May, 10, 2004, 10 years ago on the Appalachian Trail. Franklin, NC. We are up early, double-checking the packs and supplies. We had a low carb breakfast and hot chocolate. Dan went over to a local barbershop for a GI haircut. I waited for a while reading the morning paper. More bad news from Iraq. The prisoner abuse thing was heating up. I went over to the Barber shop about 7:45 and Dan had already had his hair cut. We walked on over to the Post Office where we were able to pickup the packages we mailed from Hiwassee. Dan had another one from his son that had been seen to him form Macon.. I had sent some of my stuff from Hiwassee to Franklin. Dan mailed some of the supplies we had bought in Franklin on to Fontana Dam. NC. So now we had supplies and food. All we need now is a ride back to the trail. . We checked out about 9:00am The two day stay at the motel was $77.00, plus 10 dollars for the ride to the trail. On our way back to the Trail, the hotel Manager Ron, took us to the Eagle Outfitters store in Franklin for about 10 minutes. Doing some quick shopping as he had another pickup up on the mountain. We were dropped at Winding Stair Gap on US 64 at 10:45am. and was on the trail about 11:00am. Not more than a mile off the road I became ill, weak, wobbly and threw up! This has lead to a very bad day today for me. I was sickly all morning. I’m not sure what was the cause, but suspect that I did not have enough food this morning and did not eat lunch. Perhaps it was the restaurant food. Had the heave so bad it hurt my stomach muscles while retching. I literally had to stop, lay down and swooned for several minutes while recovering. I didn’t know what was happening. At first I thought I was having a sugar attack and then I started to perspire really bad and was sick at my stomach. I’m not sure but what I might have been having a heat stroke. Anyway after resting about 30 minutes I was able to go on with the trek. So one must realize that even healthy people get sick on the trail. We are now camped just short of Wine Springs campsite at about 5300ft high. It is a very level place to camp and I am very tired from my ordeal earlier today. The temperature now is 60% and the high today was about 85. So it may have been the heat and not enough food that made me sick. I’m very tired. We pitch our tents and Dan and “Rick” from Tuckerman Ga. go on up the trail and get water from the next spring. I’m in need of rest and refreshment to calm my system so I stay here and write..
Posted on: Sat, 10 May 2014 17:01:29 +0000
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