Corridor 9

After my ordeal with the eyes, I wasn’t looking forward to staying in camp the next night alone. In addition, I knew that the next morning I would be meeting Coy at the Cades Cove Ranger Station around 9AM. If I got up as late the next morning as I did this morning I wouldn’t be there on time. It’s about a 2 hour walk back to the ranger station from the campsite which would mean I’d have to get up by 6AM to eat, pack, and head out.

Being as how I woke up early due to the scout leaders talking, I decided that maybe I’d get up, take a trip into Gatlinburg, and do the tourist thing for a day before heading out onto the trail. I cooked myself a bit of breakfast, and headed back out to the Jeep. I packed a light day pack to carry some stuff around Gatlinburg and then drove the 1 hour, 24 mile, trip into town.

The only place that I really stopped was The Happy Hiker. It’s run by a gentlemen named Barrett Ogle who is a very knowledgeable hiker, and all around good guy. One of the interesting things in the store is the mass number of thru-hiker pictures that line the walls by the water fountain. Years worth of pictures document the number of hikers who have passed through the store. After talking with Barrett about the Camelbak Filter Adapter Kit, I finally broke down and bought one. I was tired of trying to hold my MSR filter and CamelBak in the same hand while filtering water. Now I am able to filter straight back through my drinking tube, rather than having to get the bladder out of my pack, unscrew the cap, and precariously hold the filter over the inlet hole.

So I left The Happy Hiker and decided to head down the main strip. I wasn’t there long though as there were a great number of people crowding the streets. Apparently there was some sort of church convention in town in addition to the college kids partying during the MLK weekend. After getting frustrated a number of times I hopped back into my Jeep and headed back to Cades Cove.

It had been a number of years since the last time I took a trip around the loop, and since I had already decided to sleep in the campground that night, I decided to drive around and snap a few pictures. At one point in time I had to stop for dear crossing in front of my jeep, and there were quite a few horses grazing in the thick grass. I pulled over about 3/4 of the way around the loop, got out, climbed about a 100 ft hill, and just sat there relaxed with a book in my hand for almost an hour.

That night I drifted away to sleep having thoroughly enjoyed the day that I was given.

It seems as if my little post about the status of Newwave’s internet service in Madisonville, Newwave Internet Still Sux!, has stirred up the pot a bit. After the post being online over a month, I received a comment on my post from a gentlemen who works for Newwave wanting to know if I was still having problems.

My response via email:

Ever since Newwave bought out Charter in our area we’ve had numerous problems. Constantly dropping connections, extremely slow bandwidth, etc.

A few months ago we were told we had 6 meg service, but were not seeing anything faster than 1.5 meg rates when doing speed tests. Most of the time the speed tests were in the neighborhood of 350k-750k, and as a gamer who’s paying for 3m, this simply wasn’t acceptable. Since Newwave acquired a new connection from Sprint in the area (OC12 I believe) the speed tests have been average of 2.5m, but still never above 3m, and nowhere near 6m that we’re supposed to be getting.

As it stands, I can game fairly well with this speed and am content for now. At least I’m getting something in the neighborhood of what I’m actually paying for, but it disturbs me that for some reason Newwave still can’t seem to figure out the problem and get it fixed completely.

Thank you for taking the time to post a comment and for getting in touch with me. I do appreciate the fact that Newwave is interested in solving the problem and taking an initiative to contact the customer.

Feel free to contact me any time.

Well… today I received a call out of the blue from Mr. Whitehead inquiring about the status of the my internet connection since his post the other evening. Apparently, someone had been working hard to get things straightened out over the past few days as speeds have jumped dramatically.

We’ve been seeing a number of commercials saying that the new 6Meg service is up and running in Madisonville, but none of the speed tests I’ve run have been anywhere close. Today, the speed tests were between 3.5Meg and 5.5Meg on average. There are still issues during the evening though. For example, right now I’m getting 2.0Meg on my speed test (17:02 CDT 01/23/07). I’m sure a bit of this can be attributed to the fact that evening hours see more internet usage from kids and adults gaming and surfing the internet from their homes. Naturally, the more people trying to get information from the net, the slower the connections become. However, a 4M drop from what we’re said to be getting is a bit much.

It is my intention to keep you updated on this subject as much as possible. While I am extremely pleased about the progress so far, I still have some reservations about the service I’m receiving. I still feel much better with the service of cable internet than with DSL, but until I start receiving fairly consistent speeds above the 5Meg range I’ll still have some issues. I do applaud Newwave for their continued effort to provide the best service for their customers.

In addition, I must add that at no point in time did I approach Newwave regarding the post on Corridor9. Someone from the company approached me about it. I guess this just goes to show that even the “little man” can make a difference if he’s persistent enough, or maybe it was just luck.

I left for the GRSMP early Saturday morning on the 13th. After coming home from work, I finished packing, said my goodbye’s and left to head off for a nice week of camping. I was feeling exceptionally guilty about leaving Kristie and Kendall behind, but as it has been quite a while since I’ve had a trip of this magnitude, I was really looking forward to this.

One of my first stops was to REI to get a new headlamp since the Energizer one I already owned was draining my batteries constantly. I ended up gettin a new short sleeping pad also since the deal was good and I really didn’t have the room to pack the long Therm-A-Rest that I borrowed since my own had a hole in it.

As it turns out I dragged my feet just a bit too much and about halfway to the campsite I was staying at it began to get dark. Now normally this wouldn’t be a problem for me, but the fact was I didn’t fill up on water knowing that I could filter it on the trail. The other thing that got me worrying was the fact that when I tried to check in at the ranger station, it was closed. I ended up having to self register my information and leave the carbon copy behind.

The problem with self registration is the inability to ask the Rangers information about the local conditions such as the weather over the past week, what I have to look forward to as far as water sources, and information about the bear population lately.

Well, as it started getting darker and darker, I realized that I needed to get to camp as quickly as possible. Not knowing if anyone else was going to be in camp, I donned my headlamp and started moving toward camp. About a half mile from camp I had the scare of my life!

Eyes. Two blinking white eyes about 50 feet in front of me and directly in the middle of the trail. Trying to remember what I’d read about bears, I started backing away very slowly, all the while realizing that my hands were imprisoned in the pole straps and my knife was buried in my pocket. Apparently, all of the sudden, these eyes wanted a closer look at me and started charging toward me rather quickly. I freaked, started shaking, and stood there about to pee all over myself!

Somehow, one of my poles must have hit a bunch of leaves. This startled the eyes just enough to stop them, and put me back on track for life safety. I remembered that noise frightens most animals in the woods, including bears, and started singing at the top of my lungs, whistling, and yelling. I found my whistle and slipped it over my neck and blew it as loud as I could. After about 10 seconds the eyes took off into the woods but the fear and adrenaline didn’t leave me for a few more hours.

When I got to camp there was a group of Boy Scouts from Memphis, TN. They had made the trip to try and get some more field time over the Martin Luther King weekend since there was no school on Monday. I was glad to have someone else to share camp with and actually talked for quite a while to the leader about BGT.

In all, it was both an exciting and weary day, but I was glad to be out in the field none the less.

I’ve come back early from my trip. I’m stuck now filtering through numerous emails, but will have a trip report with pictures as soon as I can.

After gathering all my stuff together, packing, getting rid of long johns, repacking again, trying to get sleeping bag smaller than a basketball, packing again, leaving clothes out of stuff sacks, and finally sitting on my pack in an attempt to use my body weight as a compactor, I’ve been able to stuff everything into my pack and still have room for water and food. As it stands now, without water and food, my pack weighs about 25 lbs. Figure an extra 7 lbs for water, and 8 lbs for food and I’ll be packing roughly 35 lbs.

Thats not bad for a 6 night outing. I took almost that much for a 3 nighter last year. I’ll be doing better when I can get rid of this sleeping bag! It isn’t all that heavy, but takes up twice as much room in my pack as a down one of the same temperature rating.

I’m also debating on whether or not to take my tent. I’ll definitely need it the first 2 nights as I will be nowhere near shelters, but if all goes as planned, I won’t need it the rest of the time on trail. I’m thinking about trying to use my tarp and rain fly to create a tarp style tent tonight to see how that works. It would eliminate about 3 lbs and shrink the space needed to pack by about 3/4.

Well… as you can tell by now, it’s been a while since I’ve had a chance to post. Quite honestly, I’ve been slaving away trying to get everything done so I can leave Saturday morning without leaving anything unfinished.

In all, it’s been a fairly productive week. I had to edit 3 BackpackGearTest.org reports for other people, and write 2 reports myself since the due date is right in the middle of the trip. I still have much to write on my second report, but I’ve been saving that for Friday while I’m at work.

I also decided to try my hand at making my own stuff sacks. I really wanted something a bit lighter than the one’s I’ve purchased in the past, but am not really willing to spend $6 - $15 for stuffsacks that I can make myself. I borrowed Kristie’s sister’s sewing machine and purchased some leftover nylon stock from Wal-Mart. I got 2 yards of fabric for $2 which is quite a nice buy since it’s usually twice that if not more. It took me a few times to get into the hang of it. One time I sewed the bag together without leaving myself a way to string it closed. A second time I stitched the bags bottom inside out so there was hanging thread all over. I managed to make 2 functional sacks today of which I’m rather proud. I weighted the first one, a small “catch all” style sack for my lighter, chapstick, meds. It was almost HALF the weight of the $6 Granite Gear sack of the same size. I’m sure a lot of this weight has to do with the fact that I didn’t put those little plastic drawstring clamps on mine, but thats ok. I don’t really need them anyway.

I also had a few long talks with Moosejaw.com this week regarding an order that was placed. I received a pack cover for Christmas that was a bit too big so I called them to exchange it. They said that I probably wouldn’t receive the exchange in time for my trip and that I should order another. Well, after ordering another one, the order wasn’t put into their computer correctly so I called again. Instead of canceling the first order, they reordered another one which also got billed to my account. Monday I received another email about both orders still, both were scheduled to ship, and both were supposed to be here after my departure date. I called Monday to straighten things out one last time and was pleased to finally get a hold of someone who knew what they were doing. He canceled both orders, refunded my account the correct amount, then placed a third order to be overnighted from the factory to Moosejaw. When I called yesterday,the lady I spoke with informed me that the package was at their business and that they would be overnighting it to me today. I’ve since checked online and my package is in transit and should be here on time.

My SatPhone should also be here today, so things are falling together quite nicely! Two more days and I’m outta here!

Well, I’m not sure if it was something i ate or what, but I’ve been sick all day. I even took off work today, and thank goodness I did. I don’t think I’ve spent more than 45 minutes a stretch out of the lavatory. I just hope that this doesn’t hinder my arrangements for the upcoming trip. I’ve still got to get a few things ironed out prior to my leaving.

I did get a few things accomplished today, so I guess today wasn’t a total loss. I was able to finalize agreement for the satellite phone which will be here by the end of next week. I’ve also finalized the shelter situation; we’re good to go.

Hopefully this sickness will leave me tomorrow so I can get done the rest of the stuff I need to get done.

As I mentioned in Saddam Hussein Executed in Iraq, the video of Saddam’s hanging is already online. According to YouTube, approximately 100,000 people have already viewed this video. A more accurate number is hard to get since there appears to be numerous YouTube postings of the same video.

Although I am against “death videos”, I do feel that this video serves a purpose as I’ve heard a number of people state how they thought the Iraqi’s would shuffle him away, or execute someone else in his place. Knowing that he got the justice he deserves, while proving to the eastern world that tyrannical rule and terrorism would not be tolerated anymore, is definitely welcome to me.

EDIT: A guard has been arrested for sneaking a cell phone into the execution chamber. It is reported that he will be tried for this crime.

It’s amazing how such a little thing can make such a dramatic impact.

As many of you know, There are quite a few of us who are looking forward to the new Mayor taking his position. There are many changes that we are hoping will take place over the next few months. I’ve had my share of concern with regards to this change of guard since I’m a bit too close to the bottom of the ladder to be completely safe if the decision is made to cut the fire department staffing. However, I’m beginning to believe that maybe this could be better for us in the long run though.

Many of us believe that we need to do more, help the community and society more than we were allowed under the past administration. We want to get out there and help people who need us whether it be from fire causes, emergency medical causes, or simply raising money for the March of Dimes. The fact of the matter is that we were “shelved” under the past administration; we were not to be seen unless it was an emergency, and we were definitely not to be heard from. We have long been the black sheep of the city government as we don’t provide revenue for the city, don’t really work unless there is an emergency, and are one of the most expensive departments in the city. A good deal of the expense comes from the city not charging for runs that should be charged for; an example would be the HAZMAT runs that we’ve made, or charging some of these companies who’s alarm system goes off every time it rains, etc.

Nonetheless, we are tired of being looked at as lazy, good-for-nothing firefighters. It isn’t our decision to stay at the station all the time, we’re just doing what we are told to do.

Anyway, I’m ranting yet again, but I must let you in on what brought this about. Imagine what our city would be like if we were allowed to care for the citizens as much as the firefighters in this comic.