Round Two

Here we are, just under a week later and done with round two. After just beating the threat of rain (it's been threatening all day but not a drop has fallen) and a refreshing shower I feel great.

I have no excuse not to write about the past several days, and you folks are just dying to live vicariously through his post.  So here goes.

Over all, this week was super encouraging. We hit TWO big milestones!  And I mean literal milestones. But we'll cross that bridge when we get there.

We left Hiawassee early Sunday morning and hit the ground hiking (I would say "running," but it would be suicide to run of the AT).  After spoiling ourselves in town and increased pack-weight due to restocking, the 12 mile hike to Deep Gap shelter was brutal. Then we followed out long-day-then-short-day pattern, we hiked 7.4 miles from Deep Gap (top) to Plumorchard (bottom).

For those of you who want to do this "live vicariously"  hardcore, here is a DIY of the hike of those two days. Find a treadmill and put it in a sauna. Then prop it with something​ to give just a slight uphill slant. Then proceed to walk with 35 lbs of gear on your back for 2 hours. Yes, that's what it feels like. You're going up these hills at just a slight grade for hours on end.  Have fun!

Nothing too exciting happened Sunday or Monday, though we did take a pitstop at the Top of GA hostel for a dropbox and a free, cold root beer.  We mostly had awesome campfire time each night with the other the hikers at the shelter. Everyone was telling jokes and stories of past trail experiences, how they got their trail names, past pranks, etc.

Tuesday, we left for Standing Indian Mountain shelter which is, you guessed it, on Standing Indian Mountain. Fortunately, our trail legs are starting to kick in and we rocked that 12 mile climb/hike. Now this evening we ended up at the shelter with a retired couple, a group of nurses, and a couple or older guys who are thruhiking. 

Again, people started telling stories.  These nurses work with the surgeons in the trama unit in Chicago. So they start off with the weirdest stories about different patients. For instance, they had to surgery on this one guy who had a bad case of diarrhea and ended up shoving a potato up his butt to stop it. Except somehow it had jammed up his digestion system and they to get it out. I'll never look at a potato the same way again.

Later that night, as Drake and I are stringing up our bear bag, he ends up cutting his foot on some sharp rocks. He walks up to the shelter ahead of me with his foot bleeding. By the time I get there, these nurses have surrounded Drake with their massive first aid kits. They had so much gear they could have amputated the foot there and then. Then the retired man (ex-thruhiker himself) dubbed Drake "Tenderfoot."

Next day we hiked hard to Mooney Gap and camped just off the trail thanks to a tip from the old folks. Some rednecks must have camped there earlier and they had left a kitchen knife at the site. So Tenderfoot and I passed the evening throwing this knife around. It got to where we could stick this knife regularly, it looked so cool. There's a video below of me being cool with the knife.

It was also on this day when we hit milestone one. Including the approach trail, we had hiked over 100 miles.

Then today we hiked over Albert Mountain and got some amazing pictures from the the fire tower. It was especially interesting since for the past couple days, we had been hiking through sections of forest that were burnt during the fires of late 2016. In certain places, the air still reeked of ash.

The tower was milestone number two. We hit the 100 mile marker of the AT! While impressive, it's only 4.5% of the total distance of the trail (roughly). (Top to bottom: view from tower, the tower, burned forest)

Now we're crashing at a legit Budget Inn in Franklin NC, getting ready for this next chunk. I have to go eat some real dinner now, so this is all for now.

P.S. within the next couple days, we will be reaching the beginning of the Smokey Mountains. For those of you in TN who are interested in hiking a section, your time time is getting close. If you are interested, contact me and we'll set up a rendezvous.