Shower Time!

Spending the night on the lawn of a hostel down here in Erwin TN so we can get a bit of time on the internet and a shower. We've been meeting some cool people including a guy who started walking last september from Washington State, makes our 2 weeks seem like a day hike.

Other than that, its real hot (90's) in the sun, and just plain hot in the shade but we're surviving alright. The legs (and feet) are getting more used to the pounding, and it looks like we'll make pretty good time to our next stop, Damascus VA, the beginning of the mammoth of a state that is Virginia.

Only other thing of note, we've been gorging ourselves on blueberries, for some reason they're ripe down here and they are tasty!

Hope everything up north is going well!

Rusty

P.S. The official trail names are Racehorse (Tyler) and Apoclypse (Rusty). Stories available upon request.

hot hot heat

Hey,
We're in Hot Springs, NC. The Great Smoky Mountains were pretty nifty but now we're out of the National Park and on the move. It's hot down here in the sun so we're looking forward to getting back in the "Long Green Tunnel" as the trail is sometimes called. So far so good...not too many bears...and lotsa mountains. We should be in Damascus, VA in 10 days or so...

cheers,
racehorse and apocalypse

North Carolina

Hey Y'all,

We've made it to Fontana Dam, North Carolina, where it's hot. We've been putting in solid miles; yesterday was a 24.5 mile day. Tuesday we enjoyed a stopover at the Nantahola Outdoor Center, where we ate too much and had showers for the first time. Ben and Jerry's pints were 3.99 apiece, so we each purchased one. The 2,000 + mile climb out of the gap the next day was a little rough... But all in all we are doing well. For me(tyler) the hardest part of the last couple of days has been finding the 4,000 calories we burn each day, but we're getting better at this. Meeting tons of cool people on the trail and we've been extremely fortunate with sunny weather and cool (relatively...i suppose) nights.

Cheers,
Tyler and Rusty

so far, so good

Greetings from Hiawassee!

We've been making good time and having a good time. Thus far we've encountered: one bear, one rattlesnake, and one overly aggressive grouse. Today was our first town stop; we got some groceries, did some laundry and now we're pirating internet from a Holiday Inn Express. We'll hike another 10 miles this afternoon and hopefully hit the NC border by nightfall.

Hang yer bear bag high,
Tyler + Rusty

Neels Gap, GA

We wern't going to stop in at Neels Gap but it was too tempting. 30ish miles in on the trail, plus another 8.5 to Springer, not too bad for the first 2 days. Saw the good part of a bear (its butt) within the first 5 miles, that was pretty cool. Its rained off and on for the last 24 hours and is real humid but not too hot. No photos yet, maybe later. We'll try to get the SPOT tracker up and running at the next stop so you can follow along. Gotta run to eat lunch so we can get back on trail by 12.

Rusty and Tyler

p.s. trail name ideas are welcomed....

Welcome

Welcome to our blog. This is where we will post some pictures and stories as we get them along the trail. After we get our tracker up and running (which might take a week or so), you should be able to see where we are each night with the links on the right. Also, if you are interested in sending us anything, we have a list of towns we will stop in under "contact us/mail drops" at the top of the page. We leave for Georgia in 2 hours, see y'all in the fall.