Hitchhiker's Guide - "Cheaper than the 'Encyclopedia Galactica'."

After a good evening of rest I set the alarm so I could get to the Smokey Mountains Visitor Center when it opened. I had time to self-register for my permit and get my camping gear organized before it was open. I started getting stamps from the National Park system Passport program in February when in the Everglades. All of the parks current 391 units have a stamp designating the location as a means to encourage people to collect them and visit country's resources. I wish I knew about this previously when I was visiting a bunch of parks in California as I would have been able to really get a jump on it, however I guess I must now consider going to to parks again sometime. :)

I drove over to the Smokymount Camping area and parked at the old Baptist Church lot. My plan was to hitch-hike to the top of Clingman's Dome and then hike back down to the truck. It took me about two hours of standing around until I found a kind-hearted soul willing to take the time to give me a lift. Amanda had just finished her own little daily hike near the campground and was about to head back down the mountain to Cherokee, but still asked where I was heading. After explaining my plan, she offered to give me a lift to the top, although it was going 18 miles in the exact opposite direction of her intended route home. There was some construction on the mountain road, so I had a chance to talk to her and learn of some of her own trips and traveling. She was able to share a lot of information concerning the local history, the park, and level events (such as the current local issue of the completion of the highway to nowhere). I was very thankful of her assistance since not even people slowly driving by in pickups (where I would have been glad to ride in the bed) ever stopped. It is a shame hitch hiking has such a stigma in the US since it is a very common method of travel abroad. Often when I travel I am loaded with gear, but I still try to assist people whenever I have the means and would hope some people would pay-it-forward.





After getting to the top parking area and saying goodbye, I stashed my pack and took the paved path to the top of Clingman's Dome. Last time I was here 4-5 years ago with Chasity and some friends, we didn't have time to make it to the top since we had to get started on the hike down. It was a solid .5 mile steep descent that wouldn't be considered easy, although it wasn't quite enough to warrant all the whining I heard from such out of shape people constantly saying that there should be a tram. It is a half mile folks! Oh well, I guess it would take 264 trips between the couch and the fridge for most of these people to walk a mile anyway. It was a nice view since it was decently clear day. As I was waiting to leave I was talking to another hiker that had camped further down the mountain who came up to the top as a day hike. We were going going to descend the same trail that was a little over a mile and a half from the parking area, however he didn't want to hang around and soon took of. I was able to talk a father and son that were getting back into their pickup to head back to give me a ride to the trailhead. I sheepishly waved to the hiker as we passed him a few minutes later. I hopped out, thanked the driver and his son for their assistance and got started.

The first couple of miles were difficult since the trail was blocked in several places from fallen trees assumably felled during winter storms. There were a couple of teams of trailblazers that were working on clearing the trails so the public could enjoy them. My plan was to hike the Noland Divide trail, to the Pole Rd Creek trail, and then over to the Deep Creek trail for a stay at campsite #54 with an overall length of 6.7 miles. Since it was mostly downhill, it wasn't too difficult, however still had the previous mile loop hike of the Dome top itself and waiting around for a ride, so I had to keep a decent pace so I could make it before dark.

It was a nice stroll throughout the day with even a lovely stream crossing over Deep Creek. The camp site was right on the creek, so water was in plentiful supply. It was nice to get a chance to sleep with the sounds of the water rushing over the rocks.

Edisto Beach Property - For Sale

Yes, I am very aware that my blogs have been very out of date. I'm hoping to work on it a bit this weekend. For now, I just needed to add a link to the website I had for Edisto Beach Property that I'm selling. If you read my blogs and have your own, it'd be great if you were willing to add a post that links to the website (the idea being that Google sets rankings based in part by the number of links that point to that site). The site is: http://www.EdistoBeachLot.com or http://EdistoBeachProperty.com

You don't have to make a top level post your own blog as you can just as easily pre-date the blog a month or so back so it doesn't necessarily show up on the first few entries. I'd appreciate the help since all that is needed to to make a couple of links.

Thanks.

A foot is a device for finding furniture in the dark.

After driving several hours, I finally decided to crash a a know spot just outside of Gainesville. I just need to pull in for a few hours of rest and parked next to Alachua Sink just off the High Springs exit. The teardrop makes such stops quite easy. I just pulled into a wooded area, pulled a few items from the camper, crawled in, and fell asleep.

After waking up I was pretty much on the road within 5 minutes. I did have one setback this day in that whenever I would get up to speed, I would feel the truck shake until I slowed to 60mph. I stopped a couple of times looking for damage but could not find anything. I kept going until finally one of the tires decided to spit off the tread while heading full speed down the interstate while scrapping the hell out of the truck's right rear quarter panel. It was a tad scary as the truck, having a sudden loss of a quarter of its traction started to swerve (the trailer fishtailing didn't help), but I finally got it under control. I was quite thankful for the GPS in that I merely had to have it search for the nearest tire service centers and it generated turn by turn directions for me automatically. Fortunately the tire remained intact (minus the tread) so I was able to limp the 4.5 miles to the service center. After $60 and an addition hour and a half of waiting, I was able to get on my way.

Since it had been a while since I had done it, I thought I would meander my way up and do some geocaching while heading to North Carolina. After a long time, the organization found a way to allow one to find caches along a route whereas previously one could only find points in an area radiating from a particular point. This made it quite easy to find sites that are just a mile or so off of a planned route. I decided to hit a bunch of sites that had travel bugs since for some reason that aspect appeals to me. I've mentioned it to others before, but one of the main things I enjoy about the hobby is that it brings one to places they never would have otherwise been made aware. I found a couple of really neat caches that were down long dirt roads and along a riverbank that had really lovely views. One cache was at a river overlook that was home to an extremely old cemetery that houses some of the original families to inhabit the Florida area. Not only were there some neat items in it, but the area itself was really rustic and photographic. I really enjoyed checking out some of the old headstones and markers. Another cache was on the Suwanee River and was found at the end of a long road. It was nice in that the cache owner had left a travel bug that could be adopted by the finder, so once I figure out the mission and release it into the wild, I'll have my very own trackable item.

Though it was dark when I arrive, I retraced some of the steps take last year at Tallulah Gorge in north Georgia. This was where I had a great trip last year and also had spent my birthday traveling to visit. I finally made it into Cherokee late in the evening and was able to find a parking lot of an abandoned hotel in which to park, make my dinner, and get some rest so I could get an early start in the morning.

I'm packing it in - it depresses me.

After a week of running around, I finally get to take off for my trip. As seems to be tradition, I didn't do anything to pre-pack and spent all of Sunday trying to get things organized and figure out what clothes and such would bee need for the week long trip. I was set back quite a bit when I found the pick-up truck wiring wasn't set for a 4-plug trailer wiring. I decided not to take my Xterra since dad was planning on using it for just own camping trip and since I preferred the better gas mileage of the 4 cylinder small truck. this would be my longest road trip yet with the teardrop that I got last year. The size and mobility make it perfect for a trip like this.

Dad came by from work a bit early to help me troubleshoot the system. there were still a few bugs and a perplexing loss of voltage in one section, but I figured I had to fixed enough to be mostly-legal. I still had to pack at home and make sure that I had all of my equipment, so I was considerably later in leaving than I had hoped, in other words it was about my normal pace. I'll be driving up to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park to do some hiking before meandering my way down to Atlanta for the annual Hedon Memorial Weekend Campout.

It should be fun.

I am not a glutton - I am an explorer of food.

I had originally intended to have the Sloth Hash today which would have entailed tubing down the Alafia river. I was there three weeks prior for a river-cleanup, however in that time the water levels had dropped considerably, to the point where a majority of the tubing would have involved walking and tube dragging. I was able to quickly switch gears and subsequently organize the Glutton Hash of my '7 Deadly Sins series'. I wanted to fist use Weedon Island due to the great area, but since no open flame was allowed and I hear they were militant on beer, picnics, and such, finally settled on Picnic Island in south Tampa.

Angie was instrumental in helping me get stuff organized as I began to get a tad stressed with everything I had to pull together. I had food on order from the Honeybaked Ham company, kegs and supplies to get, coolers to fill, shelters and materials to grab, etc. Everyone was encouraged to bring something to share with the group, after all one could not be a glutton without mounds of food being around. All the shelters had been reserved for the day, however I found a nice spot towards the end of the park where we wouldn't be bothered and had some shade and place to lay out.

I was still busy much of the day, but a lot of people really stepped up and gave a hand throughout the day. I brought the canoe out so people could paddle around if they wanted, however the winds were pretty strong throughout the day, so it didn't get a lot of use. The trail was pretty short and just went around the park. We hung around until it was really starting to get dark with the best part of the day just being able to sit around and laugh, tell stories, and simply relax for a little while.

Pics from the event can be found here: http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=vnlbugz.5a38ssyv&x=0&y=gyoqbe

If OCT 31 = DEC 25 is Halloween equal to Christmas?

One of the local krewes held a 'Halfway to Halloween' party tonight at one of the clubs in Ybor. Wanting to get a bit more mileage out of it, I wore my 'Steve Erwin' costume, though figured it would not have quite as much impact as it did last year. Angie was an corrupted school girl, Gina was selling (herself) girlscout cookies while Jay was Lt. Dangle. There was a costume contest, but of course Dangle took the first price and received a pretty decent prize package for it.

Pics of the party can be found here: http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=vnlbugz.8qfy67uv&x=1&y=262b67

Stats prove those who have more birthdays live longer.

Today I hared my annual birthday trail. I had a lot to get ready this week and was running around ragged (didn't even get to hang out with a couple of couch surfers that crashed at my place for a few days), so I didn't bother to really scout trail since I know the area relatively well. Besides having done trail here the previous two years, I attended USF for many years so figured that I know the area pretty well. I had intended to take the pack up to the top of MOSI and even scouted everything to be sure it was open. I got a decent head start from the pack, ran through the museum to the top, placed all the sticky notes, and got out as quickly as possible, only to find that the ENTIRE pack bypassed that bit when some rangers found where the trail resumed and merely whistled everyone along. The start of the trail also went straight through the Renaissance Festival fairgrounds as well, so I think people enjoyed that a bit. I laid a bunch of bad trails marks and count-backs throughout and even had a beer stop in one of the buildings on the top floor with a pre-stashed cooler, however I later learned that most of the runners even missed that bit. Grrrr.

I got to the end just as the runners were tearing up the street behind me. I was in for a surprise during circle when Angie had set up a lovely series of surprises such as a special t-shirt, cupcakes, gift bag, etc. Awwww, isn't she awesome? We had a virgin hasher join us for the trail that said she would do a pole dance but alas there was no pole to be found. She must have thought she would get off the hook quite easily, however the pack quickly suggest that I take the place of a pole since it was my birthday run. She preformed her act, and it was good. The on-after was CDB's Pizza where we hung around for dinner and a few more drinks. We gave some of the staff cupcakes and in return the bartender gave me a birthday tequila shot.

Some of the pictures and cuch suncerning the trail can be found here: http://www.jollyrogerh3.com/2007_05_17.htm

Instruments come in many sizes, shapes and orchestras.

Last night I went to a Florida Orchestra performance at Al Lopez park as part of their free 'Pops in the Park' series. The blanket of smoke covering Florida and the Tampa area for wildfires up north almost canceled the concert, however it was decided to just eliminate the intermission in order to reduce exposure. We took out chairs and some picnic items and really enjoyed the music. It had a very Spanish theme with the guest Angel Romero conducting. Unfortunately this is nearly the last of the outdoor series for the season.

On-out

At about 6:15PM on Friday May 11, 2007, Jim Sheffer, better known as Stroke, died of cancer. He was 42.

Stroke was well known in a lot of hashing circles with his main haunts at the Tide Water Hash (Virginia Beach), Humping Hash (San Diego), and TBH3 (Tampa). He was among the first people that I met when I started with the running club. He's been doing this a long time and had great stories and a generally good demeanor. I got to first know him a bit at Bike Week 2005 when I drove his truck to Daytona Beach so he could ride his Harley. Even though I was very new and they didn't know me, I was invited to share in a hotel room.

He'll be missed by some I am sure.

In a mad world, only greater madness succeeds.

Upon invitation I went to a concert at The State Theater in St. Pete headlining the Greyboy Allstars. I was not previously familiar with their work, but am always interested in being exposed to something new. the music consisted mostly of soul/acid jazz that had the feel of an overall jam session with few lyrics spoken throughout the evening. a highlight for me was an unexpected opening guest, Gary Jules. I was first exposed, as I assume a lot of people might have been, to his music when his cover of Tears for Fears 'Mad World' was used on an XBox commercial (previously having been used in the 'Donnie Darko' movie soundtrack). I have the 'Mad World' song playing on my MySpace profile. Overall, it was a very enjoyable evening and I'm glad to have had a chance to check out something new.