cold.

Folks, we are so happy and grateful to be by a warm fire tonight. Huge thank you to Bret and Jessica for rescuing us and taking us to the cabin!
For the last 4 nights, we have been in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park. My mom took us back to the trail, and, due to the snow/ice on the road, she dropped us off 3 miles from the trail on the road. I think she felt a little bad, but we were ok!
The second we entered the park, the light rain falling on us turned into snow. We finally made it to the first shelter absolutely freezing. We stopped at 3oclock, which we never do! Anyways, there were about 15 people in the shelter with us that night? ( a welcome change from empty shelters save a few frozen mice )
The next day, we woke to 6-8 inches of fresh snow on the ground. Imagine going outside to play in the snow, building 3 snowmen, sledding for 4 hours, and then walking 2 miles in it and then spending the night on your porch in your sleeping bag. That's how tired we are.
That being said, the mountains are pristine, beautiful, serene, angelic when you are the first people to walk into the morning. As with most things in life, there was a hidden blessing in our trial.
Today, we made it to Newfound Gap. There were literally hundreds of people up there milling around. Quite the culture shock. One girl asked me, "Um does this trail actually lead anywhere?"
Girl, you have no idea.

1978/2184 done.....206 to go!

Xmas break

Merry Christmas from Nashville!

Thank you so much to Kory Miller for coming to help us this past week! We were able to slackpack several 20+mile days AND sleep in a hotel!! We only had one tiny incident where we couldn't find each other at the end of the day, but it was huge help to have Kory with us.
We decided to come home a couple days early for Christmas break because a bad storm was coming through the Smokies...
Needless to say, it was surreal riding back into Nashville. We were excited, but we had really wanted to be done for Christmas. But as the trail teaches you, sometimes you just have to let things go. We have had our "Alabama"
Christmas already and have a few more to go! We got to go to Tusculum this morning and were really encouraged by all the people who came up and hugged us and told us they had been thinking about us. Betsy almost had me in tears with her welcome. Shout out to the Shackletts!! We really do appreciate everyone reading our blog and following our journey.
Also, it is super crazy when you leave in July, and come back in December. You feel like a whole chunk of your life is gone, and that it should still be summer! But the world just keeps right in turning with or without you.
Lots of people have asked if we were sad about going back to the trail after Christmas. And I can honestly say that I miss it. And I can honestly say that I am ready to finish it up too. I have thought about it every second since we have been gone.
It just gets in your blood, and in your heart, and you just have to go.

1930/2184 88.4% complete ( starting back at Max Patch Mtn in NC)

recent events:

we hiked our biggest week ever, including a 33 mile (biggest day) slackpack. we got to TN (!!!!!!!) and NC, and will continue to vacillate between the two until Georgia.

we passed over 1800 miles, and are currently at 1833!

my sister has been a tremendous help and was responsible for our slack pack. she has picked us up and dropped us off multiple times the past few days. thank you Laurie and Paavo and Adam!

we spent last night in the "Greasy Creek Friendly" (they're friendly not "hostel"..... get it?) after a LONG 20 mile day over the Roans. tony keeps saying we were in a blizzard up there, and while yes it was snowing and incredibly windy and my hair was frozen, it only snowed about 1/4 inch. Nevertheless it was challenging to say the least.

We got followed by bloodhounds today. Bloodhounds with antennas attached to gps units who were sniffing out bears. Apparently we smelled like bears because those girls followed us for an hour! All the way up Unaka Mountain.

tony ate a ridiculous amount of food at McDonald's---4 big macs, 1 McRib, 1 large fry, 1 hot fudge sundae. He states that he has "reached the pinnacle of his fast food consumption"

Morgan is coming to get us in 10 days! We have done over 20 miles per day more this week than ever before to try and get through the smokies.

our friend James is back on the trail. he is started back in Hanover where he had to get off for a while. it's super cold up there. Let's put it this way: he is bringing snow shoes with him in his pack. Brave, brave boy. So happy for him!

we drank the local Johnson city beverage dr. enuf tonight and also learned the word you'ins. basically substitute you'ins in for y'all or "you guys" and you have yourself a east tn sentence. Ex. Where are you'ins from? Pretty cute huh? EVERYBODY uses it.


I absolutely cannot believe how close we are to the end. 350 miles doesn't sound that close, but compared to the 1800+ we have done, it most assuredly is. that being said, if one more person asks if we plan on doing the whole trail, I may just punch them. of course we are! unless we get hurt or die or it snows 4 feet we are doing the last 16%!


good night y'all. love you'ins.

good ole ginny

"back where I come from...i'm an old tennessean"

y'all, we are less than 4 miles from Tennessee tonight! we arrived in Damascus, VA (home of the legendary Trail Days) and are staying at the "lazy fox inn." the owner is the cutest 88 year old woman in the world, Miss Ginny (short for Virginia). she runs the place by herself and tells me that she is gonna keep taking care of these hikers despite her sons telling her to relax.

We stayed with my friend Christina's parents Saturday and Sunday night in Marion, VA. such a good break with lots of wonderful food! I think they were appalled at the amount of coca cola we drank!

one of the highlights this week was seeing in the wild ponies in the Grayson Highlands. we didn't see any for the first few miles and then BAM! there they were grazing in the grass! only 2 of them were brave enough to approach us, and one of them was particularly courageous and tried to get into Tony's pack!

also, we visited the one room lindamood schoolhouse. on the wall were the school "rules" and the amount of lashes one would receive for breaking the rules. for example, "going about the barn or doing any mischief about the place" would warrant 7 lashes, etc. we decided tony would be up to about 100 lashes a day if he were an 1800's schoolboy.

Morgan and Jesse are coming to get us the 22nd so we have 15 days until we are rescued for Christmas! hopefully at that point we'll have less than 200 miles waiting on us when we return.

we haven't seen many hikers in the past couple weeks. mostly everyone we know has either quit or skipped
way ahead to finish sooner or are yellowblazing like crazy. we are still trying to be "purists" until the end.

the one hiker we did see told us (quite cockily) "I'm actually doing a 30 mile section so I'm gonna be out here quite a while." Oh really? Us too. But we didn't say a thing, just went on our way.

1717/2184 complete! {78.6%}

ziplining vagabonds

1554/2184 miles done {71%}

For a while after our bed and breakfast stop, I was good. I think 10 days without a zero (a whole day with no hiking) is my breakdown point. This point is usually demonstrated by crying, walking slow, complaining, begging Tony for a motel, etc.

It's not always like that though. Let's summarize the past few days:

We saw McAfee Knob, the over 3,197 foot, most frequently photographed site on the AT. We woke up before sunrise {if you know me at all you know that is a rarity} to get to the viewpoint as the sun came up. The widely popular picture of Tony in his not so modest outerwear was taken there. McAfee Knob at sunrise was majestic, beautiful, and worth every second.

We had a couple close encounters with the native Virginians. We got a ride from a "retired" military policeman who was dressed in full camo and had at least 3 pairs of handcuffs in his car.....He dropped us off at Burger King with the warning that the "locals" didn't like "strangers."
At Burger King---
Me: I'll just have a ham, egg, and cheese croissant.
Unsightly worker: Country ham or black forest ham? The LOCALS eat country ham, but you probably are talking about the other.
Me: Whatever you want to use is fine.
Worker: (mouthing to the cook with a disgusted look) Black forest ham.
I ordered the food as dine-in and he gave it to me in a to-go bag. We ignored that not so subtle cue to leave immediately. Our ride back to the trail gave me a religious tract on how to be saved...

We met a sweet boy from Florida who is a senior in high school. He was out for 100 miles completely by himself. So brave! We hiked with him for about 4 days, and it helped to pass the time.

Since it is getting dark so early, we have been walking after dark a good amount. One particular night, we were
on our 21st mile at 9oclock when we came across a cow pasture filled with lots of little eyes looking at us. Tony beat his sticks to scatter them off the trail and one of the "cows" started snorting and pawing the ground and heading towards him. Needless to say we got out of that big guy's way pretty quick.

So back to the breakdown. I was crying away just so sad to be on the trail on Thanksgiving. Tony started flipping through the book for a way out. We called an old man who charged us $31 to take us to a motel
in Pearisburg, VA.

On the motel office door, we saw a paper advertising a community Thanksgiving dinner at the local church! I called the lady and she said to walk on over! We were so excited
that these people liked strangers! All of a sudden, another old man pulls up in a van and offers to take us to the church! Are we lucky or what? The dinner was true southern church pot luck style complete with deviled eggs! Who cares if they thought we were vagabonds?

The next day, my mom pulled up (yes, I realize crying inconsolably a day before might have been a touch dramatic. Don't judge me!) and whisked us away to a night with our family! Amanda and Jason, Cynthia, Laurie and Paavo, Mommy, Rhonda, and Grandma! So good to see everyone and recharge 2 nights.

Amanda and Jason dropped us back off on the trail to a windy sub 30 degree afternoon. Before we got to
our final destination 14 miles down the road, our water and gatorade in our packs were frozen. But don't worry,
we stayed at the "Captain's" (who we never laid eyes on). To get to
his screened in porch complete with a mini fridge filled with cokes and a working sauna, we had to zipline. Across a creek. With our packs. In the dark. On a cable that may or may not be safe. Tony went first. When we woke up the next morning, the thermometer read 22 degrees. We ate breakfast in the sauna.

Tonight we are back in Pearisburg. The lady at the motel gave us our same room back.

We did 20 miles to get here and are grateful to be inside! And we are breakdown free for at least another week!

Thank you Edgeworths for the care package!

And a BIG congratulations to our friend Daisy for completing the trail this week!!!! We are so excited for her and slightly jealous of course!

Guest post from Mr. McKay himself on the way. Stay tuned.

Talk to y'all soon. Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

bed and breakfast

notable (good and bad) events of the past week:

Mommy and Laurie came to visit! (We were so happy to see non strangers!) We got to stay at a super nice hotel, eat homemade granola, and watch Big Bang Theory!

Finished the Shenandoah mountain range! The snow did not defeat us! About 60% of the time we were walking through 3-12 inches of it. However, the trail was a series
of great switchbacks, and we were so happy to get our views back!

We lucked out on a hitch hike and got picked up by Mr. Harry who let us stay at his house 3 nights in a row! He also slack packed us 2 days! His wife made us 3 dinners and 3 breakfasts! Above and beyond trail angels!

I dropped our guidebook into a privy (ie outhouse, wooden port a john). Tony was not excited about fetching it for us. Luckily most of the contents of the said privy were frozen.
THEN we left it at a Mexican restaurant. When we went back to retrieve it, I deferred telling the manager thumbing through it that it had recently been in a primitive toilet.

Also, sadly, a couple of our friends got off the trail. Reasons cited: cold, feeling guilty about spending mama's money, snow, being over it....

Our sweet friend Mark went down to Hot Springs, NC to hike from there. We were so sad to separate from him, and his departure prompted outbursts of "I Miss My Homies" from Tony. See you March 9th brother!

We celebrated our 17 month marriage anniversary and our 4 months of marriage to the AT today!

Anyways, we are 62% complete with our journey! 801 miles to go! 1383 complete.

Tony is already discussing his next adventure...

Love all y'all! Miss everyone!

****Hope to see you soon Stetson!***

Betsy--the toe-warmers have been a huge hit!

shenandoah

a girl stopped me yesterday and asked if i was a thru hiker. when I said yes, she questioned me about how much my pack weighed, what kind of shoes I was wearing, when we started, etc.

then she asked if I would do it again if I had the chance. I had to be honest with her. I told her that today (yesterday) I would say no. I was tired, bored, annoyed, overwhelmed, freezing, hungry, thirsty,my feet hurt, my legs were tired, and I still had 10 more miles to go before I could stop.

then, I told her, if you ask me tomorrow, I will feel better, my legs will feel good, and I will be strong again.

the trail, like life, changes from day to day. one minute you can be tired
and overwhelmed by any and everything and then the next day, the sun is shining and things are ok. things are always ok. and the bad doesn't last forever.

the shenandoah mountains are beautiful, by the way. and so was the snow that we walked in for miles and miles.

the woman that took us to a hotel, a Mexican restaurant, and will take us to Walmart and back to the trail...now that's a whole different kind of beautiful.

56% complete.

#147 and #148

We have had quite the momentous week you guys!!

First of all, we passed the mileage halfway point, which is 1092 miles (though the sign is at 1090.5). 50% of the entire trail complete!

THEN we passed the Mason Dixon line and passed into Maryland! I told my grandma about that, and she said," Well at least now you're back in God's country." I will admit, I got a little teary when I saw the sign.

And finally, today, we passed into Harper's Ferry. Harper's Ferry is a milestone on the AT because it the home of the Appalachian Trail Headquarters. They take a polaroid of you to put in a book, and give you a number. We were numbers 147 and 148 (Mark was 146) to pass through here going southbound.

Tony weighed in at 168---skinniest he has been since high school. Mark is 159. I told my mom eventually we'll all be equal if they keep this up!

We are excited to be this far down, but know that we still have a long ways to go still!

Also, notably, we ate at a Chinese buffet, and met a couple in the parking lot. They let us sleep in their backyard, take showers, wash our clothes, and watch the debate! Turns out, the husband was a elementary school principal and we got to speak to his 5th and 6th grade class! They were so inquisitive and cute!

The next day, Mark's friend Melinda picked us up and took us to her home! We got to hang out with her and Trish and take ANOTHER shower! Twice in one week! Much to our dismay, our hostesses slept in their tent in the yard, and let us sleep in a real bed! Our manners weren't happy with this, but our tired bodies were!

Hopefully Hurricane Sandy will not bring us too much drama!

Love and miss all of you!

1043/2184

As our friend Wild Bill likes to say, " my dogs are barking!" Pennsylvania has truly live up to its "rocky" hype! Medium sized, pointy rocks that you trip over (see picture below), step on, stub your toe on, make you bang your trekking poles on the ground in anger rocks.

BUT! We are happy because in the last 3 days, we have done 26,18, and 25 miles! And it only rained all day one of those days. 3 days ago, we passed the 1000 miles mark. That was the day it rained all day. Of course. We were determined to pass that milestone and hiked our longest day yet! We kept saying to each other,"1000 miles!! Can you believe it?!" "ONE THOUSAND MILES!"

Last night, we stayed at the "Doyle Hotel" in Duncannon, PA. It was very.....quaint. Let's me put it this way; it was $25/night with a community bathroom. And it reminded me of our house BEFORE it was renovated. Tony loved it.

We are about 80 or so miles from the Mason Dixon line. Our aforementioned friend Wild Bill has had to go home, as well as our friend Blind Faith. It is sadder than you think it would be when people decide to get off the trail. It reenforces just how far we have come and how far we have to go. And just how very hard it is.