No Rain, No Pain, No Maine

The last few days have been very rainy, but as the saying goes...no rain, no Maine...so I guess I'll take the bad with the good.

After Hot Springs, we made our way to Erwin, TN. Where we stayed at Uncle Johnny's, restocked, and ate some delicious food. The last several miles before Erwin were spent dreaming of and talking about all different kinds of food.  #hikerlife  Seriously, hiker hunger sucks! Well....except when your in town and have access to a lot of hot, delicious food that you don't have to carry on your back!

Shortly after Hot Springs, we crossed the 300 mile mark!!

It started raining the day we left Erwin and it's still raining... It doesn't look like sunny weather is really in the forecast for awhile yet either.  Although, thankfully we get brief snippets of the sun throughout the days.  Here is what hiking in pouring rain is like.... when it first starts raining, I pull out my rain gear with dread. Hating the fact that what is now dry will no longer be.  Then after awhile I am completely drenched and can no longer get any wetter. It is at this moment that I give up caring about trying to go around the puddles and just start splashing/stomping my way through them. Because my socks and shoes are already sopping wet and squishy, so I might as well enjoy it! Plus isn't it every kid's dream to jump through puddles?!  Then, usually a few miles later, I get tired of puddle jumping and tired of being wet & cold. I start dreaming of what it must be like to be dry, dreaming of the time when I can change into my warm dry clothes in the bottom of my pack and climb into my sleeping bag.  I also start hoping that the shelter has an open spot so that I don't have to try and set up my hammock in the pouring rain. If there is an open spot at the shelter once I arrive, it has now topped food....and for a thru-hiker, food is a BIG deal!:)

They now our breed too well...

Uncle Johnny's was right next to a river. So we had to go swimming:)

One of the days it rained, we stopped for lunch at a shelter after doing 9-10 miles and half of us decided to stop for the day. So I spent the rest of the day relaxing in my sleeping bag, eating food, and reading a book! :) It was delightful! Plus, whenever it started to rain harder, I was 10x happier just knowing that I didn't have to hike in it! 

Nameless, The Who, and Mademoiselle

The next day, in order to still make it to Roan Mountain, we hiked 25 miles.  Thankfully it was really nice in the morning and I was able to knock out 12 miles before the rain came.  The sad part though, was that on mile 1 my shoelace broke!  So I tried my best to tie it so that it would at least keep my shoe from falling completely off and then just walked in a loose shoe all day.  I mean there wasn't much else to do...it did give me more motivation to get into town!! The most annoying part of it was the fact that I had the song "Footloose" stuck in my head all.day.long. 

My feet after 25 miles in wet socks & shoes

Once we reached Roan Mountain (mile 398), we spent the night in a hostel and then grabbed a shuttle up to Damascus, VA for Trail Days (a hiker festival). Which is where I am now.  It's been nice to get a couple zero days in and be able to see my first tramily (who has been behind me since Gatlinburg). Plus I was able to get my shoe fixed for free (no longer am I cutting footloose)! AND my body has been getting fully replenished with some good food!!

We plan on shuttling back down to Roan Mountain tomorrow (Sunday) morning and hiking onward! Which means that I will hopefully be crossing the 400 mile mark tomorrow!!!😀  Until next time...

What goes up, keeps going up...

The past couple of weeks have gone by so fast! It’s hard to believe that in just a few days I will have been hiking for a month! Since it’s such a long period of time to cover and each day holds pretty much the same schedule (wake up, eat, pack, hike, eat, hike, eat, hike, eat, hike, set up camp, eat, sleep)...I’ll just do the highlights.:)

We set out of Hiawassee Tuesday morning. Austin (a guy we met at church) took us out to eat and then dropped us off at the trail. It was pouring rain. We walked 4 miles to the first shelter and stopped for lunch. I had pretty much already decided that I wasn’t going to hike any more that day, because it was miserable. During lunch we met Pongo, he carry’s his uke with him and he pulled it out to play some! It was so so good to hear music!! It’s probably one of the things I miss most being on the trail. Listening to music on your phone is not at all the same as hearing live music or making music yourself! Anyway, he ended up neroing with us and joining our tramily. We knew he would fit right in after he commented “don’t tell me that if you had a samari sword and a cows to chase, you wouldn’t slaughter them and make pork chops!”  😂

The next day (Day 11) I officially crossed the state border from Georgia into North Carolina!! One state down!!

Day 12 we crossed another milestone as we hit 100 miles! They didn’t make the last mile easy though, as it just went straight up a mountain! It was pretty much rock climbing/scrambling to the top. Oh yah, and it was raining! It was hard, but still a lot of fun!!! 

Day 14 I received my trail name! My tramily was telling this guy how I dance when I eat. The guys started telling this story of how Silverbacks hum or make up songs when they eat..something like that. So Silverback it is!:) And it’s very true...I get really excited about food!!

Day 16 we neroed into the NOC. We were just going to print our permits for the Smokey Mountains, get some things, and head out. Once there, we decided to go white water rafting in inflatable kayaks! It was a ton of fun!! It felt good to be in the water, using different muscles, and it was really relaxing! We spent most of the day there and then just hiked out far enough to set up camp.

Uncle Rumple, Charzard, Pongo, me, and Hound Dog

Uncle Rumple and Charzard

Uncle Rumple, Hound Dog, Buff-light year, Charzard, Hunter, me, and Pongo

Day 17 turned out to be my biggest day at that point. We had planned to do around 15-16 miles, however I was still feeling really good (even after a lot of steep climbs), so I ended up going another 6 miles to the next shelter, making it a 22 mile day!! It felt really good! Plus then I just had to do 5 1/2 miles to get into Fontana Dam the next day, where I was doing my restock. 

“It looks like it’s just a little bit of a lot of miles uphill and then there’s some downhill.” - Hound Dog

Day 19 we hiked into the Smokies!! It was a lot of uphill and it was really hotl

Day 21 we reached Clingman’s Dome!! That was really cool, because it was on a vacation there 5 years ago that I met a couple section hikers who told me about thru hiking the AT. I had never heard of it before and it was where my dream was born!! Then right after Clingman’s, we passed the 200 mile mark!! We then hiked to New Found Gap where we hitched a ride into Pigeon Forge. I spent the night with 8 others in a cabin there which was so nice! A couple of us walked around that evening got some frozen yogurt, watched a bit of an Elvis Imitator, and played a game of laser tag!!:). We neroed out the next day.

Lunch with an amazing view!!:)

Day 24 was a MASSIVE day!!! Nameless and I had planned to do a 20 mile day. However by 12:45, we had already knocked out 15 miles. While eating lunch we were talking (and running high on endorphins) and decided why not try for 17 more miles?!?! So....that’s what we did! We hiked a 32 mile day and made it to Max Patch Bald!!! We hiked part of the day with an ex-military guy who is trying to do it in 90 days. He told us that we were two of the strongest hikers he’s met! AND he said we would make great soldiers!! Those were the best two compliments we received and it pretty much boosted our egos quite a bit....😬😁 lol

Day 25 (yesterday) we ended up doing a 20 mile day so that we could get into Hot Springs! A burger was the biggest motivating factor for the last 10-13 miles...  The burger and fries was scrumptious by the way:) We also ended up getting put up for the night by a trail angel! So we didnt have to camp. It was AMAZING!! I got to shower with Shampoo AND CONDITIONER!! And slept in an air conditioned place!! Oh the little things in life....how treasured they become.....:)

Overall, it is going really well!! Everyday I can't believe that I am able to have such an amazing opportunity to be doing this for 6 months!!