Well….this years official Trail Dames backpacking trip has come
    and     gone, and it was full, full of adventure!!  The word of the day
    was flexibility and between the rain, cold and hail there was plenty of
    laughter to be had.

           The trip started on Thursday night with all but two of us meeting
    at Mountain Crossings to stay in the hostel. Due to work and family
    obligations, North Star, McGuyver, Sherpette and I did not get there til
    about 10:30 and we arrived to find the hostel full to the gills.  There
    were lots of South-bound AT hikers there with about five or six other
    Dames.  All in all, we had 11 Dames do the backpack trip with a twelfth
    joining us on Saturday.  
            











            




            We walked in to find Pirate, our favorite guy Dame, waiting for
    us.  He said hello, graciously accepted the Dames offering of Makers
    Mark, and proceeded to give us some of the chocolate cake he had
    made.  You can see why we all love Pirate!  The hostel itself brought
    back a flood of memories as I entered and took in the piles of gear
    and smell of a thousand hikers.  The bunk beds were creaking as
    people hauled themselves up and down, while new hikers and trail-
    worn south bounders mingled and talked.  It is like summer camp for
    adults complete with the snoring and smelly socks on the floor.  
    Man, I love this place.








           




    After a questionable nights sleep, a south bounder named Silver
    Potato turned on the lights at 6:30 am and said ‘good morning
    everyone’ loudly. I would have killed him if it weren’t for the fact that he
    was overwhelmingly happy and cheerful.  I guess if I were thirty miles
    from the end of a 2,200 mile hike, I would be happy too!  We all slowly
    got up and begun to get ourselves together.  Our shuttle, driven by
    Survivor Dave, was due in about 8:30, so we had lots to do before
    piling into his car and heading for the trail.   As we milled around, the
    hostel door opened and in walked Hiker Nutt and her sister, who we all
    called “Sister”.  Hiker Nutt did 650 miles of the AT last year and her
    sister was on her very first backpacking trip.   These were the last
    Dames to arrive and we were so glad to see them!
                        As I dressed in my worn hiking clothes and tied my hair
    back in a bandana, Miranda, one of our new Dames, said that I was
    looking more and more like my trail journal.  “It is quite a
    metamorphosis” she said.  I grinned and realized that the same could
    be said for all of us.  We came in with our clean hair and cotton
    clothing, but we were quickly changing into strong, outdoor women.  
    Gone was the lipstick and mascara.  In its place were polypropylene,
    duct tape and gaiters.  We were definitely ready………











              


            As we started to load into Dave’s truck for the ride to Woody
    Gap, I realized that the lucky star that Trail Dames had been living
    under for the last year and a half had disappeared.  Gone were the
    sunshine, blue skies and gentle breezes of all of our other hikes.  
    Today we had rain, fog and cold.  Lots of rain, fog and cold.  I looked
    around and wondered how everyone would handle this situation.  It is
    one thing for the experienced backpackers in the group to head out in
    weather like this…..we KNOW we love to backpack.  But we had lots of
    first-time backpackers with us and I felt like I had let them down by
    taking them out in weather like this.  Would they hate it?  Would they
    be forever turned off from backpacking?  
              Due to the size of our group, we had to shuttle over in two car
    loads, so Sherpette, North Star, Hiker Nutt, Sister, Sweet Pea, Leslie
    and Shoe were about an hour ahead of our group.  When MacGyver,
    Miranda, Margaret, and I finally got to Woody Gap, we found the
    parking lot closed due to the forest fires they had been experiencing
    all week long.  Of course, we didn’t have to worry about the fires
    because it was raining.  We were immersed in clouds and it was cold
    and wet.  But somehow, that didn’t seem to matter.  The three women
    that were with me were all on their very first backpacking trip and
    there they stood grinning.  In the rain.   I knew then that I was very
    lucky to hike with these women!!  










             


             We started up the trail and spent the next five hours enjoying
    the ups and downs of the AT.  Miranda and I hiked together a lot and
    let me tell you, that woman was born to hike.  She had this great
    rhythm and looked like she had been doing this forever.  Both she
    and Margaret had borrowed gear, which you know was not as
    comfortable as it could have been.  MacGyver owned most of her
    gear, but none of it was as light as it could have been.  Yet all three of
    them smiled and laughed and made their way up the trail like they had
    been doing it forever.  
            












    We stopped at a beautiful overlook and proceeded to joke about the
    view……there is nothing like looking straight out into white nothing-
    ness.  













    I told them that at least now they knew what the inside of a cloud
    tastes like!  How many of their friends could say that?  On top of this
    mountain I jumped into a rousing ‘dance of the real woman’, but the
    other three just looked at me and raised their eyebrows.  
    Oh well….maybe they aren’t quite ready for that.  
    It was here that we ran into our friends from the hostel, Silver Potato
    and Cracker.  This couple has been hiking for five months and they
    were within 24 hours of finishing the Appalachian Trail.  They were
    just as nice as they could be and I wasted no time invited Cracker to
    come hike with us in the future.  She just grinned and said that she
    just might do that.  My hope is that the Dames can come get her to
    give a talk on hiking the AT south bound.  She and Silver Potato both
    seemed to be really, really neat people and it would be great to learn
    from them.
           The rain and mist let up enough for us to stop and have a
    healthy lunch of gorp, beef jerky and tuna packets in the middle
    of the day.  Unfortunately though, it came back as soon as we
    continued to hike and persisted till we got to camp.  We were
    walking along when we heard several women yelling at us.  We
    turned the corner and found ourselves in the middle of tent
    city.  The Dames had taken over Jarrard Gap and we were
    home for the night.  I left Miranda, Margaret and MacGyver to
    set up their tents and went down to check out the water
    situation.  The spring was small, but thanks to the work of North
    Star and Shoe, it was collecting in a small depression in the
    ground.  As Shoe pumped water into her bag, she was
    struggling more and more to depress the filter handle.  It finally
    exploded and shot a big stream of water right at North Star!!  
    We bent over double laughing as Shoe realized that she had
    forgotten to open the valve to her water bag.  Oh well…..it wasn’
    t like we weren’t all wet anyway!     Shoe fixed the valve,
    finished pumping water for herself and a few of the others and
    left North Star and I to finish our own filtering.  We sat in the
    mist talking, laughing and pumping till we had enough water to
    share.  When we got back to camp, everyone had their tents
    set up and was cooking dinner.  I threw my tent up, tried to
    hang a bear bag rope, lost a bear bag, borrowed Sweet Peas
    rope, gnashed my teeth together for a while, threw the rock
    about 4,000 times and finally got it hung.  It was growing dark
    as I wolfed down some mashed potatoes and stood in the rain
    talking to a few Dames.  Unfortunately, the rain soon drove us
    all into our tents.  There wasn’t going to be much socializing
    tonight!
           











            After changing into my warm, dry fleece, I climbed into my
    sleeping bag, looked down at my watch and realized that it was 6:15.  
    It was pitch dark, raining, and only 6:15.  I fell into a hard, deep sleep
    and woke up later to look at my watch and realize that it was…….8:
    15.  It was going to be a long night.    A few minutes later a soft
    voice came from outside my tent.  It was MacGyver.  She was really,
    really sick.  After talking for a minute, she said that she would try and
    stay warm and dry and make it through the night.  I told her that in the
    morning, we would get her off the trail if she could make it till then.  If
    you have ever been sick in the middle of the woods, you know what
    kind of miserable night she had.  I felt so sorry for her.  But she was a
    trooper. It rained torrentially during the night and the winds grew
    stronger and stronger.  Lying in your tent, you could hear the wind
    start to come over the mountains, and when it finally hit you, it was
    roaring.  All in all, it was a very interesting night.
              At 6:45 in the morning, I called Survivor Dave and left him a
    message telling him that we needed to get a sick Dame off the trail.  
    Luckily, we were an easy two mile hike from a road at that point.          
    Everyone got up around 7:30 and we had a little impromptu meeting.  I
    told them that they all had a choice….bail with MacGyver and me, or
    keep hiking and meet us at Neels Gap.  Everyone agreed that they
    wanted to keep hiking.  This is when it really hit me what an amazing
    group of women had come on this trip.  All of their gear was wet, it was
    cold, and they had not had a chance to really do any visiting.  It would
    have been so easy to throw in the towel.  But they were all smiling and
    looking forward to the days hike!  I was really, really impressed with all
    of them.  If a great attitude is all it takes to be a backpacker, then
    these women had it made.  










          


             This is also when we decided to introduce a little flexibility into
    our plans.  Our itinerary had us hiking into Neels Gap, through
    Mountain Crossings and a mile further up the trail to camp.  Everyone’
    s gear was soaked and it was cold, so we all agreed to hike to Neels
    and stay in the hostel for the night.  That way, tomorrow we would add
    a mile to our hike, but we would be slack packing, making it easier.  
    Given the weather, it just felt like the right thing to do.  
           The first group took off, hoping to make it over Blood
    Mountain before the weather got any worse.  As we had
    discussed our plans for the day, a small sliver of sun had
    peeked through the clouds, giving us hope and optimism.













     As the second group prepared to leave, I looked up the trail to
    see JJ, one of our favorite Dames, hiking up the path.  She had
    come to meet us and up she walked with a big smile on her
    face.  As soon as I told her what was going on, she said, “Well, I
    am going with you.”  We agreed that MacGyver shouldn’t be
    carrying the full weight of her gear so North Star decided to stay
    with us.  The four of us would hike out together, helping
    MacGyver.  We divvied up most of the heavy stuff in MacGyver’
    s pack as she stood there protesting weakly.  Let me tell you,
    this is a woman that would just about rather crawl then let other
    people carry her gear!  It was a true testament to how bad she
    felt that she let us do it at all!  But she did and off we went
    towards the lake and our shuttle.  
                











                   
             After an easy hike, we circled around the road trying to find the
    best place to meet our shuttle.  We had no cell service at all, so we
    finally hunkered down next to the road, waiting for Dave.  As we sat
    there, it would rain off and on while the sun struggled to come out.  
    Finally it started to sleet.  It was really cool!  It wasn’t cold enough for it
    to accumulate, and we all had plenty of gear to keep warm, so it was
    just a neat experience to see it falling and gathering on our clothes.  
    After stopping for a while, it started again and I must admit, it lost a bit
    of its charm the second time around.  Where was that shuttle?!













               As we stood there, a car with two men passed us and within a
    few minutes, they turned around, approached us and slowed down.  
    North Star said under her breath, “They are going to see if we need
    help”.  Well, they pulled up, rolled down the window and asked if we
    knew how to get to the trail.  So much for chivalry…..   We thought it
    was actually pretty cool……instead of swooping in to rescue us, they
    asked us where the trail was.  And we knew.  
    We are women hear us roar.    
            It wasn’t long till our very own knight in shining armor showed up
    in the form of Survivor Dave.  We piled into the truck and headed
    back to Neels Gap and the warm, dry hostel.  We were all anxious to
    hear how the other Dames had fared on their hikes.  As we unloaded
    our gear, we caught up with Leslie and Sweet Pea.  It seemed that
    they had just beaten the bad weather over the top of Blood Mountain.  
    They had arrived at the hostel before us and were hanging out,
    enjoying the scene.  Six Dames accounted for…..now where were the
    others?
            We kept walking out and looking up the AT, hoping to see the
    other Dames come hiking down.  I had strongly suggested that they
    take the foul-weather trail around Blood due to the weather, but we
    weren’t really sure if they had or not.  Just as we were starting to get
    worried, a big white van pulled up and out tumbled three Dames.  It
    turns out that the sleet made them wary, so they hiked down off the
    AT to the Lake and Sherpette hustled them a ride back to the hostel.  
    Actually, word has it that she stood in the middle of the road, telling
    the other two Dames that the next car that came along was taking
    them back to Neels whether they wanted to or not!!    It turns out
    that the next car was actually a van filled with several young men from
    the University of Georgia.  And they kindly agreed to rescue these
    three Dames.  See…..chivalry is not dead!!  
            As we stood around the hostel talking over one another and
    comparing notes, up hiked our last two Dames, Hiker Nutt and Sister.  
    It turns out that they HAD gone over Blood Mountain in the bad
    weather and saw swirling, sideways snow and high winds on top of the
    mountain.  Sister took a video of it and it actually sounds like they
    enjoyed the experience immensely.  
            As everyone laughed and dripped dry in the den of the hostel,
    we had one final meeting.  It was unanimously agreed that we had all
    had a very good time, but that everyone had had enough of being
    cold and wet.  We were going to have a great celebratory dinner at
    Turners Corner and head home.  The trail will be there next year, and
    a good time was had by all.  
           After shopping and hanging out a bit with the incredible
    staff at Mountain Crossings, we all drove down to Turners
    Corner.  We took our illustrious shuttle driver, Dave, and
    spread out over two big tables.  As we laughed, ate
    cheeseburgers and shared stories I looked around and felt
    extremely lucky.  Lucky that I was hiking with these women….
    these women that smiled through hail storms, rain, cold and
    sickness.  Everyone was open and flexible and had an amazing
    attitude, making the whole thing a really fun experience.  Next
    year, I will put in a request for better weather, but as for hiking
    partners, it just doesn’t get any better then these 11 women.  
            

                   
Trail Dames Back Pack Trips
TD Back Pack Trip-
Appalachian  Trail,
Fall 2008