I would walk 500 miles

6/5 Because of our 19 mile day the day before, we decided to take a zero day in Damascus as a reward. Luckily for us because that morning at about 7 it flat poured for about an hour. People hiking in that day were soaked! We resupplied, and stuffed ourselves at Pizza Plus. They have an all you can eat pizza and salad buffet for 7$. There were about 8 of us hikers there for about 2 hours. We even got to catch up with Geo Sandwich!! We snuck in a build your own 6 pack to the Hostel (you're not supposed to bring liquor in) and relaxed. 

Later we went to Damascus Brewery, met the brewer and sampled some fun named beers (like sweet beaver). The girls (Pickles and Skipper) even joined us! 

The next day we headed down main street on the trail. We stopped for cheap breakfast and coffee at a little place called Mojoes. The trail was washed out in a part so we joined the Virginia Creeper Trail (a reformed railway track now used for biking). 

Pretty area on the way to Mt. Rogers.

We still managed to hike 15.5 miles. The shelters are pretty nice in Virginia. Rob can actually stand up in them and not hit his head!
Day 49 we hit 500 miles!! 

We sort of summited Mt. Rogers (Virginia's highest peak. The first shelter we hit was a cool 2 floor shelter. The campgrounds were packed with people and boy scouts (it was a Saturday). I chatted with a couple who were section hiking and gave us food they weren't going to use. They also gave us their water, mostly cause the man wanted to go get more so he could play with his new steri-pen. We pushed on to the next shelter and past a herd of wild ponies. The ponies were really cool. Most of them politely ignore you like the cows. But one baby pony came Right up to us and tried to eat Rob's pocket. 

What's silly is that after we passed them there was a sign on the opposite side of the state park that said not to feed or pet them. Guess that's government for you.
Day 50 (6/8) dawned foggy, gloomy, and gray. We only had 5 miles between the next 2 shelters. Made it to the first one and the rain looked like it would hold off. We got about an hour into our walk to the 2nd shelter and the sky started drizzling. The drizzle turned into a full downpour in about 5 minutes. We got to the shelter soaked (you won that round, rain). Since the next shelter was 10 more miles, we decided to call it a day and try to dry things out. We figured we'd hydrate and push the next day to the Partnership Shelter where we could order pizza right to the trail.

We had a very restless sleep in the shelter that night. Something big sounding woke us up crashing through the branches. And then there was an eerie flapping noise that accompanied it. The big sounding thing we never determined what it was, but the flapping was a nocturnal social group of birds that were nesting in all the eaves of the shelter. They were flying back and forth all night long.

In the morning we set off on our 2nd 20 mile hike. We passed through a cow pasture with no cows but lots of cowpies. We came across some amazing trail magic when we were getting ready to take our second break. A church group had a permanent box stuffed with Hiker needs! Ramen, crackers, sodas, treats, a first aid box and even a box marked 'lady items'. It was all set up under a canopy and there were chairs. Truly incredible!!

We made it to the Partnership shelter a few hours later and took a shower (there was one at the shelter)!!! The shelter is right by Mt. Rogers visitor center (even though we passed Mt Rogers 2 days ago). We used the phone and ordered pizza (there's only 2 places on the trail where you can do this). So after gorging ourselves on greasy, cheesy, happiness,(other people at the shelter ordered pizza too), we retired to the 2nd floor of the shelter.

The road to Virginia

So at the Mountain Harbuor Hostel we met the 60+ Hostel caretaker Vagabond! 

The front of Mountain Harbor Hostel

View from the porch

Amazing lady!! Had thru hiked just last year. She was incredible to talk to! We had a big comfy king bed to sleep in, she did our laundry and told us about the Holy Cow burger we had to get when we went to town. In town, we saw this burger and had to get it for 10$. 

It was 3 5oz beef patties, 6 slices of bacon, 5 slices of cheese, 2 pieces of ham, 2 onion rings, a cup of chili and all the regular fixings. We shared it even though Rob could have eaten it on his own. And we spent the night at the Hostel watching Jurassic Park and Braveheart and organizing our food bags. It is by far one of the nicest, cleanest, well run hostels we've been to on the trail!
The next day, we hiked through soggy, swampy mess that was more like the Louisiana bayou than Tennessee.  

Rob's 400 mile face

We hit our 400 mile mark and thanks to the terrain, banged out 15 miles. We took a break at a bench with a beautiful view. 

We misread the map, missed our campsite but then made our own campsite by a stream. I was also startled by a 3ft long black shiny stick which happened to be a rat snake.
Day 43 (6/1) dawned after a not so even night's sleep. The ground of our campsite was not quite level. We hiked by 'hardcore cascades' seriously that's what it said in the trail guide book.. 

Yeah they didn't seem very "hardcore" to us either

We did 15.5 miles on some not very nice terrain and a rough 1700ft upward hike at the end of our day. We hiked past Laurel Falls with lots of day hikers around. 

A little kid saw our packs and asked his mom why we were carrying so much stuff. She told him we were hiking a long journey. He asked 'don't they have homes?' Rob and I just giggled and said 'not really'. We camped at a nice flat campsite called Pond Flats with a lame water source and were all alone until some kid joined us. It was cool till he spent 3+ hours talking on his cell phone well past 8pm (well known 'Hiker midnight' and bedtime dammit!!). Just rude!
The next day we knew we had a decent hike around Watauga Lake. We had been warned by many people not to camp around the lake or at the first shelter because of the bears. People have been leaving trash and all kinds of crap around so yeah.. Lots of bears.. We took a break by the lake and saw ducks and Canadian geese with their babies. We stayed at Vandevetter shelter (mile 434.5) that night with quite a few people (Spider caught up with us. Yay! Sadly Tramp and Bear got off the trail) and a nice sized fire for bear deterrent. In the middle of the night Rob 'made it rain'. I woke up to a credit card stuck to my chest. Then flipped over awhile later to find a few more. In the morning he asked 'where's my cash?' Apparently it all fell out of his pocket during the night. His cash was under lock and key under my butt as I slept.

Day 45 (holy sh*t it's actually been a month and a half!!) We did a quick 6 miles to the next shelter to try to beat the rain (I get signal so we can check weather reports). We had to stop at this crappy spring to get water and of course that's when it started coming down, but it didn't help the for of the spring. We waited at the shelter for about 2 hours to wait out the worst of the rain. (For all you desert-dwellers hiking soaking wet sucks! This is the humid south, man.. You never dry out!! If you can stay dry, you try to!!) We got some amazing, unexpected trail magic from 3rd to 6th grade girls mission group from a Baptist Church. It was so sweet! Their metal box is obviously a permanent thing, it's bolted to the ground. 

Rob dug to the bottom of the cooler of iced drinks and found me a Dr. Perky (a Dr. Pepper knockoff). We've been hiking on and off with a couple from New York who we've called the 'Smiley Face Bandits' on account of they draw smiley faces in the dirt on the trail. For no other purpose than to make themselves laugh and brighten other hikers' day. They were having a snack with us and the 'Dr. Perky' just turned into a big joke. As we walked on, we came to a giant field, had to climb over a barbed wire fence (yes still on the trail) and walked into a cow pie minefield. Our silly friends had drawn a smiley face into one of the cowpies and had earlier written Dr. Perky in the dirt. Needless to say there were lots of giggles on this part of the hike. The cows were grazing and paid no attention to us whatsoever.. We hit Double Springs Shelter right after that which took us all by surprise. We thought we had longer (and another steep uphill climb to go). It rained throughout the night but at least we were dry!
6/4 the day dawned foggy and gloomy must have been why Rob slept in till 7 and I got to sleep in till 8. We had a symphony of owls keeping the mice at bay last night. Saw them running along the edges of the shelter, but the owls were around and making their presence known. A look at the weather report told us that we were going to have really ugly thunderstorms starting at 1pm and continuing through the night. Bummer, we were hoping to camp closer to Damascus, VA rather than seek the safety of the shelter at 8.5 miles. But after a quick (it took us about 3 hours)  8.5 miles to the shelter, the sun was still out and clouds were big and fluffy. 1pm seemed like such an early time to end the day so we talked and decided we would press on the next 10 miles to Damascus! 

Yay state line!!! 4th state! 

Our Virginia welcoming committee. He was right under the sign. 

We crossed the Tennessee/Virginia state line (freaking finally!!!) and 4 hours later we rolled into town (another town where the actual trail goes right down main street). 

We grabbed a room at a Hostel (which we didn't pay attention had sperate beds but at least we had a private room), took a much needed shower, and dropped our clothes off to get laundered. We had a few beers and Rob ate a ginormous burger (it was a lb of ground beef and easily 3/4lb of bacon and ham on it). 

Tomorrow is a nice zero day with resupply and pizza and beer.

I've added pictures to the last 3 blogs as well. If you've already read them, yay now they have pretty things to look at too!! 

"The Fellowship of the Wine"

So on Memorial Day we were heading in the 6 miles to Erwin. We stayed at Uncle Johnny's-nickel-and-dime-you-bedbug-infested-shank-you-with-a-toenail Hostel. 

Sign out in front of Uncle Johnny's. Good to know Katahdin isn't too far! 

Our outhouse sized room had a private bed but one window didn't have blinds and we found a full beer under the bed with cobwebs. The only good thing was there were multiple shuttles into town so we could eat at a pizza buffet and then later resupply at Walmart (we even hit a liquor store).  We sat around that night drinking beer and whiskey and laughing with Trillium, Brian, Ryan, and Mike. Mike informed us that he bought 2 boxes of wine to carry up the next few days for the remainder of their hike. Ryan almost got shanked by a toenail of a grisly lady (we think.. Not entirely positive) Hiker who stood on the table to turn up her music. I guess she didn't like ours. It was kind of decided that we were all going to hike together.
The next morning we all set off to head to a random campsite about 13.5 miles away. We had thunder clouds circling around us but they were all mouth no trousers. We got some awesome trail magic from a Catholic Priest (BT) and onward we went to the campsite, Mike carrying 55# worth of pack and wine. While we were hiking, we were hiking in a single file line, cracking the jokes about looking like Lord of the Rings. When we got to camp we all assisted Winebag with lightening his load. Hey we all know it's not the best wine but when you're out in the mountains, it's pretty nice!! 

Onward and upward the next day for some rough elevation gain. Rob and I saw a white tailed deer that morning. 

We had to walk through a 'dense spruce forest' and the fog had rolled in. It made for a cool picture! 

We lost Mike somewhere on the trail only to have him turn up at the shelter ahead of us with stories of a 17 mile day and a half mile hitchhike. We got trail magic again from Rob Bird former owner of the Birdcage hostel. Super nice guy! 

Rob Bird's AT trail magic van! 

I built a fire and more people showed up and kind of took it over to make it a raging bonfire. More wine and off to bed!!!

5/29 - Up and over Roan Mountain where crews were putting in brand new switchbacks (which we later found added 2.something miles to our hike for the day) and we all had lunch at the Roan Mountain picnic area which had bathrooms with running water!! It's kind of funny that somewhere some jackass was complaining about his Starbucks drink and us 5 adults were SUPER excited about running water and soap!! After all the people that have walked the trail, it was cool to think that we were some of the first feet on that part of the trail. 

The clouds were starting to come in overhead and instead of going the extra 2 miles to a coverted barn shelter, the 5 of us spent the night at a smaller shelter, Stan Murray shelter. Luckily it didn't start raining until about 10 minutes right before we got to the shelter! We finished off the rest of the wine, shared food and whiskey and made the most of 'The Fellowship's' last night on the trail. (Brian, Ryan and Mike were leaving the next day). Ryan and I giggled our asses off at Brian's attempts to hang the food bags and successfully knock Rob's off the branch and pull the branch down from the weight. 

The next day, we had a guest at breakfast. A (we think) barn owl flew down and perched. It sat long enough for us to look and take pictures.

Then we were off, we hiked 0.3 miles off the trail to the converted barn and were slightly disappointed in ourselves that we didn't push to it. It says it holds 20 but could easily sleep 60 people. The views were incredible! We also finally caught up to the girls (Pickles and Skipper)! It was wonderful to see them and hug them and the puppies!

The view from the barn sleeping area

There was a ladder leading up to the top floor which was the main sleeping area

Sign explaining the barn's purpose from the revolutionary war and it's importance to the trail. (Hard to read I know)

Views of the barn from the mountains

The Appalachian Trail symbol on the top of the Mountain. 

Pictures from the top of Hump Mountain

Finally leaving North Carolina!!! 

Then we hiked up Hump Mountain and little Hump (both were huge humps). We stopped on the top to admire the views and take a trekking pole selfie of the 5 of us. Then we hiked down an ankle and foot killing rocky 3 miles to the Mountain Harbour Hostel (where their car was and we decided we would spend the night). The trio took showers before heading out (probably a good thing cause I'm pretty sure Ryan would have stuffed Brian in the trunk for their drive home). We bid farewell to them but we will see them soon when we get to Northern Virginia! We might actually get to drink wine out of real bottles together!! 

Trail Magic and making friends!!

Woke up on the morning of day 35 (5/24) feeling like someone put a light up sign over my head that read 'bug buffet'. I was covered in red itchy bumps! (Determined later that they were the biggest hives I've ever had as a reaction to the laundry detergent/fabric softener that our sheet had been washed in).
At 2.8 miles of our 15 mile day, we were pleasantly surprised with an entire cooler full of cold sodas!! Yay for early trail magic!

We saw 13 other SOBO hikers on the way down (we forgot it was Memorial Day weekend). Some of them day hikers (or day walkers as we like to joke). All of us thru hikers crack jokes about the day hikers. After dealing with your own unwashed funk for a few days in the mountains, you can pick out the day hikers by the smell alone. They smell amazing!!! Like soap and cologne and fabric softener. Rob and I try to clean up daily either in the creek/stream or with a baby wipe bath. But it's just not the same as a good 'ol shower!! 

So after a frustrating day of lots of uphill hiking (the senseless ups and downs rule really applies!! Some days you go down only to go back up). We were accompanied by the 'popcorn crickets' again today. These are baby crickets that jump in and out of the dry leaves on either side of the trail by the hundreds as you walk by. It seriously sounds like popcorn!!!
We stayed at a random campsite that night alone. Except for the symphony of owls that woke us up around midnight. It's funny, i can't tell you how many times I'd been asked if I was going to bring a gun. Seriously, except for the chance meeting of a bear, or the weather going completely haywire, I've never felt so completely safe in my life. Just about everyone you meet is incredibly nice!
The next morning as we were packing up a random large dog walked down the trail (the trail was above where we were camping). We waited but didn't see anyone hiking behind it. We then figured out it was a coyote! Bye Wile E. Have a good hike!
(5/25)We hiked on and came across amazing trail magic! An entire cooler filled to the brim with sodas, sandwiches, brownies, cookies, milk and even dog biscuits!!

Made our whole day and it was only 9am!! We got to the shelter (called No Business Knob Shelter, apparently because it had no business being there. No water source, no privy, no cables to hang our food bags. And the inside looked like a high school bathroom with all the graffiti). However, we did meet 4 super cool section hikers; Lou, Ryan, Brian, and Mike. Mike had an iPod and a speaker so we had music!! What a luxury!! We were all headed to Erwin, Tennessee the next day to stay at Uncle Johnny's Hostel. We also found that Mike's trail name was 'Winebag' because he carried a 3 liter bag of wine for then to drink the first couple of days. We also tried to give Brain the name Candypants because of his love for candy! All around a nice evening.

Sadly I don't remember where I took these exactly. I know it was between the trail magic and No Business Knob Shelter. But pretty view of a cascade. 

Days 32(5/21) thru 34 (5/23)

After a few lovely days in Asheville, we still had to figure out how to get back to the trail. We caught a ride with a guy from the hostel who charged us 20$. He said we'd leave at 1pm but then text to say his errands were running late and he'd be there at 2. At 2:20 he pulled up in his Lexus SUV and after setting the navigation we were off. Except that his navigation was set to French. He doesn't speak French but is trying to teach himself via his navigation unit. Needless to say we took a wrong turn and our 45 minute journey took an hour and 20 minutes. So then we were off on the trail (finally) at about 3:30. After a slight misread of the map (hey it happens!!) we rolled into camp at 7:30. A little later than we would like and had to hang the bear bag in the dark but whatever. Also since we did things in the dark with our headlamps on, some suicidal little beetle with glowing red eyes flew into me at full speed.. Twice!! Only to knock himself to the ground. As I wrote this in my journal, I could hear him buzzing on the other side of the tent stalking me..
We had a little shower overnight but were able to pack up a dry tent! As we hiked (4 or 5 miles) we saw a small sign that said "Mom's - hikers welcome". We decided that if we could see it from the road, we'd go get a cold drink (it was damn humid and pretty warm). Well we could see a sign so we went to go investigate! What we got to was an old dilapidated fossil of a store, but it was open! Kind of like a roadside snack bar! Reasonably priced drinks and snacks!
We headed to the next shelter for a break where we got to see Spider and Tramp again with Tramp's dog Little Bear now in tow! It was wonderful to see them and catch up! Then a 1.3 mile climb straight up (1100 feet) to our campsite next to a lovely babbling brook (mile 295). We had a few other hikers there. We had no sooner gotten everything packed up when it started to rain! It rained on and off all night.
The next morning we got up and had gotten stuff packed up when the sky opened up with a big cup of 'eff you'and provided us with a 20 minute monsoon. Luckily, the tent was still set up and we were able to cover our backpacks up in time and dive in before we got completely soaked! As we were waiting it out we heard 'get outta the tent you wussies'. 2 hikers were razzing us. They asked if we were staying dry and when we told them 'mostly', they told us that was good cause our tent looked like it was sitting in a small pond.
When the rain finally let up we stuffed a very soggy, filthy tent into the tent bag (not fun) and headed down our soggy trail. We came to a part on the trail marked in our guidebook as 'rocky and strenuous'.. Yeah cause we haven't done anything like that yet.. Sheesh.. What it should have said was 'exposed ridgeline'. Yes it was rocky and a bit trying but the sun decided to peak it's head out and the views were gorgeous! 

We had a snack at the first shelter we came to and since Mr. Sun was out I got to dry a few things out! I also found a new pair of camp shoes someone had left behind! Yay for Hiker discards!
We summited Big Butt Mountain (no kidding! That's the name, and sadly no sign to take a picture of). We also passed a gravestone/ashes site of someone who had hiked the trail in 1965.
So we made it to our destination of the second shelter, Flint Mountain Shelter at mile 306.2. Meaning we've passed the 300 miles milestone! (Sadly we missed where someone had written it in rocks on the side of the trail. Oh and Gerard Butler.) 

So even though the day started out less than desirable, it turned out ok. There is never really an easy day on the tail, but some days are easier than others.

Hot Springs and hitchhiking!

So we made it! 13.5 miles to Hot Springs and it was amazing! The clouds blew off midday and it turned out to be a beautiful day! After checking into our Hostel, we attacked the laundry room and shower with a vengeance! After spending 3 days in the same clothes (trying to stay warm) it was wonderful to get clean and have everything dry and smelling good. We resupplied at dollar general (who knew they had such an amazing food selection) and then headed down to have a beer or two with the other hikers.  These symbols are down the one side of the street to let you know you're still on the AT!

Some random other pictures, a mailbox in a shelter that is used to store the trail register.

This is the back of a T-shirt we found in a local outfitter. Can't wait to go here! 

A sticker I would like to turn into a tattoo when we're all done

A sign on the way to Hot Springs that tells you how much farther you have to go to get to Maine.

One of the most moving images I've seen about finishing the trail. This is the sign at Katahdin and when you reach it, you know you've finally made it!

After some beers and laughs with everyone we went back to the Hostel to get a good night's sleep but ended up talking to the caretaker Mark about the characters we've seen on the trail. I also made everyone popcorn in a pot, not the microwave crap. The Hostel is actually run by 2 hikers (Chuck Norris and yes he looks like him and Tigger, who we never saw). 

So the next day we got up, packed and ready to head out. After a stop at the local outfitter we sat out front having sodas and taking to some other hikers. I saw we were only about 32 miles from Asheville, a veritable craft beer town like Portland. I told Rob we should try our luck in hitchhiking because when were we ever going to be this close again! And there is an amazing brewery there called Wicked Weed. The outfitter gave us some cardboard to make a sign (which said Asheville, c/o Wicked Weed) and we stood out on the road. It took about 45 minutes but a super cool older gentleman picked us up. He was awesome! While talking to him we found out he grew up in Rochester, NY not too far from Rob's hometown in Buffalo. He also went to the original Woodstock. Needless to say, he was a joy and a pleasure to talk to! He gave us a heads up that Asheville is a town for old hippies. It looks just like if Portland had a acid induced love child with San Francisco's Haight/Ashbury st. He dropped us off in downtown, a 10 minute walk from Wicked Weed. We walked into the restaurant/bar and sat down. While we sat, I told a girl behind the bar, hey you want to hear something funny? I told her about us hiking the trail and that we hitchhiked from Hot Springs to specifically come here! We showed her or sign. She loved our story and unbeknownst to us, was the restaurant manager. She (Alayna) bought our first 2 flights. 

She came over a little later and said the Chef was so moved by our story that he sent out this beautiful cheese sampler plate! He said his name was 'Google Bear' so we're assuming a fellow Hiker! 

Aftera few more minutes, she said the brewers asked if we would take a picture in front of the building with our sign and packs so they could put it on their FB page. We agreed and said they could even use our names if they wanted to! 

 We met Walt, one of the main brewers and got to talk to him for awhile. He even brought us this amazing beer to try!

We also got to meet one of the head guys from French Broad brewery who gave us the name of a cab driver that would take us there for minimal cash. When we went upstairs to get our packs, we met 2 ladies that saw our packs and chatted us up about us hiking and how we got here. One even gave us a ride to Sweet pea Hostel! We checked in to what has to be the cleanest, nicest Hostel I've ever seen! We dumped our packs in our room and called Woody, our cab driver for the evening. He kind of reminded me of Woody from the movie Earth Girls are Easy. A quick 10 minute ride, with a brief history of the town from Woody, and we were at French Broad. We went to the bar and were told that the brewer had taken care of all our beers! Such hospitality in this city, it's unreal! Then we walked across the train tracks to sample beers at Catawba brewing! We met one of the bartenders who also hiked the AT (trail name Trail Angel). Awesome guy who sent us with a 6 pack for our journey. After another call to Woody, we were on our way back to the Hostel for some sleep. We did hit the bar underneath the Hostel to sample their beers too but it was kind of like a Gordon Biersch type place. 

The next day we woke up and decided to spend a full day here to truly enjoy the town. Because we're on Hiker time (up at 6:30) we got breakfast, a shower and some coffee. The rest of Asheville apparently does not open till 10/11 or noon, and it was only Tuesday. We wandered around to the fun funky little shops, and had pizza and a beer at the Mellow Mushroom (woohoo that makes 3 we've been to). We also hit a grocery store as our Hostel has a full kitchen! We came back to relax, watch a movie and play scrabble. We wandered to a few more shops before we settled at Asheville Brewing company for 2$ can and pizza slice night. Walking the streets and reading all the menus from all the restaurants, checking out the local fun shops is awesome! We hit another funky place in the way home called the Thirsty Monk which boasts 40th best place in the world to have a beer. Cute place but by the end of our first flight, we were almost falling asleep. After sampling our 2nd flight we were on our way back to get some sleep. It's been wonderful here in Asheville but we gotta get back to the trail! We're missing the fresh air but it had been nice to relax after a month on the trail.