{"id":156,"date":"2016-04-12T19:36:17","date_gmt":"2016-04-13T03:36:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.calumjohnson.org\/?p=156"},"modified":"2016-04-12T19:42:02","modified_gmt":"2016-04-13T03:42:02","slug":"hiking-your-own-hike","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.calumjohnson.org\/?p=156","title":{"rendered":"Hiking Your Own Hike"},"content":{"rendered":"

A common saying for solo thru hikers is “hike your own hike”. It encompasses just about everything it means to be out here. I’m not by myself on the AT, not by any means. There are tons of others out here for many different reasons. But in the end this is an individual battle. Making it to Katahdin is only achievable if I decide to keep going. A group is really nice, but even then you have to remember to hike your own hike. I left my group today, they stayed at the shelter and I pushed into the rain. I miss the familiarity of them allready, as meeting new people has always been a bit of a challenge for me. But in the end that was another reason to hike my own hike. Forceing myself into new situations to build a stronger person.<\/p>\n

Anyways, now for my recap since Hot Springs.<\/p>\n

I took another zero before leaving. Tie, one of the caretakers offered me and Kodak another work for stay and we took it. The work was easy and didn’t take that long, so the work part really didn’t impact our day. I was even allowed to use the piano at the chapel next door which was a real treat.<\/p>\n

Leaving Hot Springs was bitter sweet. I needed to get back to the trail, but at the same time Hot Springs was so nice. I liked starting my day just walking down the main drag though, it was a good farewell. The climb out also gave me some fantastic views of the sleepy little town.<\/p>\n

\"Hot
the view coming out of Hot Springs<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The rest of the day was just hiking. That night snow and hale were forecasted, but the shelter was full when I arrived. I was confident in my tent though, especially after the downpour in the smokies. I stayed dry, but it sure was cold. I didn’t get much sleep that night, probably should have made a hot water bottle.<\/p>\n

\"Tent
My tent thag morning<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The next two days were pretty plain. Georgeous views from Bald Mountain. I sang some night on bald mountain because after that there was Bald Mountain Shelter where I stayed. I did also get the best trail magic so far. A man named Paul from Ashville NC was cooking eggs and potatoes. I ate a full heap and could still eat more. It was awesome of him to do that. He said he thru hiked in 2007 so we had some good talks about that.<\/p>\n

\"Bald
Bald Mountain<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Last night and today I got rained on. Staying in the shelter made my morning routine pretty easy, no wet tent and all. Then I headed out. The mud slowed me down quite a bit. I had one good fall, luckily nothing hurt, but I was much more careful after that. All of my rain gear is muddy now though, but it’ll wash off.<\/p>\n

I’m staying at Uncle Jonnies hostel in Erwin TN. I caught the shuttle into town for dinner and had a large plate of Enchiladas Picosas and a glass of Negra Modelo. I know, Mexican food in Tennessee? What was I thinking?! But it was actually pretty good, an authentic place owned by a Mexican family who moved here. Tomorrow it looks like I’ll take the same shuttle for breakfast and then I’ll be off toward Hampton, my next resupply.<\/p>\n

-Orion<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A common saying for solo thru hikers is “hike your own hike”. It encompasses just about everything it means to be out here. I’m not by myself on the AT, not by any means. There are tons of others out here for many different reasons. But in the end this is an individual battle. Making … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Hiking Your Own Hike”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-156","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.calumjohnson.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.calumjohnson.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.calumjohnson.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.calumjohnson.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.calumjohnson.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=156"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.calumjohnson.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":165,"href":"https:\/\/www.calumjohnson.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156\/revisions\/165"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.calumjohnson.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.calumjohnson.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.calumjohnson.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}