One State down...

hello again. first off, the last blog was not set up on purpose, the computer liked to change the layout after we posted it! this one will make more sense! Since Hiawassee we have travelled 40 miles north east into N. Carolina, and are blogging from the small and weird town of Franklin. We have also broke the 100 mile mark, officially 106.6 miles (only 2,070 left to go)?! It has also been raining again for the last few days - out of the 11 days on the trail, 7 of them have been rainy. but its sunny today and we are about to set off again, so our spirits are high. Here's some highlights:

Looking back west to Hiawassee, near Muskrat Creek shelter, where we stayed

Crossing over the N. Carolina/Georgia line

Looking up to the firetower atop Albert mtn., it was one hell of a climb...

...looking straight up...

..and back down to chris and kat.

halfway up the firetower, too windy to go all the way!

at Big Spring shelter (97.5 mi) it was raining ridiculously hard, so we filled up our bottles with water off the tin roof.

a wild shot of Buck & Fleur (trail-names), who we've seen at quite a few shelters. they're an older couple from canada and are great to have around to cheer us up when its cold and wet. we were all making dinner here as another thunderstorm came through.

little waterfall amongst the rhododendrons, which are abundant anywhere near a water source.

taking a breather and a snack break - nearly to highway 64 and Franklin

follow the white blazes, they lead you Maine!

So, as the community on the trail heads north, people have to get to know each other. and the best way to do this is to find yourself a trail-name. a lot of hikers already had one (such as Buck & Fleur, cookie monster and Hollywood to name a few), but many like us needed to find one, or have one find us. my favorite is a guy named surefoot cos he keeps falling on his butt! its definately a good way to remember people and not get mixed up.

Introducing...sundance

and scruffy goat gruff

a lot of past AT hikers come back to greet hikers coming out from the woods with food and drinks. they are called "trail angels" (doing trail magic). here John (Hatteras '03) met us with cookies, croissants, fruit and some cold beer! Cheers John, couldn't have asked for anything better.

got a ride into Franklin from the Budget Inn shuttle bus...for free! (kind of, we gave a donation)

Ron dropped us off at the gas station, and used the donation to buy some "big fat hot-dogs"
we got picked up by the Ulmer family friends, Charlie and Bonnie who took us up to their nearby cabin, where we stayed the night.

Charlie & Bonnie were awesome hosts, very much appreciated!

And so we head north and up to the smokies soon, but first comes Nantahala and Fontana Dam.
Looking forward to better weather!

we're on our way!

The day before the start relaxing at the beautiful Amicalola Falls Lodge . My mom, Kay, is testing out Kathryn's pack, they are probably about equal in weight.

Here we are atop Springer Mountain, southern terminus of the famous Appalachian Trail. Fresh smiles at mile 0.0.

Kevin and I taking our first break, still mile 0.0.


We pushed it a little hard the first day and hiked 11.6 miles to Cooper Gap. Kept a steady pace on day 2 and camped at Woody Gap at 19.9 miles. Here we made friends with a guy named Catfish, who had his girlfriend deliver pizza and chik-fila biscuits!

Pleasant sunset at Woody Gap.

Day 3: Thats me struggling up Blood Mountain.

After struggling up and down Blood mountain, it was a blessing to make it to Neels Gap, mile 30.5, which is a convenient outfitter/hostel staffed with friendly folks who helped me find better boots. We camped out back of the store and took warm showers, ate ice-cream, and used a real bathroom.













Day 4: Enjoying hot chili with instant mashed potatoes at Low Gap, mile 41.1.

Day 5: the weather turned, and we awoke to rain, and the rain did not stop. We walked through a thunderstorm on top of a mountain with metal hiking poles and metal framed packs. We arrived at the Blue moutain shelter, mile 48.3, by lunch and stayed for the night. we might have changed our minds if we knew there would be night visits by mice.







This was our visibility for the next 3 days.



















luckily we had a miracle fire to warm socks and spirits! The weather brought together 13 cold and tired bodies, that made for good company.







Turkey-tail mushrooms flourish on the downed trees with this sort of weather.
















Day 7: Dicks Creek Gap, mile 66.6
my dad, John, came to rescue us from the rain. We stayed in Young Harris, GA where i went to college. This is the view from my cousin Karen's house.

The four hikers, my parents, and karen.

thanks karen, you're awesome!

prep work

preperation for the hike was very time consuming, tideous and sometimes frustrating. But it will all be worth it once we're on the trail. not only did we make too many extensive trips to REI, but Costco and other supermarkets were always needed one more time. we bought a bunch of quality bulk foods through United Natural Foods though- cheers to Kirsten for that!
a lot of the food we bought before the trail we have put in boxes for mail drops, which Elizabeth's parents are helping us with. the rest we will buy on the way in towns for resupply.

unloading from the road trip

so much food...

...and gear

let the boxing commence!

all the little things

they call it mountain money...

...so chris is loading up!

still working

we're already sick of peanut butter...and we haven't started yet!

thats right, peanut butter in a ziploc. pretty much everything is in a ziploc.
we will try to reuse everything sent as much as possible - i wish there was a good alternative to all this plastic?

the aftermath

and the final products

thought we're done? we still have to label them...then were done!


dryrun near Atlanta/Decatur - panola state park

we can't wait to just get on the trail and start walking. hopefully the planning will pay off!

Looking on to the big adventure!

are we there yet?

These are educated guesses as to where we might be in the near future. Please feel free to come visit!

ETA	Resupply Point
25-Mar	Springer MT, Ga
27-Mar	Neels Gap, Ga
31-Mar	Hiawassee, Ga
4-Apr	Franklin, N.C.
7-Apr	N.O.C., Wesser, NC
10-Apr	Fontana Dam, NC
17-Apr	Standing Bear Farm, NC
20-Apr	Hot Springs, NC
26-Apr	Erwin, Tenn
2-May	Dennis Cove, Tenn
5-May	Damascus, Va
10-May	Troutdale, Va
15-May	Bland, Va
19-May	Pearisburg, Va
24-May	Catawba, Va
27-May	Daleville, Va.
31-May	Glasgow, Va
4-Jun	Montebello, Va
7-Jun	(NP) Waynesboro, Va
12-Jun	(NP)Big Meadows, Va
16-Jun	(NP)Compton Gap, Va
21-Jun	Harper's Ferry ATC, WV
26-Jun	Smithsburg, Md
28-Jun	South Mountain, Pa
2-Jul	Boiling Springs, Pa
4-Jul	Duncannon, Pa
10-Jul	P. Clinton/Hamburg, Pa
14-Jul	Palmerton, Pa
17-Jul	Del. Water Gap, Pa
22-Jul	Vernon, NJ
26-Jul	Peekskill, NY
30-Jul	Kent, Conn
1-Aug	Salisbury, Conn
5-Aug	Dalton, Mass
7-Aug	Williamston, Mass
9-Aug	Bennington, Vt.
12-Aug	Manchester ctr, Vt
18-Aug	Hanover, NH
21-Aug	GlenCliff, NH
23-Aug	N. woodstock, NH
30-Aug	Gorham, NH
4-Sep	Andover, ME
7-Sep	Rangely, ME
10-Sep	Stratton, ME
13-Sep	Caratunk, ME
16-Sep	Monson, ME
	White House land
	Abol Brige
24-Sep	Katahdin

Mail Drops

Mail Locations: in case you would want to send anything, letters of encouragement, lightweight items, this is where we are sending our mail drops. Eta= estimated time of arrival (we will update these as they are sure to change!)

For most packages you can label:

“my name”AT Hiker
Business if applicable
Address

The Post Office is different:
Label:

“General Delivery”-AT Hiker
My Name
Town, State, zip

1. Walasi-Yi center
Ship to 9710 Gainesville Hwy., Blairsville, GA 30512
Eta: March 27th

2. Franklin,NC:
Three Eagle’s Outfitters
78 Siler Rd.
Franklin, NC 28734
eta: April 4th

3. Nantahala Outdoor Center
13077 Hwy 19W, Bryson City, NC 28713
eta: April 7^th

4. Post office
Fontana Dam, NC 28733
Eta: April 10th

5. Standing Bear Farm
4255 Green Corner Rd., Hartford, TN 37753
eta: April 17^th

6. Troutdale, VA
Troutdale Baptist Church Hostel
10148 Troutdale Hwy, Troutdale, VA 24378
eta: May 10th

7. Montebello VA :
Dutch Haus B&B
655 Fork Mountain Ln., Montebello, VA 24464
eta: June 4^th

8. Compton Gap VA:
Front Royal Terrapin Station Hostel
304 Chester Gap Rd , Chester Gap, VA 22623
eta: June 16^th

9. Harpers Ferry WVA:
ATC Visitors Center
799 Washington St., Harpers Ferry, WV 25425
eta: June 21^st

10. Post Office
Duncannon, PA 17020
Eta: July 4^th

11. Post Office
Delaware Water Gap, PA 18327
Eta: July 17^th

12. Bennington, VT:
Nature’s Closet Outfitter
400 Main St., Bennington, VT 05201
eta: August 9th

13. Post Office
Glencliff, NH: 03238
Eta: August 21st

14. Post Office
Monson, ME 04464
Eta: September 16th

prelude

hello there, and welcome to our Appalachian Trail blog. first we'd like to share the cross-country trip we took from Seattle to Atlanta. here are some pics from the drive where we stopped with friends in Corvallis (thanks Ruth!), San Fran, Tucson, Amarillo, Fayetteville, AR (thanks Tom & Barb):

elizabeth and oregon

mt. shasta, north ca

north San Fran, from the bay bridge

showing us the ropes was....
....Aaaaahh-knew!....


.....and dios mio, its Tamara!

onto Tucson, home of the famous Saguaro N.P.

and the world renown....
...Bob!! - who runs the joint.

this one's for you Julie:
Dance your cares away,
Worry's for another day.
Let the music play,
Down at ??????? ????!
(have to look closely?)
thanks again nick, julie & bob

the grand canyon.....
....of Texas?
palo dura canyon

camped for a night and onto oklahoma.

oh look...

...its...

and

and

and
finally back to Conyers, GA
time to unload for the next post....

!Down at Fraggle Rock...if you didn't get it!