Thats All Folks!

Well, I guess that's it. Last Saturday, I finally reached the legendary "Big K" on a classic october day (cold, windy, in a cloud, etc). Unfortunately, within hours of finishing the trail, I came down with a sinus cold and have spent much of my time at home sleeping and eating. Thanks to all for being so supportive of this journey and for all your hospitality and encouragement.

Next step, organize all my crap that is piled in my parents basement and figure out how to fit it all in a car headed to utah!

Yahoo!

Rusty

p.s. the summit picture will be posted as soon as it is uploaded to the virtual world.

Apocalypse is Near

Ahhh, the 100 Mile Wilderness...sort of. Currently, I'm sitting at the AMC Gorman Chairback Camps where I've spent the last 3 nights with the luxury of a nice bed, shower, good friends and great food, not the traditional 100 mile wilderness experience. I'm heading out into the rain in a few minutes laden with fresh food galore for my last 4 days/3 nights till I arrive at Baxter on Friday night! Hard to believe that the trail is almost over, its really quite crazy. Hope to see you all soon (either at Baxter or before/on the way to UTAH!).

Hurrah!

Apocalypse/Rusty

"MAINE: Its Better Than Apple Pie"

This update's heading has been blatantly plagiarized from some bumper-sticker/graffiti found in a southern Virginia shelter but boy is it true. After a wonderful welcome homecoming which included Mahoosic Notch (the hardest mile of the entire trail), Mahoosic Arm (a waterfall marked with white blazes) the Baldpates and Old Speck....all in the rain...it finally feels good to be here. Resting up in Andover for the night so I can get some clean and dry socks, even if they only last for a day.

Also, since the last "Hike with Apoc" day was such a success, we are now planning a "Summit with Apoc" weekend on the weekend of October 2nd. However, we need to know who's interested. Please contact me or my folks if you'd like to come up and stay at Baxter on Friday, hike to the summit with me on Saturday and either drive home or stay over saturday as well. Cool? I think so.

Hope life is going well out there in the real world, I'll be back before I know it.

Rusty

Announcing: The First "Hike With Apoc" Day

When: Next Weekend (either both days or just Sunday, depending on interest)

Where: Somewhere in the White Mountains of NH

Who: You

What: Get your lame legs destroyed trying to keep up with the monstrous and masochistic Apocalypse

Why: Its fun, and you all said you wanted to

Sound enticing? Shoot me a text sometime, I'm gonna try to figure out some details over the next few days.

Cool beans.

Burr....cold!

After "the hottest summer since they started keeping records", the temps here have plummeted to an absurdly normal fall level. As a result, my time here in Vermont has be spent lounging around in camp drinking cocoa, and crancking through beautiful hills and mountains without breaking too much of a sweat.

As for neat things, add another bear to the list (15 so far I believe) as well as a coyote this afternoon and a nicely groomed looking chicken about 3 days ago. Did a bit of a double take with the chicken as it was in the middle of the woods, not even near any sign of a farm...bet it won't last long.

Also, I had my first whoopie pie on trail today (I guess I had one in Lewiston 2 weekends ago, but it was still exciting). At the same farm stand I also purchased a good apple, but it didn't hold a candle to two I picked off a wild tree on top of a mountain later that day, 99 cents wasted I suppose.

Currently, I am playing the role of "surragate child" for the Millers here in Woodstock (as in Liz Miller), who found themselves with an empty nest and graciously opened their doors to my wandering soul.

Hope all is well. Its looking like I may spend the winter out west making snow in Utah (aka just sitting around watching it fall from the sky).

Be well.

Rusty

Vermont

Well, I really feel at home...I guess because I am at home. After reaching the border between Massachusetts and Vermont, I decided to take a break for the weekend and head back to the 207 the short way (on the bus) for a little R&R and a couple showers. Entering Vermont will mark the 1600 mile mark and leave only 600 miles left till Katahdin. I'm starting to think a little about life after the trail, though I've still got a solid 4.5-5 weeks of woods/bum living left.

I guess this bit of trail has a few more bumps. Bring it on!

Apocalypse

NEW FREAKIN' ENGLAND!!!!

Well, I made it back to good old New England where the mosquitoes black-flys and ticks rule is the woods! I've been amazed that I haven't gotten any cell service in the last week, but I've come to find out that my poor phone was discontinued. Guess I'll be sticking around in Kent at least overnight while I attempt to figure this one out (its hard to contact people without the phone).

New Jersey and New York were much more beautiful and rugged than I initially expected, though I had an interesting night last night tented next to the Appalachian Trail Station of the Metro North RR, ask me about it sometime.

Time to go out on the town to see if I can find a pay phone to talk to home....

Hope you're all doing well!

Apocalypse

Greetings from Rocksylvania

Well, after a week of sitting on buses, I've been back at it on trail competing in the "who can sweat the most" competition, of which I seem to be the only competitor (not many people these days). Started running into SOBO's (those who started in Maine and are heading south for those of you not in the know), which is good because hikers have been few and far between - saw my first hikers in over 48 hours this morning.

Rainy day today brought me into the town of Palmerton for a grocery store before the "hardest climb south of NH" this afternoon. Only two more days till NJ and then about a week to CT, quite excited to return to New England! Anyone with a bed (or back yard) and a shower within a half hour of the trail should give me a call so I can de-smellify myself.

On to fill my pack with food and then contiunue the great deli-hop that is the mid-atlantic.

Watch for rattlers,
Apocalypse

Summer Break

Well, I reached the 1000 mile mark and the mental halfway point of Harpers Ferry, West Virginia the other day and have decided to take a week long "vacation" from my normal walking. After 2 nights in Washington DC, I now find myself in Red Bank, NJ and will work my way north in slightly faster modes of transportation than my two feet. With any luck, I'll be in the big apple tomorrow by noon and on to Boston for the evening, then maybe up to Maine sometime this weekend before heading all the way back down to Harpers on Monday. If anyone in those locations is available, I'd love to meet up and hang out if schedules permit.

Hope you've all survived the heat....

Apocalypse

More photos

Here's a fellow thruhiker we met near Roan Mountain. His trailname was Greg.

This is the infamous Jesus box, which was full of Cokes and Little Debbies Oatmeal Creme Pies. It may have been the highlight of the trip.

Here are some Wild Ponies.

Here's Apoc on top of the ridge just before the descent into Pearisburg, VA. Notice the beard growth.

Photo update

Here are a couple of photos thus far. Rusty is sans camera at the moment, so hopefully he doesn't see anything cool.

Here's us at Amicalola Falls State Park. Notice how clean we are.

Here's us on top of Springer Mountain - the southern terminus of the trail. We have hiked 8.5 miles since the last photo, none of which count toward the 2,175 of the trail. It's hard to see from this photo, but our beards are starting to come in.

Here's Rusty on the beautiful concrete spacecraft at the summit of Clingman's Dome, in the Great Smoky Mountains. The tower is renowned for the spectacular views it allows, but all we saw were clouds. We had a snack at the top.

Here's Rusty in Hot Springs, NC. We saw an Old Town Canoe and he insisted on a photo opportunity. He's a real diva.

Haze For Dayz

Hot and hazy down here in the south, who would have guessed? Its basically been the same weather report for all 6 weeks of the trip (Low 90's, chance of thundershowers in the afternoon). As you've probably heard, Tyler is at home recovering from tendinitis of the ankle, and I've been pressing on through the endless state of Virginia.

The trail in Virginia is around 550 miles, over a quarter of the entire trail. I just finished a stint of hiking nearby the Blue Ridge Parkway and am headed into the Shenandoah National Park tomorrow after a much needed rest/eating day today. For those of you who don't know, completing a thru-hike is as much about hiking as it is about eating. In town, all you can eat buffets (I ate 5 plates of food yesterday at the chinese place), donuts (breakfast this morning included 4 for me at 320 calories a piece), and ice cream (at the half way mark, a thru-hiker is expected to consume a half gallon of ice cream). The other day, I counted calories just for fun and the grand total was 6350 in one day. On average though, I probably get somewhere between 4-6000 daily. In other news, I think I am the only hiker in the history of the trail to not loose weight, so it looks like I'm doing my job right!

Hope you all are doing well, and can't wait to see everyone when I/we get up to those parts.

Apocalypse (Rusty)

The latest

To quash the rumors: Tyler is in recovery mode in Maine, dealing with ankle tendinitis. Thus far recovery have been pretty smooth - hopefully starting physio early next week...and back to the trail ASAP.

Rusty is pressing on valiantly through the seemingly endless stretch of Virginia trail (500 miles!). He hopes to arrive in Montebello, VA on Saturday.

UPDATE:

Racehorse has incurred an injury. Hopefully will not go the way of Barbaro...

Virginia

Hello! Sorry we haven't updated this in a while. We are in Pearisburg, VA. Things have been going pretty darn well, though we're taking a break here in town for a bit. We have been moving pretty fast since Hot Springs, NC...and now our legs are feeling it. Damascus was a great stop - I had new shoes AND whoopie pies in the mail and we enjoyed ourselves at the grocery store. As always, food is the thing that occupies our thoughts the most - whether it be counting how many calories we can eat or dreaming up new delicious concoctions for when we return to the civilized life. Yesterday Rusty said something like: "With any luck this trip will make us so sick of Little Debbies, Pop Tarts and Snickers bars that we'll never want to eat one again..either that or we won't be able to live without them and will be eating Oatmeal Creme Pies for the rest of our lives." Ayuh...

Our Fourth of July was pretty fun as well - we hiked all morning, stopped at a restaurant for lunch (In Rural Retreat, VA) and then proceded to travel the next three or so hours (in the heat of the day) at an EXTREMELY SLOW PACE due to the oppressive heat and the fact that we'd eaten far too much. That night we camped in what we assumed was an empty cow pasture, which, unbenowst to us, contained actual cows...and lots of them. They were a bit perturbed to see us sitting there, and we were a bit surprised to see 25 cows staring at us. Then, at about 11:30 pm, a nearby group of rowdy Virginians began setting off fireworks, just over the next hilltop. I though forsure that we were going to get blown to smithereens, but we awoke the next morning unscathed...

Cheers,
Racehorse, and Apoc

Shower Time!

Spending the night on the lawn of a hostel down here in Erwin TN so we can get a bit of time on the internet and a shower. We've been meeting some cool people including a guy who started walking last september from Washington State, makes our 2 weeks seem like a day hike.

Other than that, its real hot (90's) in the sun, and just plain hot in the shade but we're surviving alright. The legs (and feet) are getting more used to the pounding, and it looks like we'll make pretty good time to our next stop, Damascus VA, the beginning of the mammoth of a state that is Virginia.

Only other thing of note, we've been gorging ourselves on blueberries, for some reason they're ripe down here and they are tasty!

Hope everything up north is going well!

Rusty

P.S. The official trail names are Racehorse (Tyler) and Apoclypse (Rusty). Stories available upon request.

hot hot heat

Hey,
We're in Hot Springs, NC. The Great Smoky Mountains were pretty nifty but now we're out of the National Park and on the move. It's hot down here in the sun so we're looking forward to getting back in the "Long Green Tunnel" as the trail is sometimes called. So far so good...not too many bears...and lotsa mountains. We should be in Damascus, VA in 10 days or so...

cheers,
racehorse and apocalypse

North Carolina

Hey Y'all,

We've made it to Fontana Dam, North Carolina, where it's hot. We've been putting in solid miles; yesterday was a 24.5 mile day. Tuesday we enjoyed a stopover at the Nantahola Outdoor Center, where we ate too much and had showers for the first time. Ben and Jerry's pints were 3.99 apiece, so we each purchased one. The 2,000 + mile climb out of the gap the next day was a little rough... But all in all we are doing well. For me(tyler) the hardest part of the last couple of days has been finding the 4,000 calories we burn each day, but we're getting better at this. Meeting tons of cool people on the trail and we've been extremely fortunate with sunny weather and cool (relatively...i suppose) nights.

Cheers,
Tyler and Rusty

so far, so good

Greetings from Hiawassee!

We've been making good time and having a good time. Thus far we've encountered: one bear, one rattlesnake, and one overly aggressive grouse. Today was our first town stop; we got some groceries, did some laundry and now we're pirating internet from a Holiday Inn Express. We'll hike another 10 miles this afternoon and hopefully hit the NC border by nightfall.

Hang yer bear bag high,
Tyler + Rusty

Neels Gap, GA

We wern't going to stop in at Neels Gap but it was too tempting. 30ish miles in on the trail, plus another 8.5 to Springer, not too bad for the first 2 days. Saw the good part of a bear (its butt) within the first 5 miles, that was pretty cool. Its rained off and on for the last 24 hours and is real humid but not too hot. No photos yet, maybe later. We'll try to get the SPOT tracker up and running at the next stop so you can follow along. Gotta run to eat lunch so we can get back on trail by 12.

Rusty and Tyler

p.s. trail name ideas are welcomed....

Welcome

Welcome to our blog. This is where we will post some pictures and stories as we get them along the trail. After we get our tracker up and running (which might take a week or so), you should be able to see where we are each night with the links on the right. Also, if you are interested in sending us anything, we have a list of towns we will stop in under "contact us/mail drops" at the top of the page. We leave for Georgia in 2 hours, see y'all in the fall.