Day 4 - march 28 Tuesday

Day 4

March 28 Tuesday
Miles today 7.1

Total miles 31.2

Lance creek to neel gap

Today was a shorter day as we were ready for a break/chill out in camp. We hiked about 7 miles from lance creek to neel gap where there is a convenience store and hostel and extremely limited camping (e.g. Basically one good spot and a 2-3 semi acceptable ones based on tent size.  We didn't plan to resupply here as much as we did, it was sort of pricey and kind of limited selections, but we are still figuring out how our days are going, what we like to eat and how the calorie intake is working. 

Today we did two climbs followed by blood mountain where there was an amazing view and a shelter, but I'm not sure how many people stay there; it was nice though.  The weather was walking thru a cloud all morning but right as we got to the top of the mtn the sun started to break thru and we were gifted with some spectacular panoramas of all the surrounding peaks.  

We forgot to sign the trail logbook again.  I'm pretty sure we haven't signed a single one yet, so are are definitely going to try to remember to sign the one here at neels before we go tomorrow. The log books are where thru hikers sign as they pass thru an area and then other hikers can keep up with each other  and there's a record of your stopping there etc.

Even though we stopped early today, around 1:30 I think, it still felt like we were busy all afternoon.  Planning what good we needed to get for our next few days, setting up camp, collecting supplies from the store, trying to charge things...   Let me tell you, the power here at neels gap to charge things is superrrrrrr slow.  I'm not sure if it's the source, the cubes, the cords or the amount of other charging at the same time but wow haha.  Don't plan to re-up if you're dead or low because you'll be here a while. I mean, we needed it so I'm glad to have it don't get me wrong I was just surprised I think, so we will need to consider accounting for that in our future timing at other places. 

Day 3 - march 27, 2017

Day 3 

March 27 Monday

Miles today 10.6

Total miles 25.1

Devils kitchen to lance creek

We didn't plan to go this far today but it's always nicer to have a small goal and pass it rather than not achieving the goal you set.  We left devils today and we weren't even out of the campground area when the sky opened up and down poured on us just long enough for us to get soaked trying to put on rain gear and then, stop haha.  It was sort of misty on and off all morning. We passed gooch shelter but didn't go look because it was a little bit off the main trail. 

We ran into some fellow YouTube AT hikers, TwoTentsDown, and chatted for a minute. It's neat and crazy to see each other on the trail after seeing people on the internet!  It's sort of like little celebrities in your bubble haha. It was a longer hiking day but not super strenuous, just ups and downs. 

We camped at lance creek but we got there pretty late since we hadn't planned to go that far.  The campsite was SUPER full. Like we had to hike probably 0.5 miles past all the tents already there and squeeze onto this old access side road thing in order to fit.  We were going to move on when we approached and saw how full it was but someone got really excited about our dogs and called out "doooooggggsssss" and told us to come down there was room haha.  Seems like lots of people so far either like or miss their dogs so it's nice when they meet friendly ones along the trial :-)

9 o'clock is "camper midnight" when basically everyone goes to bed and/or gets in their tent so it's best to be respectful as possible with noise/lights etc if you're up any time past that. I think we arrived in camp around 7ish so we had to hustle to set up the  tent, do dinner for us and pups, and then clean up stuff/hang a bear bag. We did have a lovely mtn view from our campsite though and it was beautiful to eat dinner watching the sunset. 

Day 2 - march 26 2017

Day 2

March 26 Sunday

Miles today 11.7 (Liz 12.7)

Total miles 14.5

Stover campsite to devils kitchen 

Today we went from stover campsite (at 2.8 miles) to devils kitchen (at 14.5 miles) It was further than we had itnitally planned to go; we had first planned to go to hawks mtn campsite (at mile 8.1) but it was pretty early when we got there so we decided to press on but we had gotten intel from one of the trail volunteers/ridge runners that there was no good reliable water sources for 7 miles past hawks, so whatever we did we needed enough water to last us.  And it was accurate!  Luckily we filled up right before hawks and good thing we made it to devils because we were at our last drops when we got here.  In the middle of the day we had stopped at a newer campsite area with a privy (fancy name for outdoor pit toilets with walls) we used and then had lunch and left.  We stopped to refill our water when I realized I had left some gear 0.5 miles back at the campsites.  I dropped my stuff and ran back while Brayden waited for me. Luckily I was able to retrieve my gear and it didn't take that long and we pressed forward to devils kitchen.  When we finally got there late, there are stairs down to the river and then up the other side.  Previously we had considered stopping a few times before we got here because my stomach had a party I wasn't invited to but hopefully that's over now.  We had passed an open site on one side on the double stair case and up the other double stairs to check out available sites only to find there was no sites available haha.  I didn't have it in me to push on the next mile to gooch shelter because i wasn't feeling well so back down and up the staircases to the other site.  Only the next day when we ran into some other campers did we learn I guess there was a sign somewhere saying not to camp on that side of the river....oopsie.  We never saw said sign though.  And that campsite was awesome haha, we had it all to ourselves so the dogs could be off leash and we could spread out. 

Weather today was nice, with spots of spitting to slightly heavier rain but nothing that lasted.  It was quite breezy but it felt good because it wasn't too cold.  Periods of sunshine but mostly overcast.  Hoping for continued weather days like today.  

Day 3 we are planning to spilt the distance to neels gap instead of pressing on in one day.  We are planning to go woody gap 6.3 miles away which is the last good water souce before neels.  

Day 1! The start!

Today marks the official start of the adventure!!   We are driving from the high point area of North Carolina southwest to Springer mountain in Georgia to begin our Appalachian trail thru hike. Weather looks a little spotty with a chance of rain during the day and higher likelihood tonight.  Report says higher chance of rain tomorrow after 10 so we will try to get started rolling before then and hopefully our things won't get too wet; chances of rain look like at least 50/50 all this week, send us good wishes for good weather!

Today we plan to park at the Springer mountain GA parking area and hike approx 1 mile to reach the AT and then continue North approx 3 miles to stover creek.  We have been packing and repackig our bags over the past couple of days and it has been crazy and chaotic getting started!  Our first grocery trip was sort of a splurge, especially weight wise haha. Our packs were heavier than we planned, so I'm sure we will learn quickly how to cut it down. We are starting at Springer with some family who will hike to the trail with us then head back to the car and are making a weekend of the drive in Atlanta-thanks K, T, S, N, S!!

Looking forward to providing more updates as we go, happy trails!
Check out our videos we're updating too: https://m.youtube.com/channel/UChTLaHC1aOHoZpyiWeuf69Q
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Liz