Sunday to Friday. A zero day and lots of adventures.

So Jordan has officially made it to star status. Plus he has a posse now. You’ve met Torque from an earlier post. Giuseppe the German shepherd has now joined the gang. While staying at the Standing Bear Farm, all the hikers got to know Jordan. He was allowed to run around and meet everyone. So now, Hollywood is always having people come up any ‘So that’s YOUR dog. We saw him at SBF and yada yada yada.’ Hollywood and Julia Childs have been hiking in the same pattern as a group of others. They are  Napalm, Sam, Sage Monkey, and Snow. They initially just met at various spots and sheltered along the trail, but have jelled into a group. They are a group held together with the bond of canine companionship. There is so much to tell.

 They all took a zero day in Hot Springs. It was the generous donation of a sprint phone from one of them that allowed Tyler and Melissa to have a nice three hour conversation. She has ATT and the service is literally nonexistent in Hot Springs. Her phone call was very broken up last night.

One of the coolest things I learned is that Hot Springs as well as many other towns they hit ARE the Appalachian Trail. The trail markers run right through main St. So everyplace they went while on a “zero” day, they were either NoBo or SoBo on the AT.  The sidewalk has AT’s carved into it.

Wednesday Zero day was supposed to be very productive but she actually got little done. Tyler called and by the time they had a few minutes to catch up, the library had already closed. She intended to upload some more photos so we could enjoy them. Maybe next time.

Tuesday night when they rolled into town, they rented a little cabin, ‘perfect for five’ with only three beds. How that was supposed to fit five, he world may never know. Plus the three musketeers, Jordan Torque, and Giuseppe. That makes for a tight squeeze.  That night they pulled in a bunch of the other people staying at the campground and, in Melissa fashion, got the two adjoining cabins occupants to join the party so nobody would complain about the noise.  A couple of the hikers in the group had trail guitars, they lit a nice fire, and a whole hootenanny was had by all.

Going into town is a funny thing for them now. They are focused and intent on getting so much done, Restock, catch up with family, clean, get mail, send mail, wash clothes, shower, go to a bar or a restaurant to get some calories crammed in, post photos to facebook and chat for a bit on 56K dialup computers at the library, charge batteries, and a bunch more as you can guess. But there is never enough time and they know there isn’t before going into town. No number of lists and good intentions can get all the stuff done or stretch the time in town.

Hence the idea of going into town to face all this becomes stressful. While they are on the trail, it’s simple. Everything you need is in your pack. You hike all day, setup camp, eat some food, go to sleep, pack it all back up. Rinse and repeat daily.

However, once IN town, it becomes your haven from the bug bites, cold nights, ground sleeping, drafty shelters, sore feet world that is a thru-hikers life on the Appalachian Trail. And on top of it all, whenever they leave town, it’s always an uphill hike they face. The towns are primarily situated in gaps and gorges, so it was nice downhill trekking on the way in, but grueling trudging on the way out.

The Standing Bear Farm was a nice place to board Jordan. The family, who run it, took him right into their house with them. He got to play with the family and other dogs he’s met along the trail. The reuniting with Jordan was great. He peed he was so happy LOL J.  He was very happy there. He met up with Kiwi so they got to spend the week together. They hung out on the porch all day and said hello to the hikers coming in. They never kenneled him, so it was a really nice relaxing week for the J-Dog.

Standing Bear Farm was a bit more stressful for Melissa. They got there late, found out the facilities were less than desirable. The ‘bathroom’ was a privy, the ‘laundry’ was a washboard, and no running water, so no showers. The trail guide had boasted about the place, which is a nice stopover, but it said these facilities plus shower were available here. They had sytayed for a very long time at the trail magic I mentioned on Easter. They never expected to have to hike too far because they were only three miles out of Standing Bear. So they arrive late, find the place is OK, but they get nothing more than they would on the trail and have to pay 15.00 to pitch a tent in the yard.

They decided to just get Jordan and hike on to the next campsite. It turns out to be much further than expected. Melissa had the extra food from Fontana Dam for Jordan, plus his Standing Bear Farm pickup. They had to don headlamps to make it there and all the while Melissa was carrying over 40 pounds and also carrying Jordan’s backpack in her hands. Eventually they had to stop long enough to put Jordan’s pack on in the fading light and she packed as much food as she could into his pack. it was so dark by the time they arrived at the site, they couldn’t find good places to pitch tents without disturbing others. They set up where they could and it slept exhausted, sweaty and uncomfortable on root riddled ground.

But Melissa had Jordan back and that made everything tolerable. The gang was whole again. Both doggy and human.

They left town Thursday morning at 1:00PM and she was calling me just after 9:00 PM. They were at the Sprint Mountain Shelter when she was calling. That is 282.8 NoBo. Plus another large gap and peak they had to hike over today before hitting some relatively flat ground. Our next expected contact will be when they hit Erwin, TN to pick up some of Jordan’s food and other essential sundries. 

Melissa says hello to everyone and can’t wait to see you along the trail. And there you have it. Sunday to Friday.  Another week on the trail and many more miles to go. We wish them all the best.