We thought it might be fun for our readers to participate in a little quiz about our AT journey. Match the question numbers to the letter of the correct answer, and submit your answers by commenting on this post. We'll reveal the answers and the winner later. The grand prize will be pride and a brief distraction from your work day.
1) Roughly how many white blazes mark the AT from Georgia to Maine?
2) How many miles have we hiked on the AT at the time of this post?
3) How many states have we hiked in at the time of this post?
4) How many items have we accidentally dropped over the side of a mountain?
5) How many bobcats have we seen?
6) How many snakes have we seen?
7) How many snakes have we seen in the process of eating something alive?
8) How many wild boar have we seen?
9) How many days did it take to complete the fastest through hike on record? The real answer includes a decimal, but we rounded to the nearest day.
10) How many states does the AT go through?
11) How many times between the two of us have we fallen while hiking? Only complete falls count. If we catch ourselves with our hands and our butts don't touch the ground then that doesn't count. Still embarrassing, but it doesn't count.
12) What's the highest elevation on the AT? Hint: We've been there and done that.
13) What is the weight in pounds of 1 liter of water?
14) How many liters of water do we carry combined?
15) How many bear ropes have gone through either by misplacing or destroying them? This includes the bear rope we're currently using.
16) How many combined pounds of body weight have we lost since the start of our hike?
17) At the time of this post, how many days have we been hiking?
A) 0
B) 4
C) 6,543
D) 56
E) 1
F) 13
G) 14
H) 3
I) 4
J) 1
K) 531
L) 3
M) 2
N) 2.2
O) 165,000
P) 47
Q) 10
Monday, May 28, 2012
Friday, May 18, 2012
A Day in Pictures
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| View climbing Little Hump Mountain |
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| Snack break at Jones Falls |
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| We really enjoyed the several miles where the trail followed the river |
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| View from our lunch spot |
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| The sky cleared coming down Roan Mountain |
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| We met some fun guys! |
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| Just a couple of soaking wet hikers |
Tuesday, May 15, 2012
The Stench of Guy Line
The Appalachian Trail Conservancy keeps records of the percentage of thru-hikers that drop off the trail by certain points. For example, about 50% of north-bounders drop off by Harpers Ferry, WV about 1,000 miles into the trail. If the ATC kept similar statistics on A.T. blog readership, I'm guessing that most blogs would lose at least 50% of readers at the first post that spends an entire paragraph describing body odor.
Body odor and less than stellar hygiene are inevitable parts of the trail, but they can become a real issue when hiking with a partner. I was not fully aware of the gravity of the issue until Bearcub subtly broached the subject with her comment, "You smell like a Burger King." Close, but not quite. Days later she got more accurate with "You smell like an onion." Very close, but still not quite. Let's put it this way, if scientists genetically engineered a giant onion that could live and work among humans, and if that onion were to work a 12 hour shift in a Burger King kitchen on the hottest day in August with no air conditioning, him and I may be in the same range of stink.
To those of you that are still reading, there's no need to worry. I took Bearcub's constructive criticism to heart and greatly improved my trail hygiene. It's a miracle what a baby wipe bath and some baby powder can do. The only bad part is now that I'm stench-free, I can smell how bad every other hiker smells. If only they had a Bearcub of their own to tell them what's what.
- Guy Line
Body odor and less than stellar hygiene are inevitable parts of the trail, but they can become a real issue when hiking with a partner. I was not fully aware of the gravity of the issue until Bearcub subtly broached the subject with her comment, "You smell like a Burger King." Close, but not quite. Days later she got more accurate with "You smell like an onion." Very close, but still not quite. Let's put it this way, if scientists genetically engineered a giant onion that could live and work among humans, and if that onion were to work a 12 hour shift in a Burger King kitchen on the hottest day in August with no air conditioning, him and I may be in the same range of stink.
To those of you that are still reading, there's no need to worry. I took Bearcub's constructive criticism to heart and greatly improved my trail hygiene. It's a miracle what a baby wipe bath and some baby powder can do. The only bad part is now that I'm stench-free, I can smell how bad every other hiker smells. If only they had a Bearcub of their own to tell them what's what.
- Guy Line
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