Officially 3 weeks in. We’re in “mode push” now so we’re aiming to do 20+ miles/day on all non-town days until Damascus. To that end, the alarm has moved back to 6am, since sunrise is now 7am. We got moving at 7:05 this morning. I should have started with my gloves but I didn’t and ended up having to stop to dig them out of my pack. There was a cold wind first thing in the morning. We had most of our climbing for the day in the first 10 miles. Unfortunately it was probably only 60% over. ...

We woke up early at 6 and left by 6:50 to make it to the diner 3 miles away. There was a family of 2 small children and one parent out for their first backpacking trip last night. The kids woke up in the middle of the night and cried about something, I’m not sure what. We descended, mostly, into town, met Kristen on the way and went straight to the diner. All of us ordered essentially the same thing: a heaping pile of potatoes, with bacon, eggs, cheese, and a side of bread. I got some tea to restart my caffeine withdrawals. Zoe had a hot chocolate. ...

We got to sleep in today as part of our plan. No alarm, although someone’s did go off at 4am. I stayed in bed past 7am. We watched the rain pour down and the wind whip at 8:30 from the wooden structure. I’m glad we weren’t in it. Something I hadn’t mentioned in the past, but is very relevant to our one month out here was our resupply strategy. We generally know what we like to eat now, so we’d rather buy that in bulk for cheap and mail that to ourselves along the way. Partly because we didn’t do enough research, partly because we weren’t sure if we’d make it a month, and partly because we thought it would be better to have more flexibility that we purchased everything ahead of time but did not mail it. That part we left to Bev, Zoe’s mom. We also left fairly detailed instructions about what to include in each box. Plus Bev had some practice last year on the PCT. We are very grateful for all her time and effort. Only a mom would help you that much. ...

Last night we slept by a road and a pretty loud stream. Thankfully the stream was between us and the road because when a car came roaring around the corner I sat straight up in bed thinking it was coming straight for me. It was hot last night. I remember lying there without any covers until at least 10pm. It finally cooled off and the cars stopped so we were able to sleep. ...

Well just when we thought there would only be 3 of us in the shelter, a couple showed up, followed by a leader of a youth church group who had 7 more coming. We talked with the one guy who was there with us first, Monty. He graduated high school early and had 2.5 months before he had to be elsewhere so he was spending that time on the AT. Monty was about 10x as capable as the boys in the youth church group, who were the same age, but it probably had a lot to do with exposure. Monty grew up backpacking with his family and had been out on the trail for a month. Many of the kids in the youth group, it was their first trip. I think I went on my first backpacking trip sometime in my early 20s so I might have been more similar to the youth group kids. I went to bed around 7pm and earplugs were amazing. ...

“I’m just doin my own fuckin thing man.” Joseph, PCT 2025 We woke up and of the two options for the day, pretty much knew we were going to do the shorter of the two. We didn’t leave camp until 8 and were pretty set on doing 16 miles rather than 21, which would require 2-2.5 hours of more walking. We might have been the last people out of camp. I didn’t see any tents left as we were leaving. Many folks were trying to catch a free 10am shuttle into Gatlinburg 4.5 miles away. Kristen set out at 7 to start her 21 mile day. ...

Last night at camp we all got to witness a masterclass in storytelling. Papa John was an older hiker who had the uncanny ability to absolutely captivate everyone with his stories. Anytime he was speaking, all other conversations would stop. People who weren’t around the table would come out and stand around just to hear Papa John’s stories. He had a slow deep voice and would pause often during his stories, searching for just the right word. Sometimes you might think he lost his train of thought but he’d always come up with the word he was looking for. It was also fascinating that during these long pauses, no one attempted to speed him up by offering suggestions for what the word might be. Everyone was content to wait the time needed for Papa John to tell his story in his words. In an era of shortened attention spans, it seemed like something of a miracle watching a group of strangers stare open mouthed waiting for Papa John to slowly unravel more tales. My god it was beautiful. Whenever you meet someone that’s exceptional at something, it’s such a joy to be present. ...

We slept in til 7 but still managed to get out by 7:30. I’m not sure how we were so much faster but I wish we were always up and out in 30 minutes. Zoe thinks it was because it was warm. I think the bathroom made things faster. It was probably both. We didn’t get to say bye to Atlas or Kristen despite us figuring it would be the last time we saw them. ...

Three owls decided to fly over our camp at 4:50am, just in case anyone was sleeping. We all were. The day started pretty smoothly with a nice downhill to a road crossing that was undergoing construction. There was a collection of people gathered on the near side of the road who seemed to be in great spirits. We kept moving but not before utilizing the trash cans to empty our trash bag. ...

Wow, an honest to god ass kicker of a day. More specifically a decent climb. We camped on a beautiful ridge last night and it wasn’t nearly as cold as the night before. That made getting up and out much easier. We were actually up and out an hour after our alarm went off which is what we aim for and sometimes hit. It was nice starting with a walk in the sun, especially after yesterday being so cold. We walked down several miles until we reached the Nantahala Outdoor Center (NOC) which is situated right on a river with a white water rapids course behind it. The NOC has produced several U.S. Olympic kayakers and canoers and the only U.S. Olympic gold medalist kayakers. It was 9am, the general store didn’t sell hot tea so we left and continued on. ...