Amyloidosis‏

In 2007 my father, Dennis Blake, was diagnosed with a rare blood disease, Amyloidosis. After years of battling the disease, the correct diagnosis was finally given less then a week before he passed. Amyloidosis is a rare blood disease that can affect one or more organs when abnormal deposits of the amyloid protein are produced. It is debilitating and life threatening. The disease meant nothing to my family weeks before we first heard the word, and then it defined the rest of our lives. It is only in the last 25 years that physicians have started to understand the disease. I have been hiking the Appalachian trail for a little more then a month. Hiking 8 to 12 hours a day, I have had plenty of time to think of my father and what kind of differences I could make in his name. I would love to make this epic adventure about more then myself. The amyloidosis foundation's mission is to increase education and awareness in hopes that it will lead to earlier diagnosis and improved treatment. My goal is to raise $1,000 in the name of my father. I have roughly 200 miles left. Just one penny per mile adds up to $20 when I complete the trail of 2,000 miles. If anybody would like to donate a small amount per every mile I complete, then I am confident that I can reach my goal. Here are the directions and the page link for the donations: Check "In memory of" and add my father's name "Dennis Blake"

Friday, April 15, 2011

Erwin TN

We hit Erwin Tennessee yesterday. The past few days gave us a little taste of everything. The first two days of hiking were hot. Topping out at 85 degrees. We hiked shirtless and surrounded by a swarm of bugs all day. Rather miserable but great views and ice-cream sundae trail magic made it bearable. The next day, temps dropped and the rain/wind made for miserable hiking. We hiked along ridges with stiff winds blowing rain in our face most of the day. Probably the most miserable day of hiking yet. We made It to Hogback Ridge Shelter around 3, soaking wet and approaching hypothermia. Just changing into warm cloths was a challenge with our numb hands. We huddled in the shelter in our warm sleeping bags, warming hands by our alcohol stoves when "Hanzel" arrived around 6. He was soaking wet and shaking in his boots. He was searching for his sister, "Grettle," who he hadn't seen since early that morning. Conditions outside were getting worse with hail falling now and we were all worried. Hypothermia was a real danger. Even worse, Hanzel had his sisters tent in his pack. We pulled ourselves from our bags to form a search party when she stumbled into the shelter disheveled. She had made a wrong turn and walked a couple extra miles. We were all relieved. That night we crammed 11 people into a 6 person shelter that night. 2 slept underneath the shelter!
The next day we lingered in our sleeping bags until it warmed up, threw on wet boots and hit the trail. Our biggest day yet, we hiked 20 miles, thru Spring gap and up Big Bald. It was the perfect day for hiking. Temperatures stayed around 65 and the sun shined on us all day. We took our time and hiked into the night until we arrived at the No business Knob shelter. From there it was an easy walk in to Erwin where we had all-u-can-eat pizza! Fantastic!

Sent from my iPhone

Posted by at

1 comment:

  1. anneApril 15, 2011 at 8:15 PM

    sounds awesome and hard!!! wish we were there!! miss u and love u!! thanks for taking the time to keep us with you on the trail, keep the faith!!

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)