It's official!

We got our certificates in the mail the other day!  Very exciting.  We framed them and put them up on the wall.   It's still a bit weird to not be hiking.   I miss being outside all the time.  It's frustrating to have to "take advantage" of a great weather day.  I liked it when there was no way I could miss it!

But!  No need to get down!  We have a hiking trip planned this coming May!  Its unbelievably exciting to think about walking again and I'm loving the planning process!

Trail beard!

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 And, our friend made a gif of the published photos:
http://gifninja.com/animatedgifs/407801/bearaway.gif

AT Day 184 Cowart Gap to Blue Mountain Shelter

November 8
Miles ~ 20
Total 2063
Days left on the trail: 3
Miles to Springer: 50.5

So crazy that we are almost done.  We walked 2000 miles already.  Insane.  Absolutely insane.
Today was one of our best weather days in a long time.   A mere half-hour into walking we took off our rain gear and it stayed off for the rest of the day. Beautiful hiking with a few mountain views but lots of ups and downs. 
As we got to the end of our day, we crossed a road and stopped to chat with these three people sitting at the back of a pick-up truck.   (We've been talking to everyone out today-it's very fun. They all congratulate us.)   These people at the truck are the support team for a group of people trying to do all of Georgia in three days.  Crazy!  We chatted with them for awhile and before we parted ways they gave us 7 hard-boiled eggs and some bread!  Also, they might leave us some food at the road crossing tomorrow.  They were all really friendly and we enjoyed our break to chat with them.  It fired us up as we were walking the last 2.4 miles.   We didn't get to see the group of runners but we think they'll pass us sometime tomorrow.  Can't wait!
As for us, we are getting anxious about finishing-simultaneously wanting this to be over and not at all.  Thankfully, we'll have to come back out to finish the Smokies but even though that allows us to prolong our Appalachian experience, our thru-hike is coming to end.   We had our last prepared trail dinner.   We crossed our last state line. We changed the batteries on our headlamps for the last time.  However,  a hiker we met on the trail cautioned me "you can't count your hike until it's done.". And I agree with that.  We still have 50 miles to go.  And what a wonderful 50 miles it will be.

Campfire

Great Sign 

 

Walking 

The support team for the runners and our trail magic team! 

Tenting at Blue Mountain Shelter 

AT Day 181 - Wayah Bald to Franklin

November 6
Miles 10

I knew exactly what the sound was when I heard it but I was holding out hope.  I nudged jamie and asked him if it was him.  Praying that he had moved and hit the tent.  When he mumbled 'No' I took a deep breath, reached my hand up and poked the roof of the tent.  2 inches of snow came tumbling down.  Last night we went to be with clear skies and this morning-snow.  I'll re-post the picture of the tent last night so you can fully understand how shocked we were.  Anyway,  we instantly changed our plans.  Instead of the intended 20, we cut it down and 10 and made a plan with Starfish and Sherpa to split a hotel room in Franklin.  
That decided we, chatted about how the hunting dogs came into the shelter and woke everyone up at 4am.  Infact, they were still wandering around when we left in the morning.  The poor things were freezing and starving.  One ate a bag of instant potatoes it dug up from somewhere.  One followed us up to a fire tower and then sat down on the one snow free patch if could find and curled up shivering.   Starfish was smarter than we were and she checked it's multiple collars (2 GPS and 1 normal) for a phone number.  She called the owner and about 15 minutes later we saw a truck riding up the road.
A road that, let me tell you, followed the AT for about 3 miles.  If we had known that we would have walked on it as it was snow free.  Unlike that snow-laden trail we were walking on.   Never have we regretted not having a map until today.   We wanted to know the shortest route to town and a map would have helped us with that.
Alac and Alas, we made it to the road and after a half-hour of trying to get a ride a couple turned around and drove us into Franklin. They turned around!  Turns out, they are 2002 thru-hikers.  Homeless and Unemployed.  That's their names-not adjectives describing them.  Although in 2002, that's what they were.  Intentionally. They sold their house and quit their jobs and hiked the trail.  The intended to go back to work and buy a new house but it just never happened.  When we met them, they were on their way to visit their daughter and grandchildren who live in the next town over.   It was really sweet of them to backtrack 10 miles to get us to town.
And now, here we are. Warm and toasty.  Full up with Mexican food, margaritas and beer and waiting to see who our president will be.   We're hoping for Obama.

A Walker perhaps? 

Hitching into town 

Homeless and Unemployed

Snowy walkway

Early morning snow

Clear and beautiful night

Day 180 Camping near Rufus Morgan to Wayah Shelter

November 5th
Miles ~14
Total 1993

Did we say something about walking 20 miles today?  Right.  So that clearly didn't happen. Today was a super hard walk. We started in the middle of a huge climb up to 5000 feet and then we dropped back down just to climb up again.  It really felt like we were walking uphill all day.  Unbelievable.  We were so exhausted that we decided to stop at this shelter but it was great that we did because our friends Starfish and Sherpa are here too and it's always nice to camp with friends. 
So, last night at our camp spot we could hear dogs barking all through the night.  We could still here them today and so we assumed they were out with hunters. But then we realize we weren't really clear how hunting with dogs works.  Do the dogs take down the bear? That seemed ridiculous. Do the dogs herd the bear back to their owner?  Seems difficult.  We were speculating up a storm when, lo and behold, a hunter came down the trail looking intently at a screen attached to a walkie-talkie looking device with a huge antenna.   Desperately needing an answer to our question, we asked him if he had time to explain this to us.    We started the conversation by asking him if he was running dogs.   His first question to us was "Did you hear them? Are they barking?" Apparently his GPS had a momentary lapse and while he knew he was in the right direction he wanted to be sure. 
He explained that they dogs track the bear and he tracks the dogs via the GPS.  They all GPS collar so he can find them.  It updates every 30 seconds so he can see if the dogs are running, walking or lounging around.      He told us his dogs were running all night (we could have told him that too) and that he's pretty close to them now.   He runs mostly Walkers and Ports.  We have no idea what those are, but will look up the breeds as soon as we can. 
Anyway, it was fascinating to talk to him.  He runs with his dad and brother so between the three of them they can get three bear in a year.  He said they already got one.  It was about 200lbs but that it had so much fat on it's back-about 4 inches he said-that it was easy for the dogs.   He said the bear was too fat to even run.  Funny image. 
We were happy to run into him and get our questions answered and we were happy he wanted a break from the climb up that he was willing to talk to us.
P.s. Election Day tomorrow! 

view from some firetower on a mountain that I can't remember the name to

YOU'RE ON THE A!T! 

View

Tenting at Wayah Bald Shelter

AT Day 179 Brown Fork to camping after Rufus morgan shelter

November 4

Brown Fork Gap Shelter to Camping after Rufus Morgan shelter
Miles: 18
Total:1978 (135 to go)

We just realized that we are no longer counting miles up, but rather like a countdown.  It really is getting to that point!
We overslept today, but I think we needed the sleep and we only had about 17 miles to go.  Our feet were really sore after our encounter with winter-come-early, but they were feeling much better this morning. 
There was a surprising amount of climbs today, a reminder that even though we are near the end and trail hardened, the trail still has some challenges in store for us.
We found a great lunch spot on a small bald on top of Cheoah mountain, and the weather really cooperated with us despite the reports calling for rain.
Later in the day we came to the Nantahala Outdoor Center where we had a mail drop waiting.  We got in about 10 minutes after closing, but they were nice enough to let us in to grab it.  We also sort of lucked out because most of the establishments in the complex are just closing up for the season (we were the last customers in the general store).  We contemplated renting a cabin with Starfish and Sherpa, but it was a little more expensive than we expected and they didn't have a TV, so we decided to invest that money into the restaurant there on the river!  Jamie had a one pound burger and Shannon had a mixed chili and rice dish called a "Sherpa", which we all were tickled by because that was our friend's trailname.  He had to order it too, of course. 
The four of us then continued hiking in the dark using our super-duper headlamps.  We only had a mile to go, but eventually we realized we'd been hiking way longer than a typical mile and that, while our bellies were full and it was uphill, we were still maintaining a decent pace (it is amazing how accurate we have become at judging the speed of our pace).  We eventually realized that we had passed through an open area a good while back that looked suspiciously like a shelter site, but since we didn't see any sign we kept walking.  Anyways, Sherpa and Starfish weren't feeling 100% so they took the first open piece of ground and we kept on for another half mile or so.  We were in the middle of a huge climb, so we agreed that we may need to go on to the next shelter four or so miles on, but luckily it didn't come to that.
Tomorrow is a 20 miler so it is off to sleep for us.  Day light savings time, by the way, is no good for hikers!

View from Cheoah Bald. LOOK! No snow! 

 

 

Trail Magic!  What a great wine name! 

Water source! 

a strange structure around a fire ring

AT Day 178 Standing Bear Farm to Brown Fork Gap

Miles: 11
Total: 1967
Miles to go :153
November 3

We stayed at Standing Bear farm hostel last night, which was such a nice respite from the previous few days' trails, and it was so nice to sleep in a warm and toasty bed.  But alas, we had many miles to travel today, so we pulled ourselves out of bed to tackle the day.  We had decided the previous day as we slogged our soggy shoes through slush that we would certainly not attempt to hike through the Smokey Mountains, that we are not prepared for the conditions and that we would take the lessons learned from our friends who had to be rescued.  We had a big conference with seven other hikers in the dining cabin last night and luckily some other stranded hikers in Hot Springs had organized a shuttle to Fontana Dam, 70 miles away and out of the Smokies (and according to all reports, blissfully snow free).  So after a windy two hour ride, we found ourselves safe and sound and out of the danger zone with our friends Sherpa and Starfish.
We arrived at Fontana Dam at around 1 and started making our way up to the second shelter on, about 11 miles in.  It was SO NICE to be walking on dry ground in dry shoes and in dry socks. We were relishing the slippery leaves under our feet and how wonderfully un-snow-like they were.  We saw in total about one square meter of snow the whole day.
Finally we made it to the Brown Fork Gap Shelter and Sherpa and Starfish soon followed.  We had the place to ourselves and we slept oh so comfortably.  Skipping the Smokies = great decision.

Chillin' in the kitchen 

Viewtiful

Brown Fork Gap Hostel 

Standing Bear Farm 

 

Kitchen at Standing Bear 

AT Day 176 Roaring Brook Shelter to Standing Bear Hostel

November 2
Miles ~15

Gosh, it was so hard to get going this morning.   I've never hated hiking so much as I did for the first hour before my toes warmed up.   Ugh.  Wet socks in wet shoes at 48 degrees after a sleepless night in a cold shelter.   It was a rough morning. 
Thankfully, we got about 5 miles today below snow line so we had some easy walking but  I've (shannon) decided that I hate walking in the snow.  Especially as that snow turns to slush and we don't have great snow gear. 
SO, we've decide to skip the smokies which are 2000 feet higher than what we've already climbed and where we know there's lots of snow.  In fact some hiker friends of ours got stuck there during the storm and rangers had to go up and help them out. Right.  We know that the storm is over and that it's going to be 70 tomorrow.  We know snow melts.  But 3 feet of snow doesn't melt that fast and 5000 feet up in the air tends to be cold.   Also, when snow melts it turns into slush.   Which is wet.  ANYWAY.  We're skipping the smokies for now.  It will make us both a whole lot happier.  We'll come back when the weather is better. 

Snow! 

Top of Max Patch 

Snow walking. 

We got to this road and were all deciding if we wanted to hitch from here or  walk the last 10 miles.  We opted to walk. 

View from Max Patch! 

Relaxing with cats, pretzels, and beers and Standing Bear Hostel 

AT Day 171-174 Hot Springs

October 31
Miles: 0
Total: 1910
So.  Yeah. we're still in Hot Springs.  A twist of fate that had nothing to do with hiking had put us in town to late to hike out on Sunday. Then,   as you may know, there's a hurricane happening.   To look out a window in Hot Springs it looks like it's just cold and rainy.  Unfortunately, as you get up into higher elevation that cold rain turns into snow.   
On Monday,  we heard school got delayed and then let out early.  We saw cars driving into town with snow (heavy wet snow) on their hoods  and after procrastinating in town until around 1:30 we decided to go to the Laughing Heart Hostel.   I was feeling a bit unsettled about our choice. I thought we, maybe, should have just hiked out and chanced it.    However, about 3 hours later two hiker friends came into the hostel. They had chanced the weather-made it 9 miles and then had to turn around and come back.  It was that bad up there.    When I saw them walk through the door, I felt much better about our decision to stay.
So, here we are.   It's Wednesday today, the weather has a chance of clearing up but we're not going to chance it.  Tomorrow is supposed to be sunny and getting warmer.  We'll head out tomorrow. There might still be snow on the ground but at least the sun will be shining.
In the meantime, we've been hanging out at the Laughing Heart Hostel with about 12 other hikers.  We watched "The Way" and "Pirate Radio" and some other movie.  We've been playing card games and wandering into town to eat.  Overall, it's a pretty great place to be stuck.  The owners are former thru-hikers from 2007.  They met on the trail in 2006, got married and  part of their wedding vows was to thru-hike the trail together.   They're a really fun couple and I've enjoyed talking to them.  Chuck Norris (his trail name) takes people out on the Florida trail every year and is influential in helping people organize their finances so they can hike.  In fact, we met one of his converts earlier this year. The Myakka Mules went to one of his talks and they took his advice. The downsized their massive house, got rid of one car and when they figured out their finances they realized they could hike for the next 15 years!
Being here has certainly given us things to think about!

Walking into town.  Notice the snow on the mountain. Happy to be in town. 

Den at Laughing Heart

Our bedroom at laughing heart 

The dorm room 

Card playing with Two-step and turtle box 

Starfish, Misery, Split, and KenDoll all relaxing 

Split, kendoll and snicketts