Day 29

Woke up, temperature was hovering just under 40 degrees before the sun came up. It was incredibly windy and cold today so I didn't take many pictures. There also weren't many viewpoints either, but I know tomorrow I'll have more. 
We did get to visit "The Cookie Lady". She gives out a free cookie to any thruhiker that stops by her house. You can buy extras for $2.00 each to continue to help pay for the cookies. She's made over 10,000+ cookies over the past 5 years. Apparently there's another Northern Cookie Lady in Massachusetts. She told us to send her regards from the Southern Cookie Lady. 
She had peanut butter cookies today, so I bought an extra one for me and Nick. 
Privies in Tennessee/North Carolina have not been great lately. Some of them are quite small, and make it impossible not to flash everyone. 
Today was a pretty big day for us with around 5000ft of gain. 17.5 miles from just outside Hot Springs to Little Laurel Shelter at 294. We're planning on going 14 miles tomorrow, should be slightly easier. Lots of more views, hopefully it'll be less windy and we will hit mile 300 too! 

Happy Trails 🌲 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Day 0

Image
I'll be starting the Appalachian Trail on March 1st this year. Feel free to follow along, I'll be doing my best to post daily with pictures.  This time, I convinced Nick to hike it with me  I've hiked 800 miles of the trail previously so here's some of the highlights from 2023 
Read more

Day 1

Image
Day 1 got off to a less than ideal start. Big snorer in the shelter last night. Got started around 8:00 with a quick intro about leave no trace at the visitor center. Registered and got our hiker tags, we're numbers 526 and 528.  Started the 8.8 mile trek up the approach trail. Which leads from the Gateway Arch to Springer Mountain. Some people opt to drive up and bypass the approach trail which is a highly discussed point between thruhikers. I personally think you should hike it. What's the difference adding 9 miles to an already 2000+ mile trek. Amicalola Falls  View from top of falls  Picture of Jules and I from 2023 after we hiked the falls  Made Nick recreate it  Quite busy at the top of Springer. Got to witness a surprise proposal from a couple who hiked the trail previously  Hked the remaining 2.8 miles to Stover Creek Shelter where we hunkered...
Read more

Day 4

Image
Made quick time taking down camp this morning. Neither of us had much for breakfast left. I only had 7 granola bars, the butt end of a baguette, and a little pepperoni left. Ate half of that, and flew towards Blood Mountain. Which is the equivalent to one of the smaller Belknap Range Mountains. Packs were as light as could be with no food in them. Shelter at the top Unfortunately I'm now 0/2 for views on a blood Mountain as both times I've been up it's been incredibly foggy. By the time we made it to the bottom the sun came out and we both had no food in our package. I had one ramen and one instant potato left.  ***Resupply sponsored by Josh Howard*** Once we got to Neels Gap we immediately plugged our phones in to charge and started shopping. Food here is ridiculously expensive since there isn't anywhere else to go. $1 each for a granola bar, $5 for bacon bits. We're fueling up for 4 days of hi...
Read more