Things have been great!

Ok so here’s an outline of my trip so far.

3 day hike to Neels Gap was good. A lot of people use the outfitter there to get new stuff and send things home they don’t need. Since I had such great advice from friends I didn’t really have to do much of that.

I bought a trail guide, new sleep pad and some food then headed out. My hikings friends for the first few days decided to stay and I haven’t seen them since.

For about a week I mostly hiked alone. I would come across people but moved at a fairly fast pace and kept passing older folks. I didn’t see too many people my age. It was nice though. Plenty of time to think, eat and adjust to this new life style accordingly.

Then my sister met me for about 5 days of hiking. It was awesome and she was a beast too, putting in 2, 15 mile days one of them in the cold rain. We also took duckees down the Nantahala River, which was a blast. I wish she could hike the whole thing with me!

As we parted ways at the beginning of the Smokey’s I met a lot more younger people. Thank goodness too because the next 3 days were a mixture of rain, sleet, hail, high winds and even snow. It was ROUGH. Without some fun people to share the misery with it would have been a lot harder.

But we made it out alive. It got as low as the 20s, but I think it kept the bears away. I saw almost no wild life up there. All we could do was get wet, eat and never stop moving. Wake up the next day, put evething on cold and wet then move on.

Eventually we made it to Disney Land… er, Gatlinburg, TN. It’s a super strange place. Basically an Ocean City, MD nestled in the forest at the edge of the Smokeys. Hard Rock Cafe, Ripley’s Believe it or Not… you get the idea.

We dried things out, had some beer and most importantly, had all you can eat buffet at Shoneys. I ate so much that about 15 minutes after dinner I threw up in a parking garage. Woah. I hope to never do that again.

Since then weather has been beautiful and I’ve been hiking big days with some of my buddies from Atlanta.

I made it here, Hot Springs, NC 2 nights ago just in time for a music festival. Tyler and James from Telluride were here. They let me in the festival for free (I’m sure because I looked so defeated from hiking 26 miles that day) and searched around until I found their campsite. Then we drank beer and danced to music on swollen blisters until 4 or 5 in the morning. Awesome.

Yesterday I moved into Elmer’s Hostel and am doing work-for-stay. I helped mow grass on his farm yesterday and did laundry and weeded the garden today. It’s been nice.

I have blisters from the we days of hiking and long days of hiking. I’m letting them rest. I also bought new insoles today.

Tomorrow I head back on the trail. 70 miles to Erwin, TN where I might stay at another hostel. We’ll see.

So far this has been the coolest adventure of my life except maybe for driving to Alaska and taking the Ferry back.

There are so many interesting and wonderful people on the trail. It really is a small community out here. I’ve never really liked hiking, but this is different. Every step is one step closer to a goal, a destination. This is a journey and an adventure. I’ve gone what… 272 miles out of 2,200. I have a loooong way to go. It’s hard to wrap my mind around, but I know I’m excited. Super excited.