Hiking the AT – Hemingway / The Crawfords / Above the Clouds.
The 2nd night of camping on the AT went a lot smoother than the 1st. The weather was much nicer so that helped. There was a slight chance of rain overnight and sure enough it rained. It wasn’t bad though. Just kind of spit on my tent all night. I was on a hill so I slid around quite a bit. I awoke to the sounds of hikers packing up their things to head out for another big day of hiking. It was still dark out and cold. I had zero motivation to get out of my sleeping
Hiking the AT – Winding Stair Gap Waterfall / Wayah Bald
My pops dropped me off for the final time at Rock Gap near Franklin, NC. It was yet another beautiful day. There was a family providing some “trail magic” in the form of a hot cooked breakfast in the parking lot when we arrived. Quite a few hikers were partaking in this free meal as I hugged my Dad goodbye and stepped onto the trail. It was pretty chilly out so I put my jacket on. I quickly regretted doing so after climbing the first mountain out of the gap. I started sweating pretty badly so I stopped
Hiking the AT – Zero Days – Mighty Blue / Mrs. Janet / The AT Diet
While my dad was waiting to pick me up the previous night he talked to several thru hikers and a “trail angel” as well. Trail angels help hikers along their journey providing free food, rides, and a variety of other support. He met a pretty famous one by the name of Mrs Janet. She’s been a trail angel for years. She actually drives up north to Maine from Georgia alongside the AT as the “bubble” hikes north. The bubble is a group of thru hikers all heading up the trail at the same time. She does this so she can
Hiking the AT – What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Stronger
I didn’t sleep well at all our first night camping in the woods. It was due to a combination of below freezing temps and 50 – 60 MPH winds violently blasting the sides of the tent all night long. At some point early in the morning I was able to finally fall asleep. This didn’t last long though. We were awoken by the sounds of other hikers packing up their stuff and eating breakfast. As it turns out we knew several of them. They felt bad for not making room for us in the shelter that night ☹
Hiking the AT – Georgia Complete / Extraction Mishap / Plan B Blunder
This was the first day with our full packs on. I weighed my pack a few days earlier. It weighed in at 25 lbs which wasn’t bad at all. This morning it took me longer than expected to get everything packed. Seemed like things multiplied. I weighed my pack again and it shot up to 40 lbs. Yikes. This is too heavy. It supposed to be no more than 30 lbs. I thought I’d get on the trail and just figure things out. This turned out to be a very bad idea. The starting point for the day
Hiking the AT – Zero Day / Working while hiking the AT
A "zero" day is a day where zero miles are hiked. Almost all thru hikers take them. This is one of the many misconceptions I had about hiking the AT. I thought when you thru hiked the AT you got on the trail and you didn’t get off until you hiked 2200 miles to Maine or Georgia (depending on which direction you were hiking). I thought people brought your boxes of food / supplies to you on the trail. Nope. What I've found is most thru hikers these days take a "zero" every 3 - 5 days. On their days