Pepper Concert

Whoo hoo! Thursday night, Boo and I headed over to a local venue to catch the lively tunes of Hawaii's own Pepper. These boys hail from Kona, Hawaii, then moved to "the Diego" to make it big. That's San Diego for those who don't know. Now ya know. If you've never heard of them, you're missing out! The band is an awesome mix of reggae/rock/rap and those boys know how to throw down a show! It was soooo much fun. They came out to an all Baywatch Beach themed show. Sounds corny, but it was cool. They had the lifeguard stand, surfboards, sand, beachballs, and Pam Anderson cut outs. haha! Anyways, they came out in the mandatory red lifeguard board shorts, sunglasses, and straw lifeguard hats. Too Chill. If you want to hear their music/albums, check out this link. PEPPER.

The Outlaw Nation opened up for them and I found out they are signed on at Slightly Stoopid's record label. They actually covered a couple of songs from Slightly Stoopid. I really dug them. But then again, I love me some Stoopid. It was a great night, great show, and great company. Thanks Boo! Til the next time Pepper is in town... GET OUTDOORS!!!

Grandfather Mt. Highland Games

FRIDAY:

Friday afternoon I zoomed up to Linville NC and to meet up with some girlfriends for the 2010 Grandfather Mountains Highland Games. I've never been to the games, so I was looking forward to it. My friends all had Scottish backgrounds and I realized I did to. My grandmother was a Campbell so I was looking forward to learning more about the Campbell surname. Kirsten and Cathy drove up on Tues, and Lisa showed up Thursday night for the Torch Ceremony. I had to work and could only get up there for camping on Friday and Saturday. So around 2:30pm, I pulled up to Grandfather Mountain in Linville, NC and up to the check in area to get my parking sticker and my camping pass (green wrist band). I called Kirsten to let her know I was here and she told me she'd be over in a second to show me where to go. Literally, a minute later she showed up and we entered, what I like to endearingly call, "the Shanty Tent Village." Seriously, there were miles and miles of tents and RV's all decked out in Scottish Flags. It was crazy! hahaha! We pulled up to our camp spot, a nice section on the bend towards McVillage, and met up with Cathy and Lisa. After quick hellos, I unloaded all my stuff (cooler, backpack, chair.) I had given Kirsten my tent last week, so they could save me a spot next to them. It was already up, so I dropped off my backpack and unfolded my air mattress and let the pump do it's job. In a couple of minutes, I was all unpacked and my air mattress was full. Kirsten went with me to go park my car at the camper's lot and we shuttled back to our shanty tent town.

Well, as soon as we walked up to our tent site, it started pouring rain. We all huddled under the canopy and since there was nothing else to do.... we started drinking! hahaha! I pulled out the Bourbon and Lisa and I had bourbon and gingers, while Kirsten and Cathy sipped on Beer and Scotch. When the rain finally let up a bit and we were feeling quite toasty, we all ventured out to give me a tour. We met up with the Browns, a family that Kirsten met a couple of years ago, when she came down for the highland games. They were such wonderful people, they had roasted an entire turkey and later that night, stopped by our tent to bring us a HUGE hunk of it to share. After goodbyes with the Browns, we venture back out onto shanty town lane and pass by a crazy looking Little House on the Prairie wagon that was decked out as a camping tent. You KNOW I had to check it out. haha! I met the crazy owner, who was waaaay more soused then I was and he said I could climb into his Scottish Gypsy Wagon and take a look. He had actually built the wagon over 2 years and customized it for traveling. It was like a mini RV. We continue on thru tent city and finally get to the vendor area and I get a sense of the place, but by then it was 5:30pm, so most things were closing down. We made one last stop at a Jewelry Tent and got caught in another crazy rain downpour. So we hung out with the vendor for about 45 mins. They were pretty cool and chit chatted with us about the Highland festivities. When the rain let up a bit, we high tailed it back to our tent site to make some dinner. A guy named Patrick noticed our stuff was getting wet, so he offers to plastic wrap one side of our canopy tarp and we graciously accept. He saved the day, cause our stuff was dried out and it didn't rain the entire rest of the trip! haha! Pat's a nice older guy who know's our other neighbor Linville, and is staying in an RV with his son around the corner. He and his son play bagpipes and they were here enjoying the festival and competitions.

More rounds of bourbon and ginger ales and introductions with our neighbors. I got to meet Linville Rose, who was a very refined gentleman with a HUGE ass tent for just him and his grandson. I mean his tent could be classified as a McMansion of tents. It had like 5 separate rooms. He had a closet with a wardrobe rack full of clothes in one room! haha! Seriously, he knows how to camp with style. I loved Linville, he was like the grandpa that watched over all of us, but was cool enough to thrown down and party with us too. Next to Linville it was Cynthia, her husband Mike, and their three kids. They were really nice and REALLY into being Scottish. Mike had the Scottish ancestry and wore his kilt the entire time we were there. He actually taught me alot about kilts, claymores, dirks, sgian dubh's, shields, tartans, and Pict's (the blue painted warriors, like in the BraveHeart movie). So Mike was an interesting character. Not only did he school me in all things Scottish, since he's been coming down to these games for years, he knows lots of people and when they would stop by, he would introduce all of us girls to everyone. So I got to meet other die hard Scots rocking out in kilts. Literally rocking out. You see, I got to meet/see most of the members of the popular Scottish band Albannach. They would stop by Mike's tent for a beer or just to chit chat! I saw Jamesie (Bass drummer), Donnie (bagpiper), and Aya (drummer and tambourine). I also got to meet the second mayor of McVillage (you have to be here to understand) McVillage is like the "cool" camp spot where the long timers get together. Lucky for us, we were up on the bend from McVillage, so we were close enough to meet some characters. I met Darin and Erin from Canada and got a really good photo of Darin and Mike doing the Captain Morgan pose in their kilts. hahaha! Anyways, back to our little bend. The neighbors on the otherside of us were pretty cool too. Tom was an Englishman (by the way, the Scots hate the English waaaay more than the Irish do!) and Sprague, from Raleigh. They had the skimpiest set up. I mean, all it was was a small dome tent and that's it! No chairs, no fire pit, no tables, nada. We made sure they hung out with us and got to meet everyone. I totally felt like the social chair for our little nook in Shanty Tent Village.

Later on that night, we went over to the rowdy side. You see, the camping is divided into two areas, the quiet side, which everything quiets down by 10pm, and the rowdy side across the street into the woods, which shuts down around 1am. So we headed over to the rowdy side to catch Patrick's son Andy, play the bagpipes and join a drum circle. It was definitely a younger crowd and livelier side. As we hiked up (in flip flops) on a dry creek bed with tons of loose rocks, I'm too toasted and laughing too hard to notice all the times I slipped and slid on the rocks. When we get to the large bonfire, (and I mean HUGE fire pit, as in the biggest I have ever seen,) we join in the circle of dancing people and check out the bagpipers and drummers. After about an hour we decide to just head back to our own fire pit and chillax a bit. Plus it was FREEZING! It might be 100 degrees back at home, but up in the mountains it was a chilly 65. Well, when we get back, there's a ton of people already at our campsite waiting for us. So we fix some fresh drinks, and chat all night long with our neighbors and guests. Around 1am, everyone goes to sleep, but me, Darrin and Mike. This is where I learn alot about the Scottish heritage, the highland games, and weapons. I finally decide I need to go to bed, cause we have a LOOOONG day tomorrow! So around 1:30am, I crawl into my cardboard box... I mean tent. (I so missed my hammock right about then) and plop down onto the air mattress, which kind of deflated a bit over the course of the night, and I couldn't pump it back up without making so much noise with the pump, so I sagged on top of the air mattress, draped my down sleeping quilt over me and the next thing I knew, it was 8am the next morning.

SATURDAY:

I got up and because I had just arrived, decided to forgo the cold showers. So I changed clothes in my tent and since it was my day to do the cooking, I pulled out the bagels, got the water boiling for coffee, put out Advil's for everyone, and started skewering fruit for fruit kabobs. Soon, Cathy and Kirsten came back from the showers, and Lisa finally woke up and we sat in our chairs having breakfast and planning out our day. Around 10am, we headed over to the field with our chairs and watched some of the games. They also had a marathon going on that morning, so we got to see the runners enter the track area and cross the finish line. It was pretty cool, lots of people running in kilts. And we actually knew one of the runners! Daniel from back home was in the marathon race, when he came by our section we cheered loud and saw the huge grin on his face when he recognized us. So, the games. We caught the hay bail toss, which basically was a guy in a kilt, with a pitch fork, tossing a bail of hay over a bar, like a pole vault jumper bar. Then we saw the weight toss, a heavy weight tossed as far as the thrower could. We caught the herding dogs, herding sheep and white ducks. That was really cute, those border collies really get into their job! We saw a bunch of shirtless men in kilts wrestling, saw a ton of girls in kilts dancing, and then decided to walk into the groves to catch a couple of bands.

The groves were pretty cool. You walked up a little hill and over the ridge, and down into an open area covered by trees. It made for some great acoustics. We got there in time to catch a band called Trebius. Which consisted of a drummer, bagpiper, and a guitar. They were very good. Then we walked over to Grove 1, the bigger area, to catch Albannach. It got crowded fast and we only had standing room. You could feel the energy in the little "holler" as soon as the band took stage, (which the stage was a giant boulder, very natural setting, kind of what you would think it looked like back in the day in Scotland). Once the music began, it was mesmerizing, almost primal. The drum beats just took over and I felt the music. I really got into it. Later on that night Mike told me that if you have just a drop of Celtic blood in you, as soon as you hear those drums beat, it will awaken the Celticness inside you. I totally believe it. It was definitely an experience that I can not describe other than very primal, very raw, very tribal..... Anyways, I really enjoyed Albannach. I wanted to buy their CD right away, but I held off and told myself that if I saw them tonight and I felt the same strong, raw, stirring, feelings, then I would buy it.

After the music we decided to take a break and walk around to see the Clan tents and grab some lunch. . The Clan tents were set up around the track, while the festivities happened inside the track on the field. We stopped by the Scottish food vendor and I got a meat pie, I was too chicken to try the haggis or the Scottish Eggs (google either one and you'll see why) and my verdict is... what I expected. Pretty plain food., just some meat wrapped in a pastry. We then headed down to the Woodlands tent for some good NC BBQ (vinegar based sauce is the BESTEST!). We hauled our goodies back to our campsite and ate lunch there on our table.

After lunch, we filled up our "water" bottles with some amber colored liquid and headed back to catch more of the games. Lisa and Kirsten wanted to catch another band, so Cathy and I went to the games. While we walked around the field, we walked passed some of the Clan tents and I actually did the whole "Sorcerer and the stone" thing at one of the Clan tents. The kilted man asked me what I believed to be most important to me and I said it was my little family. Then he asked me to pull the sword up out of the stone, and I did! I was grinning like a silly kid when he made me a "Lady" and pinned a button on my shirt. I know, it's the corny, but it's the silly things that I love. hahaha! Anyways, after touring most of the Clan tents, (some even had complimentary shots of scotch!) we caught a couple of Caber tosses (telephone pole tossing) and then headed over to the music groves to catch some more music. We watched Albannach again and I got a great picture of Jamesie, up close and personal. haha! I mean I got up right in his grill and snapped away. He was a good sport about it too. AND I was still digging the music. I knew I wanted the CD now, but I wanted to wait til the concert tonight to make sure the raw passion I was feeling wasn't the amber colored liquid from my water bottle!

Around 6pm, we shuffle back to our campsite and because it was my turn to make dinner, I put Jeff (a neighbor) to work on getting the coals on the grill hot, while I assembled the marinated beef and veggies into kabobs. I also put out the tortilla chips and black bean and corn relish/salad I made for everyone to snack on. So while everyone (we had a nice crowd follow us back) was sitting around the fire, refreshing their drinks and munching on my dip, I started grilling the kabobs. We are laughing and relaxing, when Linville decides that he wants to get a group photo of us girls. I suggest getting a group shot of everyone, so we all gather up our cameras. I spotted a random guy walking by and grabbed him with the promise of a beer if he is would to take our photo. He deserved that beer too, cause there were about 12 cameras out for him to shoot our picture! hahaha! After the photo shoot, my kabobs were ready and thank goodness I had enough for everyone! I got some great compliments on the dinner. Since the rule is, if you cook, you clean, while I was cleaning up, everyone was chit chatting away, waiting for the concert that night. Cathy helped me out alot and I was able to finish up faster than I thought. By now, Kirsten had switched me to Gin and Tonics, now I thought I didn't like gin, but these were delish! They went down like water. Around 8pm we finally head out to the main concert event area (the track) to catch the concert that night. Well, Kirsten and I take our sweet time and tell everyone we need to pack some "provisions" for the night and that we'll meet up with everyone there. So the group takes off and we go about packing a day pack with ginger ale, bourbon, scotch, gin, and tonic. You know... the essentials. haha! On the way up, Kirsten and I were doing the "I love you girl", hugging each other, almost about to cry, bonding thing, when we get almost to the gate entrance. I mean we are so close I can see the stage! and she goes, "I can't find my camera". Without skipping a beat, I say, "Well lets go back and get it, I need to refresh my drink with ice anyways," and we walk the 1/2 mile back to our campsite. She scours her tent and finally finds her camera, while I mix us a couple of gin and tonics, and off we go again. Well, we get right to that gate again and she has forgotten her jacket. I laugh and say, lets go back cause it's going to get cold tonight, plus, we need to refresh our drinks. We stumble back, still doing the "I love you girl", and she grabs her jacket while I make us another gin and tonic. Off we go again for the third time, walking that 1/2 back up to the gate, and about half way there, we forget something else, I can't remember what it was, but we both burst out laughing and walk back to the campsite. By this point, it's 9:20pm, the concert has already started and we haven't left the campground area. As we are leave our campsite, we see Lisa and Cathy walking back. They were getting their jackets, so we decided to walk to camp with them, then all of us walk up to the concert. We finally enter the gates and the music is pulsing in the air. We find our camp chairs smack dab in the middle between the two stages. It was really a perfect spot. We all plop down and start dancing in our chairs, enjoying the music, and taking silly pictures. The concert is a compilation of all the bands that were their today and the headliner is Albannach. Well, Albannach finally got on stage and started playing and they were amazing. Right then and their I vowed to buy their CD the next morning.

After the concert (what we caught of it), we head back to our campsite around 12pm. We are still wired and Lisa, Linville, Patrick, and I decide to head over to the rowdy side to see what's going on. On the way there, we are stopped by a girl and guy, who looks familiar, but I can't place, handing out cherries that were steeped in some grain alcohol. So I do the polite thing and take a cherry from a stranger as they tell me about the highland games in Gatlinburg TN next year and how Albannach will be playing. Then it hits me, the guy is Donnie, the bagpiper from Albannach! I'm celebrity stunned then and can't focus to say a thing now. After they leave, I tell Patrick that we just met Donnie and he laughs at me. We continue on to the rowdy side and find Patrick's son, Allan, playing bagpipes around a fire pit for a crowd of people. As we mingle, a guy that Kirsten met, Dan, asks where Kirsten is. We say she's back at our campsite passed out in her tent. We all decided to go wake her up, so we walked back down the dry creek bed, slipping and sliding everywhere, walk across the highway, and into our campsite. We peered into Kirsten's tent and whispered (and giggled) "wake up!" She did, laughing at us and we all continued to have fun. Cathy is still chit chatting away with a few people around our fire pit, so I join them for bit. Around 2am, we decide to call it a night and everyone headed back to their campsites. As Lisa and I were cleaning up the campfire, Jerry, in nothing but his red plaid kilt and flip flops, walked up and asked me if I want to go over to the rowdy side and party some more. I politely tell him no, like 15 times. I'm wasn't going over there that late, and especially not with his half naked self! I think he finally got the hint when I turned off our strung up Christmas lights and crawled inside my tent. It was a good day, but I know I'm going to feel it in the morning.

SUNDAY:

The next morning, as I had guessed, was a rough one. I got up around 8am, donned on my sunglasses, and started packing up. It was the last day and we were leaving that afternoon. I deflated my air mattress, roll up my sleeping quilt, and packed up my backpack. When I stepped out my tent, I saw Cathy almost packed up. She needed to leave earlier than the rest of us. Kirsten made us breakfast that she called kitchen sink and Mike our neighbor called "bubble and squeak" (which is a real Scottish/English dish. But the name makes me hurl. It means left overs in one pot that usually bubbles up and makes a squeak noise when cooking it.) She mixed all the left over veggies we had with eggs. (Tomato, avocado, onion, garlic, mushrooms, and eggs) and it was actually good. I topped that off with a couple of Advil and some coffee. After breakfast, Cathy left, and the rest of us went to retrieve our cars to loaded them up. Once our cars were all packed up, we decided to walk around the festival one last time, then hit Douglas bakery for some treats to take home. We caught the closing bagpipe parade and then walked down into the grove so I could buy my Albannach CD. We hit Douglas Bakery and I loaded up on some orange cranberry scones for me, and some Scottish oatmeal/chocolate chip cookies for Boo. Then we finally end up at the flag tent where I bought some flags to hang in my bonus room at home. I got the Old Scottish flag, an Irish flag, an American flag, and a Welsh flag. Now all I need is a Costa Rican flag and a Bolivian flag to finish off our heritage collection. Lisa, Kirsten, and I slowly, and wordlessly walked back to our campsite one last time. We said good bye to all of our neighbors, hugged one last time, and by 12pm, we were on the road headed home.

It was an amazing weekend. It opened up a whole new appreciation of Scottish heritage for me that I can't wait to share with my dad. He needs to know his heritage. Hell, I may even get him a kilt. haha! I had so much fun with my NC girls and look forward to doing it all over again next year, once my liver has had a chance to recover. I found an amazing band, Albannach, that I really dig, and I met some great people that taught me alot about being Scottish. This weekend totally took me by surprise in how much I really, truly enjoyed learning what it means to be Scottish. Til next time... GET OUTDOORS!!!

Thank you Georgia!

Just a few people I want to acknowledge and thank.

SHOE: I first met you on my first trip to GA to hike the AT with the Dames and every time I came back to GA, you were there to make sure I made it thru a Georgia section safely and not alone. You have been there for every inch of my GA section but the last 25 miles b/c of an injury. Thank you for your time, expertise, planning, countless backpack training trips in the Smokies, funny stories, serious chats, and most importantly your friendship. I have learned so much from you my friend. You have made me a better backpacker and hiker and I look forward to future hikes with you. I truly think you're my hiking soul mate, it's so easy to get into a groove on the trail with you, we know what we need to do, sometimes without even saying a word, and our pace is so similar, it's scary. We do make a great team. NC here we come!

PYRO: When I met you, you were just starting out in backpacking. Well my friend. Since you've backpacked 43.6 miles (is what we calculated) with me on the AT in GA you know what that makes you? Besides fire maker extraordinaire, it makes you a full fledge backpacker. Thank you for all the funny stories, laughs, and fires that kept me warm during our trips. I look forward to hiking with you again!

MUDDBUTT: I am so glad I found the little blurb about trail dames on the Whiteblaze website on that fateful day in October 2007. Since that day, my outdoor life has changed for the better. You have started something wonderful, that really brings the outdoors to those women who didn't think it could be possible and you've created an opportunity for women to build confidence in themselves and their abilities that can never be replaced. All the while having fun and enjoying camaraderie. Thank you for Trail Dames. I am a better person, hiker, backpacker because of it.

TRAIL DAMES: To all the wonderful ladies I have met. I've had the honor to hike/backpack with some of you and I can honestly say, I have never met a Trail Dame I didn't like. You guys are awesome. Keep the outdoors fun and beautiful!

BOO: For letting me hike/backpack b/c I wanted to. For understanding that my soul needed to. For supporting my crazy dream of section hiking the AT no matter how long it takes me. I know at times it worried you, (hence the SPOT) and I will never forget that look on your face when you dropped me off for my first solo 14 mile hike from Allen Gap into Hot Springs. I know you must of thought you were the worst husband in the world to drop me off in the pouring rain on the side of the road and hope I make it without getting eaten by a bear or worse. But on the contrary, you were the the best husband for dropping me off on the side of the road in the pouring rain. B/C I learned so much about myself on that trip. Thank you for the countless weekends I left you alone to fend for yourself while I went off gallivanting in the woods. For the vacation weeks I took without you to hike a big section of the AT (SNP and GA). How can I ever repay you for that time? I love you.

Last section in Georgia Day 2 & 3

After waking up at 6:30am, I packed up camp and joined everyone for breakfast. Pyro gets an early start up Rocky Mountain, I leave about 20 minutes later, and then Speedy and Water B follow a few minutes later. The climb up Rocky was long and Speedy and Water B blaze up the trail with no problem. I really need to start jogging again. I haven't ran in a month and I can totally feel it in my lungs! We are almost out of water when I catch up to Pyro. We decide to stop at the first available water site. Pyro and I find a dismal puddle and filter up on the downside of the mountain. Then, about a 1/4 mile down the trail, we see a really nice flow. Isn't that how it always happens? haha! We finish the descend down and thats where Pyro's hip starts to bother her a bit so we take it easy til we get to Unicoi Gap, where we take a small break. Pyro says she needs a bit more of a break, so she tells me to go on up without her. I start up Blue Mountain and it's kicking my ass. Then it hits me. I hadn't eaten a thing since breakfast. So I stop on a nice log and decide to have a long snack break. I was hoping Pyro would catch up to me and we could finish this beast of a climb together. But after 20 minutes, I decide to move ahead. On the way up, I ran into a mother and daughter backpacking together. The mom was 69 yrs old and they had already hiked in from Springer Mt. They were headed to Dicks Creek. WOW, I had to say "Go Mom!" when I heard how far she had already come. It's amazing to see people out hiking at her age. I've said it before, but I'll say it again, I hope to be climbing up mountains when I'm her age. I meet another group of backpackers, they are a little family out for a nice holiday weekend trip. One of them thru hiked in 2006 and had a cocker spaniel dog by the name of Springer. I said, "what an appropriate name for your dog!" We all laughed and went our separate ways. I finally reached Blue Mt. Shelter around 1:30pm and find Speedy S'mores and Water B chillin'. I also meet a hiker named "Paul with Bunions" He's such a character. He's hiking a section from Harpers Ferry West Virginia to Springer GA and then flip flopping back up. He's taking his time and enjoying the trip.

Well, after two tough climbs, I take off my boots and lay down for a second b/f I finally eat lunch. I called SHOE to see if she had Pyro's #. I was going to call and and make sure she's alright. After a couple of hours we were all getting worried, when all of the sudden, Pyro struts in all smiles. YAY! I call SHOE back and tell here not to worry, we are all back together. We take another break with Pyro and just relax, enjoy the shelter and the conversation. Water B goes to the spring and gets us all filed up for the rest of the trip. Another 45 mins. pass and we decide we need to forge on. After all, we've only gone 5 miles and had a long day a head. So off we go. We all hike together down Blue Mt. for another couple miles til we get to a nice log and campspot and take a break. Pyro's hip is really bothering her and I could see the tears of pain welding up in her eyes. I knew she didn't have long, so we let Water B go up a head to look out for water, while Speedy and I took a few items out of Pyro's pack to lighten the load. It was a crazy hard day today and I didn't want Pyro to loose herself in anger and pain. I told her this is when she really needs to dig down deep inside and pull up the true backpacker within and focus on getting to camp. I've hiked with her several times and knew she could do it, but she had to believe she could and not give up on herself. So I told her that we would hike a couple of more miles and find a campsite.

About a mile later, we get to an intersecting trail and Water B says there is water down a steep hill. When Pyro makes it in, she tells us that the spring down the hill is the beginning of the Chatahochee river. Pretty cool, but no one wants to hike down to see it and Pyro's has already done it. Pyro is still needing some time, so Water B stays behind with her for a bit while Speedy and I move ahead to look for the water pipe another hiker told us about. I must of walked another 2 miles along the ridge, when I came up on Speedy. She was sitting on a log waiting for us. She thought we could just camp there for the night. From the map, I think we were at Cold Spring Gap and there was no good place for Speedy's tent or any good tree's for my or Pyro's hammocks. Speedy volunteers to scout up ahead for 1/2 miles for a suitable campspot, so she's off. I sat down, then Water B comes up, and 10 minutes later Pyro shows up and has gotten her second wind. She hugs me and says she found a shiny penny on the ground and it reminded her of her brother and that she felt like she heard his voice encouraging her. So she got her second wind and made some amazing time up AND she wanted to keep going! By then, Speedy returned and said that the trail is pretty much carved out on the side of the mountain the last 1/2 mile she hiked and no spots for camping. Pyro says she remembers a nice campsite that her and SHOE stayed at once, and she thinks it's about a mile-2 miles away. So off we go. Tired and in need of water, we all hike on. Thank goodness the trail is either flat or has a slight up hill, cause I don't think any of us could of handled another climb.

We finally find the corrugated pipe coming out of the ground and Pyro and I stop to filter up. Pyro describes the campsite to Speedy and Water B and they continue on to look for it. I climb down to the pipe and fill up our bottles and as I climb back up, Pyro's steri-penning the water, she tells me a bit more about her brother. I tell her that she found that lucky penny at exactly the moment she needed it and I tell her about my good luck charms. Little ladybugs and just then, she tells me to look down and what do I see? A ladybug! Right then and there, I knew the rest of the trip would be a good one. We put on our packs again and head down the trail and not even a mile down, we see Speedy and Water B. They had found a campsite. We all unpack and put up our perspective back country homes and as I'm fiddling with my tarp, Pyro builds us a nice fire. We sit around the campfire, enjoy dinner, chit chat, then call it an early night. We are all tuckered out.

Not more than 15 minutes of laying in my hammock, and I hear a loud scurrying in some brush near by. I call out... "Kellye!" and she says she heard it too. We see Water B pop a light out of his tent so they must of heard it too. Well, then we hear it again! Pyro tells me she thinks it was just a deer. Not sure if she's telling me that so I don't get scared of if she really wants to believe it was a deer and not a bear. haha! I believe her and am fast asleep within 2 minutes. Thank goodness I have some hiking companions on this trip.

The next morning I wake up around 5:30am and start packing up in the dark. We have a long 7 mile day back to the car and want to make it there by 3pm. So after breakfast, at 7am, we all step foot on the AT and continue on. I'm feeling good on this flat trail so I kick it up a notch and Speedy's right behind me. The next thing we know, it's 8am and we've hiked 2 1/2 miles to Low gap shelter. We are so stoked we made it so quickly that we high five one another. A couple of minutes later, Water B arrives and a second later Pyro shows up. We all made it so fast to the shelter! We decide to load up on water for the last 4.6 miles of the day and walk down to the shelter. When we get to the water source, we meet a family from Florida out hiking from Hogpen Gap to Unicoi Gap. A couple of them are in clark jungle hammocks and we talk gear a bit. They were hiking with two dogs, a German Shepard and a Chocolate Lab, both puppies were limping around sore. I asked the owner if she had any aspirin and to cut one in half and give it to both dogs. She said she already gave them some Vitamin I. Poor puppies, they have a rough climb up Blue Mountain today. After pumping water, Speedy, Water B and I took a quick snack break. When we reached the AT again, we noticed Pyro was gone. She went ahead and started the 500 foot in a 1/2 mile climb. Water B went ahead of us and Speedy and I hiked together. I was actually able to keep up with her. I wonder if she was going slower for me? hmmmm.... hahaha! Anways, we make it to the top and find Pyro relaxing on the trail waiting on us. I take another break and for the rest of the trip, Pyro and I hike together. I take this time to really enjoy this section of GA. It's my last and I want to make sure I take it all in. I spot these giant clover leaves and they immediately remind me of Boo, so I snap a photo of them. Funny how the littlest things can have such a powerful connection out here in the woods. I spot a white blaze and am moved to touch it. I realize it may be the last blaze I see in GA, so I snap a photo of it too. As we descend down and climb up again, we finally make it into Hogpen Gap. YAY! I've offically completed the AT in Georgia! Whoo Hoo! and it's only 12pm!!! The first thing I do is fling my pack off and change out of my boots and into some flip flops. I've been craving Mexican Food since Pyro mentioned it about 3 miles back. So off we go to the cute little town of Helen GA for our reward. We make a quick stop at this quirky little place called, Goats on a Roof. And there really ARE goats on a roof! We only stopped to change clothes, but can't resist the corniness of it all and take time to tour around the place. Got to love little places like this. We finally get back on the road and as we come into the town of Helen, we join the crazy holiday traffic jam and it takes us over 20 minutes to drive the one mile into town. It's OK though, cause we are driving along the Chatahoochee river and see hundreds and hundreds of families tubing along the river, having a great time and keeping cool in this heat. We pull into town, park and head in for our reward lunch!

Over all it was a great trip and I got to hike the last section of Georgia, with a Georgian, Pyro, and usher in a new state with North Carolinians, Speedy S'mores and Water B. Georgian will always hold some great memories for me, but I look forward to the new challenges of a new state. So NC, bring it on, I am ready for you! Til next time... GET OUTDOORS!!!

Last section in Georgia Day 1

So I had this idea that I would be hiking the last 25 miles of the AT in GA solo. Yeah, my first solo backpacking trip that would last 3 days. I figured I could do it. Well, that lasted about a day. haha! I chickend out and sent out last minute emails to SHOE, Pyro, Water B, and Speedy S'mores. I thought there was no way anyone would be able to backpack with me on less than a weeks notice. Well, I was wrong. I know some amazing people. ALL of them were going to be able to meet up and hike some section of the AT with me. YAY! So on Saturday, I got up at 4:30am to load up my car and wait for Water B and Speedy S'mores to meet up at my house to car pool to Neels Gap. We were meeting up with SHOE, Pyro, and some Trail Dames to day hike a section then backpack the rest so I could finish up the last bit of the AT in GA that I had to do.

We arrived at Mt. Crossings/Neels Gap around 8:30am and I gave Water B and Speedy S'mores the tour of the Walasi Yi hiker hostel and Mt. Crossing outfitter. I have good memories of this place. Each time I've hiked in GA, we always made our way to Mt. Crossing for something. After touring/shopping, we decide to repack our packs. You see, I just couldn't end my 25 mile section with a straight shot, I had to get creative and divide it up into a 7 mile day hike with the Trail Dames from Hogpen Gap to Neels Gap. Then I'd finish up my last 18 miles backpacking from Tray Gap to Hogpen Gap. hahah! It's complicated, but it works for me :)

SHOE finally arrives and I hug her hello. This is when I find out that she can't finish the last 25 miles with me :( My heart sank for a second. After all, SHOE has climbed every inch of GA up to this point with me and I was looking forward to closing it out with her. Seems as if that nagging pain she gets in her left foot was actually something serious. So her doctor told her to stay off it a while. Even though she couldn't hike with me, she still came up to shuttle us around and make sure the other Dames got in a good day hike. I'll missed her on the trip, but she was with me in spirit.

The rest of the group finally showed up. Shemea! Yay! I hadn't seen her since Trail Magic in April and I hadn't hiked with her since last summer, so I was looking forward to catching up. I also meet two new Trail Dames, Shelley and Latrice. They have hiked b/f but are brand new to Trail Dames and this is their first outing. We shuttle up to Hogpen Gap, (where I'm leaving my car),where we are meeting up with Pyro, and begin our 7 mile hike back to Neels Gap. We start out with a climb, but not a big one and everyone is doing great. We stop on Cowruck Mt. for a nice snack break and to take in the view. It's a bit hazy, but the view is still amazing. I catch up with Shemea here,and that was the last time I saw her. She's a fast hiker! haha! Pyro and I hung back with the newbies and made sure they were OK and have enough water.

It was a loooong day. It took us over 7 hours to hike 7 miles and it was HOT! But I think the newbies had a good time. They certainly learned a lot and found out what it took to hike the AT. hahaha! I have to give them some props though. For their first hike, they went out, guns blazing, and hiked on the AT. I asked each if they would do it all over again and both replied NO! Not until they got some good miles under their belts. Either way, they did it and it was a giant feat. I made sure to let them both know that they were hard core for hiking this trail as their first hike. When we climbed down into Neels Gap, and we were greeted with a round of applause. SHOE, Shemea, Water B and Speedy S'mores were all there cheering us on as we pulled up. It must of made the newbies feel awesome, b/c the look on their faces said it all. They also had a cold drink waiting for us and I spotted a Sprite with my name all over it! After pictures and good byes, SHOE shuttles us over to Tray Gap to begin the next section of our hike.

Around 7pm we said good bye to SHOE. Pyro, Water B, me, and Speedy S'mores decided to hike the mile down to Cheese Factory to spend the night. When we get there, there is already a nice fire going and we meet a young couple named Johnnie and Sammie. They were just out for an overnight and were enjoying a nice fire. They invited us to come over, so after we set up our camps, we gather around the campfire where we are offered S'mores. This is how Speedy S'mores got her name, you see, she ate 5 s'mores and passed out immediately. All the sugar in her body and she goes to bed early! She must of been tired! Well, the rest of us soon follow suit. It's been a long day and we have a nice couple of climbs tomorrow. So, til next time... GET OUTDOORS!!!