55 miles down 2,132 more to go!

For everyone reading, I'm icing, elevating and resting my knee when I can. I bought a moderate compression brace at Mountain Crossings and it's helped so very much! This girl is not going home!!

Yesterday we stayed at Low Gap and scored a beautiful campsite next to a little creek. After a little clean up and doing the laundry in the creek, you actually feel like normal. Unfortunately, we both forgot today's map was in the pocket of Rob's shirt.. Oops. It was kind like following a beat up pirate map all day. It was 43 last night so we got a bit of a late start cause we were waiting for it to warm up.

Today started windy and chilly but after another rocky 10 miles, we made it to Hiawassee, GA. After a delightful all you can eat buffet of fried chicken, BBQ ribs, mashed potatoes, corn and fried okra, we did some restocking of our food bags and headed back to our room.

This Trail is by no means a dirt walk through the mountains. There's steep ups and wicked downs. Sections go through what's called the green tunnel where the foliage grows into an almost hallway shape and it makes the warm weather cooler. Others are nothing but rocks which need to be precariously navigated.

We saw some more Trail magic today. Just 2 shoe boxes filled to the brim with all sorts of stuff. The first box we opened had a package of caramel delights in it. Yep.. Those went with us. The fact that people do this so regularly moves me to tears. I'm so in awe of the love given to the hikers. Even to hear the other day that the reason that husband and wife team make dinner for the hikers is because they love seeing their faces light up at the sight of real food. I can't even think of the right word to describe my feeling because of the intensity of it and the overwhelming gratitude that goes with it.

It's such an amazing Trail and experience and we're both so very happy to be out here. Almost every day we joke that no matter how bad the terrain, at least it's better than the bus ride..