Appalachian Trail - 2020

We slept great last night. The temp got into the low 50's which is just perfect sleeping weather. Some small animal or maybe even a small deer may have walkee through our campsite, but Walker moved and the thing scurried off. We fell asleep under the stars again but when we awoke there was a thin cloud cover so we didnt get a good sunrise. No issue there though. We were awake by 645 and on the trail by 745, which was the earliest we have been on the trail in quite some time. The morning had several small ridges that we climbed over, and as the blue sky came out so did the heat. Thankfully, the morning wasnt to hot. We had a beautiful view off of one of the mountains we climbed in the morning looking down below into Rye Valley. I was amazed at how green the grass was in the valley. There was a stream flowing through it and the surrounding mountains towered over the valley. The view looked like something out of a fantasy world. As the day progressed, so did the heat. By 11 the ...

Being dry has never felt better! We woke up to our first sunrise in quite some time. Surprisingly, I think the temps were in the low 30's. Our socks and shoes didnt freeze but they were mighty cold. We took our time getting breakfast ready, just enjoying the mountain views and soaking up the morning sun. Most of our day was spent enjoying the scenery and change of pace that virginia has. We now go up and over only a few mountains a day, instead of a few mountains every hour. Walker and I definerly agree that Virginia has treated us nicely so far. Everything that we have seen has been fantastic. At 130 we stopped for lunch. The temp was probably 60 degrees at this point and just felt fantastic. We layed out any gear that was still wet and enjoyed the afternoon sun. I'm not sure when exactly, but we really picked up the pace. We had a 2.5 mile climb up a mountain and we ended up doing it in 30 minutes. We rarely go that fast going downhill or on flat ground! Maybe our leg...

I'm not sure how much rain we got, but I wouldn't be shocked if it was an inch. It really rained hard last night. We got up at 745 and tore down camp. We ate a few pop tarts and started hiking by 845. After hiking for an hour or so, we walked through a green cow pasture where we heard a hundred birds chirping. We were perplexed by how many different bird chirps we were hearing at once. After leaving the pasture, we started our ascent up whitetop, 2000 feet of elevation gain in 3 miles. We took a break halfway up but made decent time. At this point in the day (10 am) the rain was starting to let up but the fog was still very thick. We didnt have any view from the top so we started our descent. While descending whitetop we started to notice that the trail had alot of water on it. In fact, the trail was basically a stream. There was so much water running off of the mountainside that the trail itself had become a stream. For the first hour of walking through these conditio...

I woke up at 715 feeling very refreshed. Over the years I have changed my sleeping style many time. The position that I wake up feeling most rested in now is when I can sleep on my back and sprawl out. Since I have a limited range of movement in my sleeping bag, it was nice to sleep how I would normally sleep at home. We finished packing up by 830 so I started heating up some pans for breakfast. Another nice feature about the room we stayed in was that it had a kitchen. Instead of going out to a diner and spending however much money, we got a dozen eggs and a pack of sausages for 6 dollars... pretty good deal. After mixing that all together in a pan and throwing cheese in as well, we were properly full. We left the inn around 1015 and started our walk through town. Just like in Hot Springs, the trail goes directly through main street. After walking the one mile in town, we crossed the road and started our ascent back into the mountains. I think Walker and I are getting better at ...

We are one month in. 31 days. I guess 30 days is a month as well as 28.... but 31 days is a month in my books. It sounds better to say we made it into Virginia in one month anyways. But how about that, Walker and I walked from Amicalola to Damascus in 31 days. My goodness. This whole trip still feels surreal to me. Like I said a few days ago, time feels very differently out here. Other than the two days we took off and rested up, every day has been hiking. I think in regular life you do multiple activities in one day. You drive to work, work, go to lunch, talk to different people, go home, see your family, talk to friends, maybe go to the gym or whatever other activity and then go to bed. Out here, we wake up, tear down camp, eat, walk, eat, walk, set up camp, eat, and go to bed. There are very few distractions. We are experiencing life in a very natural form. Yet even so, we have our own set of restrictions we live by. We do not have access to food, other than what we pack out with us...

Not one single rain drop fell from the sky today. We woke up at 8 this morning, after our hike yesterday we definetly slept well. We also awoke to an unfamiliar sight, sunlight and a blue sky. Although the morning was cold, somewhere in the high 30's, the warmth of the sun was fantastic. Being dry is such a blessing. We got on the trail by 930. Later than usual but not the end of the world. Other than the first few miles of the day, which were uphill, the rest of the day looked like minor ridges. Our topographical understanding of the day was correct and everything went smoothly. Not much to report, in general, we simply enjoyed the nice weather and the chance to dry our gear off. We made it to camp at 515 and had all of our chores done by 8. We plan on getting up earlier tomorrow in hope that we can get into Damascus in the early afternoon. We went slightly over 18 miles today, tomorrow will be slightly under 19. Tomorrow we cross into Virginia. Wow. Goodnight, Tyle...

I feel like I am becoming a broken record but oh my goodness did it ever absolutely pour last night! I am impressed by how much rain is able to fall from the sky.  Thankfully, Walker and I slept great, but we were slow getting out of bed in the morning. It really is a mental issue putting on a completely wet pair of clothes. It's really not even an issue, it's just annoying and in the moment I'd rather stay in my warm and dry sleeping bag.  We got up and got moving and had our morning routine done by 845. The rain had stopped by this point but the forest was still dripping wet, plus with a thick fog we were still basically in the rain cloud.  We 1015 we had walked a few miles and decided to take a quick food break and look at the map. Our goal for the day was 27 miles, or at least, this was the farthest we figured we could possibly go in the day if everything went our way.  Our morning and early afternoon were fairly standard. We talked about whatever came to us. We ...