AT: I did it! The Triple Crown is mine!

A happy new Triple Crowner

A forest fire cannot stop a dedicated long-distance hiker and - hiking the triple crown you must experience one or you are not a real triple crowner. So on November 13th Flat Feet drove me around the forest fire (I would hike the missing portion on my way back) and I started to hike the last 17 miles. I wanted to take it easy and finish the next day, but then ambition set in. I had started the CDT on June 13th, 2007 so I thought it would be a good idea to finish the AT on that exact date 17 months later. It was a very eery day: Completely overcast, cold and extremely foggy - I did not see anyone else hiking that day.

I just made it up to Springer Mountain with sunset - there was a little bit of sunlight left or I would have probably missed the plaque there. It was a pretty weird feeling, like "That's it now?". I managed to take some pictures and decided to stay at the nearby shelter and come back in the morning. There was nobody staying at the shelter. I set up my tent in the shelter which was a good idea because of all the mice. This was only my third time I had ever stayed in a shelter on the entire AT and in hindsight I know why. The mice were everywhere. I think I could not get used to seeing a mouse last thing before you go to bed and first thing in the morning. I actually had to put in earplugs in order not to hear their noise.

As a celebration menu I ate my favourite Knorr formerly know as Lipton side dish "Thai Sesame Noodles" and a highlight dessert: I had saved one bar of chocolate from Toek's wonderful maildrop for that occasion (Milka Creme de Caramel). And then I went to bed and fell asleep - I did not even have energy to listen to radio or read. I did not feel very special - it just felt like a normal day hiking. I got up next morning at 5.45 am as usual - everything even INSIDE the shelter was soaking wet from the fog. Even in Germany we do not have fog as bad as that. I ate Kashi cereal for breakfast and still did not feel special. Then I hiked back to Springer Mountain to take the official "I did it" photos which was kind of difficult because there was no one else around and I had to play with the timer nearly breaking the camera in the process. After taking about 50 photos and signing the trail register I decided it was time to leave and hike back to Suches. I still did not feel very special.

It was a miserably day - you could hardly see a thing and I thought that it was probably a good idea to finish my hike. I hiked back a different way I came and ran into a military manouver - there is a military base close to Springer Mountain. I don't know who was more scared: Me, because 20 soldiers hiding in the fog were pointing machine guns at me or the soldiers, who were confronted with a happily singing hiker in shorts in the rain. But probably those guys were used to hikers performing all sorts of weird rituals on top of Springer Mountain...

Note Silver Potato's hiking skirt

Later on another very unexpected thing happened: I ran into a bunch of nobo AT hikers doing trail magic. Believe it or not: They were sitting out there in the rain and fog with sodas and beer trying to get a fire started to barbecue some steaks. There are not too many sobo hikers out there so they could have ended up doing trail magic and nobody shows up. But we were all lucky: I met Silver Potatoe and Cracker there plus a father and son team. Silver Potatoe and Cracker had actually married on top of Springer Mountain two years ago - isn't that romantic? So we all stood around in the rain and fog drinking beer and sodas....

But I had to leave soon to hike my last missing 3.5 miles and meet Flat Feet. This is when it really started to rain hard. I ran into a leftover fire fighter and cursed the trail a last time for going over every damn mountain. Flat Feet had even hiked in a little bit to meet me and hike the last yards of my triple crown with me. By the time we arrived at his car we were soaking wet - and I was happy that the hike was over. I still do not feel very special. But from now on I can call myself: German Tourist - Triple Crown Hiker

I at the Southern CDT terminus

Postscript: The only sad thing about my finish was the lack of a coronation party. In order to achieve the Triple Crown you have to "sacrifice" almost 1,5 years of you life and that usually deserves a big celebration. Most hikers complete their Triple Crown on the CDT - like my hiking buddy Toek whom I had the honour to coronate. In his "coronation ceremony" he was wearing a plastic viking helmet with 3 horns as a crown - each representing one of the three long trails. At that point in time I myself had only hiked 2 of them - as you can see in this picture taken at the Southern Terminus of the CDT - and so I could only were a "two horned" Triple Crown back then.

But only one year later I had become a Triple Crowner myself - albeit without a crown or party....because hardly anybody completes their Triple Crown on the AT, especially not in November and so I was all alone. I even had to take the finish photos with a timer. But I was compensated at least a bit for it by two events: Flat Feet gave me patches of all 3 trails to sew on my backpack or jacket. And when my German friend Maik came to visit me he brought a lot of my favourite German chocolate which we decided to use as a substitute chocolate Triple Crown.

AT: Only 20 miles and I am stopped...

I have only 20 miles (= 1 day) to go and the completely unforeseen happened: I am stopped by a forest fire. This is so unbelievable as it is fucking cold right now and rainy and overcast that you would think of anything but a forest fire. But there it is: US Forest Service has closed the trail between Woody Gap and Gooch Gap. When I was told that at Walasi-Yi Center I first thought they were joking, but unfortunately it is true. Fortunately, Flat Feet, another triple crowner lives in Suches, which is 2 miles from Woody Gap. So I called him and I am staying there right now. And there is a detour around the fire, so life is not so bad anyway. According to the weather forecast it will rain on the day I will finish. Well, I started in rain so I might as well finish in rain. But it was much warmer when I started. Despite my 10 degree Fahrenheit sleeping bag I am starting to freeze my ass off at night. Maybe this is mother Nature's way of telling me that it is time to finish the trail. And when I am in Australia sweating like a pig I will probably be longing for some cold.

Also trail magic is abundant: When I tried to hitch into Hiawasse I got a ride with an Alaskan fishing guide. And guess what: After 10 minutes I got invited to stay at his place. Which saved me 50$ for a motel room, gave me some interesting stories about Alaska and taught me a new word: FUBAR (the Americans will know what that means and for the Germans: It is a word not to be used in public). Unfortunately, this guy turned out to be an alcoholic (what else do you expect from someone from Alaska?) and I have never seen anyone drinking a whole bottle of Bourbon in one evening. I also have never seen anyone smoke so much either! But we still had a lot of fun together and I even made it back to the trail alive ... with him driving and me praying.

Today I was happily hiking along the trail when I meet another hiker. He tells me that he met me last year on the CDT - this thruhiker world is really small. But it got much better when his two hiking companions turned up who happened to be from Australia. And in 10 minutes I ended up with 2 places to stay in Australia. Long distance hiking community international I would say.

AT: North Carolina, elections and deadly sins

Fontana Dam

 I liked Fontana Dam best because of its visitor centre with free toilet and shower facilities - including hot water! The shelter nearby is so nice that it is called Fontana Dam Hilton, but as usually I did not stay in the shelter but hiked on. Election day was coming up and I really wanted to watch the whole event on TV. I had seen all the previous election debates and even the vice-presidential ones either on TV or had listened to them on my cell phone radio and now of course I wanted to see the real thing. I opted to stay in a hostel together with fellow hikers Silver Potato, Cracker and others which would prove to be an interesting combination as one was a hard core Republican whereas the rest of the hikers were for the Democrats. And I truly spent an exciting evening in front of the TV - and I guess you all know who won those elections.

Silver Potato and Cracker

I continued hiking around Silver Potato and Cracker who are avid mountain bikers and we found an interesting topic: The seven deadly sins. A fellow hiker had called me a "glutton for punishment" when I told him about my next hiking plans and I learnt what gluttony is - and that brought me to the question of what the other 6 deadly sins were. Surely in such a Christian country as the US we would be able to name them all? But even with combined hiker effort we could not come up with the solution and I had to promise Silver Potato and Cracker not to attack passing hikers with weird questions about deadly sins - it might cast a bad light on us. For all of you who don't know the answer either but care to know you will find the solution here.

Around the same time I had had a pretty bizarre "Christian" experience myself: I was happily hiking along the trail when I saw a sign saying "Trail magic 500 yards" and of course no hungry hiker can pass up such an opportunity. I ended up in front of a rather posh house which was quickly opened and I was invited to an opulent pancake breakfast. The trail angels, a retired couple seemed very nice and friendly. But all of a sudden and completely out of context the husband asked me: "What do you think will happen when you die?" I nearly dropped my fork and all my alarm bells started ringing. Had I fallen into the hands of serial killers? It turned out not to be quite that bad - I was only dealing with some over-zealous Christian missionaries who tried to proselytize hikers. Discussion was not possible and ended up getting a very long sermon which I had to endure defenseless as I was still eating breakfast. And in the end I was more or less forced to take a Christian book with me. I was very glad to get of there and not surprised at all to find loads of similar books in the next shelters....Apparently other hikers had had to endure similar experiences.

AT: Tennessee or Wildcat, Halloween and Hot Springs

Snow in the Smokies

As it was finally getting colder and colder every day I was looking forward to the town of Hot Springs – which really boasts some hot springs for soaking. But there was another attraction, too: Elmer's, a sort of buddhist retreat and hiker hostel. Elmer is an American offers very cheap accommodation in his huge, but a bit decrepit house. The rooms are big, but the sanitary facilities a bit out dated and each shared toilet had its own quirk. But all this was more than compensated by an extensive library and the fantastic vegetarian food served for dinner. As each night there are different guests Elmer starts the dinner conversation by a question everyone has to answer in order to introduce himself – in my case “If you were to die in a natural disaster which one would you choose?” I guess in reality you do not have much choice if your number is up, but the various answers were quite interesting. The hot springs on the other hand were a bit disappointing in comparison: This being puritan America you could only soak in separate pools – and it was not very sociable to sit all on my own in an outdoor tub in water that got colder by the minute.

In the Smokies I finally received the first snow of the year - and it hit me hard and very cold. In the morning not only my shoes and socks were frozen, but my complete water bottle. Even on the CDT I hardly ever had so much frost. So I was trudging through ankle deep snow on my way to Newfound Gap - but I was in very good mood because I knew that some trail magic is waiting for me there: Wildcat! And of course Wildcat was already waiting for me when I got to there – with tons of food like sandwiches, fruit and sweets to feed a hungry hiker. His wife Becky even cooked Sauerkraut for me as a special treat for German hikers. 

Wildcat and I

Wildcat had hiked the CDT the same year I did and although we just had met for one evening he invited me to his house and a zero day in Maryville, TN. And what a great zero day I had: Halloween. We do not have Halloween in Germany so I was invited to do the Trick or Treat stuff with the kids (probably eating most of the candy I was supposed to give to the kids myself....) I was very well fed, laundered and showered when Wildcat and his wife Becky brought me back to the trail. And even the snow had melted by then which was just in time because I had to climb to the highest point on the AT this day: Clingman's Dome at an elavation of 2.025 meter. After all that snow I enjoyed a beautiful Indian Summer day.

AT: My "Deliverance" experience

Everybody and their mother had told me about the movie "Deliverance" and warned me about Southern Appalachia. But nothing had prepared my for my own private little Deliverance experience. I was not so happily hiking one day when it was raining and storming so badly that even I decided to stay the night in a hostel 0.7 miles off trail. Of course there was no cell phone reception so I just walked there. When I arrived it was nearly getting dark and it was raining cats and dogs. There was a sign at the reception saying "We are in the house next door - come over and knock." which I did. The door was opened by - a guy about 20 years having no (I repeat: no) front teeth whatsoever, red eyes and being so drunk or stoned or both that he could hardly talk. The house behind him looked like a total mess and more like the crime scene of a ritual murder than an American home. But it was too late to tactfully retreat....

He finally managed to find some keys and followed me into the pouring rain totally oblivious of the fact that he was getting wet. He tried to show me the bunkhouse but could hardly find the hole in the lock to open the door. And I was more interested to see whether I could lock the door from inside. And it was not very helpful that he told me that I was the only one staying at the whole place that night... But the weather was so bad that I decided to stay! I barricaded the door with a chair and locked it - and actually had a good night's sleep!

In the morning I went over to have another look at the reception and big surprise: An older couple was sitting there and they solved the mystery. First they apologized for their boy "being under the weather". Then they explained that their son is a stone mason and is currently renovating their house - therefore the big mess there. And because of all the dust he had to drink all that beer... When they had come home and realized what was going on they decided not to check on me that night because they did not want to scare me any more - what a good evaluation of the whole situation. So the story had a good and happy ending - and I even got a free ride back to the trail.

AT: The gathering

Birdnut

 I have almost completed the triple crown but I had never been to any Gathering. I had to change that. This year the Gathering was taking place in Athens, WV and I was hiking in the area anyway. And when Weathercarrot, the coordinator of the program sent an email around that he was still looking for someone to do the CDT workshop I volunteered to do that. I only needed a ride to get to the Gathering - remember: I am hiking in a country with hardly any public transportation. I sent around an email on all mailing lists and what a surprise: Birdnut, another PCT 04 hiker volunteered to give me a ride. We met at Elk Garden and already had a great time driving down to Athens.(Postscript 2011: This meeting laid the foundation of another great trip in the future. During the drive to and from the Gathering we started talking about paddling the Everglades - which we eventually did in 2010)

The program was a blast: There were so many workshops I was busy all weekend long. I learnt everything about hammock camping, got new trail ideas about the Florida Trail and hiking in the Andes, learnt about Peace Pilgrim and the Israeli National Trail and even did some dancing. The dancing was most interesting as I more or less had to drag Birdnut into the square dancing. There were all these hikers at the Gathering who had walked thousands of miles but nobody wanted to do square dancing! The first very reluctant Birdnut liked it so much that we actually square danced well into midnight (I mean real midnight, not hiker midnight!). (Postscript 2011: The presentation of the Florida Trail was so great that I decided to hike it - which I did in 2010)

And I met so many interesting people: First of all old PCT friends like Birdnut, Cadence, Radar, Billygoat and Weathercarrot. Then current AT hikers like Timber (who was so afraid of bears that I had to hike with him), Longwe Tru and Rockfish. And of course new hikers like Roni from Israel (who had to confess that he never hiked the Israeli National Trail), Stumpknocker and Miss Gorp who told me about cycling and so many more.

Weathercarrot

Even my CDT workshop was a success despite the fact that Jim and Ginny Owen (who had done the workshop in all the years before) were constantly giving their comments on whatever I said. I liked it so much that I decided to come back another year and do a workshop on hiking in Europe. (Jim and Ginny Owen have never been to Europe and can therefore make no stupid comments...) Billygoat told me how proud he is of me: "I still remember you starting on the PCT completely intimidated and convinced that you will never make it - and now you are almost a triple crowner and give CDT workshops." Thank you Billygoat.

Oh, and I forgot to mention the AYCE food 3 times a day that was actually really good. And the campfires at night. And the free book about hammock camping. And the PCT CD's from Weathercarrot. And.. And.. And... When Birdnut had brought me back to the trail I was singing the whole day - so happy was I. I had had such a great time - I will be back for another Gathering.

AT: Trail magic in mail drops

Chocolate makes a happy hiker

I must admit that on this thruhike the food was really getting to me. I had been eating Lipton Sidedishes for half a year on the CDT in 07 and now I had to eat Lipton Sidedishes for another half year on the AT with only a short break of German food in between. I started to hate Lipton Sidedishes. And Idahon Mashed Potatoes. Not to mention Top Ramen Noodle Soup. Even with thruhiker hunger it took me forever to eat me dinners.

But then my friend Wolfgang came to my rescue. He had already sent me resupply packages to the PCT and CDT. On the AT I sent him a long list of what food I wash craving - basically the German version of Lipton sidedishes. The package was sent to Pearisburg and resulted in a very happy German hiker. I could eat something different than Lipton sidedishes for a whole week. Sweet and sour noodles instead of Teriaky noodles. Tomatoe Mozarella instead of Cheddar Broccoli. I know it sounds ridiculous to non-hikers, but for a hiker this can change the world. Thank you so much Wolfgang!

Toek's parcel

But the biggest surprise came from Toek and the Netherlands. Toek and me had hiked whole New Mexico together and of course I had always been bitching about the American chocolate. So when Toek emailed me and volunteered to send a care package I was sort of expecting chocolate. But what finally arrived in Damascus exceeded my wildest expectations. Toek had sent me 12 (in words: twelve) pounds of chocolate. Good European chocolate. Milka chocolate, Fair Trade chocolate, Euroshopper chocolate. Milk chocolate, hazelnut chocolate, caramel chocolate. To say that I was overwhelmed is an understatement. I opened the package and could not believe my eyes. This chocolate will accompany me through the rest of the AT - I keep bouncing it ahead. Toek, this was the best birthday/triple crown present I could possibly imagine. I took pictures of it so whenever I am hungry I can look at it again. Toek, you are fantastic.