April 29...a perfect day

Our bodies felt great after our long rest. Weather was perfect as we started early. Eight miles in we came to a hostel at Greasy Gap ran by Connie. Connie said she is a recovering dental hygienist who loves to cook and fell in love with the AT 10 years ago. Bought a beautiful piece of property and there she is to greet us at the door. After enjoying 4 pops, three bags of chips, and turkey sandwiches, we discovered her famous freezer full of Ben and Jerry's ice cream. Each container has 1300 calories and Mark ate his and half of mine. We put our feet in the river and then took a nap in the grass. A Gatorade and several glasses of water and back on the trail to climb Iron Mountain. Incredible views at the peak. Took another long break there. Hiked on till 7:30 and are not clear where we are. We think near Ash Gap. We also discovered branch lettuce that we could use for a salad

Sweet dreams

April 28. Low Gap. Nature sightings.

Good hike. After 15.9 miles, we are pooped. In our tent at 5:30 PM. Today we hiked next to a stream for many miles. Watching and listening to waterfalls was great. Took a long break at a place called Beauty Spot with an amazing view.

We saw an interesting turtle, a toad, and a huge turkey take flight. Along the way, we have had these little blue birds with white tail feathers fly out from near the trail right in front of our feet. We found out they were trying to distract us from their nest. Today we saw baby birds in a nest just hatched. Adorable!

April 27...good decision

As we hiked to Erwin today, we heard stories about the difficult time the hikers had in yesterday's awful storms. There was hail, high winds, heavy rain. One woman broke her arm and had to get an escort off the trail to get to emergency. People were full of mud and wanted one thing- to get to Erwin. GO man said the wind on the bald blew him right over. He had to walk sideways to stay upright with the mud. One gal was having new foot troubles from wet socks and boots for three days. Well we dodged this one but we know we will catch our share. Today was a beautiful day so everyone's mood is picking up. Looking forward to tomorrows hike. Staying in a tent at Johnny's Hostel.

April 26...We are stuck

We have had incredible weather. Snow, sleet, heavy rain...Today we were packed and ready to head out. We are looking out the window at a huge thunderstorm with very high winds Thankfully, we have been at the home of Don and Sheri Mathis. We have decided not to step out into this weather for now. Not a choice for most hikers out there.

Don and Sheri have been amazing. We are in this beautiful mountain home being fed like royalty. Last night we had the MOST delicious chicken. Popcorn with garlic butter and cheese, mmmmmm.

They have dropped us off and picked us up so we could slack pack the last 17 miles up to Big Bald. We've done this with Robin and Rosanna. Big Bald was spectacular!!

I am sitting in this home smelling the legendary home made cinnamon rolls. We will have to leave but if you have to be stuck, this is the place to be.

4/23 Thought it was cold Yesterday

Hit the trail this morning expecting a cold day and it certainly was! As we started to climb the wind was howling and snow started to fall.
The photos should tell the story.
Robin and Rosanna pushed us to a 17.6 mile day - it's either hike or freeze so we pushed all day.
Mark

April 22...the weather outside is frightful

Joe picked us up in Hot Springs and we spent two wonderful nights in Ashville. Went to Jack in the Woods for dinner with Joe and Caitlin listening to cowbilly music. This morning we were back to Hot Springs to meet Rosanna and Robin and begin the next section of our hike. We picked up our delivery which had surprise cupcakes made by Kendra mmmmmmmmmm.

Headed up the mountain and the temperature began to drop. We had heard talk of snow. Next, the rain starts pouring down. At times it looked like sleet. If we can get to the shelter in 11 miles, all will be fine. Ahhh, the shelter that sleeps eight has 14 or so people all squeezed in layers. The picture I took only shows a part of this shelter. Others are coming along realizing there is no room. Two choices are available. Hike six more miles to the hostile or set up our tents in a mile and a half. We agree on hostile.

We are hiking fast because the weather is only getting worse. With the thick mud on the trails, there are times I feel like I am using my skiing skills. I hear a yell behind me. Because of a switchback, I have a view of Robin who has taken a slide off the trail and is hanging onto a bush to keep herself from sliding down the side of the mountain. Mark threw off his pack to go help when another man came along and helped her up.

We got the last bunk and spaces on the floor of the bunkhouse at the hostile owned by Fred and Hatie. It is suppose to snow tonight. I took a picture of the bunkhouse from my bed. Tonight we are thankful to be indoors.

April 20. What a town

Had our hamburger and headed to the hot springs. Spent an hour soaking in the mineral water they pump in to the spa. Mark had his first massage and we are hoping they helped him with his back. Off to the spaghetti dinner and then the pub for some Ragge music. It was fun to see some of the hikers we've been missing. Especially Mark from Grand Rapids whose trail name is now PF Flyer. Joe picked us up and brought us to Ashville where we will spend our zero day. We are in a real bed. How sweet it is!!

April 20. Hot Springs, NC

It's amazing what the motivation of a trail town and hamburger will do-15 plus miles in 6 hours to stuff our faces. I think I've lost close to 20 pounds.
Having a great time-rain is our biggest discomfort so far other than the normal aches and pains.
Wild flowers are blooming and wildlife has been good so far-bear, partridge, owl, snakes and such.
Looking forward to seeing Joe and Cat tonight. A zero day tomorrow and back on the trail with Robin on Sunday.

Did I mention frightened?

Middle of the night, I am dreaming I am a mountain and something is walking on me. As I come to, i feel something crawling on my chest. I almost let out a scream when Mark told me it was a cat.

April 18. What an emotional roller coaster!

We have been low on battery so unable to publish our posts. We always want to make sure we have enough battery for photos.

Mark shared about our trail magic at the gap. That was a great evening. We felt so good, we decided to make Tuesday our first 20 mile day. We had a gorgeous sunrise at the shelter. Hiked to Charlie's Bunion and stood in complete awe of the Smokys. This section of our hike from ice water Spring Shelter to Tri Corner Knob Shelter has been our favorite and we hope to bring our kids here someday. At Tri Corner Shelter, we had hiked 12 miles and it was beginning to get cold and wet. We had 8 miles to the next shelter it was 2:30 so with our two mile per hour pace, we decided to go for it. Our perfect day started to go downhill. The fog came in, the rain poured down nonstop, and the temperature was dropping. Our bodies were warm as long as we were moving. When we would stop to break, I would feel an almost immediate chill. No breaks allowed, we just marched hoping there would be room for us in the shelter. Relief came when we heard voices telling us we were close. I knew I would have to quickly get into dry clothes to avoid the chill that would come. This was the most crowded shelter we had encountered and not a friendly group. There was no place to to change. Rain still coming down and we had to find a tent site. Mark wanted to rest but I was feeling too cold to wait. Being the sweet man he is, he agreed to set up the tent now with me. I was so chilled when we finally got in our sleeping bags, we broke a few rules. We ate in our tent and left our food bag right outside. The way I was feeling, I thought it would be the bears mistake to mess with us. It took an hour for the chill to subside. Then we started to feel tiny splashes on our faces. Our tent was leaking. Too tired to care...we dozed off.

6 AM. Still poring rain. Not a stitch of dry clothing available. Even my raincoat was soaked. We knew we were 11 miles from a hostile called Standing Bear. We also knew we would be too cold to break. We would have to get these miles in fast. Packed up all our soaked belongings, dressed in our icy wet clothes and took off. The trail had turned into a river bed with two to three inches of water flowing heavily down. Should we try to avoid the water which could mean more dangerous footing or give in to wet boots and trudge through? Speed called for trudging through so we did. Thankfully it was mostly down the mountain. We hit 8 miles by 11:00 and came into a beautiful waterfall area called Pigeon River. The beauty of the river took our minds off the discomfort and we began to enjoy the hike. We were thrilled to arrive at the hostile.

For 20 per person you get a bed, hot shower (I would've paid 20 for by itself!), a washboard with a sink, and a dryer. The best I could describe this place is like Woodstock without the music. Although, Treepiper played music on his native American flute, a beautiful sound. The cabin we are in with our roommate, Rovious, has a river flowing under it. I will always remember this place! Tonight we are warm, somewhat clean, and best of all, DRY. Sweet dreams from Standing Bear Hostile in Tennessee. We are at mile 264 and heading to Hot Springs.

This last 24 hours I have been overjoyed, exhausted, ready to cry, laughed, relieved.....roller coaster.

April 16 Bad to Good

Monday morning and another day at the office. A deer visited our campsite-he did not seem very concerned about us. Started out at daylight in a howling rain cloud. We had about 3 miles to reach Clingman's Dome at 6500 ft the highest elevation on the entire AT.
Visibility was about 30 ft so we did not spend a lot of time there.
This was my toughest morning with a tired back and heavy feet. Pushed on for first ten miles and stopped at a major rd that went to Gatlinburg. Our plan was to have lunch, rest and refill water right there and move on. There was no water available and we were very low. Public bathrooms were waterless. Laying on the ground looking homeless among the large number of tourist Julie calls a shuttle and we ask them to bring us pizza, water, pop and of course the AT staple 4 snicker bars. While laying there we are over heard talking about water and the next thing we know someone offers us a diet Pepsi then another takes me to there trailer to fill our water supplies and I return to Julie who now has 2 water bottles. Our pizza arrives I eat more than my share along with 1/2 diet Pepsi, 2 Cokes, 1 water, a snickers bar and a lady pulls up and asks us if we want some sandwiches, soda, chips and candy. Sure we do- do they made us a goodie bag for dinner for when we completed our next few miles before calling it a day-and the weather cleared. The pep in my step returned for our last 3 miles up the mountain to our campsite.
As we lay in our tent with full bellies and thankful for all the nice people we met today it is now raining as we are snug in our tent for the night.
Over 200 miles down and we hope to hit Hot Springs NC this weekend.
Mark

16.6 miles on Sunday. 2 miles to Clingmans Dome

The wind has been non stop. We are in higher elevations now and some people are feeling it. Three guys we've enjoyed this week are Earthworm, Exodus, and Yukon (an ex marine). We are motivated to get to Hot Springs. If our legs allow, we will arrive Friday night. Hoping to meet Robin on Sunday morning. We will see what the body has to say about that plan since it always gets the final say.

Russell Field Shelter

We made it into the Smoky National Park today. We took a Nero day yesterday(nearly a zero). Hiked 1 mile after getting our mail drop and new boots. Backpacks are much heavier when they are full of food.
We did 14 miles today and hope to do about 96 miles in next 7 days. We ran into Bill yesterday and he was without a trail name until today. He had an accident in his food bag and now is known as cheese wiz-a large full can exploded and made quite a mess.
Weather was beautiful again today. Hiked over Fontana Dam the tallest dam east of the Rockies.
Lots of interesting people on the trail.
Mark

Patty the Pepsi lady

Patty began our trail magic at Newfound Gap with a caffeine free diet coke....the best!!! Bubbles and all. Thanks Patty!!! We will be praying for your family.

A bright light

Today we did what is called a Nero day (near zero). By the time we got Marks boots and our drop of food for seven days, it was 3:30. As you get into the Smokey National Park, there are rules such as having to camp in or near the shelters. Up till now, we could hike until we wanted to stop. This left us with two choices. Hike one mile to the Fontana Hilton (because of a bathroom with running water nearby). Or hike 7 miles to the next shelter. Here we are at the "Hilton".

We met an 18 year old girl named Slayer. Her father and heard attempted to thru hike last year and had to stop after two weeks. They tried again this year and the father had trouble again only this time, Slayer decided to go it alone. Full of spunk and excitement. She shared with us her new found faith and how God is speaking to her out here. What a joy! We will be adding her to our prayer list. She has her hands full out here.

Tomorrow we will start early, walk over the Dam and begin our climb into the Smokeys. Hoping to do 14 miles but all the extra food is weighing down our packs. We will see.

Good Night

Julie