Trail legends

So I am 10 days into my adventure, and I'm currently taking my first zero (rest day) in Franklin, North Carolina.

I passed two milestones in the last few days. First I've passed my first state, Georgia which was a total of 80 miles. They say that 30% of the people who start the A.T. quit before making it out of Georgia. Georgia was a tough start but the views where spectacular.
The second one is passing the first 100 mile mark, which I did yesterday. I didn't really care about that one since it rained pretty hard that day. This is the reason I am taking a rest day in Franklin. I want to dry all my gear, and I also have to buy a new food bag because a mouse got through the current one last night (he was after my peanuts!). They say the rain gets pretty heavy around here and they weren't kidding, I haven't seen rain and thunder that bad for a long time. I was glad I stayed in a shelter and I didn't have to camp in my tent.

I hear a lot of stories about "trail legends", people who've made their name on the A.T. in someway or another. For instance there is a story about the "barefoot sisters" who did the whole A.T. from south to north and back again(!) on barefoot. And apparently a blind man completed the A.T. as well. They told me he trained his dog to detect white blazes (white patches on trees that indicate you are on the A.T. they are found every mile or so throughout the entire 2200 miles), and he always camped with his tent pointing north so he wouldn't get lost.
I've met a trail legend on the trail this year as well. His trail name is Gollum, and he is amazing. He is 76 years old and has done the A.T. multiple times. Other then that he has kayaked the Mississippi and the Missouri, gone to the Antarctic and after he finishes hiking this year he is going to go on a bicycle across Canada.
I keep meeting people who are hiking well into their 70's, it's amazing. Apparently the oldest person who started this year is 89 years old. As far as I know I'm still the only Dutch person this year.

America weirdness of the week: Drive through ATM's (cash points).

I've added some more pictures, they aren't that good because I've half broken my camera (I can take pictures i just can't see the pictures I take).

Miles done: 106.7 (171 km)
Miles to go: 2077.3

Mountain lizard!

Trail names from left to right: That Guy, Hotwheels, Jiffy Pop, Sex Panther, Sassafras, Aquaman, Tricks and Snackasaurus rex.

Foggy day

Looking down

Morning at one of the many shelters

Southern Hospitality

So I'm at day 7 now and everything is still going really well. I've met a lot of awesome people and the scenery has been amazing.

One thing you might not know about the A.T. is that everyone is given a trail name while they hike it. On day two I was given the name "Jiffy Pop" (american popcorn brand) because my sleeping matress made a lot of noise and gave someone dreams about popcorn. I liked it and I'm sticking with it. Andreas got "Sex panther"...don't ask.

The biggest thing that struck me was the hospitality I've been receiving from the local people here in Georgia. For instance when we reached the road that leads into Haiwassee we didn't have to wait longer then 15 minutes to get a ride from a very nice name named "Tater". After we arrived in town and pigged out at the all you can eat stake house we where offered a ride by another man to the nearest wallmart, which was 15 miles away! There are a lot of people here that give food to the hikers because they have either hiked the A.T. or done sections of it. We call it trail magic.

A funny "american" thing happened on day 5. We just got of some random mountain down to a valley with a dirt road in it. When we got to the dirt road a man in the biggest car pulled up and asked us where the nearest Mc Donalds is. We thought he was joking seeing as we are in the middle of nowhere and we all looked very hungry...he wasn't joking.

The next town stop will probably be in 5 or 6 days. And I will be leaving Georgia today, which took the first 79 Miles of the A.T. 71 Miles Done only 2113 to go!

Walking is hard work!

It's been 4 days since the start of my A.T. journey and I'm still alive! Although the last four days have been some of the physically most demanding of my life I think I am adjusting well to this sudden shock of living healthy.

The first day was the toughest no doubt about it. There where two options for the start of the A.T. You could either do it from a

parking lot 1 mile away from the actual start of the trail or you could do what is called the approach trail. Which is an extra 8.8 miles and includes 600 steps at the beginning. Stupidly I agreed with Andreas (the guy from denmark, read last blog) to do the approach trail. Two other people from the hostel we stayed at where also idiotic uh I mean brave enough to endure the extra milage. So the four of us began our A.T. There was Tim, an older guy about 40 from Kansas, Basil, 23 years old from New Hampshire and me and andreas. It was pretty clear Andreas had the best legs of all of us but I felt I kept up pretty good. Basil had a hard time because he had a 45 lbs (20 kg) backpack which is quite a lot. Tim and I had a good 35 lbs (15 kg) to carry and Andreas had the lightest gear with 28 lbs (12 kg). By the end of the day we had covered 12 miles in 6 hours and stayed at a nice wooden shelter (most shelters are like wooden cabins with one side gone).

I found out training at home was more then useless since at home everything is flat and here you are constantly climbing or descending.

The other days where less hard because we decided to take it a bit more easy because we had four days of food anyways and the next food stop (were I am now) wasn't that far away. I've learned a lot from other hikers about long term hiking, camping and looking out for bears (haven't seen any yet!) and I hear a lot of good stories as well. On day four we had to climb Blood Mountain (actual name) and on the way up we met a 76 year old lady doing the same! How amazing is that, doing stuff like that at that age.

Anyway I couldn't upload pics from my camera so I only have one I took with my phone on top of Blood Mountain.

Preparations in Atlanta

So I've been staying in Atlanta for 4 days and it's been really nice. I met a lot of friendly people here and was able to relax before beginning the A.T. (appalachian trail). I also met Andreas here. He's also doing the A.T. What suprised me is that he is not from the states but from Denmark. Apparently more Europeans are as crazy as I am.

He still had to buy some equipment so we ventured to the REI (big outdoor store) which was a good thing for me because it turned out I had forgotten a couple of items which he kindly pointed out for me. Other then that this is the first time in the states for the both of us so needless to say everything was very....impressive.

Atlanta was a nice city to relax in and the people seem very nice. When I got here I couldn't quite figure out which way to go but suddenly a man who proudly named himself "homeless Joe" gave me directions to the hostel. Tourist wise Atlanta doesn't go much further then Cola Cola World (which i can recommend avoiding at all cost), but this gave me time to get everything organized.

Tonight I will be staying at a hostel near the start and I will officially start the trail on monday.

A short introduction

So i started this blog because I thought it would be nice to have some record of my adventures on the trail. So this is as much for me as it is for you guys. The reason I am doing it in English and not Dutch is simple. Most people I know speak English (either as a native or second language) and I just like it better. So I'm counting on you Dad to translate for Mom!

I hope to update this blog every week but it will depend on where I can get wifi so there might be some longer gaps in between. Ok enough introduction let's start this thing!