Wow it got cold overnight. I haven’t been great about checking the weather but it may have been in the 20s last night. I started with my 20 degree quilt opened, then had to close it when my feet went numb, then had to add socks when my feet went numb again, and finally just had to deal with still numb feet. Needless to say, I did not want to get out this morning. I think I walked until 11am with gloves on, which is probably a record. ...

We slept by a somewhat busy road, which wasn’t ideal but it was for a good cause: free food the next day. We met some guy who was maybe unhoused or maybe a hiker, who was looking for someone who “stole some of his stuff.” He said the guy had a phone of his which showed the guy in the area today and he wanted to find him. We hadn’t seen anyone else and he said he’d go looking up the trail on the other side of the road for the guy “with a big fuckin knife.” Cool. So the sleeping spot wasn’t without its flaws: noise and a lil crazy. ...

Well last night was interesting. We camped with a ton of people but only a few came to the shelter to socialize. Of the people we had met before were Gina and Lucky. We met a new couple from Seattle. There wasn’t much to really note other than we didn’t seem to connect much with the new folks but that was fine because we probably wouldn’t see them again anyway. The Seattle couple were the only ones who slept in the shelter and they stayed up later than anyone and continued talking in a volume that suggested other people were interested in hearing what they had to say. Shelters and people aren’t always positives. ...

Today we managed quite a big day, 20 miles. And, we finished our first state, Georgia! The introduction to North Carolina was rough! Straight uphill! It’s like they were trying to make a point. Thankfully after about 500-1000 feet of climbing that ended and the rest of the day was much easier. There was a big mountain in the middle, called Standing Indian that everyone kept talking about as being a big climb. We had lunch right before and braced ourselves with headphones and playlists queued up. I think it was probably the easiest climb we’ve done this entire trail. I don’t know why it garnered so much conversation. If I hadn’t heard about it so much I wouldn’t even be writing about it. Anyway the view from the top was decent and after the descent we caught up with Gina from Gatlinburg. We convinced her to head on with us to the shelter about another 3.5 miles. Gina is great. She’s like a secret badass: very unassuming but then puts in big days consistently, without issue. I think she has 3 daughters, one of whom is 19. I’m very interested in more of her story, specifically what brought her to trail. ...

Wow, today was crazy. We knew we had a 10 AM shuttle to catch that was about 3.5 miles from the shelter where stayed at last night. We knew if we left by 8 AM we would make it in time. We ended up leaving by 7:45 this morning and we got to Dick‘s Creek Road at 9:15. The shuttle was supposed to arrive at 10 AM but instead it showed up at 9:40 took everyone that was there and then immediately left. There is a nearby hostel called Stanimals where the shuttle stopped first and dropped a couple people off and then was going to proceed into town, however upon exiting the hostel parking lot, the driver went the wrong way, and instead took us back to the trailhead. At this point more hikers had showed up, probably to be shuttled into town, but the shuttle driver was unaware of this and pulled into the parking lot, did not stop and pulled immediately out. This left all of the hikers who had showed up probably confused that the Hiawassee shuttle wasn’t very nice. ​ ...

Last night we were joined in the shelter by Gina, Kristen, Atlas, and Lucky. Lucky has hiked 13 through hikes and wanted us all to know it. It was great getting to talk with people before heading to bed in our tents at 7:30. We found out that we apparently missed TWO trail magic parties that day. Atlas and Kristen told us all about it with rightful smugness. I can’t believe we missed it. We were just a bit too early I guess. ...

Another hot one. Some stats so far: Days that have been too warm: 2 Days that have been too cold: 1 Day with rain: 0 Today was fairly uneventful. We slept on a mountain top last night as opposed to a shelter or a popular campsite so there was only one other person there. She was from Gatlinburg, Tennessee, and the southern accent is strong there. It was very interesting getting to hear her story. She was hiking again after getting injured at the halfway mark last year. In telling us, she wondered why she decided to start over so she last told us she planned to get off trail soon and rejoin where she left last year in about a month. ...

Is it only day 4? Today was long. Too long. We left Gooch Gap after a trail magic breakfast. I had 1.5 “McJames” since Zoe couldn’t finish hers, which was sausage and cheese melted between English muffins and held together with some kind of delicious grease, 1 cup of tea to restart my caffeine withdrawals, and a banana. We said thanks, donated $20, and started our day. The main obstacle of the day was blood mountain. Before that though we caught up with Chris who is from Michigan and recently retired. We really liked hearing his story, a guy who retired early because he just didn’t buy as much shit as everyone else. He’s in his 50s and we were instantly transported back to fantasizing about retiring while Chris told us stories about several buyouts and an unexpected promotion during his last few employers. Chris also was workshopping a trail name for us, which he mentioned several times, is not quite there yet, but he called us the “ZD Express,” like some sort of fast moving train because I guess we’re fast. Little do they all know, they’ll be as fast as us in a couple months, if not sooner. We said bye to Chris and unfortunately that may be the last time we see him. He was planning to go about 8 miles for the day and we were aiming much closer to 15. ...

Today we actually got up at our scheduled time, 6:30 so we could be ready by sunrise, 7:30. The plan was to hike to some trail magic for lunch, then continue on to our own campsite for the night. Well we got to the trail magic 9 miles in and it turns out they’re more of a breakfast/dinner operation. So we sat around, chatted, ate snacks and waffled on whether we should push on. At 2:45 we decided we would just stay the night here so we could eat dinner at 6 and hang out with people all afternoon. What a change from the PCT. I love it. ...

We did just under 2 miles yesterday. It snowed briefly while we were setting up camp then was sunny again. I was cold overnight. I don’t think my feet ever warmed up. Hopefully that will be the last of that. The forecast has warmer weather coming and I left my down jacket at home. Today we started at 8 and finished by 3. A nice casual day! And we still managed 15 miles! We signed the register at Springer mountain so we’ve officially started hiking. We’re in the bubble and we’re meeting people throughout the day. It’s fantastic! So many interesting stories to hear, it’s great. Today we’re camping at a shelter and the tent locations were competitive. I sat down and started chatting and only after a few more people came in and set up camp did I realize I might miss out on a spot! I think most folks here are on a different schedule so we probably won’t see them again, so I need to get out there and enjoy the social time while we have it!