More photos! But be sure to read Rob's entry below!

After over two blog-less weeks, an extravaganza today. Don't let these great photos deter you from reading Rob's entry below! As you will read, due to his cell-phone-less status for the past 10 days or so, I couldn't get the information I needed to annotate his latest batch of photos. But now I can, so here goes!



Above is a view of "Trail Fest" in Hot Springs, NC (where we left off in the last photo blog-entry.)

Among the fabulous events at "Trail Fest" was a charity duck race - where people sponsor rubber duckies who swim competetively down the French Broad River. To avoid duck-pollution, it is necessary to recruit duck-wranglers who rescue rubber duckies before they make a permanent getaway! Clad in protective wetsuits, the wranglers brave the cold river waters to perform this service. These two photos were taken on April 28.




A couple days later found Rob in the Roan Highlands, heading toward Spivey Gap.












Here are some views of "Big Bald" taken on 5/2.


Below left, Rob cools off later that day, and below right: A scene from camp that night.





















Rob arrived at the famous "Miss Janet's" hostel in Erwin, Tennessee, on May 3. Hikers help out with meals and clean-up. Scenes below: Rob contributes his Nachos, hikers doing dishes, and breakfast al fresco with Miss Janet.




















Miss Janet provides a shuttle service, which allowed Rob and friends a slackpacking day. They walked back to Erwin from the drop-off. To make sure they didn't lose their way, "Thabian", Miss Janet's black dog, was sent along as a guide!



























Miss Janet also provides a tattoo service!
















On 5/7, Rob reached Yellow Mountain Gap, which is the junction of the AT and historic Bright's Trace, the route used by a thousand "Overmountain Men" to cross the mountains en route to the Revolutionary War battle at King's Mountain.

On September 25, 1780, a thousand men from the militias of Virginia, North Carolina, and what is now Tennessee joined forces to defeat the British loyalists in this significant battle.
















The barn was renovated into a shelter at Yellow Mountain Gap. Inside the barn: Rob's "overmountain" gear!

The lovely Kincora Hostel, in Dennis Cover, Tennessee. Rob got to stay an extra two nights here in reward for volunteering for trail maintenance work ("Hard Core")

5/11: Beautiful, bacterial Laurel Creek Falls, just out of Kincora. This is where several hikers contracted skin infections, probably due to agricultural runoff. Later that day, a safe place for Rob to take a dip!

MAY 13: CROSSING INTO VIRGINIA!

So, Jared sent me a voicemail threatening to withdraw his support from my AT hike and pursue the trip of another thru-hiker if I continued to fail to update my blog. I am terrified of this concept, so here goes nothing! A lot to update you all on...

Damascus Trail Days was as interesting and exciting as I expected! It was basically a 3 day long party of hikers, complete with tons of gear vendors setting up their wares, lots of speakers and events, and general wildness. As with any good hiking event, an unreasonable amount of free food was distributed and consumed. I also managed to get free equipment repairs from Leki and Katadyn (my trekking pole and water filter manufacturers, respectively) and a brand new tarp for my hammock from a neat little startup company called Warbonnet Outdoors.

After the fun and excitement of Trail Days, I headed off for another annual AT event... HARD-CORE. Hardcore is a yearly 48 hour blitz on trail maintenance put together by Bob Peoples, the owner of the famous and beautiful Kincora hiker hostel. Along with a bunch of other hikers (close to 100 at our peak) we dug out almost a mile of brand new, beautiful trail. Along with some hand blisters and a sore back, I gained a healthy appreciation for just how much work it requires to make the beautiful treadway we walk on every day.

After Hardcore, during which I was granted another two nights at Kincora (so far my favorite hostel on the trail, a lovely little cabin in the woods), I was shuttled back out to the Grayson Highlands where I left off on my hike northward. Along with Chef, Popeye, Lunar, Lightweight and Dingo, I started north!

We made a lot of big mile days, covering the 130+ miles between Grayson and Pearisburg, VA in just a week. Amidst our big days and beautiful hikes, we managed a break to celebrate Memorial Day. We grabbed a ton of food including hot dogs and chips at a store a half mile off the trail, and hiked a short distance into Dismal Creek Falls, a gorgeous swimming hole and campsite where we stayed up late (read: 10:00) chatting and eating around a campfire. All in all, it was a spectacular time.

Now here we are in lovely Pearisburg, Virginia! Mile marker 623, a scant 1500-something miles from our goal on Katahdin! I think I will take a nice relaxing day off here, hopefully long enough for my buddies in the Pain Train to catch up so we can be reunited at last. The only sad part of this all is that today was the last day of hiking for our dear buddy and companion Dingo, the Western Australian gentleman we've been hiking with for some time now. He is a truly incredible guy with an unbelievable wealth of world experience, and a great guy to hike with. He will be sorely missed, but is adventuring onward in life... his travels will take him to Washington, DC, New York City, London, and New Delhi all in the next few weeks!

Anyways, I hope to update with some more frequency, especially now that I have recovered my cell phone (which I brilliantly left charging at Kincora after Hardcore) and can provide my home base with more info.

Keep up the voicemails and messages... they are really great to get!
ALSO: My Virginian Amigos (this means you, D.C. residents and Dan and Rebecca!!) I am 160 miles into Virginia, near Blacksburg (the Virginia Tech campus) and will probably be in the state for another 3 weeks. Get yourselves out here and visit if you want! Drop me a voicemail and maybe we can work something out.

After VA, it's the half-way mark.....
But that IS another 350 miles from now!

All the best from the woods,
Rob

Dear Friends

I am delighted to be posting this from quite possibly the most famous of all the trail towns... DAMASCUS, Virginia! That's right, as of yesterday afternoon Ronin and I walked across the border into our 4th state, leaving Tennessee, North Carolina and Georgia in the rear view mirror to enter the much-touted Virginia... a state in which I will hike (hopefully) no fewer than 520 MILES. Egads!

Now, most people say Virginia is a nice easy state where hikers start to pick up big miles... Well, today I got my hands on the next set of maps for this section, and let me tell you, there are some significant bumps between here and Pearisburg, our next big town stop.

The interesting thing is, the mountains get shorter and shorter as we go north. For example, after Roan Mountain back in Tennessee (in the beautiful Roan Highlands, where a herd of texas longhorn steer including a 2200 pound bull reside trailside) we will not hit a 6000 foot peak until NEW HAMPSHIRE. However, while the mountains shrink the valleys get lower and lower, meaning we STILL wind up doing a ton of climbing. Just can't win, can we!

GOOD NEWS: Today, I got the most important package of the trail so far. Mom (thank you thank you thank you) sent my Hennessy Hammock and my lightweight summer sleeping bag. Long story short, I dropped several pounds from my huge pack weight, and am now at a base weight of a scant 25 pounds!! (Base weight is packweight without food or water, meaning my total pack is at about 40 pounds still). This is a huge improvement from the 56 pound monster I started with, but I still have room for improvement... Sideshow hikes with about 25 pounds total!

Anyway, staying in Damascus a bit and nursing a hurt foot... a minor infection in a cut I got in Hot Springs, NC has me worried, and I don't want to take any chances. Three hikers I know of have gotten serious infections from small wounds, one that was life-threatening.

Historical note: Kincora was amazing. A lovely little cabin set back in the woods, with tons of hikers circulating through and just a great atmosphere altogether. I bbq-ed up a mess of Rob Kimball Specialty cheeseburgers, and a great time was had by all... though I have to say firing up the grill made me miss summer afternoons at Tobin's pool, and lunchtime on the porch at Cape Cod... Now that some of the physical ailments of the trail have passed, some of the more psychological impacts start to be felt. I miss you all terribly!

The plan from here: Hike out ASAP, and put as many miles as possible between me and Damascus before this weekend, when the famed TRAIL DAYS celebration takes place. Then, I will hitchhike back to Damascus to enjoy the festivities, but be able to hitch back North on the trail far enough to avoid the huge crowd of hikers leaving town next Sunday.

My apologies for this entry, which must be rushed, eclectic, and largely illogical. I had a lot of info to get down!

Sending another photo card home next weekend... new pics should be forthcoming!

LOTS OF LOVE
Rob
Bigby

p.s. - GO SOX

Four hundred + miles!

Rob phoned this afternoon to report his arrival at the famed Kincora Hostel on Dennis Cove Road, Hampton, TN. He'll be cooking pimiento cheese burgers tonight! He feels strong, feet are getting better, and he's "almost through with the aches and pains" though he is still being careful with that knee. Kincora is at the 404.5 mile mark from Springer!

Sending out the hammock, and waiting for pics

Mom K decided to occasionally just post a note to "hold a place" for pictures that will come in a few weeks, I hope. Since I can't get into Rob's posts to adorn the stories with the appropriate pictures, I figure I can just post right "above" him from time to time, and when the pictures arrive, I will add them in the proper chronological sequence.

Meantime, the next mail drop is ready, with tent-hammock and lighter bag, plus a few goodies.

Greetings all!

The moral of this story will come first, just for efficiency's sake: Erwin, Tennessee is impossible to escape!

Time for the story: Two days ago, I had spent the night in the Super 8 motel in Erwin and was ready to pull out and hit the trail. The weather was miserable, but our motto out here is "No pain, no rain, no Maine" so I was ready to put some miles down. I glanced at my map and started to walk back to the trailhead, figuring I would hitch most of the distance once I hit a major road.

This little stroll quickly evolved into 4 miles of roadwalking as I cursed the "Not Drawn to Scale" warning on my town map and the impossibility of getting a hitch down to the Nolichucky river where the trail meets the town. Just then, salvation! A phone call from Grizzle, Chach and Sideshow saying they had arrived in town and were staying with Joe D, a family friend of Sideshow's who lived about 20 minutes away in Virginia. I couldn't resist, and they picked me up on the side of the road and off we went!

After a lunch at the amazing Erwin Burrito, we went to Joe D's beautiful 1920s home, where we relaxed, played some Halo (attn AU people: rest assured that I owned) and ate a TON of food, including a monstrous plate of nachos I whipped up.

The next day (yesterday) we went to Miss Janet's, the legendary trail hostel. There we arranged a 20 mile slackpack South from Iron Mountain Gap back into town, meaning we would spend ANOTHER night in this vortex of a town! The hike took longer than we expected, about 8 hours. We got to hike with Miss Janet's dog, Thabian, who is the best trail dog I have ever met. He stuck with us, waiting when we stopped and finding the trail for us in odd places.

Last night a few friends of Grizzle's came to visit, and we had dinner and hung out for a while with them before heading back to Miss Janet's to sleep. This hostel is amazing... a comfortable home STUFFED with hikers who all pitch in to help things run smoothly, and gather around the table for family style meals.

Today we are FINALLY going to escape Erwin (I swear!) and hike out towards Roan Mountain. We should be into Kincora, another legendary trail hostel, in about 4 days, then it's just 3 or 4 days to DAMASCUS VIRGINIA!!!!

Damascus... the promised land! Start of the famed Easy Virginia section, and probably the most famous of the trail towns, site of the annual Trail Days celebration (which we will be hitching back for in grand fashion!) Also, where I am swapping my tent for my Hennessy Hammock, and my heavy synthetic 15* bag for a light, compressible 25* down sleeping bag. I will drop about 7 lbs from my pack, and life will be GOOD!

A final note: Every morning at Miss Janet's all the hikers discuss a question over breakfast. Today we were talking about what places we wish we had stopped longer along the trail and enjoyed. Turns out everyone has a handful of places that they were in too much of a rush to stop and appreciate, myself DEFINITELY included. I am going to try to leverage this lesson into a new philosophy on this hike... taking every opportunity to enjoy the spectacular places and people I am walking among.

Missing you all a lot, can't wait to hike my way up North and be closer to all of you!
Love,
Rob
Bigby

Hello Friends!!!

First of all, the spacebar onthis computer does not work very well.

I am currently in lovely Erwin, TN, at the Super 8 motel w/ ByteCode + Churchmouse.

Sadly, the Pain Train has largely spread out: ByteCode plans to slackpack 30 or so miles ahead of me tommorow, Sideshow and Grizzle are a ways behind me (about 1 day), and Big Shanty is still in Hot Springs nursing his ankle. We are all hoping for a speedy and full recovery for him, and a quick return to the trail.

Wow, huge thanks to Mom for doing such great updates! So cool to see my pictures!

Night hiking was incredible, the full moon gave me enough light to do some miles with Blaze, Brisk, and Tater. We hiked under the stars in a big open field, and rose to the sunrise. The next day (yesterday) I pounded out 17 miles largely alone, struggling in the afternoon heat. That left only 6 into Erwin this AM, which I sprinted in about 2 miles.

Now we are in town, dodging yet ANOTHER rain storm.

Time to go snag a legendary Erwin burrito!

Much love
Rob
Bigby

One month, over 300 miles, and 400 photos!

Rob (BigBy) called last night to say he was about a day's hike to Erwin, TN, and was about to take advantage of a full moon and do some night-hiking! Weather has been very warm. We received his first set of pictures and movies. Take a look!
Sunday, April 1, 2007.
Starting out - this is the approach trail to the summit of Springer Mountain, Amicalola State Park.

Eight miles later, atop Springer Mountain, and the thru-hike begins! This is the southern terminus of the AT, and the starting point for "NoBos" (North-bounders) heading for Maine.

The AT goes right through the Walasi-Yi Center, where Rob had to purchase a new pack.
Here is the pack! Turns out the new internal frame pack is super - making it easier to say good-bye to his beloved old external frame monster.



Hiawasee, GA, is the first "Trail Town" and welcomes AT hikers!
The "Pain Train" at the Georgia - North Carolina border.

Rob loved the Smokies. Here he is at the entrance to the Great Smoky Mountain National Park.

Gotta keep those Smoky-bears out of the shelter! Hard to see - but the entire front of the shelter is covered top to bottom with chain-link fence. (The bears go to the hiker-zoo at night!)

Here's a favorite scene - Rob "BigBy" atop Charlie's Bunion, Great Smoky Mountain National Park.



Rob's new 'do...



and the inspiration for it!









Rob spent the past weekend at "Trail Fest" in Hot Springs, NC. Here he is with "BigShanty" (AKA Tyler) - Rob "BigBy" about to head out from Hot Springs early Sunday morning, April 29. Tyler's Mom and Dad "Momma and Poppa Train" (Lori and Steve) supplied this picture. Now MomK has her own virtual trail buddies! Lori and Steve come from Virginia, and have met up with the "Pain Train" at a few places, including Trail Fest. (And Lori even started the trail with her son - backpacking the first four days!) They were kind enough to contact me and let me know that my son is traveling with a good group of people! Trail magic comes in many forms.