A Long Overdue Update!



As I start this blog it is Wednesday, April 6th. I’m in Erwin, Tennessee at mile 342 taking only my second zero day (zero days are days that you don’t hike any miles at all). Exactly one month ago on March 6th I was standing at the southern terminus of the trail on Springer Mountain in Georgia. So far it’s been an incredible journey and feels like forever since I’ve updated this blog. So much has happened so I’ll try not to leave too much out.

Overdue

Long overdue update So despite finally getting my internet sorted, the updates haven’t been coming thick and fastbut I have a bunch of photos and random trips to talk about this time so hopefully that’ll make up for it. Get all the latest news and updates on Long Overdue only on News18.com. Read all news including political news, current affairs and news headlines online on Long Overdue today. Long Overdue Update Professional Goals, School, Travel, Work November 15, 2015 1 Comment Well, it is long past time that I provided an update on my current situation! A COVID-19 Update that is Long Overdue Written by Salim Rezaie REBEL Covid-19, REBEL EM Medical Category: Infectious Disease 0 Comments Background: There have been lots of trials sitting on my computer desktop awaiting my review, but like many of you time has been thin from clinical work and increasing cases of COVID-19 where I work. Definition of Long Overdue. Referring to something that should to have happened a long time ago. Examples of Long Overdue in a sentence. The payment for our insurance is long overdue, and we are going to have to pay an extra fine since we are half a month late.

After leaving the Top of Georgia hiker hostel and crossing over into North Carolina. I’ve had Juice accompanying me. Him and I had a group going with our buddy Goose who we hadn’t seen in a couple of days. After hiking through thunderstorms with hail and working through some pain in my Posterior Tibial tendon (tendon next to Achilles), my morale was beginning to falter. But the trail tends to bring out the best in certain situations and while I was laying in my tent around sunset I heard from outside my tent “is that you Peanut Butter?” (PB is my trail name by the way). Who else but our friend Goose just happened to show up at the same shelter as Juice and I just by chance. He apparently decided to push himself and do a 16 mile day to where we were. This was a big day for us during this time. We were at most doing 10 mile days. This was an exciting moment for us and I immediately began feeling better. It’s amazing how the little things have such a large impact on your mood and can totally flip a situation around.

This was also where I met Dimples, a girl from Wisconsin who would join up with the three of us for a while. Around mile 130 there’s this outfitter called the Nantahala Outdoor Center (NOC). This is where 30 percent of northbound hikers leave the trail for various reasons. I and a bunch of other hikers left the NOC with bellies full of burgers and beer (maybe a bit of whisky as well). In retrospect the alcohol probably wasn’t the best idea as the climb out of the NOC is absolutely brutal. Very steep ascents that seemingly go on forever. I can’t tell if doing that half drunk made it better or if that was just the dehydration playing with my head. Either way, it was a good time.

After leaving the NOC we encountered our first snow storms on the trail. These were some of the coldest days so far. We were having to sleep with our water filters and electronics in our sleeping bags to keep them from freezing. Unfortunately for our friend Soup who has been in our group since just before the NOC left his sleeping pad at a shelter the night before the storm. After a cold, sleepless night for him we came to a road and he was able to hitch a ride back to the NOC to buy a new one. We didn’t know when we’d see him again since none of us had good phone service in the area we’d been in for the past couple of days. We made it to a shelter and slept the night away. In the morning Soup was still nowhere to be found. Juice and I decided to hike on and about a quarter mile past where we camped we saw a tent about 100 yards in the woods off the trail. It was Soup! Apparently he decided to hike past where we were and stealth camp because he didn’t know where exactly we ended up. The trail provides once again.

Update!Overdue

When we arrived at Fontana Dam, Goose and I had packages waiting for us, which was apparently a bad idea as we were forced to take a zero day to wait for them to show up. Juice and Soup decided to enter into the Smoky Mountains without us and figured we’d catch up soon. After a refreshing day of no hiking and sleeping in a hotel bed, I was ready to take on the 70 mile section of trail that passes through the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Unfortunately for Goose, his package situation held him back an extra half day, so I pressed on into the Smokies alone. The downside of the smokies is that they technically banned setting up tents and force hikers to sleep in the shelters that they have there, unless of course the shelters were full. This causes sickness to spread quickly throughout the Smokies and the dreaded norovirus springs up every year. Naturally the shelters were “full” for me three of the five nights I was there and I mostly just set my tent up where I could.

Anyway, I wanted to get through the Smokies as quickly as possible and so the first day I did 13 miles and waited for Goose to show up. Day two, I made a plan to do my first 18 mile day with Goose. I woke up early before he got up and pressed on hard. After a long day, I set my tent up and went to sleep. When I woke up I discovered that Goose never showed up. I thought “well, looks like I’m doing the Smokies solo!” and moved on. This is also when the fog, rain, and hail decided to come in full swing. That day I did a dismal, and wet 15 miles. I went over Clingman’s Dome, the highest point on the whole trail and was greeted by a wall of white fog and no views. Was still a fun and steep climb to get up there. For some reason I felt as though the adversities the weather was tossing at me was fueling my adrenaline and excitement about being out there and experiencing what nature had to offer me. I used this a fuel to push through it all.

That night I bumped into Oats, a friend that I hadn’t seen in quite some time. It was nice to see a familiar face and I ended up hiking with her off and on the next day during my longest day on the trail so far at 19.8 miles. After two and a half days of not seeing the sun once and having no views, I looked up ahead on the trail and saw blue skies. I almost couldn’t believe what I was seeing. All around me was a damp forest and cloudy haze on all sides, but I could just make out a small glimmer of blue through the trees ahead of me. I pressed on and eventually walked out of the clouds into a gorgeous sunny day. I can’t really put into words exactly how I felt in this moment. I never thought I’d be so happy to see the sun. This was definitely one of the most unique experiences on the trail for me so far. I looked where I came from and saw a huge mass of white clouds and ahead was a clear, amazing, sunny blue sky. It was like stepping out of one universe into another. It was truly a profound moment that will stick with me forever. Two and a half days doesn’t sound like a long time, but when you’re hiking close to 20 miles all day long it feels like an eternity.

Overdue

My last day in the Smokies I woke up extremely sore from doing these big mile days but decided to start hiking before the sun came up. I had gotten in touch with Soup and Juice and had plans to meet them 10 miles from where I was at Standing Bear Farm, a hiker hang out spot run by an interesting character named Lumpy. We then planned to do 7ish more miles and call it a night, this would total in yet another long day at 17.6 miles.

So I woke up at 5:30 before the sun came up and started hiking at 6am. This is another amazing memory for me. It was an incredible experience to watch the sun rise from over 5000 feet through the trees and see the town lights in the distance and beautiful pink glow through the forest. I’m not sure what it is, but there’s a certain feeling that comes from being up seemingly before everyone else around you. Before the bustle of the day sets in. It’s almost as though you’re in on a secret and when everyone else gets up, you’ve already set in to your day.

Long Overdue Synonym

I made it back with Juice and Soup and we pressed on. The next day we went over Max Patch, a gorgeous open area with 360 degree mountain views. We were greeted with trail magic by former thru-hikers. They gave us beer and lots of food. Great boost for us.

A Long Overdue Update Notification

A few days later we made plans to stop in Hot Springs, NC. We had high hopes of eating BBQ and enjoying the town for a day. Unfortunately a single tree knocked out the power for an entire day and we decided to push on and skip out on some well deserved food. What are the chances of that by the way? One tree knocking out a whole town for so long… Rural south. (We were lucky enough to snag a burger and some beer right before the power knocked out so it wasn’t all bad).

A Long Overdue Update Letter

This blog post can’t end without some more strange encounters. On some rural road crossing on the TN border, we saw a spray painted sign that read “Mom’s”. Naturally we decided to investigate and ended up walking into this run down warehouse that sold sodas and chips to hikers. No actual signs were there and they only accepted cash. This place was incredible. The next day we saw a sign for some trail magic and decided to follow it. This man named Quiet Paul was there cooking eggs and potatoes for hikers passing through. The only catch was that every hiker that came through had to walk over to the adjacent grave yard, fill a bucket up with dirt and spread it on one of the grave sites. Apparently this Quiet Paul guy had a deal worked out with the graveyard? Alright then… It was worth it. I was super low on food at the time so I thought nothing of it, I just wanted those damn eggs. Pretty bizarre. Later that day, I received two beers from two different day hikers passing through, so there’s that. All in all not a bad day. Even though I drank one of those beers walking up Big Bald Mountain. Not my finest decision, but it was a fun hike up nonetheless. I will say, packing out beer cans in my food bag isn’t very fun, turns into a sticky mess.

Long Overdue Meaning

Not sure how to end this post. I had a lot of ground to cover. I’ll hopefully be updating this blog more often so these posts will be a bit shorter and more in depth. My apologies for any typos, this is all typed out on my phone.

Stay tuned for more soon!