Festival - Day 1

Well, the first day of the festival was small, but was still alot of fun.
We had huge storage containers of salad, and potato salad. They made burgers, and hot dogs. The Mountain feast restrauant next door donated 20lbs of pulled pork, we also had fried chicken, beans, cheesy potato stuff, and bunches of other food. It was all you can eat for a suggested donation of $5, and it was right outside the door to our room.

Tonight (saturday) is when the big part of the festival starts, there should be a few hundred hikers here in all. This hotel, as well as it's sister hotel are booked solid, and people are starting to set up their tents in the parking lot.

I'll post more later, gotta get back to the room and see how Kay's doing with her postcards.

-Gadget-

Friends Journals

Just a short note that I added links to some of our friends trail journals over on the left hand side.

Town Update

Well, we seem to be doing a bit better today. My knee feels great, I've been walking around town without my brace and it hasn't been hurting, which is a good thing.

Kay's ankle doesn't seem to be getting any better yet, although the swelling went down, and it's not black and blue anymore.

We're still chilling at the Sapphire Inn, which is one of Ron Haven's motels. He's such an awesome guy, he runs free shuttles to and from the trailhead at 8am and 11am. He also has a short schoolbus that he uses for a town shuttle at 4pm that goes to the postoffice, grocery store, outfitters, and pretty much anywhere else you wanna go around town.

Starting later today (friday) and running through sunday our hotel is having a huge "Hiker Fools Bash" festival, which will be taking place right outside the door to our room. Their expecting a few hundred hikers, and some trail legends like Miss Janet, and Lonewolf, and quite a few others.

I'll post more updates on the festival later, I'm posting this from the Hobnobr Internet Cafe in town, and I'm going to try to get some pictures online in a bit.

Unforseen Circumstances

Due to some unforseen circumstances, i.e. a stress fracture, we've relocated ourselves to the town of Franklin NC.

We did about 8 miles yesterday, over the NC boarder, and past the big oak tree that grows there. We celebrated with 4 complete strangers that happened to be hiking by while we were there.

On our decent into deep gap, things got a big ugly, and akles and knees were hurt, so the next morning we got a shuttle into Franklin, and are currently taking a day or two to rest, before getting back on the trail.

As a side note, there is a large "Hiker Fools Bash" going on in franklin this weekend, but we don't know how long we're staying... If we decide to press on, we can get shuttled back from the NOC which is about 20 miles north of here.

Took a short day yesterday, and did some night hiking. Camped at plum orchard shelter. Now off to the state line, then who knows.

Hurty all over

Well, my feet and Kay's knee kept us off the trail today. We took a 0 day at the Holiday Inn Express in Hiawassee.

We did get all of the things done in town that we needed to.

We got our first mail drop at the post office today, we both got our camp shoes, and our water filters, and some dried food. We were both very excited to get the box, as we had been waiting the last week for these items.

We had dinner at a lovely Mexican Restaurant, it was delicious.

We're all packed up now and ready to head back out in the morning.. we only have 10 miles to go till we're out of Georgia, which will be our first state line crossing.. we're very excited.

Ok, time to get some sleep, we're getting shuttled back up to the trail head around 10am.

Trail Magic at the Cheese Factory

So the other night when we rolled into the cheese factory (which is just a big open space that used to be a dairy farm), it was about 7:30pm and just getting dark.. and we made the final push in to where we had originally planned to camp.

What we saw before us was a large green tarp, a table, a big roaring fire, and some of the nicest people you'll ever meet.

Slick-B and Holly Trout carried Tables and firewood, and drinks, and 3 coolers worth of food up to that site to give everyone some trail magic.

We actually ended up taking a 0 day the 2nd day we were there because we were having so much fun. We even ran their stand for them while they went into town to grab some more supplies. They brought us back ice cream pops for our trouble.

The first night we stayed we had some of the best hamburgers ever made (being in the middle of the woods and eating freeze dried food prolly doesn't help).
We had eggs, and pancakes for breakfast the next morning, and barbacue chicken for lunch. Hamburgers again for dinner, and eggs, pancakes, and sausage the morning of our departure.

Our hosts played guitar and banjo, and have started a band known as "thrugrass" (you can look them up on trailjournals.com.) and they seranaded us to sleep, as well as followed us half way up the mountain playing music when we finally left.

I'm going to try and get some pictures posted soon, but unfortunatly this hotel doesn't have a way for me to do that.

What really happened at Woody Gap

Ok, well here's somewhat of a recap of what happened when we camped at Woody Gap. However, I didn't feel like typing it all, so I'm linking to Nicole's TrailJournal.

http://trailjournals.com/entry.cfm?id=169485

Town Time

Made it into Hiwassee around 7pm today. Staying at the Holiday inn express for the night. We think we're heading back out tomorrow afternoon, as long as we get everything done that needs to be done.
This is the first time we've been able to post on a real computer, so expect something better tomorrow.
We still need to do laundry, re-supply, pick up our mail-drop at the post office and a few others.

My knee isn't hurting as much now, and I think I'm prolly gonna stop using the brace on Monday if all goes well... but my feet are bugging me a bit now, and I hope their not going to keep me off the trail tomorrow.

Kay's feet are doing better, but now her knees are bugging her a bit.... We're both just opposites it seems.

Went to Daniels Steakhouse for an all-you-can-eat buffet, was very delicious.

We ended up hitching a ride into town today, and got to ride in the back of someone's truck with a string of fish... was quite amusing.

Ok, well, will post more in the morning, need to get some sleep.

Camping at sassafrass gap. Stars are gorgeous here. Heading six mi into town tomorrow. Having a really great time. Miss you all.

Currently sitting at tray mt shelter, after finally leaving the trail magic. Gonna push out about 8 today, and head into town tomorrow to supply.

Took a 0 day, and hung out with the people doing trail magic and helped out. Their starting a band, look them up on trailjournals under thrugrass

Camping at the cheese factory. 8 mi today. Got some awesome trail magic at the campsite, burgers and drinks and music. Such a great night!

Camping with sugargrits and sailor at chattahoochee gap. Cold but not freezing. 9 mi today. Saw a bald eagle today! Having a great time!

Chris

Chris and sugargrits at blue mt shelter

Camping at white oak stamp gap for the night. It's gonna be a cold one. Stars are beautiful though!

Took a 0 today at neels. Did our re-supply, and rested. Planned our stops for the next week. Picked myself up a knee brace, it seems to help.

I've got a trail name now! I'm "gadget." kay doesn't have one yet, but its only a matter of time.

The food here is way overpriced, but its like that at alot of stops. This is our 30 mile mark, our next supply is at 60. Only 2146 mi left!

Camping at lance creek tonight. Did laundry in town today. Heading to neels gap tomorrow. Will still post details about last nights incident.

Today, friday, we made it into neels gap. It was quite a push, and my knee was bothering me alot by the end. This is our first re-supply point.

Got a cabin for the night, splitting it with 4 others. Might take a 0 tomorrow, as Kate's cough is worse. Cold and rainy all day today. :-(

Dont worry, we just had a rough night. Will try to find a real computer and post the whole story tomorrow. Its 2am now, need some sleep.

Made it to woody gap today, got some trail magic. Due to some unforseen circumstances five of us are staying at the super 8 in dahlonga tonight.

Saw a training fire fight by the georgia rangers, and heard them the past three nights.

Cell service has been spotty at best. Camped two nights ago at justis creek it was very nice, but a long push to get there.

Camping for the night at: N34 39.977 W084 08.123 hawk mt shelter. 8 miles today, planning the same tomorrow. Having lots of fun!

Camping for the night at: N34 37.746 W084 11.580 3515ft

Well, we made it to springer mt! Sitting at the shelter there, will head out in the morning. Posts will be short, posting from my cell.

En-Route

We left home around 9am this morning, and headed south. We even left relatively on time, which is very surprising for us!

I'm currently posting from a Howard Johnson in Salem, Virginia, which is about half way to Springer, GA, the start of the trail.

We did make a few stops on the way, one notable stop was at Shenandoah (sp?) Caverns, which was very lovely and cavernous.
We also stopped and had a lovely steak dinner at some little restaurant in town, however the name escapes me.

Tomorrow we're headed to the lodge at the trail head, and are stopping by Warren Wilson college in North Carolina for a quick walk around, and to drop off an application.

At the moment, we are relatively stress free, but I'm sure that will change as tomorrow approaches.

Well, it's 11:27 and we should be heading to bed, I'll try to get something posted if I can tomorrow before we actually hit the trail on Sunday.

-Chris and Kay-

2 days left

Well, only 2 days left now...
Finances are in order, and got my health insurance.

I think we might actually pull off leaving on time.

I think we finally figured out our issue with water filters, except they wont be here for the start of the trip, and will have to be mailed out to us in a week or so.... don't worry, we'll still have safe water, we're using iodine for purification.

-Chris-

Less than a week

Ok well, we have less than a week to go now. Just about have all my stuff together. Still need to pick up one or two things.
Got my finances in order, which is a big thing to cross off the list. Donations would still be a good thing, means less i need to pay back later.
I quit my job on Saturday, I think I still have one more pay check coming though.

We're leaving for Georgia on Friday, and will be driving half way, to like Virginia or so, then staying the night, and driving the rest of the way to Georgia on Saturday and getting a room at the trail head, they getting on the trail the first thing Sunday morning.

Things left to do:
Pay people/bills off
Wash my car and get it ready for 6 months of sitting
Finish cleaning my room
Do some random banking stuff
Do some checks on all the electronic gear I'm taking
Write instructions for my parents about using fixing the internet when it breaks
Try to stay stress free

Thats just a part of the list, it goes on, but I'm sure I can get everything done in the next day or two.

-Chris-

Arizona and Sickness

Arizona was a blast, I'm actually now considering going back to school myself. Kate really liked Prescott college, and we both really love the area. In the 4 days we were there, I took 577 pictures.
I'm currently working on getting those into an online album, and will post a link when they are up.

As for the AT, while we were in Arizona, Kate was very sick, and upon returning from Arizona I got the flu. I had 104 degree fever for 3 days.. it wasn't very fun at all, I pretty much spent 3 days on the couch under like 5 blankets.

We've delayed our trip for a week, leaving Friday the 9th now. Delaying due to sickness, and not quite having things in order yet.

-Chris-