Hurricne Irene

September 10, 2011
Whoever thought that we would have to worry about a hurricane striking while we're hiking through New England?  Certainly not us, and all the well-meaning folks who warned us about bears, snakes and creepers never said anything about watching out for tropical storms.  But a hurricane did strike, the first in over a hundred years to hit this area.  We were lucky enough to have a place to stay during the actual storm, and the storm itself was really not impressive.  I actually laughed to myself at the New Englanders who were freaking out about a little wind and rain.  However, the effects of the storm were almost immediately noticeable.  Two days after Irene hit, we were hiking through the small town of West Hartford.  The river that runs through it had flooded the town and had covered the town in thick silt, destroyed several homes, and damaged the roads and bridge.  There was a mattress in a tree, a propane tank lying next to the road, and an array of other things that were not where they should be.  The whole town was without water and electricity.  We passed by Steve & Kathy, who have opened their home to hikers for years, and after seeing the condition their house was in we offered to donate a couple hours of our time to help them clean out some of the mud.  We worked tirelessly for almost 2 hours, shoveling mud off the porch and out of the green house, but seemed to accomplish very little.  Amazingly, Steve & Kathy still had big smiles on their faces when we left as they thanked us and apologized that the town didn't have anything to offer us.  Part of the trail in Vermont has been entirely washed away, and hikers have had to maneuver their way around, crossing rivers several times to get back to the originl path.  Because of roads being washed out, several towns are only accessible by foot.  Twice we have gotten into a town by getting one hitch to where the road is washed out, then hiking through woods or over damaged bridges to the other side of the road, and getting another hitch from there into the town.  Today we are actually having to skip about 20 miles of the trail because it is under water.  The people of Vermont are very resilient and we have been met with smiles and amazing attitudes everywhere we have been.  Please keep them in your prayers.
 

The Story of Nola's Name

August 16, 2011

Those of you who remember Nola before she was Nola are pretty confused by her name change, so here's the story: Initially when we adopted Nola, her name was already Jordan.  It was a bit strange to have a pet dog with the same name as my brother, but we didn't think it would cause any conflict because we lived in the Dominican Republic at the time and my brother Jordan lived in Los Angeles.  Then Jordan got sick, and people who didn't know my brother's name was Jordan would see my facebook up...
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Hitching a Ride

August 2, 2011
Right now I am in the public library in Rangeley, Maine where I have already used an hour and a half of my 30 minute time limit on the computer.  I wish I could write about all that has happened since the last post but it will have to wait.  We are still doing great, please check out our pics on facebook! I do have one quick, funny story to share:
We had hiked into Stratton, ME for the afternoon, just to do some laundry and re-supply.  As we were trying to get a ride out of town back to the tr...
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Hiking Katahdin and the 100 Mile Wilderness

July 23, 2011

Day 1.  We drove up to Maine yesterday - left my parents house in Charlotte, NC at 4am and arrived in Millinocket, Maine at 12:30am.  This morning we got up bright and early and left for Baxter State Park, leaving our dog Nola in the hotel room (my parents will watch her for us while we hike through BSP which does not allow dogs and they will meet up with us tomorrow so she can join us for the 100 mile wilderness).  When we got to he park we found out that we had missed the ranger who would h...
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70 miles down... 1210 to go!

July 13, 2011
We finished hiking the Great Smokies National Park portion of the AT recently and experienced hiking for hours in the rain on no sleep, discovered the pain of carrying your "world" on your back, and encountered a black bear (and his B.O. - yuck!).  I would love to write more about that experience later but as usual I have left things to the last minute and we are about to walk out the door to hike to where it all REALLY begins... Mt. Katahdin.  Check back soon for more updates!

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Why We Are Hiking

June 12, 2011


The Story

In the fall of 2010 I received word that my brother, Jordan Sielaff, had been rushed to the emergency room by his concerned wife.  He had a bleeding sore throat and was in an extreme amount of pain.  The doctors at the ER informed him that there was something very, very wrong.  No one knew just what it was, but he was not allowed to leave the hospital while they performed test after test.  I was living in the Dominican Republic at the time and it felt tortuous to...


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