In July, I made a trip to Maine to hike a planned 5 days with Steve. We stayed at the Gorman Chairback Lodge in a cabin I rented for the week. We ended up with 3 days but hiked the first 30 miles of the 100 Mile Wilderness. It was tough hiking the remote trailheads did not make the logistics easy.
John and I planned a trip to the south again for the month of October. On Columbus Day, we met at Amicolola Falls State Park, where we had reserved a 2BR cabin for a few days. On Tuesday we had planned to hike the AT access trail down from Springer Mountain, but record breaking rains messed with our plans. We became tourists for the day in Dahlonega. On Wednesday and Thursday we met Holt and Ed to hike several sections. After John left on Friday morning, Ed, Holt and I hiked three more days through Sunday.
In January, the ìpolar vortexî hit North America breaking coldest temperature records throughout the United States. Colorado began the legal sale of marijuana.
I read several AT books over the winter, one a fictional account of a reluctant hiker who hiked the trail against his will.
Besides the Cullowhee conference I made two other trips south to work on the AT.
In May hiked six days first completing everything to Erwin TN and then heading south using Newport TN as home base and hiking just north of the Smokies and over 2 days hiking from Lemon Gap over Max Patch to Davenport Gap.
John joined me for a time and we also drove up to Newfound Gap in SMNP and hiked the eight miles up to Clingman’s Dome in the fog. This trip totaled 52 AT miles.
I was again anticipating the 2013 biennial conference but not obsessively so, as in 2011. The conference was held in Cullowhee, North Carolina on the campus of Western Carolina University. The dates for the conference were July 19-26. The planned hikes were extensive including 100 AT miles. Only about 10 of those miles were in Smoky Mountain National Park from Clingmans Dome to Newfound Gap. The logistics for the rest of the park did not suit day hikes. I planned for 67 miles south of the park from Fontana Dam to Albert Mountain. I was not able to get on all the hikes initially, but as is usually the case, people drop out and openings occur.
At Trail Days in Damascus, Virginia in late May, an 80 year old man (a local resident and former AT hiker) lost control of his car during the hiker parade and injured over fifty people. I entered my eleventh triathlon in late May. I am certainly not anywhere near first in my age group, but not last either.
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