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August 1999 Yikes! This was my first multi-day hike, and it was quite an eye opener. Joe and I had originally planned this for a whole week and some 30 miles, but the 100 degree weather and extreme drought conditions had other plans for us. We really over-packed for this, with packs of about 60 pounds, mostly water and food. We each had 15 MREs which, we found out, are really too many when it's hot outside. The AT is pretty rocky over this stretch, and we made horrible time with our heavy packs. If we had packed lighter, we certainly could have made better time over the rocks. The boulder fields were also pretty huge, and they drained a lot of the strength from our legs. We made camp about a a mile or so in from route 309. Camp equipment we did right. Using hammocks with a single military poncho for a rain fly was plenty in the warm weather. I did bring along a mosquito net for my head which worked very well, too. While we were both worn out and tired, hunger was not a major factor. I think 1 or 2 MREs per day would have been more than adequate. We had three. Day two was nothing less than painful. Sore and cramping up from the previous day, we had practically no water left, and ultimately, that doomed us. We intended to pick up water along the way, but the heat and the drought were too much. At bake oven know, we figured we could bail out if we had to. Joe took a nap while I ditched my pack and went off to look for water. Getting down the next mile to the alleged spring was no problem, and had I found water, we might have been able to go another day or two. Three separate springs were dry, including one that the trail guide listed as "always reliable", but at this point, I was already down the mountain, and I had to climb all the way back up. I was severely dehydrated, and probably should not have climbed back up, but rather gone to one of the homes I could see. I wanted to do this right :-) It took about 2 hours for me to get back up the hill, since I had to stop about every 20 feet and cool off. I found that by twirling my bandana in the air, I could get it to cool down a few degrees, which felt really good against my scalp. When I finally got up the hill, most of it was flat until the very end near bake Oven Knob, which was about 100 feet right up a boulder field (seemed easy on the way down!).
Luckily for me, just as I looked at the boulders and let out a loudly audible groan, Bob (my other brother) showed up out of nowhere with 2 quarts of Gatorade. Once more unto the breach! Joe had called our parents when I didn't return within an hour. It's a good thing, too, because I had no water and we would have been in trouble. On the way home, I stared getting double cramps in both my legs and my back. If you've ever had double cramps, you know how painful they are. What I needed was an IV of saline in the arm! Lesson learned: |
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