Here is the link to our final 20 minute video about our experience on the Appalachian Trail. To watch it click the link and then download the video and enjoy.
Wednesday, May 4, 2016
Monday, May 2, 2016
May 2nd, 2016
We came into Mr. Silverman's room after 2nd period to show him our final project. It turned out that the export process we used yesterday was wrong and so we had to do again with the right file. Mr. Silverman gave us some extra input on some of the audio for the interviews that were to quiet. We made the changes, and then made our 2 minute video that we are going to use in the Senior Project Assembly. Also we wrote our final reflections and caught up on our blogs.
May 1st, 2016
Woke up early again to go work on our video at Lovett. We got there around 9 and worked until about 2. We finished up the end of the video and watched it twice so we could make sure there were no problems. With our video finally done, we started the export process and left, hoping it would be done exporting when we come back tomorrow.
April 30th, 2016
We woke up early today around 8 to come in and make as much progress on our video as possible. We finished the interviews and added clips of us walking and a lot of cool views. We were at Lovett working until about 3 o clock.
April 29th, 2016
Today we finally started putting together our photos and videos with the music to make our video. We started by throwing together all of the interviews with instrumental music because that is the most important part of the video. We worked for a long time after school and didn't end up leaving until around 6 o clock.
April 28th, 2016
Today we came back to Mr. Silverman's room to start putting together our video. Today I brought the GoPro in and we started by uploading all of its footage onto the computer in Mr. Silverman's room. Our plan of action was to first figure out what music we were going to use and then lay down the videos and photos on top of it so we can match when the videos change to the beats of the music.
April 27th, 2016
Today we met with Mr. Silverman to go over how to use the film editing program Adobe Premiere Pro. He taught us how to cut and tie together footage using a lot of cool techniques. After giving us a basic run down of the software, we starting uploading the footage from our phones onto one of the computers in his room. We have to use this computer to make our video because Mr. Silverman said that our Macbook Airs are not strong enough to handle what we are trying to do. With our whole 20 minute video to make and only one computer, we will definitely be spending a lot of time in Mr. Silverman's room this weekend.
April 26th, 2016
Today we got out the GoPro and looked through all of the footage on it and on our phones. We started to come up with ideas for the final video and organized our photos and videos into categories such as walking, interviews and views. We also emailed and set up a meeting with Mr. Silverman to learn how to use the film editing program Adobe Premiere Pro.
April 25th, 2016
Today I finished uploading all of the blogs from the nights I was on the trail. Now Ford and I have to start putting together our final video.
April 22nd, 2016
Today we spent a lot of time during school transferring what we wrote in our note pad every night on our trip to our blogs. This takes a while because there is a lot that happened every day and it takes a while to type it all out over an 11 day period.
Tuesday, April 26, 2016
April 21st, 2016
Today was the final day of our 11 day hike on the Appalachian Trail. The plan was to wake up relatively and hike an easy 4.5 miles to Bly Gap by noon, where our dads would be waiting at a service road. We got moving and our "easy" 4.5 mile walk became less and less easy as we progressed. The terrain up to Bly Gap from Plum Orchard is a steady raise in elevation of about 800 feet with a lot of small mountains and hills, making it hard to read on the map which mountain we were on. And so, it seemed like every time we thought we would be done with our hike, another small mountain appeared. And also because it was a steady increase, there was no long downhill hiking for the whole 4.5 miles. We finally made it the Bly Gap after taking a picture at the GA/NC border sign and met two four nice hikers who were eating lunch there. Back when we were in Dicks Creek, we asked Sir Packs-alot where would be a good place for us to leave the trail around Bly Gap. We told us of a blue blaze trail next to the Gnarled Oak Tree at Bly that would take us down the mountain about 2 miles to a service road where we could be picked up. When we got to Bly we found the trail, but decided to call our dads first to tell them where to pick us up. Our phones and all of our portable charges were both finally dead so we asked the four hikers eating lunch there to use their phones. They kindly lent us a phone, but when overhearing our conversation with our dads, interrupted to let us know that the service road we were talking about didn't exist. They claimed that they had hiked here last year and their guide specifically said that there is no way out of Bly Gap unless you continue or back track on the trail. After a lot of debating and map studying, Ford and I decided to risk it and trust our Triple Crown hiker frined Sir Packs-alot and go down the blue blaze trail. We gave our dads final directions and started down the trail. The 2 miles the Sir Packs-alot told us was a huge under exaggeration because we hiked for a solid 3-4 miles downhill, worriedly looking for this service road. Finally, we came across the road which lead into a beautiful mountain neighborhood. We were heading up the stairs to a house to ask to borrow a telephone when we saw Ford's dads Jeep kicking up dust on the horizon. We embraced our fathers and started sharing stories as we drove 2 hours back to Atlanta. My 11 day trip on the Appalachian Trail with one of my best friends, Ford Coleman, was an amazing experience and I plan on continuing on the trail when I get older. Ford and I even talked about maybe coming back every year to conquer another state until we reach Katahdin in Maine. Who knows, I may be the next Sir Packs-alot.
Ford and I at the Georgia/North Carolina state line.
Ford and I on the Gnarled Tree at Bly Gap, one of the most photographed spots on the Appalachian Trail.
April 20th, 2016
We woke up at Bull Gap pretty late and made oatmeal, poptarts and coffee. Because we had hiked so far ahead of schedule, we only had 6.5 miles left to the Georgia North Carolina line at Bly Gap, and 2 days to hike there. We decided that we would reward ourselves with an easy 2 mile hike to Plum Orchard shelter. We walked at a nice leisurely pace and took long breaks to finish off our food on our last day in the woods. We met a nice trio of hikers while we ate lunch a mile from Plum Orchard and also an interesting older man named Squarepeg. He was a ragged looking man with a scruffy orange beard and thigh shorts. He told us that he had already hiked the AT once last year and was coming back to do it again this year. Squarepeg is also the one who finally gave us good trail names. We had been given other trail names by other people we met, like The Burger Boys and Shelterhalf, but we thought that they were pretty bad names. Squarepeg told me that I looked like Rambo with my bandana on my head and Ford looked like Indiana Jones with his bandana around his neck, and so he settled on the trail names of Dr. Jones and Rambo. We continued on to Plum Orchard and got to camp early. Over the 10 days we spent on the trail, Ford and I developed a routine for setting up camp that by today was perfectly mastered and efficient. When we get to camp, we set down our stuff, drink some water and then both set out to gather firewood. We try to get enough to last us the night so that we don't need to get more later. Next, Ford begins to make the fire using his own method in which I have noticed to be him setting a little stick teepee on fire using a lighter and dry leaves, while I will get the stove and begin making dinner. Most of the time making dinner consist of me boiling water for some sort of meal like ramen or Mountain House, but almost every meal there is some special thing I do to the dish to make it pop. For example, in the ramen tonight I threw in some cheese and sausage to spice it up a little bit. Also, tonight we ran out of propane again, so I had to use oven mits to hold the pan over the fire to boil the water. After dinner we set up our Eno's, tent, or both and prepare our packs for the next day so that we can get ready quickly. We brush our teeth and then get in our sleeping bags and write our blog for the day. Tonight we set up the Enos but a hole in my Eno ripped open and I fell through my split hammock onto Ford in his Eno below me. Upset about the loss of my Eno, which I got for Christmas, I decided to spend my last night in the woods on the ground in my sleeping bag.
Monday, April 25, 2016
April 19th, 2016
Today we woke up at camp next to Dicks Creek with the goal being to catch an early shuttle to the Top of Georgia hostel to resupply food. When we came out of the woods to Dicks Creek, there was a family set up at a table with free food and drinks for hikers. This was our second big encounter with Trail Magic and we decided to grab a drink but leave everything else for other hikers since we were about to get more food anyway. The family giving out the food was doing it to honor the dad in their family who was a thru-hiker who had passed away last year. The daughter of the family told me that every year her father would come out to Dicks Creek to give out food to weary hikers and so this year they decided to carry on his tradition to honor him. After talking to the family of Trail Angels, we started to hitch hike for a ride to the shuttle. It took us a while but eventually an emergency construction truck let us ride in the truck bed down the road to the hostel. There, we took off our shoes and walked inside to what looked like an ordinary house where two women where waiting inside. We saw signs to frozen food and beverages and so we decided to indulge ourselves with a DiGiorno meat pizza and some soda while I started to charge my phone and portable chargers. We told the women there about our project and they suggested that we interview the owner of the Hostel, "Sir Packs-alot" who is a triple crown hiker. This means that throughout his lifetime, he has thru-hiked the entire Appalachian Trail, Pacific Crest Trail and the Continental Divide Trail. We pounced on the opportunity and got a great interview out of an avid outdoorsman and hiker. My favorite thing that he talked about was how trail names allow for people to create a new identity for themselves and become almost a new person on the trail. He said this freedom to be yourself in an environment without any of the worries of your life in society is why he got addicted to hiking and now spends his life on the AT helping hikers with the hospitality of his hostel. After our pizza we went into their resupply room where we looked at a limited amount of food and supplies. The only food that we ended up buying there were two Mountain House spagetti meals and Poptarts. We decided that we would be able to get better found if we hitchhiked a ride farther down the road into the mountain town of Hiawassee, where we had heard from Sir Packs-alot and other hikers there was an Ingles grocery store. We left the hostel and started hitchhiking and this time got lucky and were picked up by a nice man named Jose who owned a restaurant in town. Jose drove us 10 miles from the Top of Georgia hostel into Hiawassee and kindly dropped us off at the grocery store. We weren't really sure how we would get back to Dicks Creek but decided we could use Uber if we couldn't find a ride. We spent the next hour or so buying enough food for our last few days on the trail. We ended up buying burger meat and buns for dinner tonight because we remembered we saw a grill top that we could put over a fire back at Dicks Creek. I decided to charge my phone again at Ingles in the dining area and an older lady and her husband saw our packs and asked if we needed a ride any where. We graciously excepted and hauled our packs and groceries into their Jeep. They told us that they lived just outside of Hiawassee, and tried to help out hikers any time they had the chance. When they dropped us off at Dicks Creek we thanked them greatly and ate ham sandwiches at the picnic area there. We then set out to hike an easy 2.5 miles to Bull Gap since we had already spent a lot of time buying food, our packs were a lot heavier, and because we were already way ahead of schedule. At camp we met a young guy named Alex who was passing by who saw that we were grilling burgers and came to talk to us. We found out that he had just graduated from Georgia and was thru-hiking the AT. We had a really nice and natural conversation with him and eventually offered him a burger. We hung out a little more and talked a lot about college and what we should expect. That night Alex slept at camp with us in his own tent after we stayed up late grilling and hanging out.
Inside the hostel Top of Georgia a 1/2 a mile down the road from Dicks Creek. On the wall are Sir Packs-alot's 10 Golden Rules to successfully thru-hike the Appalachian Trail.
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