All Journal Entries

I am sitting at a hostel about 1/2 mile from the trail, called Around the Bend. It is just west of Dick's Creek Gap parking area where the trail is. When we reached the parking area around 1 pm, there was a couple providing trail magic in the form of grilled burgers and hot dogs, along with assorted other goodies and drinks. Such a welcome sight! We ate to our hearts content! So gracious of them and so appreciated by all the thru hikers. Met Jeff and Stephanie, the couple that we had dinner with ...

Today we walked our longest hike so far in our trip- 11 miles. We hiked 7 yesterday from Neal's Gap to the top of Wildcat Mountain. We stayed beside the trail last night and got up early to get a jump on the day since we were increasing our mileage.

The hike today was relatively easy except for a very rocky section a short distance from where we are staying tonite, which is a small camp area called Spaniard's Knob.

The panorama of the mountains around us has been spectacular ...

Tuesday we experienced another example of trail magic at Woody Gap. I walked into the parking area from the trail and saw a big crowd of people around the back of a pickup. I was preoccupied because I thought I may have lost my wallet (I didn't!) so I went to a picnic table to sort thru my pack. Brad, who was ahead of me, walked over with six slices of pizza. The truck and food was provided by three thru hikers from 2020 who thought they would provide some joy and food for their new brethern/sisters. ...

Yesterday was a challenging day. Alot of climbing. Climbed Mt. Sassafras. How bad could a mountain be that has a name like Sassafras??!! It was a tough climb! It is only 3300 feet, but a steep climb.

Stayed at Gooch Mt shelter in our tents. When we arrived at 4 pm, the tent area was almost full. We shared a tent pad with a woman named Sam. Next to us were two older women (I forget their names). We saw them on the trail and they were moving at a quick pace, even though they didn't ...

As I am writing this, I am listening to a coyote howl on the hill opposite to where we are camped. It is very cool! What a great way to start off our first night!

Overall the first night was very good. PJ Servey dropped us off in the parking lot on Springer Mountain, the southern terminus of the AT and the starting point for most northbounders. Brad has such a good son! Brad is right about all the good things he says about PJ. He left us at 9:30 am, after a great breakfast at the ...