Ok so what a crazy summer.
First we quit our jobs to hike the AT with no plans - just hike until October 15th. Then we get a phone call about a possible job opportunity for me with The Escape (Christian Teen Center). I quit a job that I loved to hike the trail and now was being asked to apply for similar job, but closer to home and with the opportunity to share God's word with teens. We found this out just about a month in and were very hopeful about it. I knew that if the job were offered to me I would take it. As summer grew hotter and the possibility of the new job seeming more and more likely we realized we would not be finishing this year. The idea of not finishing was sad to us, but we were both feeling like this is the direction God was leading us in and we are both very excited because I GOT THE JOB!!!! Overall, we hiked about 700 miles this summer and had a great time. It was very hard at times, it hurt, we were tired, we were hungry, but we met new friends, had great conversations, saw God's wonderful creation up close and personal, spent more time together in 3 months than most married couples get to spend together in a year (and liked it), we learned what the important things are in life and it was one of the best things we have ever done in our lives!
We plan to take time to section hike the rest of the trail throughout the next couple of years. Dan "Jackrabbit" Brunner is still out there with Maine on the brain. Elliott and I are praying for the safety of him and the other hikers still out there.
Thank you all for following and for your thoughts and prayers.
Oh P.S. we did not get to disc golf with the president, but when we went to see the White House there was a climbing wall set up, guess he knew we were coming :) Our trip to D.C. was great! Kim Kasprzak is a wonderful person and a fantastic host! We were honored that she let us stay with her. Liz and Dave Schwalenberg were also very good to us and we had a great time in Baltimore! There daughter Anna is adorable and Liz and Dave are amazing parents!
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Thursday, June 9, 2011
What are those crazy Kasprzaks up to now?
So we ended up taking a zero day in Pearisburg because it took us a long time to resupply and do laundry. The Walmart was 2 miles away from the hotel so on foot it took us about and hour to get there.
Hiking out of Pearisburg we got lost and ended up doing about 4 extra miles... lame. There was no place to resupply on fuel in town so we had to cook by fire for a couple of days. Normally I prefer this method, but when all you want to do is eat and go to bed making a fire becomes a lot of extra work, not to mention all the extra "protein" you get from bugs, bark and what ever else falls in your cup. When i was stirring my pasta i pulled out a bug the size of my spoon. Yuck! But i ate it anyhow (not the bug, the food)
It has been super hot. Yesterday we hiked 16 miles through 105 degrees on top of a mountain ridge. HOT! A few days earlier we were at "the captains," a nice man from the area that lets hikers camp in his lawn,tube down the river and provides them with cold soda. He even set up a zip line swing so you don't have to walk through the river to get to his place. Elliott and I couldn't resist a day of tubing down the river so we stayed there for and hung out for awhile.
So hiking, hiking, playing, hiking.... but tonight we are getting a ride to Harper's Ferry and plan to do some hiking around that area, but also we plan to spend a few days in D.C.!
Elliott has never been there and we really want to go... so its our adventure and we are going to go! We are both pretty excited!
What I don't think I told you yet is that we will probably not be able to finish the trail this year. I have a possible job opportunity and will start August 1 which is not enough time to finish the trail.(If I get the job i will let everyone know what it is) Instead of pushing it and killing ourselves we have decided to chill out and have fun. We will most likely end the summer having hiked about 800 miles... give or take...
So yeah Appalachian Adventure here we come hiking, couchsurfing, traveling, sight seeing, relaxing, more hiking and then we take a trail out of Harper's Ferry June 22nd to come home for Paul and Cathy's wedding!
Can't wait to see everyone!!!!
Hiking out of Pearisburg we got lost and ended up doing about 4 extra miles... lame. There was no place to resupply on fuel in town so we had to cook by fire for a couple of days. Normally I prefer this method, but when all you want to do is eat and go to bed making a fire becomes a lot of extra work, not to mention all the extra "protein" you get from bugs, bark and what ever else falls in your cup. When i was stirring my pasta i pulled out a bug the size of my spoon. Yuck! But i ate it anyhow (not the bug, the food)
It has been super hot. Yesterday we hiked 16 miles through 105 degrees on top of a mountain ridge. HOT! A few days earlier we were at "the captains," a nice man from the area that lets hikers camp in his lawn,tube down the river and provides them with cold soda. He even set up a zip line swing so you don't have to walk through the river to get to his place. Elliott and I couldn't resist a day of tubing down the river so we stayed there for and hung out for awhile.
So hiking, hiking, playing, hiking.... but tonight we are getting a ride to Harper's Ferry and plan to do some hiking around that area, but also we plan to spend a few days in D.C.!
Elliott has never been there and we really want to go... so its our adventure and we are going to go! We are both pretty excited!
What I don't think I told you yet is that we will probably not be able to finish the trail this year. I have a possible job opportunity and will start August 1 which is not enough time to finish the trail.(If I get the job i will let everyone know what it is) Instead of pushing it and killing ourselves we have decided to chill out and have fun. We will most likely end the summer having hiked about 800 miles... give or take...
So yeah Appalachian Adventure here we come hiking, couchsurfing, traveling, sight seeing, relaxing, more hiking and then we take a trail out of Harper's Ferry June 22nd to come home for Paul and Cathy's wedding!
Can't wait to see everyone!!!!
Friday, June 3, 2011
100 More Miles
We hung out with Jon Schleef in Marion for a couple of days and had a great time!
Thanks for visiting us Jon!!
5-25 We could only hike 11.5 miles from Marion to Atinks because we had to send Elliott phone home and the post office was closed by the time we got there. We camped just outside of town, we call it hobo camping when you are on the out skirts of town. We met a man who calls himself Dman he is 65 and hikes about 5 miles a day. We admired his patients and persistence.
5-26 This day we hiked through lots of cow pastures and took a ton of breaks by streams and rivers. We camped near the road by a pavilion. While we were cooking dinner a man drove up in a truck got out, in the puring rain, went to the back of his truck, made himself a mixed drink in an open cup, got a beer and got back in his truck and drove away. This made us thankful that we were in the woods and not on the roads. He tried saying something to us, but we couldn't understand him. That night it stormed lightly, but we missed the worst of it. A shelter just 15 mile away got rain, hail and thunder. There were 4 live trees that fell over, but thankfully everyone was alright.
5-27 We saw 5 orange newts and 1 orange salamander today. They are pretty cool looking! We hiked about 12.1 miles this day to a shelter called Chestnut Knob. It is an old fire warden's house, it was enclosed with a door! Shelters hardly ever have doors. Elliott and I set our tent up inside to dry it off and luckily not many people came so we got to keep it up.
5-28 We did 18.9 miles to a great campsite with a view of the the sun setting over the mountains. There were tons of millipedes by our tent though... yucky...
5-29 We went into Bland to do a light resupply and get lunch. Elliott wasn't feeling well so we spent a few hours in the shade just resting. At around 5 pm Elliott started to feel better so we hiked about 7 miles before setting up camp. We met some section hikers that come out every year for about 2 weeks. They seemed to be having a blast- a few days later we saw them in Pearisburg... all of them had poison ivy, but were still in high spirits.
5- 30 Great time at a waterfall, Dismal Falls, today for a couple of hours. 19.6 miles today. The heat makes it hard for Elliott and I to move fast so we try to take big breaks in the middle of the day and save our energy for when it cools off.
5-31 Camped by some power lines on a bald part of a mountain. The sunset was beautiful and the sunrise was amazing. 12.8 miles that day.
6-1 We hiked 5 miles into Pearisburg and saw 3 snacks, a tons of toads and one little baby deer that scared us a little. We walked past a tree and then heard this really loud noise. When I turned to look Elliott was in the woods in the other direction yelling "What is that?" It was a cute little baby deer yelling at the top of its lungs for its momma. The momma deer came running so Elliott and I walked away slowly. We did get one photo of the cute little guy.
Once in town we got our room. While Elliott was setting things up a car pulled in and everyone started walking toward it. Someone walked by me with an arm full of bread and fruit saying "Its the food car go get some." It was a woman that worked at the sore who fills up her car with food that the store can't sell and brings it to the hotel a couple times a week for the people who live here. Elliott and I grabbed some fruit after everyone else got what they needed.
Little Notes
- We still have not seen a bear, but we have heard them.
- As of this time we have hitch hiked 12 times
-We will be in WI June 23 to July 3 for Paul and Cathy's wedding
Thanks for reading :)
Hope you are all staying cool and having fun
Thanks for visiting us Jon!!
5-25 We could only hike 11.5 miles from Marion to Atinks because we had to send Elliott phone home and the post office was closed by the time we got there. We camped just outside of town, we call it hobo camping when you are on the out skirts of town. We met a man who calls himself Dman he is 65 and hikes about 5 miles a day. We admired his patients and persistence.
5-26 This day we hiked through lots of cow pastures and took a ton of breaks by streams and rivers. We camped near the road by a pavilion. While we were cooking dinner a man drove up in a truck got out, in the puring rain, went to the back of his truck, made himself a mixed drink in an open cup, got a beer and got back in his truck and drove away. This made us thankful that we were in the woods and not on the roads. He tried saying something to us, but we couldn't understand him. That night it stormed lightly, but we missed the worst of it. A shelter just 15 mile away got rain, hail and thunder. There were 4 live trees that fell over, but thankfully everyone was alright.
5-27 We saw 5 orange newts and 1 orange salamander today. They are pretty cool looking! We hiked about 12.1 miles this day to a shelter called Chestnut Knob. It is an old fire warden's house, it was enclosed with a door! Shelters hardly ever have doors. Elliott and I set our tent up inside to dry it off and luckily not many people came so we got to keep it up.
5-28 We did 18.9 miles to a great campsite with a view of the the sun setting over the mountains. There were tons of millipedes by our tent though... yucky...
5-29 We went into Bland to do a light resupply and get lunch. Elliott wasn't feeling well so we spent a few hours in the shade just resting. At around 5 pm Elliott started to feel better so we hiked about 7 miles before setting up camp. We met some section hikers that come out every year for about 2 weeks. They seemed to be having a blast- a few days later we saw them in Pearisburg... all of them had poison ivy, but were still in high spirits.
5- 30 Great time at a waterfall, Dismal Falls, today for a couple of hours. 19.6 miles today. The heat makes it hard for Elliott and I to move fast so we try to take big breaks in the middle of the day and save our energy for when it cools off.
5-31 Camped by some power lines on a bald part of a mountain. The sunset was beautiful and the sunrise was amazing. 12.8 miles that day.
6-1 We hiked 5 miles into Pearisburg and saw 3 snacks, a tons of toads and one little baby deer that scared us a little. We walked past a tree and then heard this really loud noise. When I turned to look Elliott was in the woods in the other direction yelling "What is that?" It was a cute little baby deer yelling at the top of its lungs for its momma. The momma deer came running so Elliott and I walked away slowly. We did get one photo of the cute little guy.
Once in town we got our room. While Elliott was setting things up a car pulled in and everyone started walking toward it. Someone walked by me with an arm full of bread and fruit saying "Its the food car go get some." It was a woman that worked at the sore who fills up her car with food that the store can't sell and brings it to the hotel a couple times a week for the people who live here. Elliott and I grabbed some fruit after everyone else got what they needed.
Little Notes
- We still have not seen a bear, but we have heard them.
- As of this time we have hitch hiked 12 times
-We will be in WI June 23 to July 3 for Paul and Cathy's wedding
Thanks for reading :)
Hope you are all staying cool and having fun
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Back at it :)
Hey everyone,
We are back on the trail and loving it again!! :)
Lets see where did we leave you at... Damascus for Trail Days i believe. Well Elliott and I ended up staying there for 4 days because we were waiting for Uncle Jonny's Hostel to forward our mail drop to the Damascus Post Office. Trail Days was super fun. We met a lot of people that had thru hiked in previous years who had a lot of wisdom and encouragement. When we realized that it was going to take awhile to get our package we asked the Damascus Post Office to forward it to Troutdale, about 50 miles away. We resupplied and set out.
We left so late that day that we only went 1.5 miles and set up camp. It had rained on and off during Trail Days and again that first night out. We had sent our cold weather sleeping bags home because for 2 weeks we had not been sleeping inside them... bad choice. It got down to about 35 degrees that night and we had 45 degree sleeping bags. We shivered most of the nights and morning. It was raining when we woke up and we were slow moving. We did not pack up and leave until after 12:30 pm.
That day since we left so late and because we were not in the best moods we only hiked 7.6 miles through a very cold rain. Which was fine because we decided to do what we want while hiking and not push it if we don't feel like it. That night we had a shelter to ourselves so we set the tent up inside the shelter to try to dry it out. We also had picked up some Jiffy Pop from a pile of food someone left in the woods. GREAT IDEA. After eating dinner we made hot coco and jiffy pop. Who knew that could be such a mood lifter. That night was very cold as well even with zipping our sleeping bags together and wearing all of our clothing.
5/18 We had a decision to make. Hike 6.6 miles and sleep at an elevation of 3,399 or hike 18 miles and sleep at an elevation of 5,430. Since we knew it would be even colder on top of the mountain we could only go the 6.6. So another short day of hiking in the rain.
The next day we summited the mountain. Can you guess it? Yup through the rain, but good news! By the time we were on our way down the rain and fog cleared up and we saw some of the most beautiful sights we have seen so far. The Grayson Highlands were amazing! And there were wild horses hanging out. They were not scared of us and actually liked to lick us because we tasted like salt. One horse even tried eating my rain coat. We hiked 17.3 miles that day and camped by a stream in one of the coolest camping areas we have been at. It warmed up a little and we were able to sleep.
The next day we hiked 15.8 miles in 6 hours and hitched to the Troutdale Baptist Hostel. The provided us with an amazing free dinner and a short Bible message. Guess what- No rain that night :)
We hiked 14.5 miles the following day and about 7 miles in another Baptist Church was offering shuttles to their church for lunch. We ate so much that the next 7.5 miles went pretty slow. On our hike that day we saw 52 millipedes!!!!! Yup we counted the whole day. Elliott didn't really get into it until I got to 35. That night we hitched a ride back to Troutdale and went to church the next morning.
The last couple of days we have been in Marion hanging out with Jon Schleef! We are both very excited to be hanging out with a such a great friend!
Tomorrow we hit the trail again. :) More adventures to come!!!!
p.s. i just figured out how to respond to comments... so go check it out
We are back on the trail and loving it again!! :)
Lets see where did we leave you at... Damascus for Trail Days i believe. Well Elliott and I ended up staying there for 4 days because we were waiting for Uncle Jonny's Hostel to forward our mail drop to the Damascus Post Office. Trail Days was super fun. We met a lot of people that had thru hiked in previous years who had a lot of wisdom and encouragement. When we realized that it was going to take awhile to get our package we asked the Damascus Post Office to forward it to Troutdale, about 50 miles away. We resupplied and set out.
We left so late that day that we only went 1.5 miles and set up camp. It had rained on and off during Trail Days and again that first night out. We had sent our cold weather sleeping bags home because for 2 weeks we had not been sleeping inside them... bad choice. It got down to about 35 degrees that night and we had 45 degree sleeping bags. We shivered most of the nights and morning. It was raining when we woke up and we were slow moving. We did not pack up and leave until after 12:30 pm.
That day since we left so late and because we were not in the best moods we only hiked 7.6 miles through a very cold rain. Which was fine because we decided to do what we want while hiking and not push it if we don't feel like it. That night we had a shelter to ourselves so we set the tent up inside the shelter to try to dry it out. We also had picked up some Jiffy Pop from a pile of food someone left in the woods. GREAT IDEA. After eating dinner we made hot coco and jiffy pop. Who knew that could be such a mood lifter. That night was very cold as well even with zipping our sleeping bags together and wearing all of our clothing.
5/18 We had a decision to make. Hike 6.6 miles and sleep at an elevation of 3,399 or hike 18 miles and sleep at an elevation of 5,430. Since we knew it would be even colder on top of the mountain we could only go the 6.6. So another short day of hiking in the rain.
The next day we summited the mountain. Can you guess it? Yup through the rain, but good news! By the time we were on our way down the rain and fog cleared up and we saw some of the most beautiful sights we have seen so far. The Grayson Highlands were amazing! And there were wild horses hanging out. They were not scared of us and actually liked to lick us because we tasted like salt. One horse even tried eating my rain coat. We hiked 17.3 miles that day and camped by a stream in one of the coolest camping areas we have been at. It warmed up a little and we were able to sleep.
The next day we hiked 15.8 miles in 6 hours and hitched to the Troutdale Baptist Hostel. The provided us with an amazing free dinner and a short Bible message. Guess what- No rain that night :)
We hiked 14.5 miles the following day and about 7 miles in another Baptist Church was offering shuttles to their church for lunch. We ate so much that the next 7.5 miles went pretty slow. On our hike that day we saw 52 millipedes!!!!! Yup we counted the whole day. Elliott didn't really get into it until I got to 35. That night we hitched a ride back to Troutdale and went to church the next morning.
The last couple of days we have been in Marion hanging out with Jon Schleef! We are both very excited to be hanging out with a such a great friend!
Tomorrow we hit the trail again. :) More adventures to come!!!!
p.s. i just figured out how to respond to comments... so go check it out
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Some photo's Dan had taken
Cooking breakfast by Justice Creek on our second day out. Shortly after this photo a stray dog followed us the rest of the day.
Hanging out
Another rainy day on the trail.
This is the border of GA and NC.
Very Exciting!!
Hanging out after Trail Magic provided by Tatter Chip.
He had soda, moon pies and Gatorade! It was awesome.
Lots of peanut butter for energy. A hiker will eat pretty much anything.
Day One - Waterfall
So many great views!!!!!!!!
Sunday, May 15, 2011
Saturday, May 14, 2011
Changing things up a bit
So the other day we were hiking... because that is what we do... and it was very hot, we were both tired because of the thunderstorm the night before, the trail was hard that day with lots of straight up and straight downs and we realized that we were not having very much fun. Prior to this we had decided that we HAD to do 15 miles a day to get to Harpers Ferry on time and ...well ...Elliott and i do not do well with restrictions while we are on adventures. Around mile 315 we hopped off the trail and got a shuttle to a hostel to reevaluated our plan and adventure. We camped at Uncle Jonny's Hostel and then decided to go to Trail Days in Damascus,VA. Trail Days is the largest backpacker gathering in the world. There are free meals, showers, gear giveaways and tons of hikers from all over come to celebrate the outdoors. The First Baptist Church is a huge supporter and offers most of the free stuff. This has been a great break for Elliott and me. Trail Days has been a great way for us to get excited about hiking again and remember to "hike our own hike." We plan to hike north out of Damascus, missing about 130 miles of trail that we will go back and finish later this year. This changes our title slightly to Flip Floppers/ Leap Froggers... our plan is to complete as much of the trail as we can- while also enjoying ourselves and resting when we need to. We are excited about the change of scenery and will continue to keep you all updated on our progress.
Jack Rabbit- Dan Brunner- has moved on since Hot Springs and seems to be doing some great mileage. So from here on out it is just Elliott and me wandering around in the Appalachian mountains.
Jack Rabbit- Dan Brunner- has moved on since Hot Springs and seems to be doing some great mileage. So from here on out it is just Elliott and me wandering around in the Appalachian mountains.
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Walking by Lake Michigan
