Milestones

Mom spraying my down with tick repellent before I headed out from Tesnatee Gap. I haven't found one on me yet, so it much be working.

The past three days have been days of important milestones. On Thursday, we headed from Tesnatee Gap to Unicoi Gap, a 14 miles hike, and our goal was to do it all in one day. We hit the trail about 10:30am (that cozy RV is just so hard to leave in the mornings...) and hiked until 7:30pm, and we made our goal. It was my first real "trail day," i.e. spending the entire day hiking. We had wanted to make it an extra mile, to Hogpen Gap, the day before, but construction was blocking the road so the RV couldn't pick us up.

Really confused as to why there are asphalt trucks blocking the AT at Hogpen Gap...

I learned an important thing today as well...take what the guidebooks say with a grain of salt. The book I carry with me on the trail seemed to indicate that this section of the trail was one big climb at the beginning, lots of flat hiking along a ridge, then one big climb and a descent into Unicoi Gap at the end. Which was true...kind of. The flat ride hiking wasn't exactly "flat," more like a cruelly teasing series of small ups and downs. And the "big hikes" at the beginning and end were more like "huge." But this is trail life, and know I know a bit more about how to judge the terrain in my book. Another milestone - right before I got to Unicoi Gap to end the day, I saw my first bear!!! It was a small one, and I only saw it for a few seconds as it ran away, but it was such an exciting way to end my first big day of hiking.

Coming off the trail at Unicoi gap Thursday night, running from the bear, so happy to see my Trail Angel waiting for me across the road.

After a pretty strenuous day and a nice dinner of BBQ and a night in the RV, Daddy and I packed up to accomplish out next big milestone - our first camping overnight. On Friday and Saturday we covered a little over 17 miles, ending at Dick's Creek Gap on Saturday around noon. Overall, the 17 mile hike took us a little over 14 hours to complete.

This is what the majority of the 17 miles were like.

Another milestone was climbing Trey Mountain, the second highest mountain in Georgia. We stopped for lunch at the top...

I'm really excited about being barefoot with my turkey tetrazzini!

We camped at at another gap about 5 miles from our rendezvous point for the next day, after climbing 0.25 miles down the steepest hill yet to replenish our water at a spring. The campsite was nice, right next to the trail but secluded enough to feel private.

Camp Nano.

The next day marked two more milestones. For those of you who are squeamish, stop reading now. Every long distance hiker must eventually confront the issue of proper toilet etiquette in the woods. Some AT shelters have privies, most don't. We camp, so no privy at all. If any of you know me, you know I am somewhat of a germophobe. Until Saturday morning, I had successfully avoided this issue. There is an entire books dedicated to deficating in the woods, and for those interested, you can do your homework elsewhere. Suffice it to say, as every thru-hiker must, I have officially "broken in" the trail, and apparently, according to those who know more about this than I do, I'm a real hiker now. Three cheers for me. I also achieved the milestone of my first injury. Apparently I have a "minor contusion of the major nerves in my big toes." That's Dr. speak for "my feet aren't used to pounding down mountains and I've stubbed my toes really badly." It will heal very soon, and is completely minor. But every "real hiker" has to start the pain somewhere, right? We had two more climbs (one up Kelly Knob and one up Powell Mountain), and my feet sure were hurting at the end of it. But it was beautiful, and I was still happy by the time I got to the RV at noon, where my Trail Angel had ham sandwiches and fresh fruit waiting. Half a day of rest did me well. I'll need it, because tomorrow we start on our longest stretch yet - 3 days of hiking before our next rendezvous. It's real now!

Distance From Springer: 67.5 miles
Distance From Katahdin: 2111.6 miles
Quote of the Day: "Callie, what is the matter with you? Are you laughing at yourself again?" - Dad.

Yes, I was. For no reason at all. Sometimes that's all you can do to get through it...