Food, Food, Food

Tom Tom called me when he was six miles from Neel's Gap, I was still about a hour away by car.  He wanted me to stop and get some food.  He was hungry, "Lots of Gatorade and Candy."  He came across the parking lot at 7:00 pm, wearing his sleek black square quilted jacket.  He said he had blood in his urine, something that Jill had told me.  She got it off his facebook page.  We checked , it usually meant he was dehydrated and overly strained from doing too much. 

After pigging out on the wood deck at Neel's Gap, we drove to Blairsville to rent a movie; $1.60 since we were going to watch it in the parking lot with my laptop.  Tom Tom picked out "Tron."  We finished watching  it with the engine running after the laptop battery died.  He told me that he was giving up the record, conceding that he would rather have a companion on the trail and support, before he tries it again.  Physically he said he can handle it, but it just isn't as much fun all by himself all day.  We drove back to the trail parking lot to sleep.

Tom Tom slept in till 11:00 and we went back to Neel's Gap outfitters to buy him new shoes.  His trainers were down to their last 30 miles, the soles were paper thin.  He bought a pair of fancy hiking sneakers for $150.  They would last the whole trail.  His total funds for the rest of his trip were down to $350.  We went to town for an all-you-can-eat pizza, then to the laundry mat.  It was also an Internet hot spot for facebooking and uploading pictures.  We still couldn't get TomTomRace.com to allow me to blog.

Off to the movie theatre to see Pirates 4, a stop at Walfull House then back to the trail head.  Tom Tom Slept in to 11:00 again. 

He finished peeling the wrappers off all his candy and put them in a Glad bag.  Took his water filter back out of his box for me to take home.  Part of the reason, he was so dehydrated was that he was rationing his water because it took so long to purify it with the silver pellets (over an hour).  He decided to also carry an emergency small bottle of water inside his pack.  His 22 pound pack was now up to 30 pounds with his three days supply of food.

Restart the Race?

Jill heard from Tom Tom.  He spent the night at Neel's Gap and was getting a ride back to Springer Mountain to start his race over this morning.  She didn't get to talk to him, as it was left on her answering machine or on facebook.

I loaded up fast and left hoping to make it down the two miles from the ridge of Blood Mountain to Neel's Gap and catch him before he left.  It wa a beautiful trail covered with green leaves knocked off the trees during the storm.  The trail at the top was a steep stair step down over nature's switchbacks over large irregular shaped stones.

Two miles in the mountains is equivelent to walking about five miles on flat land.  When I finally made it down, the first group of hikers I met said that they had spent the night with Tom Tom.  They had been camping fifty yards past Neel's Gap when the hail storm came through and they had to make a run for it to the building because of the baseball size hail.  Tom Tom cut his new hammock lines with his Rambo (smaller) knife and held it above his head for protection as he ran.

Tom Tom had left on a private shuttle at 7:30, almost 3 hours before I got down.  I heard stories about Tom Tom from his camper friends that spent the night with him outside the bathrooms under the overhang of the building.  Tom Tom slept in his hammock tied to the stair railing.

By the time I checked on a shuttle, all the cheaper ones were booked up.  The only one availible was $120.  I was either going to hike back to Springer Mountain  or wait and see if I could get a ride with any other hikers that might be going back to Springer.

Doug and his two girls came in and they had a shuttle schedule to pick them up.  I could split the cost of his $80 fair arriving at 2:00.  I got a needed shower for $3.50 including the use of soap and a towel.  During the ride back I told them that Tom Tom was running the 30 miles back to Neel's Gap and that I was going to get my car and head back to meet up with him.  Ron the shuttle driver (his car), told us about the tornado that hit a half mile from Neel's cap during the hail storm last night.  We drove past the forest all ripped up.

Rain and Hail

A mile later as I was getting water out of a stream, it started to pour with lightning and thunder.  That's when I discovered my rain poncho wasn't long enough on the back to cover my pack and too long in the front, as I stepped on it climbing uphill.

Soon it started to hail marble sized hail mixed with the rain and a howling wind.  I got soaked fooling around with the poncho taking it on and off trying to cover my pack.  I couldn't button the sides and my camera and phone were getting wet.  Next the hail became golfball sized.  I ate a lot of it, carefull not to pick it up off the poisen ivy lining the path.  When I reached Blood Mountain shelter, a two room pioneer rock and mortar building, I decided this was far enough.  It was dropping lightning bolts and we've already lectured Tom Tom about being on ridges in lightning storms.

I called my wife, Jill, to check in and see if she heard from Jonathan.  It seemed that when he stopped at Neel's Gap, he got some advice on gear and purchased $700 worth of lighter gear.  There would be a big box of his old stuff there for me to pickup.

I changed out of all my wet clothes and put on my cotton jeans, a big camping NO-NO.  Cotton takes forever to dryout, but I wasn't really going for a long distance and the other clothes is so expensive.  All my T-shirts were also cotton.

I cooked on my sterno and spent the night alone in the glassless windows and doorless breezeway shelter, laying on my backpack and the shelter's log book.  I was trying to minimize my contact with the cold cement floor.  It was one of those cold nights that lasted forever.  My only blanket was my poncho.  I took my wet shoes and socks off and tryed to keep my heels ontop of my flip flops.

No I wasn't really asleep, the camera was on a timer.

I think a bat flying around woke me up several times along with the lack of comfort.  In the morning, I heated up some water to warm up and called Jill to see if she heard about Tom Tom.

On my own without Tom Tom

I slept at a shelter 15 miles from Springer Mountain and later found ou that Tom Tom slept at a campsite in the 20 plus mile range.  With his extra miles, that is over a marathon in the mountains.  I have to admit, I have climbed around in the mountains a lot over my life.  Hardly ever with anything over a 20 pound pack.  I am literally shocked at the difference between the two packs.  I get winded within 40 yards going upwards even walking with a walking stick.  I find myself leaning on the staff with it against my chest with both my hands on its top.  I recover fairly fast and start again.  My steps are short, nothing like Tom Tom's.

I met a camper with his boy who told me that they saw Tom Tom running uphill only four hours before.  Tom Tom must have slept through his watch alarm clock.

I have been taking my time, stopping and cooking breakfast and lunch using a really small indian fire, no bigger than the bottom of my large coffee pot that I used as my only piece of cookwear.  I ate peanut butter off of my knife blad as I had no fork or spoon.

my corner of the shelter, slept on my poncho

I played leap frog with three groups of hikers, sometimes we took breaks together.  Conner and Denice pumped two liters of water for me, so I wouldn't have to use my iodine pills.  The three hiker groups stopped about five miles from Neel's Gap, near the base of Blood Mountain.  (named after a bloody indian battle long ago).  I was going to try to make it to Neel's before dark. 

where the bloodiest indian battles were fought

Start the clock

At 6:43 just after taking some feet pictures near the palque.  Tom Tom took off saying that he might see me in six months or never if he died.

I took my time leaving and stopped for a long time at a stream a mile or so away from the start.  I didn't have a water filter nor pills to purify my water, so I had to boil it.  We each bought two cans of sterno to cook with.  It took about one and a half hours to boil about two liters of water.  A hiker stopped by as I was boiling the water and gave me his bottles of iodine and nuetralizing pills, as he was finishing his hike soon.  I would try them out in one of my Gatorade bottles.

I was just putting on some vasoline on a couple of chaffing spots when out of nowhere appeared Tom Tom.  He thought I was a thru-hiker when he stopped running to verify the directions.  Imagine the shock on his face when I turned around.  He wanted to know how I got here ahead of him, as he had been running for several hours with his 40 pound backpack?

He discovered that he had run on another side trail loope that he wasn't supposed too.  He was ticked and said, "There goes my record."   He was so mad that he hiked with me for a couple of hours at my slow pace.  After a couple of snacks, he couldn't take hiking so slow, and the race was back on.  He would try to make up his lost time somewhere else on the trail.

He left again, saying, "No hug was necessary, cause real men don't need hugs."  I could argue that point, but what's the use.  This time I was feeling pretty low.  He wanted to hike with someone and I couldn't handle his pace.  I hate getting old!

The morning of the 25th ontop of Springer Mountain

Ralph fixed the blogg, so I'll be able to start updating....

We camped from 3:45 to 9:00, the morning of the 24th, aprox one hour from Amicalola Falls State Park in the parking lot of a town nearby.  While I was airing out Tom Tom's sleeping bag, he slept outside the car on the pavement, two police cruiser came by to see what we were doing there.  They had recieved a call that some homeless people were staked out in parking lot.  I showed them Jonathan's newpaper article that explained our trip to the mountains and since there wasn't any truck stops on the road we stopped to rest.  They wished us good luck and wanted to know how to follow Jonathan's trip...  Sorry it took so long, if you guys are following.  Internet trouble and no human phone number for the quick fix....

We stopped at a Walmart to stock up on food and more supplies.

We checked in with the visitor center to register Tom Tom in the thru-hiker book and me in the sectional-hiker book.  Parking was $5.00 and an AT card to hang off the mirror, with the green information sheet left on the dash.  Tom Tom weighed his 40 pound pack on the outside scale with no time to weigh mine.  (Aprox the same weight by lifting both.)  We posed for the traditional Archway photograph before starting the 8.8 mile approach to the Appalachian Trail (AT) that starts on top of Springer Mountain.

About half a mile into the hike.  Tom Tom was so excited that there was no way he could hike as slow as me.  And there was no way I was going to blow out my knee and possibly have a heart attack trying to keep up with him.  I told him to go on ahead.  I would see him at the top.  I missed the turn at the Stairstep not seeing a sign or a blue blaze (similar to the white blaze for th AT 11/2 by 6 inch vertical stripe usually at eye level).  That mistake cost me about an hour....

Tom Tom was at the top about 3 hours before me and met a bunch of hikers.  He started a fire on the smooth boulders near the AT plaque and the first offical white blaze going northbound (NB) on th AT.  He signed the log book inside the stainless steel box built into the rock displaying the whole AT on a map of the USA.  He was half dozing off when I showed up.  He thought that I was trying to scare him pretending to be a bear.

We ate together using his fire to heat up some noodles.  We slept cowboy style next tot he fire out underneat the stars.  It was cold as neither of us brought a sleeping bag or pads to lay on.  The rock quickly absorbed the heat out of our bodies and the cold gusty winds kept us awake most of the night.

  

Tough trails

this is being posted by Johnny's (Tom Tom's) Uncle Ralph

Bob is out on the side of the mountain, battery dead and not able to log in. Tom Tom is out running the trail.  He has about 90 miles to the next stop. That should take him three to four days.

Tom tom is way behind schedule.  He has decided to give up the record by he will set it next summer Lord willing.  That trail is tough.

Go For It Johnny,

Ralph

Off Tom Tom's facebook page

Posted by Tom Tom:

‎''Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.'' Psalm 23:4

Last minute shopping

Tom Tom went to Walmart last night to get a belt, poncho, nail clippers, bug repellant and then we stopped by a friends house who lent Tom Tom a cold weather sleeping bag.  He leaves in just a couple of hours to head to Springer Mountain Georgia.  We plan to hang out there all day tomorrow and hike the aproximate nine miles to START of the Appalachian Trail.  We plan to spend the night there and I video tape Tom Tom's departure in the morning of the 25th.

Wow, a front page article

We knew they were writing a new paper article about Jonathan, Tom Tom.  But never expected a huge picture and more than a half page of text on him.  http://www.floridatoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2011105210319

Tom Tom's fundraiser 100 mile run

On May 14th, Tom Tom attempted a 100 mile run.  He left at 6:00 am and ran about four miles by himself until Joey from his cross country team came by his house where Johnny's dad drove Joey to where Tom Tom was running.  Joey wanted to be an ultra runner, so he ran 27 miles with Tom Tom.  The five videos are on youtube.com under Jon's 100 mile   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qf_pNQzPag8   parts 1,2,3,4,5

Graduation 2 days before departing to Georgia

Johnny or lets get into the correct terminology, "Tom Tom" has gone through the motions of graduating high school, but his diploma is questionable.  It seems in an effort to raise money for his trip, he did a backflip off the stage to earn some money....

Tom Tom Gets Underway

This is being posted by Johnny's Uncle Ralph. 

Got a call this morning, Bob and Johnny are about to take off on this insane race.

       Look Bob and I crossed the Atlantic Ocean in a flats boat.  There is no way I would try to achieve the goals that Johnny has set.  He wants to Race The Appalachian Trail. What is this kid, nuts, that is a lot of work.   Johnny has to average something like 40 miles a day, up and down ......MOUNTAINS.......

I would be good for about two miles a day, maybe three.  Wow, Go for it Johnny.