We hit our 500 mile mark and completed the trail in GA. We loved GA and hear NC is even better. We are starting to feel more confident in our hiking ability as we had our best stretch yet covering 42 miles in 3 days including several 1000' and 1500' climbs that used to intimidate us.
Tomorrow we will start an 80 mile section in NC that will take us to the southern end of Great Smokey Mountain National Park, a highlight of the trail. Big climb up, deep deep forests, highest point on the trail, no roads for miles. It'll be a thrill to hike up to 6500' since we have been around 3000' and 4000' so far in GA and NC.
The deep forest green color all around every day couldn't be more beautiful. Even the place names are entertaining: Sassafras Gap, Indian Grave Gap, Blood Mountain, Preaching Rock, Muskrat Creek, Standing Indian Mountain, Chattahoochee Gap. They're all good.
We had a great week hiking with our son-in-law, Beau (Joiner). He patiently hung with the old folks for a week but had to pick up his pace to finish hiking his final part of the AT before he returns to work in 2 weeks. He's been crushing 20 mile days since we saw him last. Go Beau. We miss him already.
Ran across three crews of trail maintainers. And this ain't no man's world either. We passed these two women late in the day and saw the work they had put in place. They weren't playing second fiddle to any of the guys on the crew. Hats off to them.
You are so rockin' the AT, and Shauna in a skirt no less! Love your jokes, commentary, and photos--thx much for the vicarious vacation. Oh, but you can keep the ticks and smelly underwear.
ReplyDelete