Rock Gap to Fontana Dam

Ok. Going to give the miles per day break down. Rock Gap to Wayah Bald Shelter 14.8. Wayah Bald to A. Rufus Morgan Shelter 15.5. Rufus Morgan to Nantahala Outdoor Center and a stay in The Cabin In The Woods 1 single mile. Nantahala to Brown Fork Gap Shelter 15.8. Brown Fork to Fontana 11.5 plus a 1.1 mile hike to the Fontana Hilton later today.

So, people we have met so far.... Trav and I are hiking with Let's Party and Bottom's Up,  Fiddlehead (Liz), and Dteamcatcher (Kieran). We have met Sam and Ron (who gave us guava and green tea on top of Silver Bald) Rabbit, John from Alabama, Loon (a four time thru hiker on his fifth attempt this year), Uncle Nasty, Bibs (NC guy who wear Carhartt overalls), Fuel and Eric (two young guys on break from college), Mosey, Mapman and Spark Plug's Auntie, and the Frat Guys. All unique and interesting people to meet.

A sidenote, the Frat Guys and Loon were favorites of mine. Loon was such an inspiration to see him on his fifth thru hike. The Frat Guys are so named because of their demeanor and their propensity to laugh at my stupid jokes. Their names were Burgess, Drew, and Reid. Reid is a thru hiker named "Cliffnote". Burgess and Drew were accompanying him to Fontana Dam for moral support. Because I have a terrible time with names, I called Burgess "City Boy" because he was wearing jeans. Drew I named "Hair" because of his almost, but not quite,  Justin Bieber hair cut. It is a shame they jumped ahead. I gave them so much shit, and they took it with laughs all around. Great guys. I wish the best of luck to everyone, but especially Loon, Sam and Ron, and the Frat Guys.

It has been nice spending time with Party, Fiddlehead, and Dreamcatcher. Good company. We stayed at The Cabin In The Woods near Stecoah Gap. Amazing cabins run by a lovely woman named Donna. Check it out! Cheap prices and an amazing place to stay! We even watched two movies!

The immensity of the trail hit me today. Interesting thoughts during todays hike. Dreamcatcher is losing his mind. Fiddlehead is like a leech, sucking money from me every time we go into town. Party is nowhere to be seen. Ellis has died apparently.  He is sorely missed. Shamwow is all washed up.

In all seriousness, Trav's right shin and ankle is messed up. Bad. I dunno what we are going to do yet. Should be starting the Smokies tomorrow.

As far as the trail is concerned, it has been hard. Long climbs and long descents. It kicked all of our asses.

Time to resupply and head to the shelter. Miss ya'll! Please donate to my cause and keep it real home dawgs.

Cheers!

Two Kings

Dick's Creek Gap to Rock Gap (Franklin, NC)

Short blog post.

Finishing day ten. Travis has an infected toe. Took a zero today. Nantahala Outdoor Center in two or three days and the Smokies in five hopefully.

Got some trail magic yesterday. Free ride into Franklin and a free steak dinner! Michael Jordan and Turtle were most gracious and we truly appreciate their kindness. We will have to pay it forward. I hope that happy trails find their way for their immrnse kindness to Travis and I!

Besides that, North Carolina is much better then Georgia. Amazing views, better trail, and better weather. Looking forward to getting back on the trail.

Check out the pictures and my videod on YouTube. 

Cheers!

Two Kings

Neels Gap to Dick's Creek Gap

Where to begin.... the first five days in Georgia sucked. Rain, high winds, cold temperatures.  Finally, on day six, we saw the sun and views from three mountains we climbed. To pick off from where we left off...

On our fourth morning, Trav and I set off early with a new friend. Her name is Lindsey (in the pics) and whose trail name is Sham Wow (she carries one with her at all times). She is from Denver. We made it in about a half mile and she realized shr forgot her cellphone. She turned back and Trav and I carried on. 11.5 miles to Low Gap Shelter. To describe our trek, one needs only watch the scene from Lord of The Rings when the Fellowship is trying to go over the Misty Mountains and Aragorn shouting "We need to get off the mountain!" High winds, rain pelting us in the face, freezing rain at one point, and fear of hypothermia had us moving at quite a pace to get to Low Gap Shelter.  Most hikers we knew were either staying put in their shelters or hiking a short distance back to Neels so they could have a dryer and a hot shower. For Trav and I.... it took us four hours to bring our core temperatures up back to normal. We stumbled into Low Gap to meet Pete, Jason, and Michael "Lover Boy". They took a zero and were nice and warm when we arrived soaked and chilled to the bone. We were worried about Lindsey earlier and I ran up two ridges to see if she was ok, to which I was unsuccessful. Luckily, about an hour and a half after we got to Low Gap, Sham Wow came stumbling in much like we did to the shelter. We had a nice stay at Low Gap and met Claire from Washington when she showed up cold and disheartened in the dark.

Day five brought us wet clothes and a now six person group heading 9.7 miles into Unicoi Gap and getting a shuttle to Hiawassee, Georgia. We got a motel room, ordered pizza, and did laundry. Oh, and warmed up.  We decided at Low Gap we would "slack pack" between Unicoi Gap and Dicks Creek Gap today. Slack packing is where you having someone drop you off in the morning and you leave most of your gear behind. All I had was a water filter, water, food, rain gear, and the trail guidebook. Hiawassee had a decent buffet for us and I drank a tall Dos Equis!

Today was beautiful.  We climbed three mountains and saw the sun for the first time! We climbed over 3,500 feet of elevation changed and descended even more. It was a long 16.7 mile day, but the light pack was nice. We bought groceries and ate a six inch sub from Subway and ate two Diuble Cheeseburgers from DQ. We are going to head out in the morning and hike from Dicks Creek Gap to Nantahala Outdoor Center in NC. Tomorrow, we will finish Georgia. One state almost done! It will take us five or six days to get to Nantahala with no resupplies. Looking forward to it. I might take a zero at NOC, but we will see. Trav will move on to make up for lost time later when he has to hop off the trail.

Looking forward to Let's Party catching up and more exciting times with all our friends! I'm especially excited to be out of Georgia. SCREW Georgia!

Cheers!

Two Kings

Wet and Bloody Mountain

No pictures today because all there was to see was rain, trees, and no views because we were in the clouds. Cool in it's own right.

Three days now, and we have only seen one okay view. Blood Mountain is the highest point on the AT in Georgia and all we saw was clouds, rain spray in the face, and wind. Rather disappointing. Tomorrow it's calling for at least two inches of rain. We hiked 10.7 today and are going for a 11.5 tomorrow. Should be interesting, windy, and soaking rain all day long.

Georgia has been a rainy, windy mess. Looking forward to nicer weather.

Hope everyone is well! Staying in a hostel tonight at Neel's Gap. Got to shower. It felt real sexy like. Let's Party can't stay with us because Bottoms Up is outta control drunk.... I mean is too busy being a dog, which they don't allow here. She is staying where we stayed last night and will continue with us tomorrow.

Cheers!

Two Kings

Two days down to Suches, GA.

Hola people of the real world! We are currently staying at Wolfpen Hostel in Suches, GA. Update from the first two days.

Day one began with a one mile hike to the top of Springer Mountain. After driving from WV to GA through the night, we made our way to the top... of fog. Kind of disappointing to not have a view, but still cool nonetheless. On our way up and a few miles down, we passed a young lady with a Jack Russell Terrier. This is how we met Let's Party and her dog, Bottoms Up. She is an ECT (Eastern Continental Trail) hiker, which runs from Key West to Newfoundland. She has been hiking since January 5th. While at Hawk Mountain Shelter at 8.1 miles in, we met Raven, from Germany in a town near Hanover, and was convinced by Let's Party to hike an additional 7.7 miles to Gooch's Shelter at 15.8 miles, giving us a total of 16.8 for the day. Along the way, we met Rojo Baggins and were passed by an older gentlemen we named Terminator. He started at Springer at noon and hiked 15.8 miles in less than seven hours. Jerk! Just kidding!

Once we got to Gooch's Shelter, we met So Far So Good and Fireman, solo thru hikers of a hilarious sort. Dinner was awesome and we decided, due to bad weather, to hike 5.2 miles today and get into a hostel. We will hike to Neel's Gap tomorrow in the rain and stay there. It's one of the most well known spots on the trail that many people take at least from three to five days to reach here and ship literally tons of gear back home every year. Many people take this opportunity to quit their thru hikes after they realize hiking isn't for them.

From what we hear, Saturday is going to dump over an inch and Sunday is going to dump two iches of rain. Trav and I might take a zero (a zero is a day in which you don't hike any miles),  on Sunday, but we will play it by ear and how the weather turns out.

So far, it has been interesting. Tiring would be what I describe of it so far. That could be because of two nights of little sleep before I even started. Only one real view in the first 21 miles, as we were in the fog on top of every mountain or only have views between trees. Amazing so far, hard but rewarding!

Cheers!

Two Kings

The Eve Before Our Adventure

Howdy readers of the Two Kings!

Today is the day in which we rock on down the highway to Georgia. We are leaving around 10 PM (or 2200, which totally makes more sense. Silly civilian time. Actually, from now on, my time will be in military time) tonight. We are being chauffeured (not really) down to USFS 42 and getting onto the trail one mile after the start. We will drive through the night and get a 0900 (roughly) start by walking back to the start at the top of Springer Mountain. We plan on having a nine mile day tomorrow and starting our journey! My level of excitement is finally starting to rise. We have both wanted to start our hike for so long, I feel like some of the excitement has waned, but it's time!

Starting tomorrow, we have 134 days to hike 2,185.9 miles. Wish us luck! If you have the financial means to help support my cause as a part of Team Fox to raise money for Parkinson's Disease research, I would greatly appreciate it. The link is on the right hand side of the blog in the Links section.

My mantra for the hike is what one of my old First Sergeant's used to say all the time, "Hard time don't last. Hard people do!" That and Tim Belotte, my old Cross Country coach, always saying, "The hill is your friend." I have a feeling I am going to say that at least ten times on every climb.

Five million steps. Too bad I don't have a pedometer.

Again, wish us luck! We'll catch you on the flip side. And if you don't want to smell us or talk to us after we are done, well, that's just, like, your opinion man.

Cheers!

Two Kings 

Test Hike Review

Howdy from the Two Kings!

Travis and I took a little nine mile hike up to the top of North Mountain on Swinging Bridge Road on Monday. It is 4.54 miles from the bottom of my parents driveway to the top. It is a two mile climb to the top. The total elevation change in the two miles from the bottom to the top is just under 1000'. Not a bad little climb. It also follows the spurs of the mountain, making it a constant up and down hike while climbing, adding to the difficulty. About halfway up the mountain, my left heel started to get hot, but I pushed on thinking that it wouldn't blister before we reached the top. This dude was way wrong. Blister. Damnit. We changed socks at the top, took necessary measures for out feet, and humped it back to the rent's house. We finished the nine mile hike in 3:19:56. I didn't stop the watch for breaks, so we averaged three miles per hour. That is too fast, but we felt good so we booked it. The hike was good and we felt good the next day, except for my blister. All of our weight seems to be where it needs to be. There might be a couple of items I might take out of my gear just because I won't need it. Travis seems content with his gear list as well. Both of our setups are very different, but we both have weight pretty low, so we are good on that end.

So far, as the week has gone on, every treatment I have tried for the blister has failed. My feet sweat too much, so all the adhesives on the Band-Aids, Molefoam, and Callus Cushion that I have used haven't stayed. On Tuesday, I wore a Band-Aid for blisters and my feet sweat so much that the adhesive wore off on half of the Band-Aid, leaving it half off, but still attached to the skin covering the blister. I knew I have to remove it so I could properly treat the blister and while removing it, I ripped half the skin off the blister and wooooooooosh, out came blood. It is now Friday and the blister is doing much better, but I still haven't found anything that can outlast my sweaty feet. This is a huge problem I have always had. I am going to buy some New-Skin and see if that works. The only other option I can foresee is cutting out my heel or buying a pair of Tevas and hiking in them. Both options are not what I want, but the reality is that my heels will be a huge problem for me and I don't want to risk an infection that would end my hike. We shall see.

I hope you all are having a wonderful day! Peace.

Two Kings