Tent City.jpg

Tent City.jpg, originally uploaded by Hikingfool.

Well today I am in Damascus in tent city. It is where everyone sets up there tents or tarps to spend each night. It will get more packed as the days go on.

Today I woke up at 7:30 and chilled out around town. Then I went to a ultra light gear talk which was very informative. Soon after they had a reunion time to meet up with old friends. I have only met 2 hikers I knew from 08 as of yet.

Then I went to a talk on a guy who did the Florida Thruhike of 1100 miles and then a film of the first guy who hiked the whole America Discovery Trail in 16 months. I am in a talk about thr last 180 miles of the AT in Maine.

Soon it will be time to eat and enjoy the night. So far having a great time.

Enjoy,
Shepherd.

Heading to Trail Days - Damascus, VA!

As some of you may of known, I hiked 1012 miles of the Appalachian Trail last year. You can read my blog here about my AT 2008 Hike. It is in chronological order from the very beginning to the end at Harper's Ferry. I hope you enjoy!

Well every year in Damascus, VA, they have a 3 day festival for hikers who have hiked or are hiking the Appalachian Trail! It is a place to reunite with old friends from the trail and share stories and just have fun. Here is the link to Trail Days if you want to check it out!

So I will be posting entries from my phone while down in Damascus, but unfortunelty wont be to on top of coupon deals for the next couple of days!

Enjoy,
Shepherd.

Things about Shepherd

Ok, just for fun, here's some things about me! Those in bold are what I've had the privilege to do by the grace of God. Take it for your own blog/Facebook page to show your pals what you've done.

1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more to charity than you can afford.
7. Been to Disneyland/world
8. Climbed a mountain.
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon - Have ran 6 half marathons!
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal in a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Gotten flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets, or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a lawsuit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee
100. Hiked 1000 miles on the Appalachian Trail!

My Favorite Beatles' Song! "Hey Jude"

Well in response to Madmup blog's question...on what is your favorite Beatles' song and that it is official Beatles' week, I would have to say "Hey Jude"! It is an absolute classic! It was actually very weird when we were at Octoberfest in 2007 in Munich, Germany to hear about 1-2 thousand German people singing "Hey Jude" in perfect English! They went crazy to this song! It was so much fun! It reminded us of a clean version of the piano bar on steriods!

Also, it is the theme of the tribute that CJ, Dynamite, Hoedown, & Dorothy drew for me when I had to get off my AT hike in Front Royal, VA. Even Ironman made a guess appearance! I really miss those guys!

Shepherd!

A Farewell to "Lakewood"

For all you that may not know "Lakewood" (aka John Fegy), he is the guy who really helped me out in my planning of my Appalachian Trail Hike. He actually thru-hiked it in 2007 and put up some very informative videos of his hike. By the grace of God, he decided to return my email asking for any advice that would help in my pursuit to hike the AT in 2008. His advice and encouragement throughout my AT hike really helped me get to Harper's Ferry. Even though we still haven't met in person, I consider him a real good friend. Lord willing, someday we will get to hangout and trade somemore stories of the AT, and maybe even do some hiking on the AT! Who knows...

You maybe wondering why I am spot-lighting him, but he is actually heading off to Antartica to do some geology research and is leaving on Thanksgiving (of all days!). Have a great time "Lakewood" and don't forget to blog about it! Will be praying for you!

Finally, John is also a very talented musician, and I wanted to put up a couple of videos that actually turned me on to a couple artists (Derrick Webb & Damien Rice) that I had never heard before. You can find his "bathroom series" on You Tube. I hope you enjoy!

Cannonball by Damien Rice performed by John Fegy

Table for Two by Derick Webb performed by John Fegy

Denali National Park Slide Show 2008!

This is photos from our first part of our Alaskan adventure. We flew into Anchorage and took the Alaska Railroad 8 hours to Denali National Park. We spent 2 half days and 1 full day at the park. Then we reconnected with our tour group back in Anchorage for our week long cruise, which will be another post! Hope you enjoy God's amazing creation!

Shepherd.

Final Day - Cruising

Well today is our last day on the cruise, so we were out to sea all day cruising to Vancouver, BC. So that meant we just did activities on the boat today!

One of them that I was looking forward to was the cake demonstration! We were in the front row, and Dave (the cruise director) needed someone from the audience. Well I didn't want to do it and was looking around to see who would be willing to volunteer, but not seeing anyone. Then Dave stood right in front of me and pointed out that I wasn't making eye contact with him, so he picked me! Yeah! We were going to try to make a German Black Forest cake!

The cake was already baked, so Dave (the guy in the middle), and I had to cut our cake into 3 layers. Then we had to whip the heavy cream by hand. I got good peaks with mine, but Dave's (the comedian) cream was still runny, which really made the demonstration hilarious! After layering our cakes with whipped cream, brandy and cherries for all layers. We pipped some rosettes on the top with a pipping bag...except for Dave's whipped cream being runny...it just ran right out of the bag. It was very funny! Then we put on some chocolate shavings and then topped each rosette with a cherry. The final product is on display above. Mine is the one in front of me. Dave's is the pitiful one on the right, and the chef's is the middle one! It was so much fun!

Amee and I also took some swing dance lessons, which were very fun. Then we just layed back and enjoyed the rest of the day's entertainment...oh and of course ate some more food!

All in all, this was a very fun and enjoyable cruise! I would love to some day go back and hike some more in Denali someday, but for cruising...we will be sticking to warmer weather from now on! lol.

Shepherd.

Ketchikan

Welcome to day 6 of our cruise, in which we ported in Ketchikan! This is the famous place of the "bridge to nowhere"! Well the proposed site anyways. This area is land locked, so the only way into this place is by either boat or plane. The thing about this town is that it is also a rain forest and gets over 120 inches of rain a year, so it was no surprise that it was actually raining on our day there!

So it would actually be a good idea for this bridge to come hear, because it is hard for planes to fly in here due to the rainy weather, so the most reliable way in here is by a ferry boat from Juneau...which takes 15 hours! Yeah, not fun, but it could take you 5 days to get here by plane if the weather conditions arent right!

Well anyways, this town was much larger than the icy straight point. So, we decided to do some tourist shopping. We bought Jacob a new book. Jacob is Christine and Greg Wilson's 9 day old baby boy! Congrats!

Ketchikan, I guess, is the the salmon capital of the world. We did see A LOT of salmon swimming up stream to lay their eggs. The main river was so full of them, that all you could see was salmon! There were thousands and thousands of them! It was pretty cool, but also very disturbing, especially to Amee's mom!

We also took a Duck Tour of the town, which goes on land and water. So our driver not only drove us off a pier, but he also ran the boat a ground! lol. It was fun and our guide was very knowledgable! Not our favorite spot though...due to the all day rain, so not to much to say.

Shepherd.

Icy Straight Point

Today on Day 5, we ported in Icy Straight Point, which is very new to cruises. This was the only port, in which we had to anchor the ship away from the port, and be tethered into the dock with a smaller boat. I also found out that only one cruise ship can be here at a time.

Well this port was very small.

There were many activities to do (fishing, wildlife tours, and ziplining), but we decided just to walk around the port of Icy Straight. It was a cloudy day, but pleasant. This area is a tempert rain forest, so we were able to hike through the very massive pine forest and along the beach! It was very beautiful and quiet!

We also looked through some tourist traps, but didn't buy anything. They all seem to have the same junk...er i mean stuff! We then took a shuttle bus into the small town of Hoonah, AK. It is just a fishing village about 2 miles away, and it was extremely small! There wasn't really anything to do in that town other than walk around and look at the locals! They were probably thinking...ah more tourists!

This port did allow us to get the best picture of our boat, since it was anchored just off the shore! Pretty impressive!

Shepherd.

Chilkat Bald Eagle Preserve

Well today is Day 4 of the cruise. We rolled into the port of Skagway today, and we took a boat over to Haines, AK. Then after a 30 minute bus ride, we arrived at the Chilkat Bald Eagle Preserve, inwhich we planned on taking a 90 minute float down the Chilkat River to look for eagles and wildlife!

God was very gracious to us and gave us a beautiful, sunny day to float along the glacial fed river! It was still chilly, but so much better with the sun shining! The river, since it is fed by a melting glacier, the water is a constant 36-37 degrees...very cold! Plus you couldn't see the bottom of the river due to all the silt...not even if it was an inch deep! Thankfully, no one fell in!

We saw several bald eagles along the river. No bears, but we did get out on a sandbar and saw some fresh bear tracks that were probably from this morning. The salmon were starting to run, so we saw some salmon swimming up stream. One of our guides, CP, even caught two chumb salmons with a bucket, but he let them go. They were huge! His favorite is Sockeye and King salmon, then silver...chumb...and pink.

We all had a wonderful time enjoying God's creation. The scenery was simply amazing. It was definelty Amee's favorite trip on the cruise so far!

Whale Watching

Day 3 of our Alaskan Cruise, we docked at the town of Juneau, which is the capital of Alaska. Also it is the largest capital in regards to land size in the country. You can only get to Juneau by boat or plane, which is amazing.



Well it was a cloudy and misty day, which they said it was a good day for whale watching because the whales come up to feed more often on cloudy days. Yeah! Well I dont know if that fact is true or not, but it worked for us! As we boarded our vessel, we actually saw a pod of Orcas (or Killer Whales) along the shore line! So we followed them for a while and I was able to get some great pics. The one above is actually of a baby orca whale, who surfaced above the water numerous times.



Then we saw this bald eagle perched up on this cool rock formation as we headed out to search for humpback whales. It was pretty awesome site. We also saw some sea lions as well.



Then we got to a spot known for humpback whales, and we were not dissappointed. We actually had 3 humpback whales around our boat doing some feeding dives. Feeding dives are where you get to see it's tail come up and out of the water. It was pretty awesome. The captain said it was very rare to have 3 humpbacks so close together, because unlike the orca's (who travel in pods) the humpbacks like to be by themselves. We even had one humpback whale come within 50-100 ft. from the boat. You didnt even need binoculars to get a good look at it!



Anyways, it was a great day! Two thumbs up! I love watching God's creation!



Shepherd

Hubbard Glacier.jpg

Hubbard Glacier.jpg, originally uploaded by Hikingfool.

Well toady on day 2, we woke up at 7 am to go and run 2-3 miles on the treadmill. Then went to breakfast and chilled on board since we were cruising to Hubbard Glacier all day.

We got to the glacier around 2 pm, and it was the best day of the whole season as stated by the staff. Sunny and clear. To God be the glory.

Well Hubbard Glacier is the biggest one we will see. It is 6 miles wide about 400 ft high above the water and about 160 miles long. The picture just doesnt do it justice. We saw alot of calfing of the ice, where huge chunks fall off into the ocean. It sounds like thunder. It was awesome! We also saw about 200 seals laying on the ice near the glacier! It was just an amazing day. So quite and majestic. This day was so beautiful.

Tonight is our first formal night, so time to get all dressed up and get our picture taken.

Shepherd

Overboard.jpg

Overboard.jpg, originally uploaded by Hikingfool.

Well it is day 1 our our cruise. We got in around 8:30 into Anchorage the night before. We departed to Seward around 1 pm on friday via tour bus. The bus ride was uneventful except we did see one moose, but I missed it due to reading the newspaper. oh well.

We got to Seward at 4 pm and got processed to get on board the Radiance of the Sea. We ate dinner at 6 pm. I had an onion tart for starters, then shrimp ravolis and salmon for dinner. For dessert I had a blueberry & peach cobbler. Let the gluttony begin. Glad I brought my running gear.

After dinner we had our mandatory overboard drill with our life vests. They even made us go outside, which was different than the carribean cruise. We had a good time though.

Then we played some Rook and watched a comedian for our evening entertainment. He was very funny and clean. A nice day 1.

Shepherd

Denali day 3.jpg

Denali day 3.jpg, originally uploaded by Hikingfool.

Well today in Denali, we slept in to 7 am. We had a wake up call for 2 am to go and see the northern lights, cause a couple we met on the tour saw them last night around 2 am. But unfortunatley for us they werent visible tonight, so we went back to bed. Lord willing we will see them on our cruise.

So after waking up we ate our morning poptarts, and we headed off to see the sled dog demonstration.

It was very cool. We got to pet the sled dogs, and the ranger gave a 30 minute presentation of the sled dogs. Then they hooked up 5 dogs and had them pull the sled around a small gravel practice loop. Those dogs have a lot of energy! It is the only NP with a working sled dog team. It is how they patrol and observe the park in the 8 months of winter time. The park is really only opened for normal turists from may to beginning of sept. I only wish I got a picture of the sled dogs with my cell phone, cause I totally forgot to!

Well after the demo, we got back on the train at noon!

Shepherd

Rock Creek Trail.jpg

Rock Creek Trail.jpg, originally uploaded by Hikingfool.

Well after getting back from our Tundra Wilderness Tour. we decided to do a little day hiking one some of the trails in Denali. It was nice just having my camera and not my 30 lb hiking pack! Amee & I decided on Rock creek trail, which was about 4 miles round trip. It was simply gorgious hiking it. with all the aspen turning a vivarant yellow mixed in with some green evergreens with huge mountains in the background. The shrubs were a mix of firely reds and yellows near our feet. The trail was well manicured and not difficult at all, which was good for Amee. Plus we just wanted to take our time and soak it all in. It is the best and most amazing national park I have been in. Lakewood...if u ever get the chance to get here, you got to take it!

Shepherd.