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-