This week's winner: John Wallace the Third

This week, John Wallace III of Seattle, WA is the winner in the "Guess Karl's Hours" contest.

John's an interesting guy. Between September 26, 2004 and January 27, 2005, he ran a 3,800+ miles route across the U.S. from California to Georgia. His journey itself, which he also tracked online, is intriguing – he calls it his "adventure of a lifetime." But also cool is his compilation of a very comprehensive list of others who have made or are planning to make a transcontinental trek. Check it out.

Week Two Winner: Andrew Crow of Kutztown, PA

Andrew Crow of Kutztown, PA is the winner of Week Two’s “Guest Karl’s Hours” contest. He was within two minutes of Karl’s running time for Day 13.

Recovery?

We got another great question today. This time from Sue in Utah:

"Hey, was wondering how Karl recovers day after day after day? Does he stretch? Or just eat, shower and go to bed?

Gordon "I'm the winner" Whittaker scores Week One's prize

Check it out! We have a winner from week one's "Guess Karl's Hours" contest.

Gordon Whittaker from Columbia, South Carolina, nailed Day Three, guessing the exact time that Karl was out on the trail that day. The Backcountry peeps then wrote his name on a little piece of paper. That little piece of paper then went on to perform extremely well in the random drawing, battling it out with 24 other little pieces of paper scribbled with the names of last week's other exact guessers.

Strong work, Gordon (and Gordon's little piece of paper).

Gordon's Week One prize schwag:

• Marmot Mesita Short Sleeve Tee
• La Sportiva Fireblade shoes
• SPOT Messenger
• Nathan Pack Elite 1

Dang.

Keep the guesses coming. With prizes like this, it's definitely worth a shot.

The deal with SPOT

Ok. So see the little Karl icons off the trail time-stamped from last night? That's me. After I got the guys all lined out with dinner last night, I drove down the fire road about 7 miles to a clearing by a lake. I had both the SPOT units we have with me so that I could test them out. I turned them on and spent about 25 minutes out there, sending signals and trying to get in touch with someone on my cell phone who could tell me if they were working. They worked.

Today before tomorrow

"Karl Meltzer? I know about you. I've heard people talking, and I read about you on the Internet." 

The ranger was sitting at his desk with a layer of papers covering it like a table cloth. We were crammed into his little cabin office, checking in at our campsite at the Katahdin Stream campground in Baxter State Park. We weren't sure what was going to come next: a smile or words of discouragement.

He chuckled.

"Yeah, people are saying that they want to run along with you and I tell them all: You aren't gonna be able to catch him!"

Cool.

He was charming and helpful and smiley and generally, from what we've experienced so far, Maine-like.

So now Karl's all registered as an official through-hiker. Good. Because tomorrow's the day!

On the road.

This is so cool! Wanna know where Karl is now? He has his SPOT Messenger on, so you can follow the rig across the country.

And remember, if you see Karl in the Where's Karl? RV, take a pic and send it to us at backcountryhorde at gmail dot com. We'll post the photo here and send you a Where's Karl? t-shirt for helping spread the stoke.

Karl is amazed at the number of people who are honking and waving as they pass in their cars, and he's having a hard time believing it when folks actually come up to him at rest stops and gas stations to tell them they'll be following his progress on whereskarl.com. Thanks to you all for your support!

T minus 6 days: driving cross country

It's hard to believe that Karl's out there right now, on a heartland highway outside of Lincoln, Neb., heading east to Maine in the Where's Karl? RV. He left Salt Lake yesterday morning with a ready rig, food for the road, and A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson loaded on his iPod. (Karl and his entire crew are reading or listening to this right now, so we all have a better understanding of the story and the history of the AT.)

The first stop along his way was Boulder, where he hooked up with his team at La Sportiva. I'm sincerely sorry I didn't mention this beforehand, but they hosted a Live Chat session with Karl yesterday afternoon on their Adventure Running blog. If you weren't logged in, definitely check it out.

Some people have questioned Karl's desire to drive the rig cross country all by himself right before the challenge of the AT record attempt, but he's stoked about it. He has been busy preparing for this run, putting on the Speedgoat 50k, and getting last-minute schedules out to the athletes he coaches... A long road trip will give him time to decompress, and that's exactly what he wanted.

Backcountry.com

Backcountry.com is stoked to support Karl Meltzer as he runs from Maine to Georgia on the AT as fast as he can – faster than anyone's run it before. Not only will we be tracking Karl at whereskarl.com, we'll be out there with him, driving the Where's Karl? RV, running errands, preparing food and even emptying the rig's septic system. Because sewage is involved, it's safe to say that we're taking sponsorship to a whole new level.

Backcountry.com is the #1 online retailer of performance outdoor adventure gear and apparel. Backcountry carries more than 400 brands of the core gear you need for any outdoor sport, including trail running, backpacking, camping, biking, hiking, climbing, paddling, skiing, snowboarding, snowshoeing and adventure travel.

Check Backcountry.com for any of the gear that Karl's using during his Appalachian Assault. We'll talk about his gear in the daily blogposts from time to time, and we'll be posting gear reviews – at least a couple a week.

So here's to the Speedgoat, and here's to the AT. In this bout of man vs. nature, may the man win.

The SPOT Satellite Messenger

All the little markers you'll see on the interactive map at whereskarl.com are brought to you by SPOT. This is the way that we're tracking Karl out on the AT. It's a pretty cool deal. He'll tote the little orange Messenger on his Nathan Pack the whole time he's out there. The device will send a signal to the satellites every 10 minutes, and that information will be relayed in real-time and shown on our map. The system is automatic, so all Karl has to worry about is running.