Day 28

Well guys... After 3 days of rest in Erwin Tennessee we decided to call a ride home... We are not done! But we are heading home to take a couple of weeks off to take care of Daniel's feet. We have been told by many people what be should do to rest. And if this is a minor issue he should be better in 2 to 4 weeks hopefully. If not he will need to see a doctor and get the proper help and treatment. That means for us if he is better in a couple of weeks we will do a flip flop and start a southbound hike from Maine back down to Tennessee. We would start at the same time most of the southbounders start and be able to meet lots of good people as well as pass by the northbounders we have already met along the way. This is very hard on both of us and we are hoping for a great recovery but things do happen and you have to take life one step at a time and that's just what we will have to do. We have had an incredible journey so far and can't thank you all enough for following us through it all! Today will be one of the last blogs for a while.. We made it home this morning at 4 am. We will probably post some more pictures and a gear video of what we actually use and do everyday and we will keep everyone posted for when we take off again. It's a sad day for sure but Daniel has reminded me it's not the end of the world and we still have the opportunity to finish the AT. We made it 341.5 miles and it's all because of the love and support everyone has given us. Thank you again and I'm sure we will be back on the trail in no time :) till then I will try to post more pictures of our adventure! 

Day 27

Hey guys it's Kayla! Took another zero day today to rest up Daniel's feet. He is still in a lot of pain so we will probably rest again tomorrow. Other than that today was a beautiful day here in Erwin Tennessee. We walked a mile down to the hostel from our hotel this morning and met up with our good friend Bandit and finally Hungry Horse! We have missed them both! We all hung out down by the river and enjoyed the sun and company together. Dan got it the icy cold water to help soak his feet but I'm sure most of you would guess I didn't make it in! Lol when we use to have a pool at home we kept it at 90 degrees all the time so yeahhh wasn't feeling it. But it was still a great time. I was sitting on a rock and a small carp swam up to me between two rocks so I called Daniel over and he tried to catch it. Let's just say he failed to catch the carp but didn't fail to splash me lol. I'm sure that was the bigger goal anyways. After that we heading back up to the hostel to chill until  the dinner shuttle left. The dinner shuttle cost us $5 to and from Walmart and an amazing Mexican place that Daniel and I have been craving for a while now. Of  course we pigged out. At Walmart we bought s'mores finally thank god because I have been waiting all trip to have one. Tonight I'm hoping Daniel can teach me how to build a fire and we can have a relaxed night with Hungry Horse cooking s'mores and catching up more on our adventures. As Dan mentioned yesterday we have a couple options for the next couple of days. We hate the idea more than anything of leaving the trail but I can honestly say Dan is in a lot of pain guys. We truly appreciate all the love and support and thank you guys everyday for reading up on us. Our best option if Daniel doesn't get better in a couple of days is to come home for a couple of weeks keep him off his feet and then start a southbound trip starting in Maine working our way back down here. Like I said we are hoping for the best and are going to take it easy a couple more days if we have to. But for now we are going to head back down to river set up tent, start fire, cook s'mores, and have a wonderful night under the stars. Night everyone (hope I wrote half as good as Daniel). GET BETTER SOON DANIEL WE ARE ALL CHEERING FOR YOU. :) 

Day 26

Hey guys, bad news on feet. They seem to only have gotten worse since yestersay . I can barley walk on them. I have been doing research all day and where my pain is at.  The balls of feet and little in arch and heel it could be two things. I think it is either plantar fasciitis or megetasaglia or however you spell it. Both have similar treatment and biggest thing is extended time off feet with rest. I am so devastated! I was trying not to think about it last couple days and try and play it off as a small injury that would just go away after a few days but I think I'm realizing I am having a serious problem going on.  It sucks so  bad that this happening to Kayla and I.  Here we are having a time of our life's and it might have to be called off because of some stupid injury! We are unsure of our next move as of right now. We might give it another day off and see if I have any improvement but I don't know what's going to happen. If it something serious I will be forced to come off trail to rest up for a bit. I am really trying to stay positive about this but its hard we really are having a time of our life's and either of us want to come home just yet! We set out to thru hike and that is our goal. We do still have a couple options.  I could be wrong and I could heal up quick and stay on trail. I could come off for a bit and then do a south bound hike and start at other end and work our way back to here or maybe we can just try again another time. Kayla has been such a beast out here I know she could still go on without me but she doesn't want too.

Like I said I'm super down today I do not want to leave the trail.  I hate losing at anything and this strikes my ego.

We have had such great support from everyone following and I thought I should keep you updated on what's going on. Sorry for the bad news everyone.

We are hoping for the best

Day 25 !

Well let me start out by saying today was probably my hardest day on trail. I will touch more on that in a second.  If you read yesterday's  blog we said we had storm coming in last night. Anddd oooooo we did , it was a pretty big storm  with thunder and lightning and all that jazz but the stuff that bothers me is the wind. Not because it's wind but what it can do. All night long I can hear trees getting blown over and branches breaking in heavy wind. So as I lay in my tent at night and I hear branches breaking I just pray there not over head and come crashing down on us in the night. We hear horror stories on the trail of people getting hit at night in there tents and some die and some get pinned until someone finds them. Since I knew storm was coming I tried to pick a spot that looked like it had good branches over head haha you know can't be to safe lol. 

When I woke up this morning I tried to get out of tent to pee but I couldn't stand up , I couldn't bear to put any weight on my feet without being in real pain. My feet have been bothering me now for probably close to 6 days and I think today they just had to push. I laid in tent for a bit a massaged them and took some ibuprofen . I packed up all my sleeping stuff in tent befor trying to get up  again. This time i could manage but I was still in a good amount of pain way more then the usual morning aches and pains. We started hiking by 7 am this morning , we still have KFC on the mind so earlier we start the earlier we get into town . We had a deceiving 12.9 miles to do today. For the first four miles I wasn't to bad pain wise and we had some awesome sites today.

One part of the trail lead is up through a Rhododendrum thicket following river . We are walking along and then I heard a loud crash and boom. I looked up and there was a black bear 25 feet from me. I don't think he/she heard us coming because how loud the water is. I didn't even have time to think I just yelled HEYYYYYY real loud !!!! and the black bear bolted up through thicket away from us!!! Crashing and blowing right through bushes like they weren't even there !! Of course it ran in direction we were heading but it was awesome to see another black bear , this is our fourth one so far. Kayla didn't get a chance to see him, she was behind me and it all happend so quick . After that we sang songs for about 15 mins being loud just in case bear was still near us because he did run where we were heading . We did not hear or see the bear anymore lol he prob heard our horrible singing and was long gone. 

A couple more miles down the path we came across another creature !!! This one  for more rare ! This was our first time

Coming across one of these out here. It was a tortoise!!! He was just chilling in our path minding his own business . We we walked up to him I said" Kayla !!! Hurry get the camera out before he runs away!!!! " Kayla just looked at me like I was dumb haha I was trying to be funny haha I don't think she thought it was haha he hung out with him for awhile and something I noticed on him was his breast plate moved on the bottom of his shell so he could completely close up so nothing gets in , not even my finger nail. I thought that was so cool I never held a turtle or tortoise that could do that. He was definitely one of coolest animals we seen so far !!

Just about after tortoise it went all down hill for me . I was in extreme pain!! Every step I took was worse and worse! Being in pain I started letting the small things bother me, like spider webs , humidity and the rain ! I was getting so upset!! I didn't know what to do !!! But then..... Kayla said babe I love you we can do this! And at first I didn't care I was just so upset and I knew we still had over 6 miles to go but then It sunk in that I wasn't dieing and I could in fact keep going and I did . It wasn't easy at all I had to dig deep , this was a huge lesson to me . I had a great woman by my side encouraging me, I have all the support of friends and family back home and we are on a once and lifetime adventure ! But I lost sight of that all for a bit and got overwhelmed in the moment. Once I was back I just keep thinking grandma always says. .." You can do it Daniel , just put one food infront of other " and I'm not lieing I probably said that 1000 times in my head in my grandmas voice over next 6 miles and sure enough we made it !!! I definitely broke down some mental barriers today and I am greatful to have Kayla Marie by my side ! 

Here is some humor that happend today , we were coming down a steep slope and we hade a huge valley to our left and mountain to our right and we heard a noise and saw a turkey down in valley about 30 feet on bank. I pointed it out to Kayla and it jumped a flew about 15 yards and landed further away . Kayla and I watched as we walked and then out of nowhere ..... WHOOPPPPS  down both of is go on this slop ..we fell hard . And I even slipped of Ide of trail and was dangling over the side . We weren't on a cliff or anything but if I has some momentum, I could easily feel for awhile. But I didn't and I looked up and Kayla and we both just break out laughing hahaha  got up and continued on. 

I think a lot of you know how much of an animal lover I am and I hate killing anything buttttt a lot of chickens died today to fill this belly!! Haha Kayla and I have been obsessing about a KFC here in Erwin Tennessee that has an buffet !!! We made into city around 1230 so if you did math we did 12.9 miles before that today so we have a decent pace going! But we did make to the KFC AND BOYYYYY IT WAS AMAZINGGGGGG I had 5 chicken breast !!! 5 lol !! I couldn't stop eating !! I been craving it all week and it sure hit the spot !! Kaylas appetite has been growing too but it can't touch this bottomless pit I have ! Haha 

Erwin is the biggest city we came

Too so far and from where we wanted to stay from KFC is about 4 miles , after hiking 12.9 with hurt feet and now a full belly I didn't want to walk it so we started walking with thumb out . About 10 minutes go by and a big dodge pulls up and I run to the side and the definition of a good ol country boy is sitting there haha I mean he couldn't look anymore country . For one driving a jacked up truck, he had no shirt on, sunburnt , freckles all over , camo hat on , goatee, and of course a deer skull tattoo on arm !  So when I walked up he said " where y'all trying to gooo" I had to listen real hard because he sure had a Tennessee draw haha i told him and said I don't have room up front but y'all can't jump in back ! We said hell yes and got up in bed of truck , we talked through back window for awhile to we got to place and he pulled right up to front door to drop us off. I told him we really appreciate it and thank you, I shook his hand and he drove off . I can't say it enough that people like him make this trip special ! 

We decided to spend a little more money and stay at hotel with a hot tub!!! My feet could sure use it lol I hope nothing serious is going on , and they will heal up quick . We really can't afford to take to many days off . But I decided to blog early tonight so Kayla and I could enjoy this nice place and just relax . 

I really try to make blog interesting, I hope you guys are enjoying It ! takes me about 45 mins to hour each night to write all the thoughts and organize it. 

I really miss you guys and I love reading your comments each day ! If any questions or anything let us know. We are staying here tonight And not sure what plans are for tomorrow I want to see how feet feel first . I will rest ice and elevate them tonight and hope that helps . Talk to everyone soon !!

P.S. THANK YOU SO MUCH Debbie and Holly for sending us a care package of great food and gifts. We truly appreciate it more than you know. !! You guys are the best !!!

Man down man down !! 

Part of care package Kayla's sister and mom sent us! Thank you again guys! It was amazing :)

Day 24

Helloooooooo. We are about to get a storm, but before it hits let me tell a tale of our day. Today started not like most days on the trail , today started by being awaken by the sound of chainsaws and trees falling . At 620!!! So since we were awake and they weren't stoping we decided to get going for the day. Erwin Tennessee is 30ish miles from where we camped last night and we planned to be there in 2 and half more days . Doing high miles we really cut that down so now we are about a day and half away. One of our main motivators is that Erwin Tennessee has an ALL YOU CAN EAT KFC!!!!! So I kid you not all day long for past couple days Kayla and I say every 30 mins " let's go we can do it KFC KFC KFC !" Haha I'm serious that has been out motivation all week to do some extra miles. We did a hard 18.6 miles today with a lot of big ups and big downs. We only have 12 miles now to get to Erwin so we will get there around late lunch !! We are so pumped !! 

But let me tell you more about our day. Like I said we had a lot of big ups and big downs and the path today had more rocks and roots on it so it hinderd our pace even more . We started a lil past 7 this morn and we got to camp tonight around 635 so we did quite a bit of time on our feet today. 

I think yesterday or day  before we said he haven't been seeing a lot of wildlife lately but that changed today lol we saw probably 30 snails on trail today way more the usual and these snails were eating animal poop and dead insects . I never knew what a snail ate but now I do haha.  

Around noon today we just passed through a field and we stArted back into the wood line when Kayla started sneezing , once she stopped we heard something pretty big running along side us but out of sight . Kayla sneezed again and we heard it move again but this time it was getting closer ! We then heard a couple of loud snorts and then I knew what it was . It was a deer but this deer wasn't playing around , it was a doe and it probably had a fawn hiding in tall grass of the wood line and now Kayla's sneezing freak it out. So this doe pops out of brush probably 15 yards beside us and runs 5 yards back in forth slapping it's front legs on ground. I told Kayla to get behind me and start walking away slowly . I took my trekking poles and raised my arms and try to act as big as I could and started yelling at the deer. It didn't do any good ! This doe charged me !! It probably made it within ten yards but I held ground and kept raising arms and yelling at it . I then started to back away slowly from it. It is now behind us on the path just watching us ! We continue to walk away slowly to eventually I did not persue us anymore . Talk about an adrenaline pump !!!! I'm not going to lie I was pretty amped up. I have seen on Tv deer attacking humans and the damage they can do so I was aware of the situation. Kayla did ok she was definitely spooked a little bit but afterwards she was ok.  It was def a new experience for us ha. 

After the deer we just had some more big ups and downs . We came to a grassy knowl where the path went through about a mile of hill top where there were 1000s !!! Of little neon green and black grasshoppers ! There were jumping all around and all over us haha. We made it to camp and set up pretty quick . We felt air temp dropping we so didn't want to get caught in the rain, I can hear thunder off in distance now so we might have one in little bit. 

Hiking all day gives you a lot of time to your thoughts , and A lot of time you think of past memories . One I had today was one I haven't thought about in many years . Here it is. I was probably around 6 and mom said she was taking me to Walmart for a surprise because I have been so good lately . I was super excited and I been asking for something called a Gameboy Color , it was the newest handheld game device and everyone had one at school . Also the biggest game for it just came out too, Pokemon !!! So mom takes me to Walmart and says ok Daniel you can have the Gameboy and one game !!! I was SOOOO EXCITED , I already knew what game I was getting , Pokemon blue and that's what I got. Afterwards we went to bowling ally because at time mom was in a leauge and walked around the bowling ally showing my new Gameboy off to all the kids , I didn't know how to play game real well and some girl showed me how to throw a pokeball haha . I remember that day like yesterday ! It is a good memory ! I sure do have the best mama :) . 

But I still have some stuff to do tonight and I'm getting tired . I hope this posts tonight . If not I will post in morn or at Erwin . Goodnight everyone thinking of you all! KFC KFC KFC 

Day 23

Good evening everyone. Another day in the books. I'm writing to you from the comfort of a roaring fire I built. This is actually the first one I built on the trail. And if I must say I am pretty impressed with it. 

Today was a weird day weather wise. We jumped on trail around 730 and we were off. Straight up that is. We went straight up for almost a mile and then we did some up downs for awhile. For the first 4 hours of the day it was in low 60s with fog everywhere.  We couldn't see more then 20ft down the the trail.  After we did the up downs for awhike . we had another climb, this one took us to the top of a mountain. This mountain top we were on was a lil different then most we come across. This one had only rocks on the top. We rocked scrambled for probably close to 1/2 mile on this mountain top ridge.  But there there was fog everywhereee so we couldn't see off this massive mountain but we could sence we we could see for miles if the fog wasn't there.  After we ridge runned for awhile we started going up down again for awhile. Then the fog turned into rain and rain and more rain Lol and of course we never go through fields but when its raining we have massive ones to cross. And if anyone knows about walking through a field when its raining your feet get soaked from all the wet tall grass.  Our feet could not have got any more wet.  We still had a long ways to go at this point in the day so we decided to push it to the next shelter and take a late lunch there and try and dry off a bit. When we arrived at shelter someone already had a fire going so cooked our lunch and at same time we dried off our socks and shoes. 

With our spirits lifted we pushed on another four miles for a total of 16 for the day and found a nice little spot to camp. In was in mood for fire so I went to work on that and here we are.

It turned out to be a b e a utiful night here.

I don't know if i told anyone one this but I wrote a list of thing I want to take from the trail. Some of them I can see in me already. 

I will share a few of them with you. One is not to judge a book by its cover and I never had a huge problem with this but I think i can improve. Out here as I told you guys there are all types of people and so far 99 percent of them have been great people. But they might not all look that way. And I don't like it in myself I write them off on looks. Out here I feel that I'm shifting into a new way of viewing people.
Another thing I wrote down was appreciate the small things we take for granted in everyday life.  I will give some examples,  like shower, toilet, refrigerator, bed and car to name a few and everyday out here I think about things like these and I am starting to see how much in took for granted all those comforts I had. When i am dirty and sweaty and have to go to bed that way and do the same thing for 3 more days before I take a shower again I really start to appreciate all the showers I took without ever thinking what it was like not to have one. Another one is refrigerator,  out here I can only carry food that can be ok at room temp. That means a lot of food I ate my entire life I don't get to have because of luxury of having refrigerator. These are some of the things I have started noticing out here.

But I have to get back to enjoying my fire.

I miss everyone talk to you tomorrow!

Day 22

Day 22 in the books!  We woke up in hot springs this morning after a good night sleep and decided to get an early start. We were on road by 730, up the mountains we went on north side of hot springs. The first part of day was straight up and blew up our calf's. A lot people have been getting sick in between hot springs and Erwin the next town we come across.  As we were walking Kayla started to get a little nauseous so we took it easy for awhile. It eventually passed and we continued on. The shelters after hot springs are spaced stupid so either we had an 11 mile or 19.6 to get to the shelter.  I didn't even think I heard the challenge of the 19.6 and that's what we did. We set new personal record for us being longest we hiked in a day at 19.6 woot woot. Our bodies are def changing and getting used to miles better.  It was still a hard day but we are not as fatigued when we are done. We haven't been seeing as much wildlife here but i don't think we are state park so in think there is hunting here so animals are less and more easily spoked.  When we got to camp there was already 2 people here.  We set up our tent today because shelters get old.  Both the people here are section hikers.  One is Vietnam vet with a purple heart and another guy just traveling around united States. As I was making my dinner of ramen and instant garlic mashed potatoes another group of people showed up. Two middle aged guys and a younger kid. None were related one puts on hikes for friends and these 2 wanted to come.  I talked to one of the guys named Jose for hours.  We worked for NASA  for last 17 years before the govt cancelled all there programs.  He was a very smart man and I learned a lot from him. We all hung out for rest of night. Kayla and I our now going to bed we had long day and hopefully we feel good in morning we can have another good day.

Note on today the weather was perfect.

I could really go for some grandmas cooking right about now.

Kayla and I can't wait to see our familys again we talked about them a lot today.

Erwin Tennessee is our next resupply. 

I don't know if I mentioned this but my birthday is national hike naked day haha

Talk to you guys tomorrow.

Day 21

What's going on everyone ! Today is day 21 for us on the trail ! It is crazy that it's been 3 weeks today since we started this epic journey. It's crazy how time flies out here on the trail. Last night we stayed at an awesome hostel named laughing heart lodge. We were going to do an easy day and head out after lunch but today was so perfect weather wise we decided to stay another night and take a full zero day to rest up. We have been hanging out with our friend voldamort and a couple new people. 

I will give everyone a lay out of what we did today lol it went like this. Woke up starving like always and went to local diner for some breakfast. Kayla ordered chicken biscuit, bacon and toast with apple butter. I had 2 eggs " sunny side up lol " toast and 2 big sides of curly fries ha. After we devoured all of that we went back to hostel. I went back to bed for a couple of hours and Kayla layed out with some girls in sun lol. After I woke up from lil nap I was hungry again so we went back to diner this time with voldamort and Kayla had a chicken salad with onion bloom and I had cheese burger with curly fries and also a chicken sandwich with curly fries lol our appetites are getting crazy. After that we walked around this little town and went into a few stores. The  outdoor outfitter has a scale so we weighed ourselfs. Daaa dummdaaadummmm drum roll please . Since the start of the trail I am down 15 pounds in 21 days and Kayla gained 4 pounds lol i bet none of you guys guessed those numbers . And actually those numbers are pretty common . Girls come onto trail with very little muscle so they lose weight but there legs beef up and also I noticed Kayla's arms got bigger from using trekking poles . She did lose a little fat but she had hardly any to lose . I see little abs poking through on her stomach . Guys on the other hand have excess muscle and fat to lose. I def noticed a huge loss I  my arms and chest and my stomach is also way down . It's scary to think what I will look like at end of trail. I eat all day everyday so maybe I will have to start eating more to slow weight loss down.

Another little note we had our trail names changed lol I am no longer "cap" my new name is "hobbit" and Kayla is no longer "legs" it is now "sugar shot" lol we have little stories for both of these lol.

But back to our day. We watched a big black sider attack a stink bug in the outfitter it was pretty sad but after that we walked back to hostel and have been here rest of night . We really enjoy the nice weather and just hanging out with people . and it's not like it's one type of person here on the trail . Today's group was a 70 year old   4 lesbians,a couple younger guys , a few hippes people ,our friend bandit and voldamort , 2 middle age people and one older guy from England . So it's not a single type out here it's all and everyone and that is best part of trail . We decided to stay tonight and just wake up early and start taming mountains again lol 

But that's it for today just hanging out and loving life . It's a beautiful thing . Miss everyone back home . It was good talking to friends and family today and we really love all the comments ,

it keeps us going ! Talk to you guys tomorrow 

Some of best curly fries ever 

Our room

Day 19 & 20

Helloooo I'm going to sum this up pretty quick!  We are super tired Lol did back to back 18 plus mile days! 

First day we hiked out of the smokies and into a couple other parks one called Cherokee and I can't remember other but we bounced back and forth between the 2.   On the first day we had lots lots and lots of elevation.  We had over 11 miles that was up hill... No fun.... We werent going to do 18 on first day but we decided to because we wanted to get into Hot Springs North Carolina sooner which is a town so had more time to hang here. The highlight of all the elevation was a spot called max patch.  3 huge hill tops that don't grow any trees with wonderful 360 views. I say hills but they are really mountians just smaller then ones around here lol.  After we hung out at max patch awhile we had just under 3 miles to camp and Kayla was up front leading us!  So we are hiking along and the trail seemed different . as in it didn't look as worn as it usually does and as we are walking north ever 1/10 mile or so we pass a white blaze on trees or rocks.  They are just a 6 by 2 inch white paint mark. But anywayyyy we are walking along with our buddy bandit and we noticed we haven't seen a white blaze for awhile.  Welllllll just so happened to be our leader Kayla got us lost and lead us down the wrong trail we def enjoyed our 1 mile detour haha I'm not letting her live this down ha.

Today was just like yesterday but hotter haha 18 miles of up and down all day. We were going to do 15 miles and call it a day and then do 3 miles in morn and go into hot springs but we got to our 15 mile by 230 so we decided to go for extra 3 and get into town. We made pretty quick and our bodies feel pretty good def better then they did 2 weeks ago. When we got into town we got a room at a nice little hostel. Think of it as a really big country house with lots of hikers staying at it. First thing we did was take showers haha then all of us went into town and by town I mean 600 people population haha so not very big and went to local diner and we all destroyed some food!! Of course I had French fries and Kayla had a salad haha and candy from store right by diner.  We experience our first run in with someone being rude to us because we are hikers. A local in the diner our buddy who is having real bad allergies to stop sneezing and go eat outside Lol she was being real mean about and of course everyone heard and was staring at us Lol we just blew it off and kept stuffing our face Lol now we are hanging out at hostel eating more food and kicking it with 10 plus hikers.  Good times! Going to call it a night soon.

O we wanted to share some truth about the trail. Its not always all glamorous as we make it sound and most of time we leave this stuff out. The trail is amazing , really is but everyday something hurts on your body Lol like bad.  We are always hurting lol we always say if its not one thing its another haha

Here is list if problems we had so far.  Some are everyday some come and go.
Shoulder pain, back back, lower back pain, headache, neck pain, bug bites bug bites bug bites, bee stings,  spider bites, chaffing , heat rash, falling falling falling, blisters, most of our pain is in legs,  like Achilles, calf's, ankles, hip flexors, bottom of your feet, bug bites, stoved toes, shin splints,  we are always dirty snd sweaty and our biggest is prob knee pain lol so please dont think we are all peachy we hurt a lot but we are loving it!  Besides bug bites Lol

But i still have some stuff to do before I fall asleep.  Night everyone

Day 17 & 18

Helloooo we may have a spot where we might be able to post ! 

Day 17 . Yesterday was a pretty smooth day terrian wise. We only had a 12.7 to do. We had good company at shelter night before and we hiked most of day with "pudding" for the morning and then in the afternoon bandit caught up to us when we were on break. Hear is a little funny story . Kayla and I were hiking along and we heard a wolf howl right behind us. I mean right on us . I told Kayla to get behind me and I was getting ready to see a wolf pop out. I was looking down the trail where the howl came from and  saw a hand waving to me haha it was bandit haha I couldn't get over how good his howl call was haha there is red wolfs in the smoky mountains.

We hiked with bandit rest of day and at some point we were on a high mountain ridge and we were actually in a cloud. Then I looked up and I saw a huge flash and then BOOMMMMM !!!! We all jumped and ducked real low. We had no idea what just happend. As were fast hiking away we put it together that it was lightning . A lightning bolt just hit right by us! It was prob 25 yards away ! We were pretty amped up after that so hiked it quick and got off ridge.  Later that night after we got to camp we all took a lil cat nap. When we woke up pudding just got there and also a new guy named stephenwolf . He is a section hiker hiking the first 1000 miles and guess what ?! He  is 70 years old ! Big props to him. He been on the trail for awhile and does a lil bit each day . I don't know if we will ever see him again but he was an interesting guy. 

Today we had a 14.8 miles to do and a couple good up and downs. Kayla has been pretty tired lately so we have been going at a lil slower pace. We left the shelter at 8 and we said bye to pudding and stephenwolf in case we don't see them again. Bandit hiked with us again today and we talked all day about all kinds of things. We came across a crazy slamander today. It's our 3rd orange one but All have different features and spots. This one was about 7 inches long . 

O another lil funny thing. Anyone ever have a puppy ? And you are potty training it and once it finally starts to get going potty outside it comes back to the house all happy and wagging it's tail ? And you say good girl and it's the happiest dog ever??? Wellllll that's what exactly Kayla does when she goes potty haha once she is all done she comes out of the woods with this big ol smile from ear to ear haha and she is walking with a pep in her step haha it's so funny haha

We are at last shelter in the smoky mountains . We are pretty much out of the smokies we have less then a mile . This shelter we are staying in has a real bad bear prob and has reports of bears coming in and stealing peoples packs and food bags. The front of the shelter has a chain linked fence to help this prob and tonight 2 park workers are camping here with us and going to see if bear shows up tonight . If it does show up they are going to shoot it with paintball gun and also shut the shelter down tomorrow if it shows tonight. They said there is prob 1500 black bears in smokie mountains.  So yeah we are here tonight picking these guys brain about all kinds of animals and plants in parks . Cool stuff . Raining here now hoping this post . Talk to you guys later !!!

Pudding 

This is the appalachian trail symbol