Taba just completed the yo-yo of the MST

[Taba]

I have finished the round trip of the MST. I summited Clingman's Dome on October 18th at 2:45 pm in 3 inches of snow and 30 degree temperatures. I am happy to be going home and even more so to have completed such a major accomplishment. Now that the hike is over, it is time to work on getting the 2010 versions of the Manual ready for print. The information in the 2009 version is great and quite accurate with a couple of errors. The information I collected this year was to help fix some of the camping issues. I have had 25 churches out of 120, so far, agree to allow hikers to camp on the property and to use the water spigots to fill up our bottles.

Thank you to everybody who supported this trip and had kind words that helped motivate me to continue on. It would have been a tougher journey without you. I have so much more to post here but not enough time today. When I get home I will have the time to do more.

Thanks again,
Scot "Taba" Ward
There And Back Again

[Tennessee Viking]

Congrats being the first YoYo on the MST. You have climbed up to the 6000s and down to 0...twice. Then you climbed from 0 back up to the 6000s.

I hope you didn't have to walk back out from Clingmans to Newfound.

Now go home, relax, and take a vacation.

[Taba]

Clingman's Dome Road was closed because of the snowfall and ice plus, a large tree fell over the road so it was a challenge for anyone who was stuck up there to get out. I summited by myself and walked down the paved path with visibility of about 20-30 feet. There was 1/2 to 3/4 inch ice on the sidewalk. When I got to the parking area I found a couple from Georgia who gave me a ride to Newfound Gap Road. I walked down to Newfound Gap from there to wait for my brother, Eddie, to drive up to get me. I started getting really cold to where it was an uncontroled shriver and decided to walk down the road to try and warm up. The traffic was bumper to bumper travelling at 2-5 mph because of everybody stopping to take pictures and slide on the ice. I walked another 1/2 mile or so and saw my brothers car. He immediately pulled over, jumped out, grabbed my backpack of my back and threw it in the car while I jumped in the backseat and pulled blankets over me.

Once we got to Gatlinburg I was doing good. We stopped at the Happy Hiker Outfitter. They were closed but we got a great picture in front of the store so they can start a picture wall for MST thru-hikers like they do for the AT hikers. Then we went to the Smoky Mountain Brewery for a celebration beer and cheeseburger.

I was sponsored by 3 companies for this journey. The companies supplied great quality equipment and were there for at anytime that I needed them. I want to thank them. They are:

Leki, who supplied the Makalu Trail hiking poles. I used them for numerous tasks along the hike. I not only used them for balance on trail and through creek crossings but also did minor trail maintenance. The are great poles for kicking twigs and branches off the trail and to create alternate paths to reroute water sources to keep the trail dry.

Teva, they supplied the Terra Fi 2 sandals I used for 1,600 miles. I wore out a pair left over from last years hike and in Boone on the Eastbound leg I picked up a new pair at Mast General. I wore that pair everyday from there to Jockey's Ridge and back to Boone a total of 1,300 miles. At that point those sandals became trophies. Teva sent another pair of Terra Fi's and a prototype type that I agreed to wear test for them. I used the test pair for 150 miles and finished the final days in them. Even through the snow and cold my feet were fine. I wouldn't say they were toasty warm but I was not uncomfrotable. The rest rest of the mileage was hiked in boots for bad weather reasons.

And Trail Hound aka Wandering Buddha, They supplied the Buddha Beanie that kept my head warm on those frigid nights. It was a little big but that helped it stay on at night. I didn't lose to much sleep trying to mind my beanie. Is it in the sleeping bag or out, no it's still on my head!

Thank you to everybody,
Scot " Taba" Ward

[Big Dawg]

Congrats Taba!!!

[TD55]

Congrats. Job well done. Enjoy some time off.

[puddingboy]

way to go taba

[Walessp]

Sounds like an epic end to an exciting journey! Congratulations to you on your own Triple Crown." Now you can officially be promoted to a brand new trailname - Tababa -(there and back again (and back again).

Outlaw

[Grits]

Congratulations Taba I am looking foward to your updated trail guide.

[Taba]

When I got home all I wanted to do was relax. That didn't happen. The past month has been full of adventure. The day after I got home my mother and brother took me to Baker's 360 in Lexington, KY. A restaurant/nightclub that I will be spending a lot of time at. I will be running the limousine business for the club, with my brother, beginning in January 2010. A day or 2 after the dinner I started work directing traffic and parking cars for my cousins Haunted House. I also got to play inside and scare people with crazy make-up. During that week and a half I fought a cold. The day after Halloween I began helping a friend set up a phone and computer system for a 40,000 square foot patio and jacuzzi showroom and office. One week of that and back to driving limousines and enjoying my new environment at Baker's. Then the next day my brother picks up a client that requires a bodyguard and a driver. So I handled the bodyguard duty and my brother did the driving. The '80's hairband rocker we picked up wanted us to drive him to Florida because his plane was taking too long to fix. So for the next 2 weeks we partied like rock stars. We stayed in several Ritz-Carltons and did some deep sea fishing in the Florida Keys. We drove 3,500 miles in 15 days. I just got home yesterday and resumed work today setting up the showroom.

My focus now is to dive into all of the collected information from my hike this year and write the 2010 version of "The Thru-Hiker's Manual for the Mountains-to-Sea Trail of North Carolina" I have a lot of work to do, I know. The deadline for release of the 2010 versions is the beginning of February. Ther will be an east-bound version and a west-bound. Both of them catered specifically for the direction you want to hike, from mountains to sea or sea to mountains. Both directions are challenging and full of adventure.

I also wanted to say one more thank you to everybody for the support along my journey this year. I had a wonderful year. The goals that I had at the beginning of the year were acheived and bigger acheivements than what I had aimed for were accomplished. It would not have been so awesome without you. While on my hike I sold over 200 copies of the Manual and 40 stores are carrying it now across NC. The book sales are what funded the trip. I started the MST with $300, 10 copies of the manual and a prayer. I ran out of money a few times but always managed to figure things out. My thought process at the end was that if I sold 1 copy of the manual I could get 3 days of food. Would that be enough to stretch it to the end. This is where you helped the most, by allowing me into your homes, giving my the chance to clean up, rest and have dinner with you. The social times also helped me to keep my focus on what I had to get done.

Thank you,

Scot "Taba" Ward

[TACKLE]

way to go Taba!

[Walessp]

Taba

Glad to see book sales are doing so well! Still planning ondoing the STT?

Outlaw

[Taba]

Taba

Glad to see book sales are doing so well! Still planning ondoing the STT?

Outlaw

Thank you and yes the plan is to hike the STT in April '10. May have a partner or 2 on this next adventure.

Still having a busy life. Just this past week I was backstage at the Rob Zombie concert in Louisville, ran the ground crew for a skydiving demo in the University of Cincinatti football stadium, went to the Bengals/Browns game and then won some money at the Grand Victorian Casino in Indiana. Just staying busy and trying to enjoy life while working on developing a limousine service named "Rock Star Limo" in Lexington, KY at the same time.

Life is great!!!!

Taba

[Taba]

Attachment 7578 This is my finish picture for my hike across NC on the Mountains-to-Sea Trail in 2009. I am the first hiker to complete a yo-yo on the MST. I hiked for 5 months and walked nearly 2,000 miles. The white at the top of the picture is snow. There was 3 inches on top of Clingman's Dome when I got there. The picture represents my sponsors for the hike which are Teva (sandals) and Leki (hiking poles).

[Big Dawg]

Cool pic Taba. Congrats again!!!

[Grits]

Taba Here is a link for that trail you were looking for. enjoy
http://www.go-tennessee.com/John-Muir-Trail-No-152

[Taba]

Thanks for the link. One of the problems about this trail is that John Muir wrote a book called "A thousand mile walk to the gulf". But he took a train from Indianapolis to Jeffersonville, IN near Louisville, KY then hiked to Savannah, sailed to Jacksonville and then hiked to the Gulf coast. Every time I look for directions for the entire length of this journey all I get is the 20 mile segment in Tennessee. What happened to the rest of the trail?

Taba

[Walessp]

Why not try this one?

http://www.pcta.org/about_trail/muir/over.asp

Outlaw

walessp

[Taba]

Because that is the more popular John Muir Trail in California. I want to hike the less popular trails and write more guidebooks to help hikers have more avenues for adventure.

Taba

[Walessp]

Sounds like you picked the right one then!

[Taba]

Yeah and the first and toughest challenge about this one is figuring out where it goes.