What...the blue blaze?
Over 400 hundred miles and almost out of Tennessee! Once Lyle passes the Hard Core Cascades around 8:00 a.m. tomorrow morning (Saturday May 6), he will be moving into Virginia. That means he will have walked through 3 of the 5 states he will be in this summer.
The days have been getting longer and Lyle is usually covering more miles each day. His normal day is now ranging from 14-20 miles depending upon the elevation that needs to be covered. The fact that the days are getting longer helps, but his legs are beginning to get in shape too. The other day he had an extended day because he didn't read his map. He has been hiking with two other guys and they decided to go into town to resupply. The next shelter was about 3 miles down the trail so Lyle was going to walk slow and meet the fellas at the shelter in the evening. He came to a fork in the trail and one was marked with a blue blaze and the other with white. They have been following the white unless they need water--blue marks the route to water. The sign also said bad weather route, but since the day was nice he went down the trail with the white blaze. He went past a waterfall, and came back to a spot on the trail where he could see the blue blaze down aways. He decided to continue on the white and off he went. The day was sunny and warm (for a change) so he was enjoying the hike.
Well, as time passed and he started up elevation it occured to him that he was well past three miles. So he finally stopped and took out his map to figure out where he was. He found his location and realized he was now closer to the next shelter than the shelter he was supposed to be going to. Apparently this section of the AT is one of the very few where you do want to follow the blue even if you don't need water. At this point in time, it made more sense to go on, so he did. He ended up doing 22 miles that day. Needless to say he was one tired pup at the end of the day. When he called me he was dangling his very sore and tired feet in the lake near the camp site. He was going to leave a note for Plugger at the shelter to let him know he was going on and that eventually they would meet up again.
Plugger is picking up his car in Damascus and "hopping" it ahead and then coming back to Damascus to pick up the trail again. Lyle hasn't decided if he wants to wait an extra day for Plugger to come back to Damascus or if he should keep going after his 0 day. I haven't spoken much with Lyle this past week since he has been in very remote country. What few calls we've had have been short with lots of interference. We hope to have a longer conversation tomorrow evening when he is in town and we should have better cell service.
I found a note that I had scribbled one evening when talking with Lyle. He said his mantra is "If you can think it you can dream it, and if you can dream it you can do it." Words for all of us to live by.
The days have been getting longer and Lyle is usually covering more miles each day. His normal day is now ranging from 14-20 miles depending upon the elevation that needs to be covered. The fact that the days are getting longer helps, but his legs are beginning to get in shape too. The other day he had an extended day because he didn't read his map. He has been hiking with two other guys and they decided to go into town to resupply. The next shelter was about 3 miles down the trail so Lyle was going to walk slow and meet the fellas at the shelter in the evening. He came to a fork in the trail and one was marked with a blue blaze and the other with white. They have been following the white unless they need water--blue marks the route to water. The sign also said bad weather route, but since the day was nice he went down the trail with the white blaze. He went past a waterfall, and came back to a spot on the trail where he could see the blue blaze down aways. He decided to continue on the white and off he went. The day was sunny and warm (for a change) so he was enjoying the hike.
Well, as time passed and he started up elevation it occured to him that he was well past three miles. So he finally stopped and took out his map to figure out where he was. He found his location and realized he was now closer to the next shelter than the shelter he was supposed to be going to. Apparently this section of the AT is one of the very few where you do want to follow the blue even if you don't need water. At this point in time, it made more sense to go on, so he did. He ended up doing 22 miles that day. Needless to say he was one tired pup at the end of the day. When he called me he was dangling his very sore and tired feet in the lake near the camp site. He was going to leave a note for Plugger at the shelter to let him know he was going on and that eventually they would meet up again.
Plugger is picking up his car in Damascus and "hopping" it ahead and then coming back to Damascus to pick up the trail again. Lyle hasn't decided if he wants to wait an extra day for Plugger to come back to Damascus or if he should keep going after his 0 day. I haven't spoken much with Lyle this past week since he has been in very remote country. What few calls we've had have been short with lots of interference. We hope to have a longer conversation tomorrow evening when he is in town and we should have better cell service.
I found a note that I had scribbled one evening when talking with Lyle. He said his mantra is "If you can think it you can dream it, and if you can dream it you can do it." Words for all of us to live by.
posted by Trail Widow | 5:47 PM
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