In Hot Springs NC.

Currently in hot Springs. No Cell phone or Internet at the hotel so sending this from the restaurant. All is well. 14 Apr, Day 27, 10.6 mile, Standing Bear Hostel at AT mm 241.0. Last day in the Smokeys was excellent! Mainly downhill and a  beautiful sunny day so was a great way to say goodbye. The last mile I was high-fiving the Leaves and trees saying thanks for such a great week...perhaps I have been in the woods too long. The hostel we stayed at was great fun. Food and some beer, campfire and good company. It was Walk-n-Eats birthday so we had something to celebrate. I gave him a rock for his bday present in the morning...not sure if he still has it. So it was a good evening. Thanks Curtis for your hospitality...if you are still googling the wolf pack. :). Lida brought Mojo and Skye in around 6pm so they, and all of us, were very excited to see each other. It was nice having them in the tent with me again. I think they slept on top of me most of the night but that was ok with me...we were very cozy indeed. 15 Apr, Day 28, 9.6 miles, Brown Gap at AT mm 250.6. Up pretty early today but had to organize the boys packs again so it took awhile to Break camp. I love having them with me but they are a bit extra work to say the least. It is worth it though so anyone wanting to hike the AT with their dog..Do it. We are only 30 miles from Hot Springs so we only did just under 10 today...but it was hard. The first 4.2 and last 2.5 miles were uphill. The boys did great and seemed very happy to be back on the trail, but it was a long 10 miles for me. We are going to take our second zero day in hot springs and I think I need it. All is going great but never hurts to give the body a rest day. By the way, For those in the "pool", I started the AT weighing around 245 pounds. According to a fairly dodgy scale at the Hostel, I have lost around 15 pounds so am now hovering around the 230  pound mark...Not bad for 27 days. I will update as I progress and get a better scale. :) 16 Apr, Day 29, 12.6 miles, unnamed camp site near the summit of Bluff Mountain at AT mm 263.2. While we were in the Smokeys we were required to stay at the shelters. We discovered with our big group we prefer staying at campsites when we can. We are going to try to rename this one the Wolf Pack Gap campsite as it really is in the guide book as "unnamed campsite"...that's not very original so we thought we tried to help out the AT conservancy. We actually have most of the wolf pack here tonight. With the exception of VW and two others, we have 16 at the campsite.  Today's hike was great. Still beautiful weather and fairly easy terrain. We actually passed some farm land and walked through a field which was a bit different after spending 28 days in mountains and Forrest. I forgot what it was like to walk on grass...it was a nice change of scenery. Tomorrow we head into Hot Springs which is suppose to be a great trail town do we are looking forward to that. Only 10 miles down hill so we hope to get an early start and get in by lunch.  We shall see...although we do get up around 7 every morning, early starts are not normally the thing. :)

Days 24-26 The Smokies

Day 24, 10.9 miles, Icewater Spring Shelter at AT mile marker 209.8.  After an interesting, but very fun day and night in Gatlinberg it was back to the trail...not soon enough. We've decided we like the trail better then the towns...which worries us a bit. :) Thanks to Spams Mom we got a ride back to Clingmans Dome. We decided its kind of ironic that we get a lot of funny stares, questions and folks calling us nuts from a group of people that vacation in Gatlinberg...sorry, Had to have one last jab.  It was 26 degrees last night and when we got dropped of at 1230 there was still ice on the rocks. It was a beautiful sunny day but very windy and cold. I've decided hiking cold improves your endurance as we did the nearly 11 miles in record time. Lots of ice and cold wind but a great day to hike. Plus we passed the 200 mile marker so thats always a good day.  It's suppose to be colder tonight so its appropriate we are at the Icewater Spring Shelter.  It is very windy but as I write this I am tucked under my sleeping bag In my tent and am snug as a bug...let's hope I can say that in the morning. :). One bit of sad news. Valasiwolf had to get of the trail and head back to Boston for a family emergency so our thoughts and prayers are with him and his family. Hopefully he will be able to rejoin the Wayah Pack shortly but it's never fun saying goodbye to a member. Tomorrows plan is a 12ish mile day so hopefully the sunny weather holds. Day 25, 12.6miles at Tri Corner Knob Shelter at AT mile marker 222.4. Yes it was very cold and windy last night. We awoke to frozen water bottles, bladders and ice on our tents. One Ranger said it got down to 19 degrees but we don't think it was that cold. Happy to report all equipment worked as advertised so I was warm as could be. We have absolutely lucked out with the weather as we had another beautiful sunny day. We passed a place called "Charlie's Bunion" which was amazing. I will post the photos on Facebook when I can...probably just after I post this. Beautiful rock outcropping...a bit "festive" as it was quite a drop, but you could see for miles and a cool photo op. the rest of the day was just amazing view after amazing view and we are now at the remotest shelter in the Smokey Mountain National Park...which is great. Horses are aloud in the park so we had four of them come in to drink which gave us something to do other than eat and stare at the fire. :). It is a bit warmer tonight and no wind so it feels down right tropical. We have an easy 8 mile day tomorrow followed by a 10ish on Saturday into the hostel where I will pick up the boys...can not wait. Day 26, 7.7 miles, Cosby Knob Shelter at AT mm 230.1. Our second to last day in the Smokey's...they have been great to us. A bit cold but sunny and beautiful views. We've talked to folks who have done this section in rain and snow and they say it is miserable...so thank you Smokeys for a great week. The rules of the park say you have to stay at a shelter.  As much as i want to get Mojo and Skye back as soon as possible, my options were a 7.7 mile day or an 18.3 mile day to get out if the park. The boys are in good hands so Today was a short day for us. As we are coming out of the Smokeys we are doing a lot more downhill which is a nice change. It also allowed for of our wolf pack to catch up before we head into Standing Bear Farm Hostel tomorrow.   It appears we are somehow making a name for ourselves...not intentionally.  Most people seem to have heard of the "Wolf Pack" by now. Some silly rumors but mainly good things about Atlas's music and how much fun we are having. South Bounders today were asking if we were part of the pack, giving us high fives, etc. One guy called Atlas a legend so he was happy and that made our day. Also, One of our guys called the hostel we are staying at tomorrow and they asked him "do you know when the wolf pack is getting here, cant wait to meet them". Who knows, maybe they'll jack up their prices but they seemed excited we'll be there tomorrow. :)  So this has been fun. So an easy 10.6er tomorrow, in nice weather, downhill to finish off the beautiful Smokeys, stay in a hostel and get my boys...should be a good day!!

Day 22-23

Day 22, 7.2 miles, Double Spring Gap Shelter at AT mile marker 196.0.  After chatting with everyone last night around the campfire, we decided the last 5 miles yesterday took there toll on some of us. We had a rolled  ankle, couple soar knees, shin splints and just plain tired. So instead of the 13.5 planed today, then only 4 into Newfound gap where we are all hitching into Gatlinberg, we decided on an easy 7.5miles today then only 10 tomorrow getting us to Gatlinberg in the early afternoon. The current plan is that we are getting up at 4:30, hiking the 3 miles to Clingmans Dome And catching the sunrise at the highest point on the AT. It's all uphill and will be in the dark but we have a group so should be fun. Will see if we actually do it but it sounds good right now. Gatlinberg was not in my schedule but numerous folks have said you will love it or hate it, but whatever you do, don't miss it...so I'm going for the night with everyone to see what the fuss is all about. :). Day 23, a whooping 3 miles, Gatlinberg TN. Well....we did not get up at 4:30 to see the sunrise. :) I heard the alarm go off and was waiting for someone in the shelter to make a move. It was very windy outside so was in no rush to get out if my sleeping bag. After 15 mins I rolled over and went back to sleep.  Everyone else had the same idea. It was an easy, but chilly, walk up to Clingmans Dome. It was a beautiful day and I got there by 1000. We decides to hike into town from there and do a 10 mile day tomorrow. By the time I got to the dome Dame Yankee and Valasiwolf had already got us a ride...which was great. We were checked in by 1125 and you may have seen the rest of the day on Facebook. :) Gatlinburg is interesting to say the least. It's like a hillbillie Disney world without the giant mouse and pantless duck. We had a fun day but I do not need to come back anytime soon...no offense to those who come here. :). Tomorrow we will hitch a ride back to the dome and continue on our way. 10 miles is scheduled which I will do as I need to pick up the boys on Friday.  In case you missed it, i posted a short video on Facebook I took walking along to give you an idea of what it is like walking along the trail. See you all soon. 

Here is the latest blog from Scott. As you can read he is now in one of the remotest parts of the trail and doing so well. I am so proud of him although I miss him and the furry monsters alot! I can't wait to join them!! Hoping for a June start for myself! Am going to ring the kennel and check in on the boys - hope they are enjoying their down time and not being naughty!! Thanks to everyone for supporting us and donating to these very worthy causes for our troops! And to those of you on the trail with Scott I cannot wait to join you all - looks like you are all having an amazing adventure! Happy Easter to everyone and happy trails to those on the AT  and enjoy hope you all enjoy these latests blogs from Scott! Vicki x

Day 20, 12.5 miles, Mollies Ridge Shelter at AT mile marker 173.2. So my first day without the boys with me...I missed them a lot! I know they are in good hands but I sure do miss their company. I am sleeping in a shelter for only the second time as I figured no sense setting up a 3 man tent for myself. Not sure I will do this again though as I prefer the tent to sleeping with 12 other folks. The wolf pack is here but we have a few randoms in the shelter so I think those in the tents made the right decision. The walk into the smokeys was a long climb up hill. It was made a bit worse as I did not realize how much stuff the boys were carrying for me. Throw the first aid kit, a leather man and a few others items into my pack, along with a six day food supply and my pack weight went up 10-12 pounds....it was heavy. I did not weigh it but if it was under 60 pounds I would be surprised...so it was a long 12.5 miles. It only gets lighter and easier from here so the hard part is over. It was a beautiful day and is a clear night so its pretty cold...probably in the 30's.  So time to Zip up the sleeping bag a try to sleep listening to 4 people snore. Definitely doing the tent from now on. :).

Day 21, 12 miles, Derrick Knob Shelter at AT mile marker 188.8. Happy Easter everyone. I had an excellent Easter in the Smokies hiking along during a beautiful day. There is a family hiking, which is very cool, and their 9 year old son gave away his Easter basket to everyone at the shelter which was very much appreciated...what a great little kid. Today we got above 5500 feet at Thunderhead Peak and tomorrow we cross the highest point on the AT...Clingmans Dome at 6643 feet. We are also now under 2000 miles to go so almost there. :).
I have just finished my 3rd week and thought I would give a status update. All the equipment we have has been great. I did find a small tear in the tent fly but that was easy to fix. I get a bit of ribbing carrying a 3 man tent but it works great for me and the boys and will be perfect when Vicki joins me  The sleeping bag is kicking butt in these 30 degree nights so no issue there. The backpack is also great but if you are ever looking to tie down two golden retrievers, do not use a 50 pound backpack. Yes it does get dragged across the parking lot as they follow you...minor repairs have been made. My left big toe nail as been wanting to leave home since day 3 but is still holding on for some reason. I had a blister the size of my pinky toe on my right pinky toe...I named it "Serpico". We had a nurse traveling with us and her professional medical opinion was "that's raunchy!". :) anyway, Serpico left us a week ago but it's taking a bit to heal so we may have the return of Serpico or some Serpico scar when we finish the AT. None of it hurts so all is good. Everything else is working as advertised, and the boys are doing great with just minor issues, so after 3 weeks I would say we are in good shape. A big 13.5 day tomorrow over the highest point so looking forward to that. As soon as I get a blooming signal I will post some photos and a short video I took just to show you all what the trail is like.

Days 17-19

Sorry took so long for these updates. I had no signal. Heading into the smokies so may not see you all for a few days. :). Day 17, 10.5 Miles, Locust Cove Gap at AT mile marker 147.6. The NOC was a great place to stay and worked out well for me and the boys. The rest of the wolf pack stayed at a friends cabin but it was a few miles down the road and I figured with two wet dogs I'd just get a room...easier than hitching a ride. The room was made out of plywood but there were was a bunk bed and i had it to myself so Mojo, Skye and I were perfectly comfortable.  Turns out there were 22 folks in the cabin so I chose wisely. :)  i gat an early start as we knew today started with a 6 mile uphill section that was fairly tiring. We coordinated to stay at this campsite (meaning it has enough flat space for about four tents and a water source) last night with everyone. Because I stayed at the NOC I was the first out and got here in about 6 hours. 6 of the folks showed up later and my guess is the rest stopped at the shelter 3 miles back. All in all a very good but uneventful day...which is not a bad thing. Day 18, 11.5 at Cable Gap Shelter at AT mile marker 159.2. Not trying to sound boring, but today was just a good walking day. It did rain for a couple of hours and being in a thunderstorm on top of a mountain is pretty cool...despite the hail bouncing of your head and the fact that you are carrying to walking sticks made of medal.:) it's interesting watching the mojo and Skye react. For those that do not know Mojo is approx 85 pounds and Skye is approx 65 pounds. Mojo normally takes the lead on things but I have found if there is a narrow bridge to cross or a difficult section to cross, mojo hesitates and Skye takes the lead without thinking twice. When the storms hit mojo is trying to hide under my legs while Skye just keeps trucking on. It's great having them with me. Tomorrow will be a sad day as we hit the beginning of the smokey mountain national forest and dogs are not allowed. I have a very nice kennel who will pick them up at Fontana dam and drop them off on the north side of The park. It's a great service but means being without the boys for 6 days. Anyway, the hike was good and it stopped raining by The time i set up camp so had a dry nite. All of the wolf pack made it to camp so good nite around the bonfire. I asked for my name to be modified to Papa Wolf vs Papa Bear...we are the wolf pack after all. Besides, lots of trail names have "bear" in them so I want to be a bit more original. That was approved. Our pack is up to approx 20 now so we keep growing. :).   Day 19, an easy 5.5 miles, Fontana Dam Lodge, NC at AT mile marker 164.7. Second mattress and two showers in four nights...I'm living large! Nice day to walk into this beautiful little village. The Fontana Dam is the apparently the largest dam east of the Mississippi. Most of the pack are staying at the shelter a mile out of town. I got a room with a friend at the lodge which is very nice. Lida, the very nice lady taking the boys met me at our designated spot and drove me into town. We past some of the pack so I waved going by as they were hitch hiking. :). Lida dropped me and the boys off and went back and got everyone which was great. So Mojo and Skye got off safe and sound and then we all met for lunch. Nice mellow afternoon getting ready for the big climb into the smokes tomorrow. We reach our highest point on the AT in the smokeys which will be great, but that also means much colder temperatures and possible snow. It's suppose to be a beautiful 6 days so maybe no snow but clear skies and very cold temps...which is much better than warm rain. I'm meeting everyone at the shelter at 0930 and off we go. I am expecting very little cell phone coverage, like the last few days, so do not panic if I do not update the blog for a few days. If there is a signal, I'll update.

Day 15-16. 2-3 Apr. 136 of 2184 complete

Day 15, Burningtown Gap, 10 miles. So we had an excellent night on Siler Bald and awoke to a beautiful day. The plan was to go 11.2 miles but after a relatively easy hiking day we wondered into Burningtown Gap...  Well, you have heard me talk of trail magic with Gatorade and cakes...at the gap we ran into the king daddy of trail Magic...Mr Grits and Mr Possum. We come down the bill to find a massive tent set up and an awning with Grits cooking sloppy joes with cheese and buns, bags of chips and coolers of soda. We could not pass that up. THEN...possum pulls out a 1.75 ltr of Capt Morgan. Grits was in the Air Force and Possum had a dog name Zip so it would have been just rude to not have a little tipple of the Capt. So after an awesome meal we at an after dinner drink...at 2:30 in the afternoon. Well no points for guessing what happened next. Yep...an hour later the bottle was gone, money was collected a Possum and another friend headed into town for "resupplies". We set up our tents right there and continued the festivities. :) I went to bed at 1030pm and we had gone through another entire 1.75 ltr bottle Of Capt Morgan and approx 92 beers...there by explaining why I did not write a blog Entry last night. :) the trail magic was in full swing and Grits did say after 3 years of doing this it was the best night he had had. But that is not the end of the trail magic...BirdShooter you will not believe this one... Day 16, Nantahala Outdoor Center (NOC), 12.7. Thanks to fresh mountain air and a bit of rain I awoke at 0745 feeling very good indeed...considering. We all help clean up the camp and then Grits lights up the grill and made us all blueberry pancakes. Then he says "I need to go resupply so will be happy to take all your packs to the NOC so you can slack pack the next 13 miles"...what a legend! So we threw all our packs into his truck and we got to walk the 12.7 miles with just a water bottle and some snacks in my pocket. Even Mojo and Skye got to slack pack so the we're loving it. after waking for two weeks with a 50 lb pack, you feel like a super hero going up these mountains when you're not carrying anything. An added bonus was the we now all walked the same pace so we all walked together most of the day which was great. Our friend Damn Yankee...an excellent dude who retired from the army a day before I retired from the air force, rode with the bags and was waiting for us when we arrived. So that is trail magic that will be very tough to beat.  We had a massive thunderstorm 10 minutes before we go to the NOC and got soaked just before we got here  it's suppose to rain The next two days so I think the trail is making us pay for having such a good time. :)  I'm all showered, fed and laundered in a room at the NOC so will think about the rain tomorrow...and walk anyway:)  By the way, Zip is still my trail name but a few of the guys are starting to call my Papa Bear...yes Czach I am twice as old as most of these guys. :) Damn Yankee is a few years younger than me  so he is becoming Uncle Yankee.  We'll see how long that lasts. Good night for now. 

Day 14, 1 Apr 2012, 114.4 of 2184 complete

Day 14, 4.6 miles Siler Bald Mountain. Had a excellent zero day yesterday...it seemed to go on forever just relaxing around the cabin. Thanks everyone for all your comments and good wishes. They are great and make my day. I apologize for not answering everyone individually but I would run our of time and power on my phone. :) but please keep them coming as I love hearing from everyone...especially about my ridiculous hair. It's funny as I show the crew I'm with what I "normally" look like and they all say "no way dude, your totally rockin the long hair and beard, we would not know you without it"...so it makes me laugh. About a week ago we started howling as a joke and as a way to find out where each other are on the trail. That's kind of evolved a bit and other folks on the trail and in town are referring to us as the "wolf pack" which is great. we added another 5 to our pack thi weekend so our band of merry travelers continues to expand. Today we got a shuttle from the hotel to the trail head. We were going to go approx 11 miles but BirdShooter and a few of the trail "legends" at the bash this weekend said we need to see Siler Bald Mountain...only approx 5 miles into the day. One guy said it is one of the four top views on the entire AT. So we came here and decided to camp. It is amazing! I will upload some photos into Facebook but there is no way to capture the unbelievable 360 degree view. We have approx 15 folks camping up here and we all sat and watched the sunset in relative silence...then we all howled. :)  the plan is to get up for the sunrise but we will see if I do I will post those photos as well. Plan for tomorrow us to get back into it and do about 11 miles.