Sorry for the long delay since the last post. The thing is that most hostels I come across either have no internet at all or they have the slowest dialup ever. That creates problems for us hikers who are trying to find decent computer access in order to blog. Woods Hole Hostel has satellite internet. So if you really think about it, you are receiving this blog post from space!!

Many are wondering what I eat out here so let me give you a little taste of my daily food intake. Keep in mind that it always fluctuates a little in order to avoid food boredom.

Breakfast: 4 cups of oatmeal. I always add powdered milk, protein powder, some kind of green super food powder, instant breakfast carnation, and a couple ounces of olive oil. Then I grab a torilla and smoother it with peanut butter or nutella and down it with a cup of coffee. I think that gives me about 1,500 calories.
2nd breakfast: This is a couple hours later while im on the go and its too early to stop. I usually eat 3 bars; 2 cliff bars and a snickers or something like that.
Lunch: I stop and cook during lunch. This forces me to get a 30 minute break. My lunch tends to consist of whole grain angel hair pasta, I’m done with Ramen Noodles. Sometimes ill make spaghetti with some powdered Italian mushroom sauce and other times I’ll make a soup with chicken soup powder. Both types of meals will get a dose of chopped up garlic and onions and lots of olive oil. (yes, I do carry a clove of garlic and an onion). I also add Wasabi Peas to the meal, curtsey of Egor and Ella. But that’s not all, a few ounces of summer sausage on the side hits the spot.
2nd lunch: This is a couple hours later and tends to be a quick meal with tortillas. Something like tuna on tortilla with a bunch of tobasco sauce and a pieces of dried fruit.
Dinner: I tend to be on the go so there are 2 options; eat some GORP (peanuts with chocolate candy) or simply make a quick pit stop and make a protein shake. 2 packets of oatmeal with powdered milk (Nido is the best), muscle milk, packet of hot coco, and couple ounces of olive oil. This will power me through the last couple hours till supper.
Supper: If I have any energy left I’ll try to cook something with spaghetti with a side of meat and some kind of dried fruits. Honestly, supper tends to be any kind of meal mentioned above with loads of protein.

The funny thing is that a lot of hikers out here talk about my food bag. Apparently I carry one of the biggest bags on the trail haha! And I just found out from Raven that my choice of meals is always a great topic of conversation for other hikers.

So far I’m doing pretty good. We joke around that all of use have developed our hiker legs now, but not hiker feet. The feet are the weakest link for everyone. They get super sore at the end of the day. However, this is getting better. The past few days I’ve been hiking 20 mile days back to back with no problems. That’s telling me that the legs are definitely getting stronger. Speaking of strength, my pullups have decreased to 18 in the mornings! That’s horrible news so Lex brought me some hiking poles. I’m going to try to get my upper body strength back up. I guess morning pushups and pullups alone was not enough. When I hike with the poles I put as much force down into them as possible to work out my arms. I feel like some four legged creature now hiking the AT.
Lex hiked with me from Atkins for 13 miles. It was an epic hike through thunder, lightning and sideways rain. I gave him the trail name El Tigre because I knew the people at home would approve (Nina, Sara, and Alla to name a few). Ask him for the details on the trip, it was fun! Luckily El Tigre and I were below the large mountain that I was supposed to climb that day. This is what happened on top of Chessnut Mountain:

Some funny things that happened so far:
I was sleeping in Roan Mountain shelter next to Columbus. The next morning he told me:
“Dude, you talk in your sleep right?”
Me: “Really? What did I say?”
Columbus: “Well, I was awake at 2 in the morning and you said one word ‘Spiderman!’.”
We laughed and laughed all morning about that. You know for sure that your trail name fits when you speak your trail name in dreams hahah!
I told Columbus it was a good thing it was my name vs his or that would have been straight up creepy.

The other day I met Stretch for the first time. Stretch told us that he was walking down the side of the road sweating and dying from the blazing sun when his luck changed. He came across a Twinki in its wrapper. And it gets better, he also found a can of Dr. Pepper too! Unfortunately both were cooking in the extreme heat of the day so he did what anyone of us would do, Stretch ate the Twinki and drank the coke haha! Funny guy!

I came across this school from 1870. It was super neat to see how schools were built back in the day. It totally reminded me of little house on the prairie.

One of the coolest things I’ve come across so far were the ponies at Grayson Highlands. These guys move around the hillsides and are free to roam where they please. Us hikers pride ourselves in our pony selfies.

Guys if you have an opportunity to go camping for a couple days, go to the Grayson Highlands! You will have no regrets, only sweet dreams about ponies. Oh wait, I totally forgot to mention that they bite and kick if they don’t like you. Rugby came up to one of the ponies and the thing turned around and kicked him! He was so mad; “I flew all the way from Britian to see ponies and all I get is disrespect!” hahaha good stuff.

People talk about the Virginia Blues. A lot of people drop out in Virginia because they get bored with the trail. I just don’t understand that. It has been one awesome state so far! Here are some random photos I took in Virginia:

This was my favorite privy so far:

That’s about it for now. The next post will be in 2-3 weeks until I reach a larger town with a library or something. Take care everyone!
Spidy