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%}