Lighthouse is goin strong.

Hey y'all!  Lighthouse here.  I'm doing fantastic.  I am in the public library in Marion, VA right now taking a zero day.  I have been kicking ass hiking the past 4 days trying to catch up with Simba and Bobsled.  Did about 20 miles for 3 days and then ended with a 23 miler.  I fell behind because I got sick eating some bad pepperoni.  As I was eating it, I was thinking to myself that it might get me sick, and BOY DID IT EVER.  I had 0 energy for like 3 days, and ***WARNING THIS MIGHT BE T.M.I FOR MOST***** I was literally shitting liquid for 2 days.  It really sucked.  But now my body is healthy and things couldn't be better.

Since I fell behind from being sick, I hiked by myself for 4 days, and I really enjoyed it.  It's nice to have a good group of people to hang out with, but it is also nice to get away from everyone and just go at it alone.  Very peaceful.  I also met some super nice people along the way who gave me free food, beers, etc while I was hiking.  It was GREAT.  It's amazing how something so small like a free soda can totally make your day out here.  But really, every day is just awesome out here.  Really, I don't get how people make this Appalachian Trail out to be some super strenuous task.  All I am doing is walking.  Every day.  You kinda get the hang of it after about 6 days.  Granted your feet will hurt every day, you will smell like ass every day, and you will have shitty weather days, but its just all awesome.  Just one amazing day after another out here.  I would still recommend this Appalachian trail journey to anyone.

The difficulty of this trail can drastically vary from how you experience it.  I think the HARDEST way to hike the A.T would be to NEVER stay in a hostel or hotel.  You would have to just camp out every night or stay in the shelters every night.  Now that's pretty hardcore.  And I'm sure a lot of people do it.  But, since I have the money, I  like going to a hotel or hostel once every 1 or 2 weeks.  It's not so expensive, yet its not the cheapest.  If you are an older person, you could TOTALLY do this trail as long as you stop more often.  So, really all you old people don't have any reason not to do this!  You just have to go slower to make sure you don't break any of your old and brittle bones.  I'M A YOUNGIN SO I JUST GO BLAZIN ON THE TRAIL WITH NO REGARDS TO THE WELFARE OF MY BODY AND I STILL HAVE NO PROBLEMS MUHAHAHAH!  Just kidding.  I actually feel like I am taking pretty good care of my body out here.  Nothing has been hurting too bad.  When you don't have much to do but hike all day, you really get into the zone with your body and making it move as efficiently as possible with minimal destruction to your body.  Or maybe that is just the engineer in me that is coming out. 

This library is actually super awesome and they have REALLY NICE computers so I can actually post pics!  Maybe even videos if it lets me!

So here is what I look like with my beard.  This was taken maybe about a week ago.  This is just my normal face.  IDK why I look so pissed off.  I guess that is just how I look.  I'm happy with my facial hair though!  I saw the older lady who gave me the name Lighthouse again.  She was like "wow you look so nice, do you groom your beard!?"  And I was like "nope, I don't do anything!"   Hurray for good beard growing capabilities!  

Also, I think its funny that the only place I can't grow any hair is just below my nose. But I like it, it adds some pizazz.  I call my beard the "Inverse Hitler".  I think it fits well...Hitler was pure evil, and I'm pure good!  I also put back earrings into my ears, because my holes never closed.  I found a Claires in one of these towns, and put in the least girly studs I could find.  I just got a bunch of different color studs, I like them alot.  I got bright green, bright blue, red, pink, and black.  I guess my headphones are covering them up in this picture, but I can assure you that I look flyyy with them.

Here is what a typical resupply looks like for me.  Such unhealthy food, and I am still able to eat all of it and lose weight.  I think I am at 155 lbs now.  I'm super skinny again.  It's just so crazy all the terrible food I am eating, but my body needs the calories so I can eat this all with no problem!  It's been nice hiking with Bobsled, because she graduated from Cornell with a diatetics/nutrition degree.  It's been nice actually LEARNING about what the hell carbs, sugars, protiens actually will do to your body.  It's going to be nice when I get back to the "real world" and I have to start watching my diet.  I want to make a conscious effort to eat much more healthier when I get back, so I think all of the knowledge I am sucking up from her will help tremendously with that.

Here is a pic of all us hikers.  The other 3 people in the back are our "alter egos" Brendan, Statue, and Spitfire.  They are all real cool.

This is what a shelter looks like when you have been hiking in the cold wet rain all day.  Notice the condensation on the lens when I took the picture.  All the clothes are soaking wet.  And Brendan is breathign into his hands to keep them warm.  Boy those are fun days! Not.

I'm too lazy to figure out how to rotate this, but this is a big ass burger that I got in Hot Springs.  It was awesome.  And yes, I ate it all.  It was hard to do!

So, Trail Days is the big hiker festival that was held last weekend.  Basically just a big party where everyone parties for 3 days.  It was fun.  There was actually a hiker talent show, and I performed a cover song there too!  It was pretty nerve wracking, because there was like 300 people watching me.  I did pretty good, but there were so many good performances that I didn't win.  OH WELL MAYBE NEXT YEAR.  But I thought the funnest part was actually GETTING TO TRAIL DAYS IN THIS BADASS OLD BRONCO.  We were about 50 hiking miles away from the town where the festival was at, so Cee Cee at the Greasy Creek Hostel gave us a ride there for 10 bucks each in this badass bronco.  It was amazing.  Something about riding through the mountains in a shitty old car is awesome.  She brought her dog too, so he was chillin in my lap the whole time which definitely added to the experience. 

Thanks for the ride Cee Cee!

Lake Watauga.  Such a pretty lake.  I love how the treeline goes all the way down to the water everywhere.

This is one of the shelters we stayed at.  It was a barn that they converted into a shelter.  This is what I went to bed, and what I woke up to.  Can you say AMAZING??

We found these guys at the top of this mountain giving away some free drinks.  Free sodas and an amazing view make for an amazing day.

A lot of the day, you will be hiking through thick vegetation, so you will almost forget you are hiking through mountains.  I thought this pic did a pretty good job capturing the beauty of just a typical day hiking.

OHMAHGUAD MORE EARTH PORN!!

So in the Grayson Highlands State Park, they got ponies.  They are pretty awesome.  I had no food but I just stuck my hand out and they would just lick the salt of my hand.  I'm trying to upload the video below of some PONY ACTION but I dont think it will work. 

Oh hey, an outhouse that actually looks like an outhouse!  Best one on the trail. 10/10. Would poop in again.

This view was really sweet because it was not really expected.  I was just walking along the trail until I looked to the right and BAM here it was!

I like to get my water from all natural sources.  Out here, piped springs are the bomb.  If they are at the top of the mountain, you don't need to treat them chemically cause no animal has the chance to take a crap in the water.  And mannn...fresh spring water tastes SO GREAT!

Waterfalls!!

This was wayyy back in the Smokies, but I loved the green on everything.  You really can't capture it with a camera, but the green was SOOO PRETTY when you were walking through it.

OK well I think thats enough pictures for now!  I'm super stoked that I am able to upload some pics.  Hopefully I will have much more for you guys!  But don't worry about me, I'm lovin it out here!

OH!  So some of y'all have wanted to send me some stuff to help me out, and I would loveeeee for you guys to do that!  If you would like to send me a package of some sort, I think the easiest way would be to just text me that you are interested in sending me something and I will converse via text on what to do.  My phone number is 317-674-2332.  Just tell me who you are and that you would like to send me something, and I will take it from there.  Don't be surprised if I do not reply for about 3 days....AT&T service is TERRIBLE here in the south.  Apparently it gets better up north but WHO KNOWS.

SOOOOO if you are one of these people who would like to send me things, but aren't sure about what to send, I can give you some ideas!

• Any kind of energy bars.  Granola bars, breakfast bars, Clif bars. 
• SNICKERS BARS!  They are awesome
• Beef Jerkey.  MMM sooo GOOD.  And I am always in need of PROTEIN OUT HERE!
• Pop tarts, or food of that nature.
• Anything little debbie.
• Homemade Chocolate Chip Cookies. cough cough Mrs. Heck cough chough
• Mountain house dehydrated meals.  These are like the holy grail of meals out here.  They are awesome because all you need to do is just add hot water to the bag, and voila you have a delicious meal.  They are expensive though, so I don't expect anyone to actually buy these.  But hey, I'd thought I would at least mention it!

That is all I can think of at the moment.  Really, I will eat anything that is calorie dense.  Lots of calories for little amount of weight.  But OK I AM DONE RAMBLING HERE!  We are off to go eat some taco bell.  I can't wait.  I haven't had taco bell for the longest time, and I AM GOING TO DESTROY IT!

Ciao!

Lighthouse