn’t be enough. Maybe I could find some in a Privy or something. I got out of there and hustled. I did find some toilet paper at a really nice privy maintained by a caretaker. I took a little extra for the next two days just in case and then I tried to get some miles. I still feel that hernia thing happening but it seems familiar so maybe I’ve had it before. I’ll walk it off. The rain kept going on and off all day. I got wet, really wet. I changed my socks a couple of times but it would only last a couple of miles before I was swimming in my socks again. It was getting dark already and I had only done about 12 miles. I was trying to get to the Greenwood shelter and I came upon this ghostly site with rock cairns all over everything. It was really spooky in the rain. I took some pictures, there were probably a hundred little rock cairns all over the place, balanced on precarious ledges and even on logs which were balanced in turn on another cairn. It was very strange. I was hoping I was at the shelter when I ran up on another display of freaky cairns. The sign that was there said it went off to some vista instead of going to the shelter as I had hoped. According to the book, I still had a mile and a half to go. I couldn’t believe it; I was sure I was there! Another 30 or 40 minutes to go in the steadily increasing rain; I was losing it. I started telling myself to keep it together. The thing was, the Shelter was another .3 miles off trail and the water source was questionable and just because it was raining like mad didn’t mean that there would be a stream. Sooner than the book said, the shelter trail came up and I trudged through rain and mud to get there. Snickers and Pack Animal were there and a bunch of kids that I didn’t see under a tarp down the hill. This rain is getting worse and I’ll probably sit around till noon or worse tomorrow. I had to find the water source and it wasn’t all that exciting: just a dribble out of a rusty pipe. It took a while to fill up and by the time I got back it was fully dark. I cooked in the dark and cleaned up and was too damn lazy to hang a bear bag. It seems like no one hangs them here, they just hang them in the shelter from mouse hangs and go to sleep; well, I might as well do it too. I’ll try to blog in the morning instead of just sitting there and watching the rain. I’m never going to catch Croc Hunter like this.David AKA “Mister Gentle Spirit”
Website
http://www.wbafinc.org/
Photos:
http://www.photobucket.com/brotherproof
Videos:
http://www.youtube.com/WBAF1

Rainforest tap dancing on the slippery roots

2008-07-22T22:02:00.003-04:00

ATV on Bromley Mtn

Green Mountain House to Peru Peak Shelter: 10 Miles

We got up later than we said we would and then me and ATV went to breakfast at this AWESOME place: “Up For Breakfast” in Manchester Center, VT. We got the “Hiker’s Special” and it was definitely filling. Vermont has some bad-ass maple syrup, I must say. It must be all the rain. We walked to the other side of town and couldn’t get a hitch. I finally found a place I thought would work for sure, right next to a parking lot and a convenience store. Someone had to be going out of town and could give us a ride! Nope! We stood there forever. I ran into the store to pull some money and after getting a hundred bucks I found out I have $3.83 in my account. Let’s see how far that gets me! Finally this awesome couple gave us a ride. They have lived in Manchester all their lives and they give hikers rides all the time. I can’t remember their names right now but I hope they will email me and tell me so I can put them in. I have a picture of them by their truck in case you’re wandering just who they hell those people are standing g next to the truck. As a matter of fact, you can probably guess that if anyone is driving or standing next to a vehicle in a picture, they gave us a ride and should be held in the highest of regards. As soon as we got on the trail there was magic. A group of schoolchildren and their teacher drop off sodas and sandwiches at the trailhead. It’s an awesome thing to do, too bad me and ATV were still overloaded from the “hiker’s special” to do anything about it. There was a camera there too but it was out of film so I took a picture for them in case you’re wondering what the hell is that guy doing with a can of orange soda? I threw the orange soda in my pack for later and headed up the hill to Bromley Ski Resort. We could see Stratton Mountain from one of the vistas although it was soon to be obscured by clouds as we would be enveloped once again by rain and thunder. Vermont is starting to really irritate me with all of this rain and mud and muck and slippery roots and rocks. I’ve done my share of Charlie Chaplins and a full-on Buster Keaton over some of the rocks on my way to Peru Peak Shelter. Before I get to that; nearing the top of Bromley, we came to this clearing that looked kind of weird and overgrown. I couldn’t figure out what it was until I saw the pipes and nozzles. We were on a ski slope! It was only a beginner ski slope but it felt like a Black Diamond with a 60-pound pack. We got to the top and we had been on the “Run Around” slope of Bromley Mountain. I took some video at the observation deck and I got a shot in a ski lift. Then I hauled Pack for Peru Peak and I haven’t seen ATV since. He said he was going to take a leak and then that was it. All of the trails here are full of mud and muck and vain attempts to stay out of it. Every few yards there is a huge mud puddle or mucky, leafy mud that sinks in to your ankle if you aren’t careful. When I got to the Peru Peak shelter, I needed to rinse off my legs something fierce. The gaiters worked as advertised and my socks were clean! Snickers was there with Pack Animal and another guy who was doing the Long Trail as well as Drew, a guy who had passed me earlier that day. The rain had been on and off all day and I was wet; but not too wet. I got set up for the night. The water came from a fast moving brook right next to the shelter which means MOSQUITOES! I left the Orange Soda in the stream so I could give it to ATV later. I decided to sleep in the shelter, even though it was going to hurt, I didn’t feel like finding a couple of trees and the rain was going to pour tonight so I laid down my meager pad and resigned to suffer on the hard, wooden floor. ATV never showed and after a little guitar music, I went to bed early.

David AKA “Mister Gentle Spirit”
Website
http://www.wbafinc.org/
Photos:
http://www.photobucket.com/brotherproof
Videos:
http://www.youtube.com/WBAF1

Zero in Vermont

2008-07-21T23:43:00.002-04:00

Green Mountain House Hostel

In an effort to minimize my casualty rate and to keep the trails safe from my tumbling body, I have decided to wait out the rain at this fabulous hostel which has only been open for a week by Jeff Taussig and his Wife, Regina. They have set up an entire house for just hikers and have a kitchen, internet and movies (all about Long Distance Hiking of course). Jeff has section hiked the AT and is doing the Pacific Crest Trail now. The house is very clean with laundry and a shower and I am most impressed. Croc Hunter has decided to stay here another day too so we can go see The Dark Night I have also opted to use this day to buy new socks and a pair of Gaiters which I have been waiting to find for hundreds of miles. I was laying down and I coughed and I felt something strange in my nether region. I’m hoping it’s not a hernia but I think it might be; at least, it feels like what the doctors are always looking for when they tell you to turn your head and cough. I’ll just walk it off, it’ll be fine.

(Later)

We ran into a few other Hikers at the movies and I got all of my shopping done. SOCKS ARE DARN EXPENSIVE! Pun intended. I tried to sew up the holes in my socks but it just wasn’t good enough. Some of the holes were too big and then once they got too close to the fire when I was drying them and they got all crispy so they fell apart. I saw these Smartwool Trekking socks with extra padding and I decided they might increase my distance so I went for it. For a while there I was wearing apair of socks that someone left behind at a shelter that only had holes in the heels where I already have titanium skin from old calluses so I wasn’t worried about it. I brought back a rib-eye and cooked it up. I haven’t cooked a real dinner in along time. It was delicious. Just as I was settling down, ATV showed his face. I thought he was way ahead of me and he thought I was way ahead of him. I guess that’s how it goes. It was getting boring just sitting around and watching Jim Rome bust on Michelle Wie and Brett Favre so I got on the Internet and investigated some methods of healing my knee and just how dangerous is that tea-stained water I’ve been drinking out of ponds and marshes? Some guy fed me a load of crap that Chocolate Milk would hinder my healing and I had to look that up too.
I knew I needed to get back out on the trail. Later on three SOBOs showed up, Mango, Greta and this other guy I can’t remember his name. They were from PA and we were familiar with each others’ habitats of youth. Mango was originally from Venezuela but went to Penn State so we got along just fine. His girlfriend Greta had spectacular legs; maybe the best I’ve seen on the trail yet, but I wasn’t about to tell him that. He’d lost 30 lbs and would get them back I’m sure before he came looking for me! We became good pals and I’m going to ry to look them up when I get finished up in Maine. Maybe I’ll section with them in PA if the time is right and I don’t have to be back in SD. We all want to do the PCT though so maybe that will work out. I didn’t get to bed until 0230 and ATV was still downstairs repairing his thermarest.

David AKA “Mister Gentle Spirit”
Website
http://www.wbafinc.org/
hotos:
http://www.photobucket.com/brotherproof
ideos:
http://www.youtube.com/WBAF1

Torrential Downpour

2008-07-20T23:22:00.003-04:00

Jeff, underexposed

Story Spring Shelter to Green Mountain House, Manchester Center VT: 22 Miles

Right now I am completely waxed. I did 22 miles today in the Green Mountains, not to mention the last four or five was in the POURING rain, on muddy mountain rocks and pregnant streams. I really wanted to get in to this city; Manchester Center, Vermont, for two reasons: One, I’m completely out of food except for a ramen packet and some coffee and pepper. Two, so I could pick up gaiters at the Mountain Goat outfitter they have here. It’s the only place in hundreds of miles that has the gaiters I want, the OR Flex-Tex Gaiters. Oh mama, are they sweet! Hopefully they will keep the sweat out of my boots a little so I don’t have to wring my socks out every four miles on tough days. Even if they help a little and I only have to wring my socks out every ten miles, it will help me out tremendously. My feet take the hardest beating once the socks get wet because they lose all their padding properties and my skin gets pruney and vulnerable to blisters and other weird conditions when they stay wet all day (or several days when it’s really rainy). Last night it rained a little but I didn’t notice. It looked like it was going to be a really good day. “Perfectly Overcast” I like to call it. No rain but not sunny enough to overheat you. I got out of camp early at around 0920. The Scarlet 7 (-5) had left just before me. Beanie was getting off for his family vacation (to Maine of all places) and his family was picking him up at the next road. Soon it would be The Scarlet 7 (-6) AKA Croc Hunter, or Vince. I’ll probably hike with him a bunch till he gets off at the end of the month. I got down to the road and Beanie was just about to leave. I got to meet his family and then I headed up the trail toward Mt. Stratton. Croc Hunter is faster than me so he’ll catch me. We talked about doing 22 miles today in order to make it to the next major highway and then hitching in to Manchester Center but it looked like there were only hotels to stay at and they were all expensive. Ahead of me was an 1800 foot climb to Mt. Stratton, a popular ski resort in the winter, it had an observation tower on top and I psyched myself up for the climb. Croc Hunter passed me on the way up and it was tough but I finally got up there. There was a Caretaker, Jean, staying in this cool little white hut. I had to wring out my socks and underwear when I got to the top. Since Vermont doesn’t have a nudity law, I just did it right there. Croc Hunter was up in the tower but I don’t think he was looking. He was trying to get service since it was the highest point anywhere around. After I climbed the tower and got some footage of haze and barely discernable mountains, I came down and all of a sudden people started showing up like crazy. There was this huge family from Atlanta and all these young girls and I was pretty glad they hadn’t come up about fifteen minutes earlier while I was standing there on a big rock, naked except for my untied boots, wringing out my underwear and socks. Now that would have been a moment! Anyway, I shamelessly promoted the website and moved on. I had a big day and the caretaker said there were huge storms on the way and flash flood warnings for the whole area. I had to get down there before the storms hit and night fell or I was never going to hitch a ride into Manchester Center. Croc hunter mentioned he might go with me but only if we could find a hostel. There was a shelter 3 miles before the road. We would meet there and figure it out then. I got to Stratton Pond and decided to jump in for a dip. It definitely smelled like a pond but I didn’t care. It felt good to rinse off the sweat and leaf particles and mud and whatever else was all over me. As I was getting ready to go, these three kids showed up. I can’t remember their trail names except for the one without a trail name who was Sean or Shawn or Shaun or whatever. He didn’t have one of those text bubbles over his head when he spoke so I couldn’t tell. They hipped me to a fabulous place that has just opened up: The Green Mountain House, a hostel that was super cool. They gave me a business card for the place and I called when I got service and made a reservation for me and Vince in case he wanted to go. I would have to catch him though, he’s fast. If he gets to the shelter to far ahead of me he’ll have time to eat and unpack and he won’t want to go. It looked like it might be dark before I got to the road which makes it hard to hitch. I started to haul ass. I had to wring my socks again and I opted for totally new ones which were fresh and dry. As I was trying to get to the shelter the ominous thunder and lightning began to play its game with me. I knew it was going to be close and I didn’t want to stop to get my raingear on cause I sweat a lot more with it on; however if I made it to the shelter before the downpour, I could keep my socks relatively dry and then don the gear for the final three miles in the downpour. I didn’t make it. The sky kept teasing me with sprinkles and thunder off in the distance. It never seemed to be in front of me though so I kept going. I wasn’t sure how far it actually was to the shelter but then it got so dark that I should have turned on my headlamp. Suddenly the rain started to really pour and I was getting soaked. I tried to hustle but it’s tough when everything is all slippery. I saw the sign for the shelter and didn’t realize it was still several hundred yards downhill. I ran down the path but I was still getting soaked. My socks still seemed semi dry though and when I got to the shelter, Croc Hunter and Greenwood were there. They though I was coming in for the night but I really wanted to make that hostel. I told Croc Hunter about it but I know he was reluctant. Eventually he broke down and got packed back up. We left during a lull that we hoped was going to be a long one. It wasn’t. As we were gong down the first hill he said, “Just for the record, I think this is a dumb idea, but what the hell, I could use some more adventure.” The trail was very wet, very muddy and not at flat as the map led us to believe. He cruised way up ahead of me and it got pretty dark again. I finally made it to the road and I was really worn out. Just as we crossed the road this Minivan was coming at us and I just threw my thumb out there as a joke and the guy pulled right over and picked us up. It was AWESOME! His name was Brian and he was from Jamaica. I thought he had stolen the car ‘cause he didn’t know how to open the back hatch or unlock any door; but at that moment, I could care less who or what he was. He was giving us a ride in the rain and he was alright by me. In fact, if they asked me to go to court to speak of his character, I’d have to fly all the way back here to do it. “Your Honor, that man is a saint and I don’t care how many bodies I was sitting on in the cargo area when he drove me into town!” For a moment I thought it was going to be a Great Adventure and then we got to the McDonalds and he wouldn’t even take a sandwich for his trouble; not even a shake! I, on the other hand, had two Double Quarter Pounders with Cheese, Large Fries, a 32oz Orange Juice and a 20oz coffee. Paul Newman does McDonalds Coffee, man! I calculated the total calories and it was 2470! Yeah man, I needed it. Jeff picked us up to take us the hostel and when I got there I weighed myself: 155 lbs I haven’t weighed 155 since I was 20! This Hostel is the nicest place I’ve stayed yet on the trail. It’s a very nice house and I can’t wait to drop into that fabulous bed!

David AKA “Mister Gentle Spirit”
Website
http://www.wbafinc.org/
Photos:
http://www.photobucket.com/brotherproof
Videos:
http://www.youtube.com/WBAF1

Hiking Au Naturale

2008-07-19T23:15:00.003-04:00

Melville Nauheim Shelter to Story Spring Shelter, 17.4 Miles

I got out of the shelter really late, even for me. I didn’t get on the trail till 1130 because I was trying something new and writing blogs in the morning instead of late at night so I don’t bother people with the typing at the shelter. On the way out I ran into some hikers that I had met at the Unionville Mayor’s house, Shadowcast and Tangent were hanging out with two guys I hadn’t met: Filadelphia Greenberg and Greenwood. I was trying to catch Indy and the climb up Glastenbury Mountain kicked my ass. I kept thinking the shelter was coming up any time now and then it just kept going UP! I nearly bonked a few times and when I finally got to the Goddard shelter, all the people that slept at the shelter with me last night were there except Indy. They hadn’t seen him either. I stopped and had some ramen and tuna. The Shadowcast and Crew came up a few minutes later. My knee was doing OK today but it has its moments when it just hurts out of nowhere so I’m taking it easy. Later I climbed the rest of the way with showers threatening and thunder clapping. All of a sudden there was this fire tower, observation deck thing. I really wanted to climb it and take some pictures, it was well above the tree line though and lightning was looming and thunder was booming so I climbed it anyway. I have always had this idea that should I ever get hit with lightning, all my hair will turn white and I will possess super powers afterward. I realize this is a fantastic improbability but so is getting struck by lightning so I climbed the tower and kept the film rolling in case it did get struck while I was there. I pressed for the next shelter. I really wanted to go 17 today because that would put me in reach of a town tomorrow. The rain was intermittent and the rocks were slippery but so far the Green Mountains are reminding me a lot of the Smokies; wet, muddy and rainy with beautiful views obscured by haze and mist and thunderstorms. I got to the Kid Gore Shelter and it was late. Shadowcast and crew were there and I decided to try for the next shelter. They thought I was crazy and they told me so. I told them nothing. They don’t understand why I carry a heavy pack. It’s one of those things. If you get it, no explanation is necessary; if you don’t, no explanation will suffice. I like that quote but I can’t remember who said it or what it was originally in reference to; however, it fits me perfectly. Speaking of which, after I left Kid Gore Shelter, I noticed that I was getting a little chafing in my nether regions and it had me worried. My knee had been bugging me a little but that seemed to go away. I really didn’t want to roll in to the next shelter with a chafing problem so I decided to just go Au Naturale until the next shelter. That’s right, I took it all off and hiked in my Birthday suit; well actually, I kept my shirt on. I didn’t want to offend anyone with my naked chest. I discovered the other day that Vermont has no Nudity Law and you can go Au Naturale any damn where you please. This fascinated me and having a practical reason, I dropped trou and headed to the next shelter. I don’t know if it specifically helped my chafing problem but it sure took my mind off of any pain or other issues I might be experiencing. It was actually quite nice. I had to wring my socks out so I put the underwear back on and they had time to dry so they were comfortable again and I was proud of myself for having the balls to do it. I think it may become a regular thing while I’m in this state. I got in to the Spring Story Shelter and to my surprise, Indy wasn’t there. I was a little confused since no one had seen him and he didn’t pass anyone. The Scarlet 7 (-5) was there though. They lost another two and now it was down to Beanie and Croc Hunter. There were two SOBOs (southbounders) there: Clemson and Sweet Tea. I took forever to get set up but I got some eats, I’m almost completely out of food, and played some Guitar and set up camp and got to bed late. I kept hearing something walking around out there and I thought it might be a Moose. Before I went to bed I saw a big rabbit and I know they have snowshoe hares here so maybe his big feet were paddin’ around all night. Whatever it was, it was freaking me out.

David AKA “Mister Gentle Spirit”
Website
http://www.wbafinc.org/
Photos:
http://www.photobucket.com/brotherproof
Videos:
http://www.youtube.com/WBAF1

I see Moose Turds!

2008-07-18T23:08:00.002-04:00

Not a good place to step

Seth Warner Shelter to Melville Nauheim Shelter: 14 Miles

I got up late, as usual, which leads me to think that since it’s usual than I guess it’s not late. If I got up at the time when everyone else gets up I should probably say I got up early. Acceptance is the key my man. Normal reveille for me is about 9AM and that’s when I got up, stomach growling and hungry for Pop-Tarts and coffee. It was going to be a great day I could tell. The weather was perfect. Me and Indy got all packed up at roughly the same time and headed out around 10:30 or so. Most people I know have already done 10 miles by 10:30. Not me, I get my hiking stride around 4 or 5PM I really wish I could hike all night but I don’t have a good night-hiking headlamp. Night hiking is a little sketchy too with all the slippery rocks and the faint blazes. I could wind up in Kentucky or something. I figured I’d be down at Vermont Route 9 by about 2PM and maybe that would give Truckstop enough time to call me back. I wasn’t counting on it though. Besides it would be better if I got in some bigger miles today. The climbs were reasonable and although my pack is very heavy, probably 60lbs at least, I don’t even really feel it anymore. It has more or less become a part of my body. I passed Sucker Pond and some guy sitting there painting or rather Charcoaling it and I asked him a few questions and all I got were gestures so I figure he must have taken a vow of silence or something. He looked like a Thru-hiker though. I’ve never seen him so he’s probably SOBO (southbound) although, if he’s sitting around at every pond charcoaling and stuff, I’m probably going much faster than him and he could be a NOBO (Northbounder). Regardless, he didn’t say a word and I noticed it; pompous, vow-of-silence bastard that he was. Maybe I was interrupting him… ONWARD! I managed the climb down to VT9 without a knee-splitting incident even though I was harangued my Vermont Deer Flies constantly. There is always this low-grade buzz around your head and you know he’s just waiting to land on your hat and bite right through it. At least the Mosquitoes haven’t been a problem here. I met this guy Scottie who is a SOBO and he was saying that he discovered that the mosquitoes go about 2 miles an hour and if you go just faster than that you can outrun them. I informed him that he was traveling into 5 MPH Mosquito country and I hope his legs were ready for that. My brother’s Friend Eve called me to say that she and her boyfriend could meet me up the trail. They were very generous and were talking about driving several hours to come and meet up; but, I think that’s too far. I wouldn’t ask them to do that, maybe I’ll meet up witht hem when the trail gets much closer. Truckstop still hadn’t gotten my message by the time I hit VT9 so I pressed on to tackle the uphill to the next shelter. Later I got her message saying she was laid up at her parents in New Hampshire due to a rather gruesome sounding fall into an ocean somewhere or something like that. Maybe we’ll do Karaoke in NH.
The last time I did Karaoke was in Gatlinburg with Mad Mtn. Mike and Cubit and MacGuyver. I could stand a night of caterwauling at the drunks. I really miss that. Then climb up the hill from VT9 had me pausing a few times to Ahem, check out stuff while my heartbeat returned to double digits per minute. I got in to the Melville Nauheim Shelter around 1545 with roughly 2 hours left of daylight it was a tough decision whether or not to go the next 8 miles to the next shelter. Thunder had been booming since I came up VT9 and I thought it was going to rain any second which helped me to make my decision to stay. Some folks were already there, a couple of young guys from Minnesota, one going to MIT, a guy showed up from New Hampshire, Half-way was his trail name when he Thru-hiked a few years ago. A woman whose name I forget was in the shelter already and Indy showed up while I was getting water. Two sisters, Ratchet and Awesomoppossom, came in a little while later with their dogs, Sadie and Bosco. Dinner and a campfire ensued and Guitar playing until late. The rain held off. I was trying to journal out by my hammock when all this racket went up around me. Some kind of animal was running around just outside of headlamp and computer light and I was getting a little unnerved. All I need is to startle some Drunk Belligerent Skunk coming home from the local watering hole to ruin my night most completely. I hung up the computer and hit the hammock. Around Midnight I awoke with a startle. It was silent and then the wind blew up with a tremendous howl, the likes of which I don’t think I have ever heard. It blew through the trees like a freight train and my hammock started to bob up and down; not side to side; but up and down, which meant the trees were being pulled away from each other. Lightning and thunder started popping up everywhere like a natural Fourth of July celebration. It was almost a constant show of light through the rain fly of my hammock. Then the rain started. You could hear it coming up the mountain with the howling wind and I suddenly realized that not only were we on the highest ground in the surrounding area; but, I had tied up to a tree which had already been struck by lightning. I hadn’t really thought of it except to assess whether or not it would be good to tie up to. Since it was a big tree and still living I figured it was OK; but now, with lightning assured, I reviewed the statistics of Lightning hitting the same tall tree on a ridgeline twice and the chances seemed pretty good. I have always wanted to get struck by lightning because I have this idea that after I do, I will be blessed with some Super Powers so I just laid there and waited for it. I woke up in the morning with no apparent Super Powers and a completely unsigned tent so I guess the lightning skirted our ridge. Oh well, maybe next time. Other than the vegetation being wet it looks like it will be anice day for hiking. I think I’m going to catch a toad today and put it on my head to see if he’ll stay there and eat the deer flies. It could happen! Oh yeah, this morning while I was talking about Mt Greylock I was describing these huge turds I saw on the trail that I thought were Elk or a big deer and it turns out they were from a MOOSE! I might see a MOOSE! I can’t wait! I’m going to call him Bullwinkle and see if he laughs!

David AKA “Mister Gentle Spirit”
Website
http://www.wbafinc.org/
Photos:
http://www.photobucket.com/brotherproof
Videos:
http://www.youtube.com/WBAF1

Sleeping under the stars

2008-07-17T23:03:00.002-04:00

Vermont/Massachusetts Border

Mountain Goat Williamstown to Seth Warner Shelter: 8 miles

When I got back to the Mountain Goat last night everything was soaked; my sleeping bag, my pack, anything that was out in the air had dew all over it. I figured the sleeping bag is synthetic so it should still work fine wet so I packed everything up, put the pack cover on it and went to sleep. The bag worked fine, I got up in the morning and it was still wet but I slept fine. I think everything go so wet because we were sleeping right next to some river and the temp went way down. My knee wasn’t feeling any better. I didn’t think I would be able to walk on it but maybe it would feel better after some breakfast and maybe some lunch and maybe a zero day? Nah, I’m going to try my best to get out of here today. Indy was hangin’ with me and we tooled around and got coffee and charged some electronics. I have decided that Williamstown has something special in the water. I officially name it the city of beautiful legs. They were everywhere! We gotsome really good pizza at the place next to the outfitter and packed it up to go. I bought one pair of new socks because I have holy socks and dwindling finances. We managed to get on the bus, which was free because it was my birthday! Yee haw! I knew birthdays were good for something! The climb out of Williamstown was steep but it wasn’t too bad, it was a climb with a lot of intersecting trails. You had to keep your eyes on the blazes. I took a pause at Eph’s Lookout, although I didn’t know that’s where I was at the time. It was named after the founder of Williams College, Ephraim Williams. Imagine that, we have the same taste in lookouts, it must run in the family. After that I got to the Vermont/Massachusetts Border and took a few pics and texted the event to a bunch of my pals since I had some good cell service. It ate up all of my battery. I realized I’m coming up on Bennington in one day and I was supposed to meet “Truckstop” there. I’ll shoot off an email but it’ll probably be too late notice to meet up. I met Truckstop with Oshwagonda down at Damascus and she said to email her when I got to Bennington to do some Karaoke. I forgot to email her earlier so I hope I have service at the shelter. I’ll be passing Bennington tomorrow in the middle of the day and it’s really to short of a distance to stop; however, there’s a steep descent into VT Route 9 and my knee might need the break. My knee really only hurts on Downhills. I got in to the shelter and took care of business early. I hung the bear-bag line right away, got a lot of water at a slow stream, set up my tent and got dinner started. I was on a roll. I didn’t light a fire until Indy rolled in and it was getting dark. lI had to go way out of camp to get an internet signal to email some folks and I saw that some more people have given donations on my Birthday. Thanks Guys! That makes me think I might be able to make it happen. My brother Doug dropped some dough on me now that he’s back at work and now I might be able to afford some new socks. The Guggenheim (Grant C.) dropped a C-note on me and that was very generous of you. Thanks buddy and Happy Birthday. He is exactly 3 days older than I am. That means that four days ago, when he donated that money, he was older than me; however, I’m now older than he was back when he donated it. The last few days have been really great for hiking and I know it will end soon. Then again, maybe I’ll get through the Greens without slippery rocks. That would be nice. It turned out that Indy and I were the only ones at the shelter so we slept in peace. I played guitar until 2330 and then I realized, I better get some sleep.

David AKA “Mister Gentle Spirit”
Website
http://www.wbafinc.org/
Photos:
http://www.photobucket.com/brotherproof
Videos:
http://www.youtube.com/WBAF1

My kind of town, Williamstown is

2008-07-16T23:14:00.002-04:00

Mark Noepel Lean-to to Williamstown The Mountain Goat: 10 miles

The shelter bunk was hard as nails and I slept in many positions without ever finding satisfaction. I need a pad if I plan on sleeping in shelters on a regular basis. I managed to get out of bed and get packed up before the Scarlet Seven (-3) left. Actually, they waited for me is more like it. We hustled up the mountain to Greylock and it was cool. Greylock is the highest mountain in Massachusetts and also the highest mountain anywhere around so the view was cool. There was an amazing War Memorial up there. I wanted to get in to town so I kept pushing. I got to Mt Williams and noticed that the numbers of the elevation, 2951, add up to 17, my lucky number! How cool is that? The climb down was steep and my feet felt fine. Maybe the Dr. Scholl’s things are actually working. My knees took a pounding though and they are still killing me now as I write. We finally got in to Williamstown and the Scarlet Seven (-3) headed to North Adams and me and Indy hitched a ride in to town to pick up stuff at the post office and the outfitter (new trekking pole parts, a USB cable so I can upload pics and my new pack) We hung out at the outfitters and Kimberly gave us a ride to the Laundromat. It was extra awesome for her to do that. I’m sure we didn’t smell the best. We laundered, fed and resupplied in the same parking lot and just when it looked like it would be really tough to hitch back, a bus came along and picked us up! It was awesome. They just pulled right over and picked us up! I found out that they do that sort of thing herein the Berkshires. NICE! We got back and went to the Williams Inn, a very nice place where we really didn’t belong; however, they offer showers and Jacuzzi for only 6 bucks for hikers! SWEET! The soap was Bayberry scented and I smelled wonderful for the first time in a long time; the Jacuzzi soothed my weary muscles and the pool refreshed my senses with a cool awakening. We walked out of there Kings in heart and mind. On the way back to the Outfitter, whose backyard we are camping in, we ran into a group of kids playing some bluegrass. It was reminiscent of Gatlinburg and we stopped to get a little ice cream and listen. It was cool. Some students from an academy on the other side of the mountain were singing multiple harmony tunes and concluded with the Old Crow Medicine Show Tune, “Rock Me.” Rolex would have loved it. I keep running into that song on this trip. We dropped our stuff at the outfitter and went across the street to hang out at the bar and blog and post. I finally have some connection!! I’m sleeping out in the middle of the grass and stuff tonight, no tent, just a sleeping bag and the stars. I hope it doesn’t rain! Tomorrow is my Birthday and I plan on Walking into Vermont as long as this knee doesn’t give me a problem. It started acting up when I was at the grocery store. It’s been giving me a lot of pain. I took two Tylenol and some ice cream; that ought to help J

David AKA “Mister Gentle Spirit”
Website
http://www.wbafinc.org/
Photos:
http://www.photobucket.com/brotherproof
Videos:
http://www.youtube.com/WBAF1

Escape from Dalton

2008-07-15T00:08:00.003-04:00

Flag and the Blaze in Dalton

Dalton Massachusetts to Mark Noepel Lean-to: 14 miles

I slept on the floor in the basement again and I got up even later this time. I had some good dreams though. It was cold last night. I sleep so much better when it’s cold; as long as I have sufficient covers. By the time I got out of there the Scarlet Seven (-3) were already gone except for Croc Hunter who had to go to the library. I slid down to the breakfast place and got more breakfast sandwiches. God O love the East Coast for their sandwiches! They have Kaiser rolls and man they are the best roll for sandwiches on the planet. It’s so nice to go to a place and not get freaking Sourdough everywhere. The only reason people even eat sourdough is because they have never had a real Italian roll or a Kaiser Roll. Sourdough is great for hard pretzels; but as a bread, it sucks the big one! Two Sandwiches and an orange Juice later I went back to the house and took about two hours to pack up all my stuff. I’m feeling all depressed cause everyone is in front of me by at least a day. I really need to get going or I’ll never make it up that hill. I finally knuckled down and packed it up. I really need to do some laundry. The amenities in Dalton were very difficult to use due to the distances involved. It sucks to have to walk everywhere just to get laundry done at one place and a shower at another place and groceries somewhere else and a shower is here and the cell phone only works over there and the internet only works at the library and the Post office is on the other side of town, blah blah. I know it’s annoying to listen to me gripe but imagine having to go through it every time you run out of food an you have to come into a town. Every once in a while everything works and it’s all at the same place; but, that hasn’t happened since the Mayor’s house in Unionville. Hopefully everything will be closer in Williamstown. I’ll skip the laundry and the posting until then unless I can get some Internet while I’m at a shelter. I walked through town and there was this little guy on the sidewalk selling pink lemonade. His name was Jack and his dad was filming so I had to get some of course. It was a quarter a cup and he played the harmonica and this funky little spinny top toy thing while you drank your lemonade. It was pretty cool. I filmed it and then BSd with him and his parents for a while. Man I’m terrible at getting on the trail. We’re considering renaming my trail name to “Still Here.” I got on the trail about 1130 and my body was grumpy. It must be from the crappy food I ate; when am I going to learn? Movie Popcorn and McDonalds do not make for a good hiking day the next day/ It was all I could do to keep going. I felt like a slug but eventually my system cleared out and I got up to a good pace. I knew the Scarlet Seven (-3) were going to be at the shelter right before the summit and I figured I might stop there. You’re not supposed to camp at the summit right now but I wanted to pull a stealth camp up there and film the sunset. When I got the shelter I had other ideas and I decided to stay there. Those guys built the biggest fire I have ever seen in a three foot fire pit. They piled HUGE logs on it and it’ll still be burning in the morning I am sure. I’m typing right now and am the last one up and it’s still going strong. All coals though, no flames. It looks like I’ll get into Williamstown on schedule tomorrow. It’s going to be cool to be in a town with my name. Maybe they’ll let me take over for a while. Right before I get in to town I’ll be climbing over Mt. Williams. That ought to be cool. I’ll have to get a picture of me on my mountain. My back is starting to hurt from sleeping on the floor and typing at this picnic table. I gotta go to bed. Have a good one. It looks like I have some service here but I don’t think I’m going to post cause I need some sleep. Well, maybe…

David AKA “Mister Gentle Spirit”
Website
http://www.wbafinc.org/
Photos:
http://www.photobucket.com/brotherproof
Videos:
http://www.youtube.com/WBAF1

Why am I still in Dalton?

2008-07-14T23:02:00.003-04:00

Still Hangin around

Still in Dalton at Tom’s House: 0 Miles

I rolled over a hundred times this morning, I did not want to get up. The floor was hardly comfortable but Tom had no trees in his yard to hang my hammock. My arms and legs and hip kept going to sleep and then I would roll over or something and they would hurt as they came back to life. You should have seen it; I forgot to take a picture, there were about 15 tents pitched in his backyard. A bunch of people Slack-Packed over Mt. Greylock but I just couldn’t get it going to even do that. Slack-Packing is when you leave your backpack at Tom’s house and he drives you 25 miles up the trail and you walk back to his house with just a water bottle and some trail mix. People like to do that over tough terrain like Mt. Greylock. I got out of bed and walked down to the local place for breakfast and it was great. There were a bunch of old guys in there just BSing and I felt like it must be a cool place to hang out. I just couldn’t get out of Dalton. I went out with Tom and Fire and Wing-it to do some errands and see if I could get some internet. When we got back I had planned to get off my ass and go to at least Cheshire but the Scarlet Seven (-3) sucked me in by telling me that Tom was going to take them to the movies. I was really disappointed when they said they were going to go see “Get Smart” and then I looked for the times for Hancock and it wasn’t going to work but I decided what the hell, just Zero and go see the movie, I needed to get an HDV Tape Head Cleaner at Radio Shack anyway. The movie was OK. It definitely had its moments; but, I’ll bet Hancock is better. I also managed to get my hands on a Double Quarter-Pounder with Cheese, Ahhh, I love those things! We got back and watched some weird paranormal crap on the TV and I played guitar for a while before going to the dungeon to sleep on the floor again. It sucked. I should have gotten back on the trail. I will say this; Tom is an awesome dude. He had so many people in his house and he drove everyone around and he asked for nothing. He puts a ton of miles on his car just helping people out and shuttling them to different parts of the trail so they can slack-pack and get to the post office and the mall or wherever. He’s a very cool dude and I’m glad I met him; however, I really wish I would have just walked right through Dalton. I keep getting sidetracked and I’m going to fall behind schedule. At least I managed not to spend hardly any money. Usually these towns suck up a bunch of dough as well as your time. Tomorrow I’m definitely getting the hell out of here and I’ll try to summit Mt. Greylock and get to Williamstown by Wednesday.

David AKA “Mister F. Gentle Spirit”
Website
http://www.wbafinc.org/
Photos:
http://www.photobucket.com/brotherproof
Videos:
http://www.youtube.com/WBAF1