All Journal Entries

Woke up in a real bed. Yay! Had an absolutely delicious breakfast. Just took it nice and easy today. Resting and icing my knee. Applied KT tape and that really seems to help, but we will find out tomorrow. Have 11.5 miles tomorrow to get to Low Gap Shelter. My biggest day yet. Wish me luck.

Woke up bright and early just before 5am. Luckily now rain. Sun doesn’t come up until 7:30am, so got my first experience with night hiking. It wasn’t too bad (don’t see why people like it) and I was in a group of 7, so safety in numbers. Neat thing was we heard a very loud owl 🦉. Thankfully the rain never came in as expected, which was good because Blood Mountain descent was a killer. My right knee started hurting during the last descent yesterday and every step down Blood Mountain was painful. ...

Storm really hit after midnight but we were good in the shelter. Lot of lighting, thunder and rain but thankfully no wind. Some of the group got up at 6 am, so I had to get up. I definitely prefer my tent but the shelter wasn’t too bad. I was glad I decided to stick it out because it was an absolutely beautiful day. Sun was out ☀️. For lunch I took a long break at Woody Gap and let my wet tent and rain gear dry out. Made it into camp around 3pm. Should be a nice night. The plan is to ...

Had a great night sleep in my tent. Woke up to some rain which was expected. It rained all 7.3 miles! Wasn’t too bad considering. Kept trying to remind myself to embrace the suck. Rain gear held up really well and made it to Gooch Mountain Shelter shortly after 2pm. There were still a few spots in the shelter so I decided to set up there instead of my wet tent. Hopefully the mice won’t be too bad. Its weird how comfortable I’ve already become with complete strangers. Everyone still seems to be in ...

Slept ok first night on the trail. Sore legs kept waking me up, but was overall comfortable. Morning started off foggy and a little wet, but turned into a beautiful day with the sun coming out. Had lunch next to a pretty waterfall. Made it to Hawk Shelter and meet even more great people. Several people started from Springer today, so our total number grew. Easily over 20 tents here, but plenty of room. It’s suppose to start raining at 4am and continue all day tomorrow. First real day in rain. Wish ...