So it’s been a while…

I remember following Appalachian Trail blogs for the past two years and right around Virginia the posts seemed to slow to a trickle and then cease all together. That is, until a photo is posted of that person on the summit of Katahdin. As annoying as this was for me, I now totally understand. We got sucked in, it happens. So sorry about that guys! we’re alive and well, just hiking a ton and having a fantastic time. Lucky for us, we have so many friends and family in PA that we’ve had a lot of opportunities to stop and relax and catch up on our journals. So much has happened! We’ve crossed the 1,000 mile marker, we’ve gone over halfway, and we’ve seen a ton of AT landmarks. One of the things I’ve really been wanting to post is our nearly complete list of trail magic we’ve received so far. I don’t know if we got absolutely everybody because we’ve had so much. It’s astounding how many people are supporting us thru hikers and encouraging us along the way. I am so grateful for them and want to find a way to express how much this has helped us.

Trail Magic!

3/13 Gooch Gap

Banana, root beer

Miss Janet

3/15 Neel’s Gap

Krispy Kreme, Reese’s

fellow hiker?

3/16 Hogpen gap:

Yeungling, Kind bars

Nice Floridian couple

3/17 Rocky Mountain

Bag of candy bars

Unknown trail angel

3/19 Dick’s Creek Gap

Hamburgers/Hot Dogs, Apples, Chips

Young Harris College

3/19 Dick’s Creek Gap

Krispy Kreme donuts

Alabama dudes

3/20 Dick’s Creek Gap

Hand warmers and granola bars

Nice ladies

3/23 Moore Creek

Ribeye steak slices

Beast and Skywalker

3/24 Franklin, NC

Shuttle in

Ron Haven

3/24 Franklin, NC

Root Beer

Waiter at diner

3/24 Franklin, NC

Beer

Pox

3/24 Franklin, NC

Free shuttle out

Jeannie

3/25 Wayah Gap

Soda, fruit

Once-a-Day’s dad

3/26 Rocky Peak

Apple

Two lady day hikers

3/30 Stecoah Gap

Soda

Once-a-Day’s dad

4/5 Newfound Gap

Food spread, free shuttle

church group

4/10 Snowbird Mountain

giant food spread and small resupply

Awesome unknown couples from TN

Roan Mountain

van. house. relaxing weekend.

Loretta Pritchard

4/28 Watauga Lake

Mcdonalds and Pringles

Elizabeth

4/29 TN 11 crossing

Fruit, cookies, water, pound cake

Lynn, Bald Eagle’s Wife

4/30 Damascus park

Hot dogs, hamburgers, fruit, salads, sandwiches, veggies

trail town challenge ultra marathon race

5/6 Road crossing

Cookies, soda, water, fruit

Curly (triple crowner)

5/7 Marion

free shuttle, cokes, and truck

Greg McLaughlin (surveyor)

5/9 Lindamood School 1894

hiker box, sodas, fruit, snacks

West End United Methodist church

5/11 Mountain Top Holiness Church (Bland, VA)

soda, Powerade, bananas

Richard

5/11 Bland, VA

hitch

white truck, guy with handlebar mustache

5/15 Damascus, VA

shuttle back from Trail Days to Pearisburg

SOS and Trail Momma

6/9 Low water bridge campground,. VA

Hot dogs and snacks

Camp group proprieters

6/14 Shenandoah NP, VA

Bagels and apples

Nikki Fox

6/15 Skyline Drive

hitches

Shenandoah Firefighters, College Student from Virginia Tech

6/17 Manassas Gap

huge food spread

Raindrop and Whitney

6/25 Shippensburg Rd

Cokes

Day hikers of Carroll county, MD

 

(6/14/16) – (Shenandoah Nat’l Park)Lupine, the trail name of Nicole Didusch of Littleton, Co., is thru hiking the Appalachian Trail. Photographed in the Shenandoah National Park Tuesday.(Nikki Fox / DN-R)

(6/14/16) – (Shenandoah Nat’l Park)Pokey, the trail name of Josh Kravette of Littleton, Co, is thru hiking the Appalachian Trail. Photographed in the Shenandoah National Park, south of Lewis Mountain Campground, heading north on the Appalachian Trail Tuesday. (Nikki Fox / DN-R)

Catching up

So it’s been a while since we’ve had an update! We’ve worked out way up to bigger mile days and we’re currently moving our way through Virginia. Here’s some photos that will explain what we’ve been up to better than I can. 

V

Tennessee/North Carolina

 
  
  
  
  
   
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  

GSM cont.

  
  

  

  

  

  


  


  
  
 

  
  

 

  
  

  
  
  
  
  

Great Smoky Mountains

We are officially in the smokies! This is a place that has had so much significance to us and has been a landmark for the trail that seemed so far away when we first started at Amicalola. We are forever saying “after the smokies we will…” Or “save this or that for the smokies”. To us the smokies have become this mythical place where it is frigidly cold but beautiful and forces thru hikers to move together in herds from place to place. Having actually spent a few days here, it has pretty much lived up to this. The trail today was blanketed on both sides by tiny Carolina Spring Beauties and Bluets. The wind gusts were freezing cold and forced us into jackets and hats and long pants almost immediately but the next day we were back in shorts. The shelters are packed with people who have to get through the entire park before their permits expire and are not allowed to camp outside of shelters (including us of course). We had one near bear encounter already (may have been wild boar) and saw some incredible views. We have a few more days to go here and in that time we passed our 200 mile mark, jumped back and forth between Tennessee and North Carolina, and hit the highest point on the entire trail. Many pictures will follow but for now with my highly reliable AT&T service, I can’t sacrifice the phone battery uploading them. Hopefully we’ll get to a place with some wifi soon so we can share more. Until then, may the forest be with you. 
-Lupine 

Neel’s Gap, GA to Wayah Bald, NC

Georgia on my mind

I’m writing from North Carolina! Ten days ago we were sweating and cursing the steps of Amicalola Falls! We are still moving at the pace of a slightly athletic turtle but it’s our pace and it serves us well. We crossed the state line and immediately set up camp. Currently we are in our tent around 7:30 watching the snow pile up around us that wasn’t supposed to start until 10 or have any accumulation. We were planning to stop four miles ago but we were so excited to reach this milestone that we pushed a little farther and here we are. Two days ago I was hiking in shorts. Looks like we might get our zero day sooner than we think. In this tent. On the North Carolina border. Wondering what will happen when we need to pee. We’ve been so lucky so far with the weather though so this is more exciting than ominous. As for the past few days we’ve had an amazing time. So much trail magic! It’s incredible how many people want to help us out along the way. We’ve been over many Georgia peaks and met many Georgians (and Alabamans and Floridians) and we are so anxious and excited to see what North Carolina will bring. We will be updating soon about where to mail care packages. Looks like the smokies will be the next best place in a couple of weeks. I’m sure in the hours spent waiting out the weather we will muster an address and an approximate ETA. Until then, we have all these pictures! Happy first day of spring! 
-Lupine

   
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    

   

  

  

  

  

Day six cont.

So thanks to wordpress’ fantastically unreliable app I’m not sure what order or how many of the photos I posted are actually there but this is a good smattering of our first few days on the Appalachian Trail. Josh and I are officially part of the trail community, dubbed with trail names and are as smelly and greasy as we’ve ever been. Josh is of course Pokey and I just last night was given the name Lupine. This came after a few contenders were rejected– snot rocket, SOS, beef chip, and fish burp. All I can say is if you do anything weird in the first few weeks of the Appalachian trail, it will follow you. But so far it has been everything we had hoped! We honestly could not be happier to be here. It feels good to know that every beautiful vista or tent spot or old growth forests we’ve experienced we’ve earned with a lot of sweat (really, a lot) and hard work. This is such a beautiful lifestyle and we are so grateful to be here and looking forward to the next six months! 

Day six!

 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

Getting going

After two years of planning, saving money, researching, and making hard decisions, we are finally only few days away from starting our trip. We are going to miss all of our friends and family terribly and we appreciate all of the love, support, and positivity that they’ve given us. We thought that keeping this blog would be a good way to keep all of those people involved and updated without flooding Facebook with all of the inevitable photos of Josh and I toiling away with backpacks strapped to our backs in slightly different environments for the next six months. So to those who care to be updated and want to follow along with all of our antics out there on the trail, we will try to post on this site as consistently as possible. We will also be posting where to send mail drops along the way so if anyone feels so inclined to mail us cookies and a kind word, that would be much appreciated.

Much love,

Shmoops