Craig and Suzy's 2006 Appalachian Trail Journal

As you can imagine, long-distance hiking takes a lot of time and money. This particular hike is estimated to cost about $17,000. Hikers cannot be reached on the trail without your support. If you like reading the journals or if you would like to see more chaplains on the trail, please prayerfully donate your funds to A.T. Servants by clicking here.

Search Results

Day	Date	Start	Finish	Miles	Journal	Photo
22	4/8	Nantahala Outdoor Center, NC	Sassafrass Gap Shelter, NC	6.9	Day: 22 Date: 4/8/06 Start: N.O.C., NC Weather: rain, sunny, thunderstorms Finish: Sassafrass Gap Shelter, NC Miles: 6.9 Cumulative A.T. Miles: 140.8 Clay: We had heard numerous reports over the years about how difficult the 6.9 mile climb out of the N.O.C. We gained 2600 feet today and we are sleeping at 4300 feet. We left the comforts of the N.O.C. at about 10 A.M. and mozied up the steep trail until we reached the shelter at 2:20 P.M. We heard consistent reports that thunderstorms were heading our way again. So, we did a NERO today. Tattoo and Pigeon got to the shelter about and hour after us. They brighten everyone's day. As they entered, the sun started shining. So, they pressed on. Then, about 20 minutes later, Harley Hogpit and Kit showed up at the shelter. As they walked in the shelter a clap of thunder introduced them! Everyone in the shelter cheered for them because they had beaten the rain but we were also sad that Tattoo and Pigeon were caught in the downpour. For the past few days I have been reading Jeremiah. It is amazing. It says that God will punish those who are merely circumcised in the flesh and not circumcised in the heart (Jer. 9.25; cf. Rom. 2.29). I am very unclean in my physical appearance due to hiking but I have been confessing sins (1 John 1.9), asking to be empowered by God's Spirit (Ephesians 5:18) , and desiring to keep a clean heart while on the trail (Romans 8.4-6). Branch: Today as we were walking in the drizzly rain, I looked down and saw something that looked like the outside of a geode. Of course, it was not, but, as I continued to climb, my mind continued to wander to thoughts about geodes. As a kid they always sparked my imagination and interest. Of the few that I've seen in rock shops, the outside is usually very ordinary looking, even bordering on ugly. Once broken open, one can view the beautiful inside of the rock. Brightly colored crystals cover the inside walls. I always used to imagine myself shrunk down so that I could explore the beautiful "cave" that it creates. You see, what once was a rock that we would have kicked aside really conceals a beautiful surprise that makes it something worth paying attention to. As people, we should be this way as well. So often in normal life, we fuss over our exterior appearances. We want our bodies, our house, our cars, and everything else to look just right. We should, however, fuss over what really counts--the inside. Is our heart something clean, beautiful, and pleasing to God, or have we neglected it in order to look good on the exterior? The more I hike and move away from being able to look at myself in the mirror every day, the more I can focus on truly examining my heart and asking God to make it clean and something beautiful to Him.
23	4/9	Sassafrass Gap Shelter, NC	Cable Gap Shelter, NC	15.2	Day: 23 Date: 4/9/06 Start: Sassafras Gap Shelter, NC Weather: Blue skies, spring-like Finish: Cable Gap Shelter, NC Miles: 15.2 Cumulative A.T. Miles: 156.0 Clay: Today Harley Hogpit, Kit, Mom, Wind Talker, Branch and I got up around 6 AM and were out by 7:15 to start our 15.2 mile trek. We climbed up the 5062' Cheoah Bald in the first hour and the views were amazing. On the canvas of a cloudless blue sky, the new-day sun painted shadows on the mountains and puffy fog filled some of the gaps. We stood at the overlooks for a while and praised the God that made such awe-striking views. Like objective morals, I believe that there are objective aesthetics as well. While I have never heard arguments for objective aesthetics, I believe that a good case could be made for them after seeing the views we saw today. There are some things that are beautiful regardless of whether perceivers believes so or not. Following the moral argument for God's existence, the aesthetic argument would go something like: 1) If God does not exist, objective aesthetic objects do not exist. 2) Objective aesthetic objects exist. - Therefore, God exists. Of course, the two premises of this valid argument would need to be defended to make the argument sound. However, seeing those mountains this morning painted with light, shadow, and wisps of clouds was an aesthetic meal for my hungry eyes today. I believe that it was for all who saw them today. After the bald, we found Tattoo and Pigeon at Locust Cove Gap (3690'). They expressed that they would also be going to Cable Gap today. At Stecoah Gap (3,165'), we were greeted by a surprise. Mom's mother and father were at the gap with a bunch of goodies for their daughter and the other hikers. I ate a banana and an apple. The fresh fruit was great. Thanks Mom's mom and dad! After eating the fresh fruit, we ascended the long, steep mountain after the gap. It was amazing. What a climb. Previously, we had been dreading that climb for years but today we welcomed the challenge it offered. We had a great lunch with Tattoo and Pigeon at the Brown Fork Shelter. It has been nice getting to know this charismatic Christian couple from Colorado. Today we had PBJ with flax seed, natural royal jelly, and a Power Bar. We have been trying to pack on the calories in order to offset the beating our bodies take on the trail. I am dying out here for intellectual conversation. Today I attempted to have a conversation with a former electrical engineer about numbers being mind-independent entities. The conversation fell flat. The hiker was not interested. I can see why. When the body is in pain, why suffer brain pain as well? Oh well, someone will be interested in topics like the someday soon I hope. We rolled into camp around 6:15 P.M. along with a number of other people. We did all of our chores and laughed at Kit's jokes. After doing over a half-marathon today, socializing, and doing chores, my eyes are crossed and now I must sleep. Good night and God bless you. Branch: Today's a day of praises and new new prayer requests. First I have a praise to shout at the top of my lungs: for 3 hiking days now, my hip and knee have not bothered me! I've done two 15+ mile days and I've done the dreaded climb out of the NOC and its not hurt at all! God is good. However, I seem to have been struck by a new ailment. At the NOC, I began to feel a tickle in my throat. Last night, it turned into a full blown cold. Tonight, as soon as we got into camp, I became really sick. I was sneezing, coughing, my head was pounding, and my throat felt dry and cracked. This is not a pleasant state on the trail. Once, again, I began to question God. Can't I go through one day and feel well on the trail? I felt a little like I didn't belong and that my body was rejecting our new hiking life style. I was frustrated that my illness was keeping me from being able to be a servant to others. I was prepared for yet another tough night of sleeping with the cold, when Harley Hogpit handed me a packet of Theraflu! Wow! God's provision is great! As soon as I began to drink the wonderful medicine, I began feeling loopy and sleepy as the cold symptoms began to melt away. I don't know why I am sick, but I know I am doing what God wants me to and that He will enable me to do His will. I know that I will sleep well tonight knowing that God has a plan and that we are in His will.
24	4/10	Cable Gap Shelter, NC	NC Hwy. 28, Fontana Village Resort	5.5	Day: 24 Date: 4/10/06 Start: Cable Gap Shelter, NC Weather: Blue skies, morning frost on ground, fantastic afternoon Finish: NC 28; Fontana Village Resort Miles: 5.5 Cumulative A.T. Miles: 161.5 Clay: Today we were awakened by turkey calls and gun fire. Hunters had taken the opportunity of the good weather to find the food of the pilgrims this morning. Not wanting to be mistaken for a game animal, we got up and did our morning NERO to NC 28. We are going to Fontana Village today! As we crested our morning climb out of the shelter, we got our first glimpse of the majestic Smoky Mountains! Wow! We are going to take a zero and conquer the Smoky Mountains the day after tomorrow. I can't wait! Branch: Here's my deep thought for the morning: Yesterday I listened to a talk about the different steps that a skeptic goes through before he or she decides to trust in Jesus as Savior. The speaker talked about how the typical college student now days is too concerned with the here and now of the journey of life and does not consider his or her destination in life. That is, we all will die at some point and need to consider what will happen when that occurs. This talk made me think of the trail as an analogy for life. While hiking the trail, we have to both be end-goal minded and try to make the most out of each day. If we only think about the end-goal, then we will quickly become discouraged with our progress and give up. If we only think about the journey in it self, we would become distracted and never make it to Katahdin. Similarly, I believe that in life we need to both think about where our life will end up (what happens when we die?) and we need to consider how we live each day (Are we living the abundant life that Jesus talks about in John 10:10?) When we got to Fontana Village, we immediately got a hotel room {which is really nice} and went to the post office and general store for medicine and food. Clay and I downed an 8-pack of hotdogs and went to pick up our packages at the post office. Unfortunately, one of the packages did not show up--we'll have to figure out what happened with it tonight. Honestly, I feel really sick and I know that I need the rest today and tomorrow. I am thankful that we got here and that I am not on the trail in this condition.
25	4/11	NC Hwy. 28, Fontana Village Resort	NC Hwy. 28, Fontana Village Resort		Day: 25 Date: 4/11/06 Start: NC 28/Fontana Village, NC Weather: Blue skies Finish: NC 28/Fontana Village, NC Miles: 0 Cumulative A.T. Miles: 161.5 Branch: The purpose of today has been to rest and to try to get better. That's exactly what we've done. That, however, makes for a boring journal. Today, any exertion has exhausted me, but I feel better than I did yesterday. A highlight of today has been hanging out with the people that we've been hiking with since the NOC. One Foot, Walker, Harley Hogpit, and Kit always make me smile. This morning we were surprised to see Smile and her husband! Clay met Smile last year just north of Trey Mountain in GA while hiking with a friend. She was training for her thru-hike. We met her again last January at the Southern Ruck. She has been off the trail for a while with bad blisters and is starting the Smokies today. We hope that God puts her into our path again soon!
26	4/12	NC 28	Mollies Ridge Shelter, TN	12.4	Day: 26 Date: 4/12/06 Start: NC 28 Weather: Blue skies with puffy clouds Finish: Mollies Ridge Shelter, TN Miles: 12.4 Cumulative A.T. Miles: 173.9 Clay: Jeremiah 11.25: "I know, O Lord, that a man's life is not his own; it is not for man to direct his steps." Today we entered the Smoky Mountain National Park. The terrain is graded for pack stock. So, the grade was not too steep as we climbed into the park towards the ridgeline. The national park boasts 400-600 bears along the 70 miles of trail. While I realize that God gave humans dominion over the animals, I have a healthy respect for this particular animal. Tonight we are staying at the Mollies Ridge shelter with Walker, Trooper (who gave me some gaiters today!), Why Not, two Aussies, Gus and Bob, and two section hiker women. What a fun crew. God was the first Leave No Trace person (Deuteronomy 23.12-13) and the first conservationist. In Jeremiah 12:4, the sins of the people are said to be the cause of the land being parched and the animals dying. The verse says, "How long will the land lie parched and the grass withered? Because those who live in it are wicked, the animals and birds have perished. Moreover, the people are saying, 'He will not see what happens to us.'" This verse reminds me of the sins we commit today that cause the birds to die and the land to be parched. Humanism says that humankind can fix any environmental problem. Pantheists rightly focuses on the a cure for the problem but they believe that the earth is God. True Biblical stewardship distinguishes God from the creation. This view rightly seeks a right relationship with the creator and it desires to responsibly maintain the earth that has been entrusted to us. Well, it is late here in the shelter and two coyotes are about 40 feet away from us howling at the full moon. It must be time for bed. Branch: I am very glad that today's miles were not that difficult because I still feel very drained from having been sick for the last few days. Every so often, I would go into a coughing fit that would rack my lungs and make my entire body feel tired. Other than that, today was a beautiful hiking day. At Doe Knob we said hello to our 3rd state: Tennessee. Unlike the difficult greeting we received in North Carolina (i.e. Sharp Top and Courthouse Bald), Tennessee greeted us with a smile. As we turned the corner to Doe Knob, the trail was lined with thousands upon thousands of flowers called "Spring Beauties". These extended at least 100 yards off the trail on both sides and for at least 2 miles! Clay called this section Plato's "perfect form of hiking trail". That is, it was the ideal hiking situation. The sun was shining. The trail was flat and soft underfoot. The flowers were the icing on the cake. The shelter tonight is my favorite so far. It is a stone shelter with an actual working fireplace (Walker and Trooper have even built a fire) and a tarp making a fourth wall. Outside there is a beautiful grassy yard covering the top of the hill surrounding the shelter. I could easily spend days here.
27	4/13	Mollies Ridge Shelter, TN	Derrick Knob Shelter, TN	11.7	Day: 27 Date: 4/13/06 Start: Mollies Ridge Shelter, TN Weather: Mostly sunny with patchy clouds Finish: Derrick Knob Shelter, TN Miles: 11.7 Cumulative A.T. Miles: 185.6 Branch: Today has probably been the toughest hiking day that we've had so far. The culmination of our both being a little sick, tough (but beautiful) terrain, and not being mentally prepared for such a difficult day made today's 11.7 miles seem to last forever. After I took a short nap about 6 miles in, we spent the afternoon leap frogging Walker and Why Not. It is so much fun hanging out with these two! They are both very caring people. Tiredness has killed my capacity for deep thought and my ability to string together cognitive sentences, so I will bid you goodnight. Clay: It was a tough day indeed. I must have kissed Branch because she passed her lung butter funk to me. What's worse is that we ran out of medicine today because we did not expect me to be sick and I used the resources. I don't want to spread this lung funk. So, as I passed people today, I made sure to say "Unclean...unclean...!" like a leper (just kidding). We have quarantined ourselves in our tent tonight. There are actually a number of people hacking today. God, please cure our illnesses. Our original plan was to conquer the Smoky Mountains in 5.5 days (70 miles). However, our illness and possibly wisdom is dictating that we take a day to get medicine and rest in Gatlinburg, TN. We are tired of going into town but we don't want this to turn into something possibly much worse. Thus far we have spent about 7 days in town due to illness. We have not mentioned two things: (1) We are hiking a "purist" hike. This means that we intend to hike past ever white blaze with our pack on. This is because we want to be blameless in our hike. Some people hike without their pack or take shortcuts (e.g. blue blaze, yellow blaze, aqua blaze). Even out here there are rules and we want to follow them. In 1 Corinthians 8, Paul talks about not eating meat sacrificed to idols if it will cause others to sin in their mind and stumble in their faith. Similarly, we hike a purist hike so that we will be above reproach and do not cause others to stumble. Second, a tradition on the trail is to take a pebble from Springer Mountain, carry it the full length of the trail, and place it on Mount Katahdin. Instead of taking a pebble, we are carrying flecks of gold from Dahlonega, GA--Branch's hometown. We believe this represents purity, it is something of value, and it is personal. To us, this also speaks of Christ's life. Christ was sinless and pure (Hebrew 4.15; even the Koran speaks of this), His sacrifice was of everlasting value (John 3.16), and He desires to be personal with each one of us (Revelation 3.20). This is why we are carrying gold.
28	4/14	Derrick Knob Shelter, TN	Mount Collins Shelter, TN	13.5	Day: 28 Date: 4-14-06 Start: Derrick Knob Shelter, TN Weather: Blue skies, unseasonably hot Finish: Mount Collins Shelter, TN Miles: 13.5 Cumulative A.T. Miles: Clay: Today we reached a milestone by crossing the 6600' Clingman's Dome--the highest point on the entire A.T. About 50 percent of the would-be thru-hikers will have dropped out by this point. So, we are pleased at our current progress. There are well over 30 people at and around the shelter tonight. It is Friday night. So, there are a number of day and section hikers here. You can tell who the thru-hikers are. They are typically quiet or already in bed by 9 P.M. We are really desiring to have relationships with other thru-hikers. It seems that in the southern states, conversation between thru-hikers is sort of surfacey. That's understandable. We hike all day and run into people. I guess people are guarded. I have asked a number of hikers what they plan to do after they complete their hike. Most of them do not know. Sometimes we help with vocational options. Tomorrow we are going into Gatlinburg to get some rest. Branch is sick. She is asleep next to me amidst all the ruckus around the shelter tonight. The section hikers have tons of energy! A thru-hiker named Phoenix died in his sleep at this shelter two weeks ago. We are dedicating this entry to him. Branch: These past two days have been unseasonably hot. Since we have been hiking on exposed ridges in the heat, the sun has definitely been taking its toll on us. Both today and yesterday Clay and I drank 8 liters of water between the two of us!

Search

Search: State Choose GA NC TN VA WV MD PA NJ NY CT MA VT NH ME