EMILY'S ESCAPADES

Day 37 Saturday April 29, 2017 Mile: 318.2 - 331.6 Hiked to Spivey Gap Weather: 86 degrees. Hot and Sunny Sleeping at Basecamp Back on the trail after a double zero. We had the luxury of slack packing again. It was an easy 13.4 miles up and over the mountains. With that said the last 2 miles of the day no matter how easy are so slow and painful. The body just wants to quit. We traversed a beautiful bald today. It was even larger than Max Patch. Just as we descended back to t

Day 36 Friday April 28, 2017 Time: Slept In Miles: Zero Weather: 85 degrees and sunny Of course it is sunny outside we decided to take two zero days in a row due to a huge mileage and wet week. So the sun shines now and wet weather is expected again once we hit the trail tomorrow. Hopefully the weather man will be wrong as they often are. But what I have noticed is that with 20% chance of rain it is more likely to rain. So why then when it's 20% chance of sun it doesn't shine

Day 35 Thursday April 27, 2017 Miles: 318.2 - 318.2 Weather: Rainy then sunny afternoon Sleeping at basecamp Today is a rest day. We like to get off the trail at least once a week. Some people think that is whimping out. But I figured if even pro athletes get a down day then we should get one also considering our workouts last 6-12 hours a day. So, what does a hiker do on a rest day? We call them a zero for no miles covered. We do as little as possible. But our rest days are

Day 34 Wednesday April 26, 2017 300.3 - 318.2 7:56 - 7:57pm Weather: Hot, Sunny, low humidity. PERFECT Sleeping at basecamp Another longest day. We are getting our trail legs. We did 17.9 miles today. We had two options. Hike 15 and tent or do a couple more risking finishing with our headlamps on and sleep inside. We chose to risk it. And we did better than we thought so night Hiking will have to wait. Yesterday I was so intent on talking about mud I forgot to mention our 300

Day 33 Tuesday April 25, 2017 Mile: 288.2 - 300.3 7:24 - 4:15pm Weather: foggy and cool in the morning then foggy and humid in the afternoon. Tented at Jerry Cabin Shelter What an amazing hike today. The trail had a little bit of this and a little bit of that. My favorite was a rocky exposed ridge section. There was no "bad weather" so we were able to take the ridge. We hoped for magnificent views but were only offered more of dense fog cover as the last several days. Black B

Day 32 Monday April 24, 2017 Miles: 273.4 - 279.3 7:20am - 12:43pm Cloudy, cool turned humid Staying at Basecamp again We did another quick slackpacking day of 8.9 miles. It was easy in hiker terms. But It was by no means a walk in the park. The elevation profile of the Appalachian Trail looks very similar to an EKG print out with all the possible bad rhythms except flat lining. It has been a month since we started and we are beginning to feel our trail legs getting stronger

Day 31 Sunday April 23, 2017 Mile: 273.4 - 279.3 11:44am - 2:37pm Wet, rainy, and windy Since all our gear is soaked and it is raining we decided to hike a nero day today and sleep at basecamp again. So glad we did. Not only did we hike very little, we slack packed. That is taboo is the world of a purist AT thru hiker but we fancied it today. Slack packing is when you hike miles with the lightest pack possible and retrieve the rest of your gear at day's end. It allowed us a d

Day 30 Saturday April 22, 2017 Mile: 260.3 - 273.4 7:12am - 3:00pm Wet and Rainy It was a long, wet, and messy hike into Hot Springs. Batman hiked in to meet us. He does that frequently. He has racked up almost 100 miles so far hiking in then back out with us. The only thing that kept us going strong was the fact that we were going to rent a hot tub for an hour. After all that's what Hot Springs is known for. The spa has private, outdoor hot tubs filled with the healing water

Day 29 Friday April 21, 2017 Mile: 245.4 - 255.5 - 260.3 7:34am - 2:20pm : 5:18pm - 7:55pm Hot, humid, then rain Tented at Walnut Mountain Shelter We climbed up and over Max Patch today. It is a beautiful huge bald at 4629 feet elevation. We were enjoying the hot humid day even though the clouds were gathering in the distance. There were other thru hikers partaking in the summits glory as well as day visitors. One hiker passed and joyfully proclaimed he had just checked the w

Day 28 Thursday April 20, 2017 Mile 229.6 - 245.5 7:53 - 6:55 Rainy start. Cleared. Cloudy & humid Tented at mile 245.5 Good-bye Smoky's. I am so happy to be rid of them. Not because they are not pretty. On the contrary, the woods offer a variety of flora and fauna. It's the sheltering rules. Hikers cannot stealth camp. You have to sleep in the shelters unless they are full then you can tent near them. But tenting wherever you want is not allowed so hikers are stuck to doing