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I am very proud that I did not zero today and got back on trail. Today is an easy day, just under 10 miles to Groundhog Creek Shelter. Today was a beautiful day. Wore shorts and tshirt for most of the day. ☀️ Took it nice and easy which was good after the mental block of the Smokies. Now this shelter has a lot of comments about bears getting packs and food bags, but I assume there is safety in numbers. Several of the hikers I started the day with decided to stop there, so I stuck with ...

Today is another big mile day, but it’s mostly downhill. It started to snow a little just as I was leaving the shelter. Today is definitely a keep it moving day and try to get to lower altitude. I was hoping the weather would clear up but it continued to snow. Probably about 2 inches accumulated. I have never hiked in my puffy before because I would be too warm. Today I hiked in my puffy and raincoat the whole day. I was ok as long as I kept moving, but as soon as I stopped for a break it was unpleasant. ...

Got up early this morning to make the 8:30am shuttle back to Newfound Gap, but as I was walking down the road a nice couple from Tyler, TX volunteered to give me a ride. Since the shuttle was for only the first 8 hikers I decided to take the hitch. Tried to take it nice and slow since I knew I had quite a few miles to do. I started to feel gassed around mile 5, but just kept eating and taking breaks. Pecks Shelter was at mile 10, but I had heard that it was .75 miles of trail and down a steep hill. ...

Slept in this morning. Skipped breakfast since I was still so full from dinner yesterday. All I did was eat, get my resupply and watch tv. A nice relaxing day. Which will be needed since I need to push 15.7 miles tomorrow. 🤦*♀️

Woke up and got moving early this morning. Nothing like the promise of a warm bed and real food to get me going. Thankfully Sourdough started a fire this morning, so I was able to keep warm as I packed up. Only 5 miles today to Newfound Gap where I can get a ride into Gatlinburg. It’s a popular tourist spot, so it’s suppose to be an easy hitch. Got a ride from a young couple that hikes, so they didn’t think we were dangerous. Lol. Unfortunately, they only took us to the welcome center, so we still ...