The Smokies, concluded

Some ask 'what do you think about out there?' Well, I think about
everything. And sometimes nothing. I think about my family - Brandy,
Macy, Lily - their health and their happiness. I think about my
parents and the last few months of exhaustive caretaking of my
grandmother as her health was failing. And the lingering effects of
that effort on their health. And I think about my Gram. A lot. I miss
her. I think about my extended family and how I should keep in better
touch. I think about friends..and that I should be a better friend.
And of those friends who have faded away for one reason or another.
And why they faded away. And business associates who have moved on and
what are they doing. And what should the treehouse look like that I
want to build for the girls. And why we used to get challenged at my
work to be more efficient and productive every year..and we WERE every
year, year over year but now that doesn't matter. We only get to
manage to half the equation - cost only - and in that vacuum, there is
no choice but to cut US jobs and if you still need people, hiring will
have to be done offshore. Owning cost cutting is not as fun as owning
productivity improvement. And why do those little birds who reside
next to the trail wait until I am 18" away before they fly out and
about make ne jump off the mountain. And how great my life has been
and still is! And lastly, really, if you are on a narrow trail and so
is the bear.. And he begins walking toward you, what are you supposed
to do? Luckily, we didn't get to that point to have to decide!
Thus concludes the 2010 Smokies hike! Thanks for joining, Ed and Jim.
Dad - you are the inspiration. Get better and do the Smokies!

Ron McClarin

Today, the finish line

Through the alignment of the stars, we were ahead of schedule and Ed
thought he was meeting us today. In our excitement to get to the
finish line, we knocked out the last 8 miles in 3 hours. We dropped
2500'. It was a beautiful day. And it was beautiful to see my car at
the bottom of the hill with Ed in it! We commenced with backslaps,
high fives, boots off, and story swapping. Caught a shower at a local
hostel then drove to Hot Springs to get Eds car. Ate a great lunch at
the Iron Horse Station restaurant, accompanied by Kazmir IPA and Starr
City Stout, both top quality microbrews.
We decided to go ahead and drive home. It's 2:40 am and we are now
just outside of Tampa.

Ron McClarin

A shot of wild turkey

:)
Get it? I just noticed 2 earlier attempts to send this through
failed..and darn it all, this was very amusing to me! So, here is the
picture. The (wild) turkey is on the roof of the shelter. It was
looking in the window clucking away. We think he was mad that there
was another turkey on the roof, or so he thought!

Ron/Jim 1, Mother Nature 0

Ok, that was only Sundays score. I think Mother Nature has won the
other days. But that's ok. We overcame our feet with a nice ridge run
followed by some downhill. 3.5 hrs to go 7.7 miles. Only 1120 vert
today as we are headed out of the mountains. 2 minutes after we
reached Cosby Knob shelter, it started to rain. It didn't last long.
We were in early so we gathered a bunch of wood and had a big ol'
fire. We were joined around 5 by a man who called himself Paul the
Bunion (Bunyan?). He has apparently hiked the entire trail. I surmise
he is 'without home'. He told trail stories for 4 hours nonstop. He
might have still been talking when we went to bed. I'm not sure. No
more rain and we woke up to sunshine for a change. Must not have been
as tired ad the dreams were coming fast. Ditto for Jim. We are about
to head out. Hoping to find a signal to send this and get in touch
with some of our peeps!

Our 'doorbell'

We had been warned by other hikers that they stayed at Tri-corner and
a bear came down the side of the shelter and stuck his head in so Jim
rigged our 'bear bell' so that if he came that way, he would 'ring the
door bell'.
The bear never showed up. Honestly, we aren't real disappointed!

Truly majestic

The attached picture was from the top of mt sequoia. Most of the day
on Saturday was spent on a 'ridge run' along the mt tops. Not all
though, as evidenced by the 3075 feet of elevation climb we still did.
We hit our target destination of pecks corner by 12:30 and decided to
press on to Tri- corner shelter. This made for 12 miles but would save
us from a 15 miler on Monday. A good trade-off except our boots were
still wet. It rained a little more on us and we walked through a lot
of wet grass and mud. Our feet were without a doubt, 'tortured soles'.
Jim has blisters on both heels and I have them between toes and on the
bottoms.
We are at 5600' still. Oddly enough, we ended up with the shelter to
ourselves. It is a beautiful setting. The water source is right
outside our 'front door'. Bathroom relatively close by, as well as the
bear hooks for hanging our food. If we could walk to find wood for a
fire, that would have sealed it. Salmon, rice, and broccoli for dinner.
It's now Sunday morning and we each had a second cup of starbucks
coffee. The instant stuff they sell called 'via' is very good.
Especially in the middle of the woods while sitting here listening to
the - you guessed it, rain. Jim is trying to dry our boots out over or
camp stove. A noble effort.
Today we plan to go up and over 'guyout spur (6300')' on our way to
Cosby Knob'. 7.7 miles. Monday we have another 7.1 miles mostly
downhill and then Tuesday morning a 700' drop in a mile gets us to the
edge of the park. What I affectionately call 'the finish line'. We are
not going on to Hot Springs. I miss my girls and...my/our feet need to
rest.
Jim has been wearing my Longleaf Triathlon shirt. It is quite a
conversation piece along the trail.
I somehow underpacked oatmeal by 2 days. Bad move. Gonna have to
'borrow' from Jim.
We think a lot about Ed. Hope he is enjoying his slow solo hike back
to the Dam. Report on my dad is that he caught a flight back to Fl and
the doctors checked him out and found nothing 'permanently wrong'.
That's good news for sure.

Sitting on top of the world!

A mile up at a place called Charlies Bunion. It's sat morning. Stayed
at Icewater shelter last night with a boy scout troop. It was a
crowded house but good kids. They saw 2 bucs behind the shelter. We
missed that. Looking forward to a phenominal day!