Off trail After much celebrating last night we said goodbye to Ox and Torch and went back to the cabin with Slippery Otter. Today Brenda drove us back to Virginia where we will start the section that we missed due to the ice storm back in November. More on that tomorrow... Thank you to Slippery … Continue reading Day 162. Travel Day

Mile 2182 - Hightower Gap To Mile 2191 - Springer Rocket, I'm so proud of you. Rocket with the AT plaque Rocket and I at the Southern terminus Tramily

Mile 2175 - Gooch Mountain Shelter To Mile 2182 - Hightower Gap We were excited to hear a couple of days ago that one of Rocket's friends was going to make the trip to Springer for our last day! His family has a cabin nearby and they invited us to stay there with them. We … Continue reading Day 160. Hangin’ With Slippery Otter

Mile 2156 - Stealth To Mile 2175 - Gooch Mountain Shelter Last night Ox and Torch walked a few miles farther than we did in order to stay at a hostel out of the rain. We got up early this morning to meet them there before they left and enjoyed a cup of coffee in … Continue reading Day 159. Mountain Crossing

Mile 2133 - Tray Mountain Shelter To Mile 2156 - Stealth Being so close to the end, it is tempting to push harder to get there faster. However, I'm dealing with a slight injury and don't want to over do it. So we tried to just walk at our normal pace today and pitched our … Continue reading Day 158. Pacing Ourselves

Mile 2110 - Muskrat Creek Shelter To Mile 2133 - Tray Mountain Shelter We crossed into our final state today with mixed emotions. We've been focused on getting to Georgia for so long that I fully expected to feel nothing but excitement about reaching that milestone. However, it comes mixed with the awareness of the … Continue reading Day 157. Georgia

Mile 2089 - Long Branch Shelter To Mile 2110 - Muskrat Creek Shelter This was the second day in a row with thick fog. However, we were mainly focused on covering ground today on the smooth and we'll graded trail. Fire tower

Mile 2067 - Burningtown Gap To Mile 2089 - Long Branch Shelter We are moving south again and squarely focused on Springer now. Lasts are starting to become very apparent: last state line crossing, last resupply, last town. If we are not careful it can feel a little nostalgic. Foggy tree

Mile 1968 - Tri-Corner Knob Shelter To Mile 1951 - Davenport Gap As we complete our fourth and final day in the Smokies the feeling is bittersweet. We are relieved and thankful to have completed this section without significant delays due to weather which were a real possibility. At the same time, we are sad … Continue reading Day 154. Saying Goodbye to the Smokies

Mile 1984 - Newfound Gap To Mile 1968 - Tri-Corner Knob ShelterWe are tackling the northern part of the park heading northbound for two days. Then we'll drive back down south to pick up where we left off before Christmas.The weather continues to warm up. It was logistically somewhat complicated to skip this section last … Continue reading Day 153. Briefly NOBO Again