Rain in the Smokies, as usual.

Rain in the Smokies, as usual.
Coming out of Gatlinburg to Peck's Shelter, 11 miles

Last night we Karoke’d and ate the Feast of Kings at Peddler restaurant in G-Burg. We changed hotels when we decided to stay another night and ended up staying at the Microtel which was cool; they gave us a double room for $40. We got up early and ate all of the muffins and bagels that they had in the little complimentary lounge thing there. Blue Blaze was going to give us a ride to the trailhead in his truck. This is why we called him Blue Blaze, since he was helping us take side trips on the trail.

It was raining; of course. We stayed in Gatlinburg an extra day to avoid the imminent rain and then it held off and waited for us. We piled in to the back of Blue Blaze’s Pickup truck and headed up the mountain to Newfound Gap to resume our quest. It was a nasty hike and the shelter was full when we got there. That didn’t really affect me anyway because I always stay in the Hammock. Tonight would be the first night I would test it in very rainy conditions though.

I wanted to get water and the brothers wanted to sit around in the shelter (not to mention I wanted to keep going and get to the next shelter, but they didn't) so I started to get cranky and a little bitchy. I began to chastise them a little unfairly. I decided I would go get the water by myself. I was having a little tantrum and getting the water is really a three man operation. You can get by with two; but one guy, well it was going to be a real pain in the ass purifying 12 liters of water in the rain, from a little stream, holding and filling and purifying. Being stubborn and angry, I didn’t care. In front of all the people huddled in the shelter I stingingly quipped, "This is great, I always wanted to know what it would be like to have sisters!" Cyclone was not pleased. I later found out he was so ticked off, he was planning on leaving the trail right there. Rolex said, “You don’t have to be such a dick!” That was the strongest language he’s used with me in his life.

I huffed off to get the water and it took a while but I didn’t care; in fact, the harder it was, the better I felt that I was getting it done alone. I was lost in a full, grumpy crank fest. The exertion gets me a little salty at the end of the day and I sometimes take it out on the boys. We keep having little spats but all in all we've been having an amazing adventure. It's a grueling experience though. These hills are no joke; and we're still packing heavier than 99% of the people out here. I’m kind of proud of that; but, people keep advising us to lighten up. You can imagine how I feel about that. My body will adjust. I’ll be stronger than all of them soon.

Cyclone came down just as I was finishing and we kind of made up. He helped carry the stuff back up. I washed off my muddy legs near the stream and put on all my clothes to go to bed. It's been cold in that hammock so I'm trying to get as warm as possible. I keep going through periods of sweaty freeze and then hot mugginess in my sleeping bag. I haven’t figured out how to do it correctly yet. Not having good sleep really takes its toll on you and it’s affecting our ability to get in the miles.

David AKA "Jukebox"

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

Zero In Gatlinburg

The Crew watching Cyclone Sing

We got up and went to get some breakfast at this pancake place we heard about and ended up walking all over Gatlinburg before settling on a Burger King. It was horrible; we just kept getting mad at each other and not being able to decide on a place. Hiking with three brothers can really suck. Right after we left the hotel, we ran into a whole crew of people we knew including Cubit, MMM, Jill, and MacGyver. We found out they had been here last night too and they went to Karaoke, so we missed them, DAMN! That would have been fun. They were contemplating staying in town again tonight and that was making a Zero Day seem very nice.

Our bodies are still messed up but we really want to get down the trail. At this point we’re getting angry at each other all the time and part of it is because we aren’t meeting our goals in mileage. I keep reassuring the fellas that we are going to speed up at some point; it’s only been two weeks. It will take a month just for us to get our hiking legs. That’s not helping though. I’ve never done anything like this before but it seems to me that we’ll be able to make a lot of time once we get used to it. No one else seems to agree with me. Money is looking like it might be an issue as well; but, I’m trying not to think of that and let God handle the worrying. I’ll handle the hiking.

We couldn’t decide on a place to eat and we ran into Dixie Dawg and his partner Kansas. I think that’s his name. We saw them walking down the street and they looked like a couple of rough characters. I imagine the three of us look equally seedy and tentative. No wonder people keep getting out of our way; maybe we smell too.

During an Indiana Jones inspired breakfast at Burger King, we decide to take a Zero and get a cheaper hotel that we heard about up the street from Stoplight number 8. The stoplights are all numbered here and you can find anything by asking what stoplight it is next to. I heard about this when I was reading about Gatlinburg in the trail handbook and I thought it was funny so I wrote a song called “Stoplight Number 3” I will sing it for you sometime.

The hotel was a bargain and we ended up getting a double suite for the same price as a single. I borrowed the front desk’s computer and sat up there for hours catching up on blogs while the girls there were taking reservations and stuff. It was weird; I was just hanging out behind the counter like I worked there, uploading pictures and blogs and trying to answer my email. We’ve been getting a few donations from people and that is really nice. It makes me feel like I’m accomplishing something in light of our substandard mileage attempts.

Later that evening we went out in town, had dinner two friends of Cyclone’s who came down to hang out with us. We would later give him the trail name of Blue Blaze and her name was Stephanie. We ate a great steak dinner. Cyclone quizzed the waiter on his Meat Knowledge since Cyclone used to be a butcher and we all had delicious cuts of fine beef. We cruised over to the Karaoke bar after that and met up with all the hikers. Everyone sang. Cyclone did this great ray Charles tune and Rolex and I were surprised at his soulful voice. We’d never heard him get that “urban” before. We left the bar in stages related to our preference and the night ended in the way that nights like that tend to end. If it sounds like I’m not really saying anything; well, that’s because I’m not.

David AKA "Jukebox"

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

Spreading Ginny's Ashes

Clingman's Dome Trail

Spreading Ginny's Ashes
Siler's Bald to Clingman's Dome (highest point on the AT) then down into Gatlinburg, TN

A wet and chilly morning yielded to crumbly breakfast bars while standing around in my sleeping bag. Someone re-started the fire from the night before and it really helped to lighten the murky mood. What a great idea! I sluggishly awoke and stood around with aching leg and feet, procrastinating, while Cyclone and Rolex took off early because there was rumored to be a Privy at the next shelter only 1.7 miles away. There was only a shovel and an arrow on a tree at this shelter.

The people who had come in from the north last night were talking about a couple of dead Boars just off the trail. I later ran into one of them. It was HUGE! I was freakin’ out thinking that something like that was running around out here just waiting to make a meal out of me and my two brothers! It was the size of a small cow! I hope I don’t run into one of these guys on the trail. They are deadly and unbelievably big. It was scary just looking at the dead carcass which was humming with flies and stinking in the sun. There are hunters here in the Smokies, hired just to try to eradicate the wild boar here. Boar are not indigenous to this area and they tear up everything; so, these guy go out with shotguns, machine guns, sub-atomic particle generators, and a water bottle to track the bastards and cut them down for the good of all humanity. All I can say is that I'm glad there aren't more of them running around.

Just before the shelter I came across a very friendly deer who wouldn't run away. I filmed it for a few and then went to the shelter where the guys there told me about that particular deer who had been hanging around all day. I later learned that two unfortunate hikers were killed by lightning in this shelter back in 1980 and I wondered briefly if their spirit hadn't manifested themselves as a friendly deer to comfort thru-hikers on their journey. Can you believe that? I must be going crazy out here!

Rolex was just clearing the privy when I got there. We headed for Clingman's Dome. The hike was cake even though we were going up to 6600 feet. We hiked together which was rare. We haven’t been doing too much of that lately. We keep getting into arguments. When we go to Clingman’s Dome, there were a ton of dead trees and we discovered that some European insect had ravaged them all. Cyclone and I went around to a secluded spot and spread Grandmom Patrone's ashes; Virginia Wilson Patrone, may you rest in peace. Here she was with us all the time and we forgot to give her a trail name! I think she used to like to be called "Ginny." Maybe we would have called her “Dusty.” We read the first part of Psalm 90 and filmed it so we could show the family. I plan on spreading my portion of her ashes up on Mt. Whitney in California next year, that way she'll be at the highest point on the east and west coast trails.

We dropped down into Newfound Gap. It was a pretty crappy climb down. I’m glad we weren’t going southbound and would have had to climb UP that bastard. We hitched a ride from a man and a woman who were very nice. I'd tell you their names except for this: She had just gotten out of a 90 day recovery facility and we talked a lot about that, coincidentally, I ran into a guy who had 17 years sober a couple of nights before at a shelter and we talked about recovery on the trail. I was glad to get to talk a little about it, especially before going into a town like Gatlinburg. These anonymous cats are EVERYWHERE!

We checked into the Grand Prix Hotel. After showers, we went to some steakhouse and chowed down. I took some of the steak back with us and we stopped at a grocery. They didn’t have the supplies we needed so we were going to have to take the trolley out to the supermarket. The entire town of Gatlinburg is serviced by these trolleys which only cost 50 cents. Rolex and I got on one to go out to a supermarket to resupply and the trolley took FOREVER to get there. Cyclone was back at the hotel doing all of our laundry so once again Rolex and I were naked under our rain suits, frantically streaming through the aisles of the Food City, grabbing our necessary supplies. The checkout girl told us she had done the AT twice with her father and we were dubious; but, far be it from me to dispute the authenticity of a 2000 miler. We tried to get all of our stuff as fast as we could so we could catch the trolley on the return loop but we didn't make it and ended up standing in the rain on the curb for 20 minutes. The food ordeal took us about three hours instead of the twenty minutes it should have and we didn't get to go to Karaoke. Cyclone and Rolex did the breakdown and divvy of food while I caught up on blogs. I’n finally getting to sleep and it is 3AM. Guh, we have a murderous climb tomorrow to get back up to where we were. Unless, of course, we take a Zero Day…

David AKA "Jukebox"


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