I think the storm is over. The thunder stopped around 4am. My tent fly is soaked. I’ll pack it separately from my tent. Must have a dry tent. Must have a dry sleeping bag and pad. If I get stuck. Staying warm is the most important thing. Even in summer. Wind up on the mountain […]

Here’s an AT quip: “It wasn’t supposed to rain!?“ I’m using an exclamation point and a question mark to demonstrate “confused.” There was no rain in the forecast. Ha ha. I woke up at midnight to thunder and lightning and rain. It’s 4:52 now and the lightning is still in the sky. I don’t think […]

That’s it. The only remarkable happening today besides me getting hot and exhausted. I started with a 1500’ downhill. Funny about this hiking thing; at some point, always, I hate going uphill. While that’s happening, I can’t wait to get to the top and go down. Then at some point during the down, I hate […]

I thought I went especially to see the wild ponies. I’ll go back for the landscape!!! Have a look: There was some fun bouldering, too! Great people as always. I can’t write about the experience. I camped the first night with ponies, cows, and Longhorn Steer! I was high for most of the second day’s […]

That’s my backyard. It’s become a jungle in the last two weeks! There is a brick area just in front of this photo. That is my first “Single Wall” tent. I’m testing it in the rain. It uses my trekking poles for support and weighs just under 2 lbs. Single wall tents are lighter because […]

Something happened to me on my last hike in Southern Virginia. It was too hard. The heat. The hills. The distance. It’s not easy for me to declare anything too hard. That is not what I do. That means, to me, I’m have the wrong attitude. Attitude is everything, right. Nope. It’s not. Attitude is […]

I just put them up in a weird order. My last posts. Sorry.

I couldn’t write after Day 1! I was whipped. Schnockered. It took me forever to do the last uphill mile of a 7.2 mile day. I took my pack off and just sat 3 times! My legs were done. My Spirit was almost extinguished. Almost. I was trying to push but not kill myself! Literally. […]

I’m all by myself tonight. Something large enough to break branches while walking through the woods is approaching. It’s night hikers!!! Whew. They are gone. The more normal sounds are back. Me rubbing against the side of the tent. My pulse. A frog sounding like…unlike anything else in nature. A sort of quick repetitive clicks. […]

(From the last night on VA) I made a good decision. Instead of pushing another 2 miles, 2 miles is forever after a long day, I decided to find a good stealth site. A couple of guys I passed said it looked like some good camping about s half mile up. I got to where […]