Steve is not able to get in touch with me. I only know a few details about his plans. He has Lyme disease from a bite on the back of the knee. He was treated in the hospital for a few days and  released with antibiotics. He plans to continue  the trail. I don't believe this is a good idea. Lyme disease is serious and can have long term effects.

Please post a comment on this page to Steve encouraging him to consider his health first.

I'll start:

Steve,

I am not sure how effective your medicine will be if you exhaust yourself everyday on the trail. I know fatigue is the most common symptom with Lyme disease.  Your body is already tired and trying to fight off a sickness. The energy you are directing towards finishing a goal might harm your body's ability to heal. You might be risking your body's fitness for tackling other goals in the future. Is it worth it?

We are all proud of you and what you accomplished. It is just as much as a victory to finish out your goal next year. Please consider your future the goals you will have in the future. Don't risk them for the sake of pride or a feeling of accomplishment.  You are testing your body's endurance but this time there is too much to lose. It's not a good bet. Think smart, Son. Think about "pot odds". Which is bigger, the prize of victory or the loss of your investments. If the loss is your body's failure to fight off the Lyme disease then loosing the battle means loosing the war. Think about it.           

Steve is doing well. He was in New Jersey last week and he's guessing that he will hit the end of the trail around October. 

A note to Steve- Mike has found you an airline ticket. Please call her for the details. I miss you and even starting to miss your messes. I'm sure I will get over that fast once you're home. I love you. Be careful and watch out for yellow jackets and bees.  

This was given to the students from my college. I thinks it's an eye opener. 

If we could shrink the earth's population to a village of precisely 100 people, with all the existing human ratios remaining the same, it would look something like the following:

There would be:

57 Asians
21 Europeans
14 from the Western Hemisphere, both north and south
8 Africans

52 would be female
48 would be male

70 would be non-white
30 would be white

70 would be non-Christian
30 would be Christian

89 would be heterosexual
11 would be homosexual

6 people would possess 59% of the entire world's wealth and all 6 would be from the United States.

80 would live in substandard housing
70 would be unable to read
50 would suffer from malnutrition
1 would be near death; 1 would be near birth
1 would have a college education
1 would own a computer

When one considers our world from such a compressed perspective, the need for acceptance, understanding and education becomes glaringly apparent.

The following is also something to ponder...

If you woke up this morning with more health than illness - you are more blessed than the million who will not survive this week.

If you have never experienced the danger of battle, the loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture, or the pangs of starvation - you are ahead of 500 million people in the world.

If you can attend a church meeting without fear of harassment, arrest, torture, or death - you are more blessed than three billion people in the world.

If you have food in the refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof overhead and a place to sleep - you are richer than 75% of this world.

If you have money in the bank, in your wallet, and spare change in a dish someplace - you are among the top 8% of the world's wealthy.

If your parents are still alive and still married. you are very rare.

If you can read this message, you are more blessed than over two billion people in the world that cannot read at all.

From Uncle's Tom Journal:

http://www.trailjournals.com/entry.cfm?id=174628

4/14/07 Team Maine bails Smokies. Tonight is our second night in Gatlinburg, TN and we have to get out of here. I can't take this full service tourist mecca, with the hammer of overwhelming commercialism/ traffic that exceeds Freeport, ME's specter of spending.

We had to bail due to freezing rain approaching and descending Clingman's Dome, highest point on the AT at 6643'. We had a harrowing, slow and careful, step by step, dodging ice covered rock and roots hike down the mountain.

Then we heard that a bad rain day, with 1-2" of rain, was predicted, with drop to below freezing temps, and a shift to up to 4 inches of snow was coming next. Everyone we met was bailing, getting off the AT at Newfound Gap, and begging, hitching, and hoping for a ride to Gatlinburg, 15 miles down in the valley. Strider , LT, me and the three Texas Tornados each paid a Cherokee woman $7 to take us away.

But town is a mixed blessing, and enough is enough and LT went home for a day and tomorrow his sister and he will be shuttling us back up to the AT in the morning, no matter what rain and snow might hit . We are done with Dollywood and Gatlinburg, and especially done with the horror show of the Gatlinburg trolley system. AAuuugh!

4/15/07We Should of, Could of, But Didn't.. ...Stay in Gatlinburg another night. Here I sit, thankful to Jesus and any other God that I know about that I have a spot up here on the top tier of the Peck's Corner shelter. We did 11 miles, started at 9:40 am, after getting shuttled up to Newfound Gap. Had a great breakfast at 7 at the Pancake House of bacon, eggs, blueberry pancakes, and coffee. The local report we got from the Weather Channel was dead wrong. What we got instead was gale force winds ( all day long), rain to start, then freezing rain, then sleet, and finally what appears to be 4" of snow so far and more to come. It was really a push to make it here today. There were times when we were way up over 5000 feet, and walking for an hour and a half of straight cliffside uphill walking, with a combo platter of freezing pellets of ice, or softer face blows of snow horizontally pummeling the left side of our partially sheltered heads, splintery sounds of bad (ed.?).... And the shelter! Everyone is here.

4/16/07 Hikers survive even worse snowstorm! Not a pretty morning, with over a dozen people trying to get going on the trail. Bottle of water froze in the shelter. People littered the floor, making it hard to move around, as they were not the ones to get up.

I was up and ready to go before Strider, who didn't sleep well. I was cold in starting out, with lots more snow out than even before. Hiking in the snow is hard, you slip back every uphill step you take. There were drifts sometimes up to our knees, the wind was still howling sideways at us. Bad.

There were over a dozen major blowdowns that came down in the storm yesterday. It was sometimes major work to get around them, and push through brush to get back on the trail. The day got better after noon, when the sun came out, and it got a bit warmer. The trail was really getting melted in the afternoon and we were essentially walking in a stream of rocks, mud, and slush. My shoes were soaked through.

We ran into a "trail runner" who was trying to help distribute the hikers in the upcoming shelters better so that the circus that was last night in the shelter didn't happen again. He told Strider and I that we were hikers #6 and #7, and that we should bypass the shelter that was 5 miles out, and head for the shelter that was 13 miles out, which is what we did.

We went over some more high spots today: Mt Sequoyah (6360),Mt. Chapman (6250), Balsam mtn (6070), Deer Creek Gap (6020), and Cosby Knob (5145).

After the last two days of cold, slush, howling wind, Calcutta living conditions in the shelter, and cold hands, I will make it to Katahdin, even in I have to crawl.

Steve's group has 10 members at present. Hikers take on trail names that they use when signing in hikers logs along the way. The logs keeps track of their progress and is marker if anyone comes up missing.

My son Steve gave himself the name "Life Traveler". The group has shorten his title to "LT".

"Uncle Tom" which is the name the group bestowed upon him is a through hiker, retired with seven years of psychology study under his belt.

"Strider" Steve thinks he named for his long strides is also veteran section hiker that travels mostly with Uncle Tom.

"Green Hornet" is a snake expert. He sold half of his huge collection of various snakes to finance his trip. He says the best thing to do if you get bit by a snake is nothing at all. (Hmmm)

         
"Ragu", "General Sal", "Tapioca" work together at an Olive Garden in Georgia.

"General Lee" and "Caiso" were roommates in college.

"Romy" is a country guy who always comes up the rear.

The Maine Train has an optimistic attitude and pumps each other up. Steve feels that's what needed to finish the trail. They get up in the morning and say "Yeah, it's snowing, this is great!" Steve told a story about the end of the day of hiking. They stopped and were huddled in a circle freezing, blowing in their hands, not saying a word. The wind was blowing hard and sleeting, snow covered the ground, everyone dreaded putting up their tents because their hands were cold. They were hunkered giving each other the look "How can this get any worse". Then the silence ended as they burst out laughing. Steve followed his story by the comment coming from under his breath "just good times".

Steve says he is the youngest and the only one who hasn't attended college. He looked puzzled as he said "I think of myself as a young man, they think of me as a boy. I tell them I'm a young man."

Steve is proud that everyone in his group thinks of him as the fire starter. He can light a fire with one square of toilet paper and has set goals to light a fire with just sticks. O.k. entertainment is limited up there.    

Steve called last night and said Uncle Tom, Strider and him were ahead of the Train. They were hitting icy weather so decided to hit Gatlinburg after all. Gatlinburg is the closest town to me along the Appalachian Trail. I finally met Uncle Tom and Strider last night when I picked Steve up. I brought Steve home for 2 nights where he recharged, repacked and visited his friends. Steve was very excited to see everyone. His spirit was soaring high as he related fascinating tales about his experience and some of the characters he has ran into along the way.

Steve said before he like the Dutch setting in the town Helen. Food rations were slim so he had to make a temporary departure from his friends to go into town. Steve got his first hitch to the town. The visitor center had a free phone where he called the local hotel and bargained the room rate from $70 to $30. Being on the trail for over a week without a bath Steve was dirty and as he put it "really smelly". He said the town people thought he was homeless. They shunned him, wouldn't look at him and a mother pulled her child away as he walked by. A man came up to him and gave him a twenty dollar bill. He went to his room and put his things up but since he was starving decided he wanted to eat. The only pieces of clothing that did not smell and were halfway clean were his long john top and underwear. So Steve put on, in his mind, his only decent attire and decided to get something to eat.

Someone recommended a little pizza shack down the road. The were known for selling huge delicious croissants. Come to find out the restaurant was ran by two gay guys. When Steve walked in the two told Steve "Any good lookin young man walks in here only wearing his underwear, he'll get anything he wants to eat for free." So Steve ate for free as the two owners laughed and joked about drag queens and other things from the wild side. Steve said he slipped a ten in a cup when he left but the guy came after him gave his money back and told him "We don't do things like that around here". (LOL, Go figure) 

Also, Steve has met an owner of a Fortune 500 company the buys and sell corporations including Hersey's, funny that's the only corps. I remember as he recalled their talks to me. They had long talks about business. The millionaire claims he tired of Corporate America and wants out. 

I asked Steve if he has learned anything new. Steve said " I'm beginning to understand the best experience I have is not the places I go or things I see but is with the people I meet."

Steve to tell everyone not to worry about him. He hopes everybody is o.k. and says "Hi" to everyone especially Ilissa.  

Check out the new pictures in Steve's Trek photo album.

Reading Uncle Tom's journal has been exciting, entertaining and informative for those of us who are sitting in our warm homes. We can live vicariously through the adventures of Steve's and the group he is traveling with, the Maine Train and not even get bug bite.   

 "What nature throws at you, you deal with it. That is what separates the regular hiker from the Through-hiker", says the Lifetraveler.

4/7/07 Well, things took a major turn for the worse during the night with the icy wind blowing right into the shelter driving snow half way in, coating the bottom half of my bag with snow. Three inches fell during the night, on top of record breaking cold that broke previous readings by a full 10 degrees. It was in the low teens up at the Cold Spring Shelter, up high at 4920'.

Steve has a thrifty bone. I'm sure he greatly appreciates the hospitality of others. I can see him smiling and thanking the thoughtful people as they share their kindness.

4/09/07 No need to struggle with the demands of supper when the Green Hornet, Strider, Lifetraveler and I pulled into the Brown Fork Gap shelter at 4:30 PM today.   Massive free food at the parking lot on rt. 143 at Stecoah gap. Cheeseburgers, hot dogs, OJ, hot chocolate, 4 bean salad, more candy than you have ever seen at Halloween, Cola, water, pickles, assorted chips, Cheetos, cookies...unbelievable.   Free disposable cameras, free mac and cheese dinners, they paid for the rental of outhouse, wash water, asking us for our trash, Personal photo albums of their AT trips from the two professional trail angels who even handed out business cards:

Back on the trail...

4/10/07 woke to 36 degree temps, and what turned out to be a cool, sunny day. Strider, Lifetraveler, The Green Hornet and I were the front team today, out at 7:30.

4/10//07 Part of the ME Train were at the Dam for the night, where they were going to be fed free meals by the Hikers for Christ, who are here doing their thing for a week.

The last entries describes what ahead of Steve.

....70 mile trip through the Smokies, then more hiking before our next resupply at Hot Springs, N.C., some 18 miles further
....we will carry 7 days worth of food, which will be about 14 pounds more in my pack ( general equation is 2 pounds per day of food per person) . Again, not looking forward to a really big 3 mile climb up into the high ridge of the AT through the Smokies. Plus it is supposed to rain tomorrow, maybe hard...

Please note that I will not be able to get to a phone until the 18th, when I get to Hot Springs, and will also take a well needed rest day. So, back then, bye....

UncleTom

I want to thank:

Trail Journals AZ Network

....

After missing Steve's call last week, my anxiety has been steadily increasing everyday. When the temperatures plummeted to record breaking depths the last few days my anxiety turned into fear and dread picturing my son in his tent on top of an isolated snow peaked mountain breathing into shivering  hands while listening to the wind whistling through the trees. I calmed my thoughts by thinking about all the money that crazy boy invested in his gear for unpredictable trials just like this one. Still, after a week and the Easter holiday without his presence my anxiety turned to sorrow. My feelings of  fear turned into thoughts of planning a strategy to find my son.  

Easter Sunday Steve finally called home. He has traveled 130 miles and joined a group of 7 or 8 hikers called the Maine Train. The Main Train has at least one seasoned hiker. He keeps a updated journey on the web. At the end of this blog I will include the link to his journey that accounts for conditions and obstacles that the Maine Train encounters. 

 Uncle Tom's journal  will be great source in keeping daily tabs on Steve and is adventures as long as he stays with the group. From his journal about meeting Steve: 

4/30/07 Walked earlier today with Lifetraveler from Tennessee (age 20). He is an armchair philosopher who claims he has read all the major religious texts, that he studies the writings of Bruce Lee, and that he will be a millionaire in 5 years investing the savings from his minimum wage job.

LOL, while Mom keeps him up...NOT! Steve sounded like himself on the phone, determined as ever. He said the trail was 3 to 4 times harder than he expected. The trail was not the neat well marked Holiday Express he daydreamed about. He said the trail will suddenly end with a drop off or climb then continues with the added excitement of rock climbing. Also, he was surprised to learn that much of the trail winded along mountain ledges. Now he gets the picture of why we are so worried.  Descriptions about the trail from Uncle Tom:

4/1/07 I hiked with Green Hornet and Maine Steve today. We traversed 4,000 foot Rocky Mountain, 4,930 ft. Trey Mtn., 3,800' Young Lick Knob, and 3,960' Round Top, before the last challenge of the day, a one mile climb of 800 vertical feet before the one mile descent into Deep Gap shelter. It was some hard traveling today for sure over some very muddy, slippery trails.

4/3/07 Hard day of hiking, some really high gaps and mountains. We went over Little Bald Knob (3440'), Buzzard Knob (3760'), As Knob (3440'), Wheeler Knob (3560'), Bly Gap (3840'), and Sassafras Gap (4300'). Each was a long uphill slog, some over 1000' in elevation. It was a day to celebrate our successes. We are out of Georgia now, passing the border at mile 75.2We went over a blue blazed trail to Raven Rock Ridge to view an amazing sunset and massive overview

Steve said everyone has blisters except, of course, him. I imagine running 5 miles a day conditioned his feet. He admitted the bottom of his feet hurt but said the pain in his knees is  as he put it  "killing me". The downward hiking puts a lot of stress on his knees. The weight of the pack, I 'd say,  adds to the problem. 

 My son learned a life lesson even though I don't think he realizes it yet. He said he always thought about the hike in terms of miles, now he realizes it's the elevations that determines his progression. I have been trying to teach him that concept for quite awhile.    

I asked Steve about the weather. Steve said he has been hiking in snow and freezing. He expects to hike in snow for the next few days. According to Uncle Tom's journal the group has experienced rough conditions from the start:

 4/4/07 It was one hell of a night at the Muskrat Creek shelter (mile 78, 4,600'). At 2 AM, two storm fronts collided, at what seemed to be 100 feet above the shelter. Perfect conditions resulted in lightning, cacophonous thunder, deluge sheets of rain, and winds high enough that they picked up my water bottle and threw it out of the shelter. Everyone in the shelter sat up and stared out at the show, and in no time, three campers ran in and ended up just sitting on the edge of the platform, speechless. The storm lasted about 90 minutes, but the rain kept up, and in the morning, the thermometer fell to 46 degrees.

4/5/07 At 4600', the elevation pushed the temps down 50 degrees colder than we experienced just two days ago. Water was frozen, those with 40 degree bags paid the price.

4/6/07 It got colder and colder as the day went on. My hands were cold as I made my supper, and all 8 of us were huddled in our bags by 7 pm. I slept in the shelter with 5 others. It was 23 degrees with the wind blowing when I went to bed. It was to be a night of record breaking cold, with the thermometer at 14 degrees at 7 the next morning. 
  

It's not all work and no play. Steve mentioned walking through the town Helen in Georgia. He was impressed with the town's influence from its Dutch heritage. There are some detailed stories Uncle Tom's talks about in his daily logs. I wonder what Steve's part is in the twist and turns of experiencing  new encounters that our world may conger up. My natural mothering instincts kicks in. I vision Steve exhausted from the new challenges, passed out peacefully in his bag while the passing caravan  and the frolic happens by.    

3/31/07 The scene at the shelter tonight assumed the proportion of panic. Not only did the shelter fill, but there are three tent villages spread over the access trail. There were 30 tents out there, with people hanging out by the lean-to smoking cigarettes, cigars, and other substances, with the strains of "Ripple"( through clear water) echoing from a ragtag band of trail gypsies, complete with guitars, double banjos and decent harmonies. Quite the trail party.  All of the gang that have been traveling together managed to straggle in tonight. Every day has another constellation of surprises.

4/2/07 We rocketed over Powell Mtn. (3850') wrapped up the 3.5 miles in 1.5 hours, and called for the shuttle to town, 11 miles away. We are in suitable digs at the Hiawassee Inn.  The 7 of us had a huge 3 plate Chinese buffet lunch next door. 

Steve says to tell everone "Hello and that he is fine". He confirmed he is having a good time, ha ha. Please keep him in your prayers.

Link to Uncle Tom's Journal:

 http://www.trailjournals.com/entry.cfm?id=171495

   This is my first ever blog. I am a little bashful but have bold opinions so hence, the blog. The vision I'm seeing right now is an image of the huge slime creature rolling over houses from the old classic horror film The Blob. In my mind this blog (representing me) will host my less nurturing thoughts (the Blob). Don't get me wrong I am not here to air my complaints in cyberspace. As I go through this life I see many injustices and being a considerate, easy going person I tend to harmonize. Harmonizing isn't always the answer.

The big day came and I dropped my son off at the beginning of the Appalachian Trail on Springer Mountain. He has been walking on air for the last week waiting for this time to finally arrive. His 42 pound pack will help keep his feet on the ground as he starts his journey that will last four to six months. I'm worried about snakes, bears and bees. Steve's worried about snow in the higher elevations.  

Steve has been planning his adventure for over a year. He has been talking about his research, equipment and planning strategy to anybody that will give him an ear for the last five months. It wasn't until a few months ago when the camping gear started arriving in the mail did I know he undoubtedly intended on hiking the 2000 mile trek. Steve use to say "plan the work and work the plan". I seen the hard line focus in his demeaner when he quoted his line as he saved money for the equipment and supplies. His relatives started calling a few days before he left to wish him luck or try to talk him out of it. He visited his friends the day before his departure to say good bye. For me, the real heart breaker was when he packed up all his belongings in his room and stored them in the shed.

Steve has always been a head strong person with curiosity for philosophical knowledge. His strongest suit is endurance. The nature lover and the near impossible goal  was exactly the challenge he was looking for. Just turning twenty this was his time to take a stand and pursue his quest before he exploded from the inside with his unbridled energy. He needed to see just how far he can push himself. His preparation included running five miles daily and exercising diligently. The job he gave up to follow his dream trained him in first aid and other safety issues. I believe if any young person has a chance of passing the finish line it will be Steve and his determination.