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

Day 16

What's going everybody ? Thought about you guys today. We spent the night last night in city of Gatlinburg, it is a tourist mecca. We got a good deal on room and pigged out on food over last 24 hours in town . We also resupplied on food for next 4 days till we get to Hot Spring North Carolina.  We decided to get back out on trail today and not take a full day off so we started looking for a hitch around 3 . Cars and cars and cars went right on by. People we waving to us but no one was stopping. We waited for probably 30 mins to get a ride and it was a person from Ohio haha pulled up in a convertible with his wife. We hardly had any room but we didn't care it was an also ride and they were real nice . They were from new Philadelphia. They dropped us off at the trail head 15 miles away from town and we then were off again. The shelters are spaced real stupied in the smokies so we either have to do a lot of miles are hardly any and since we started around four we only did 3 today. Some people that were behind us on the trail we saw a couple days ago caught back up since we took two Nero days . Nero means near zero days and we have just been hanging out all night here having a blast. Like I said the shelters are spaced weird so our options are 12.7 or 21ish so guess we are doing 12.7. We will be out of smokies in 2 days so we won't have prob anymore. The zero and nero really help us re charge our bodies and our minds . I couldn't get over how mentally drained I been this last day. I wasn't tired but my mind was, I was having prob focusing and didn't have energy to do anything. You wouldn't think hiking all day would be mentally draining but all you do is think and over weeks I def noticed it. But all is good now , I can't say enough how special it is out here. I can't put it into words. 

But it is that time to go to bed for the night talk to you guys tomorrow 

Our view from our shelter tonight

Awesome guy trail name pudding

Alex he is from England 

My face after trying a lot of moonshine 

Long way to go lol

Day 14 and 15

What's going on everybody!!!  Sorry we haven't been able to upload pics or blog lately, we have been in the Great Smoky mountains and we do not have the best reception out here. But I will continue from where we left off. We stayed in shelter first night in smokies and it wasn't bad at all. We had a packed shelter with probably 12 to 14 people in it. Usually someone likes to snore but we lucked out and it was a quite night. Yesterday we did 16ish miles it wasn't a bad 16 we had some ups and downs but we did most of walking on mountain ridges so we never dipped below 4000 feet. Also yesterday we meet some more great people!  Earlier in the day we passed a father and daughter named Shawn and Meghan both awesome people we hiked with them for awhile throughout day talking. We ended up splitting up and lost them at some point.  During the day we saw a group of turkeys on a bald and in the early morning a black bear walked in front of us by 35 yards like we weren't even there.

Yesterday at lunch we received our first trail magic!!!! Trail magic is random acts of kindness by day hikers or people that live around that area that like helping out thru hikers. We just stopped at a shelter to eat out lunch when a younger boy asked if we were thru hikers and we said yes . I saw his face light up and he said awesome I packed up pudding for thru hikers would you like some ?!? Duhhh we would like some pudding, Kayla  and I both had vanilla!  I'm telling you it was the best pudding I ever had!

We made it to our camp pretty quick yesterday by 330 and there was already another hiker there named yogi bear. He is a 27 year old chef who wanted change of pace so he decieded to thru hike!  We talked for awhile and Shawn and Meghan showed up to shelter to camp for night.  Also another Megan showed up that we have been hanging out with for last 3 nights who goes by voultermor or however you spell it! We all hung out rest of night and talked about our childhoods.

We all went to bed pretty early but in morning Shawn and Meghan were on trail first followed by us. We caught up with them within an hour and hiked rest of day with them. I can't say enough how awesome they were.  We went to highest point in the whole trail today  at clingmans dome elevation is 6685 feet high with 360 views!  We could see over 100 miles out on clear day. We continued hike to Newfound Gap with Shawn and Meghan and they offered us a ride in to city called Gatlinburg which pretty much myrtle beach without the ocean.  They did a section hike and there car was parked at gap so the gave us a ride into town. They are from Kentucky just by Cincinnati Ohio and driving home tonight to get Meghan to school tomorrow.  If you guys are reading this thanks again for helping us out! 

Now we are in Gatlinburg we split a hotel room with Yogi Bear and now just doing some lundary and now about to head out for some more food.

We will be here until tomorrow afternoon so family and friends feel free to call and texts us.  Also we will upload pics on this post for last 4 days.

Day 12 & 13

Hello hello hello ! Sorry we didn't get to blog last night. And we don't have good service now so we may not post this tonight it might upload sometime tomorrow. I'm writing this Saturday night the 24th . We had been in bad cell area. 

Sooooo let me inform you on all the crazy  events that have been going on ! So the last time I blogged I said there was supposed to be a thunder storm.  Well as soon as I posted blog we got hit by a rolling thunder storm as they call them here . They don't last long but there are wicked. I don't think I ever seen winds so fast . Branches and trees were falling everywhere. I thought our tent was about to be flying away with Kayla in it haha. I was in shelter the time it hit talking to guy named bandit who we been seeing every night for last 6 nights. I went out and braved storm and crawled into tent all soaked and for next 30 mins all I could think about was a branch falling on our tent ha.  Morning came and Kayla said we actually did get hit my a small branch and it woke her up but of course I slept through it. That day we had an easier 13 mile hike to Fontana damn marina where we can get a ride into Fontana village. My calfs were destroyed from the elevation the day before so the 13 miles were eeeee lil rough even the the terrian wasn't  bad. The first 4 hours of our morning all Kayla and I talked about was family and friends. I think it was first time since we really started that it kinda hit us that we weren't going home soon and we are missing the summer with everyone . We talked about growing up. I talked about all my amazing cousins and all the fun we had at grandmas. I also talked about mom and how great of childhood I had always doing amazing trips and vacations. I talked about Colin Dave and Eddie and how we called ourselfs the quad pod hahaha all the dumb stuff we did ha. Kayla talked about same things. She talked about growing up with brother and sister and dad and  mom and all the great vacations and trips she got to go on.  And I'm not kidding we talked for hours and hours and hours about everyone In family's and every awesome story we ever had. After the stories we made It to FONTANA DAMN !!! We hitched hiked into the village which was a nifty little place it's all set up for people coming to area for the Dragons Tail . All you biker / car guys might know about it . People come from all over the world to drive the 11 mile stretch that has 380 bends in road . Our shuttle driver said 10 ish people die each year on it . Bikers and sporty cars were all that was there ! It was a crazy site. In the village there is like 100 cabins and only 2 food places.haha so went to cheapest which wasn't cheap lol and asked to get seated they asked if we were hikers and they moved us outside in the corner hahahaha I guess we were stinking to bad to sit with everyone inside haha. After that we went to general store and got supplies for next 3 days on trail and did laundry. Other hikers showed up as we were doing laundry and we all just hung out there for awhile eating all kinds of junk food. After laundry was done we headed back to trail head by shuttle with everyone and said at shelter there called the "Hilton" haha it's supposed to be one of nicest on trail. It's nice for a shelter but that's about it . There were a good group of people there so night was awesome just kicking it with everyone. At night 4 of us went over to the damn and got to see it all lit up. It was an amazing site. We got a late start today because we have to have permits to enter the great smokie mountains and we can only get them in the village so we had to pay for another shuttle. But yes we did start the THE GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS . And of course we started straight up haha the smoky mountains have one of highest black bear capita per mile on the appalachian trail. We def noticed there presence. Soonwe saw a lot of bear poop haha AND about 10 miles in we heard crash crash bang bang and looked up in a tree about 40 yards away and this bear came crawling down the tree and took off . It was a pretty cool thing. We saw the biggest toad I ever seen today I will post pic of him. We are at shelter tonight because we have to stay at them in the smokies. But here is some bs, since we are thru hikers we can get bumped at shelter from day and section hikers. They can reserve a spot online and the shelter only holds so many people so they can show up 2 hours later then you and you have to move for them but you can't set up tent until shelter is full lol it's all se stupied rules of here. But as of right now I have a spot and if sometime tries to say we have to move I might say some other choice words haha. I hope this posts tonight but don't freak we are fine lol miss you guys.

It loos like blog posted but we can't do pictures tonight so re check tomorrow on this post for pics we have some good ones!

Day 11

Day 11 holyyyyy elevationnn.   We did 16.8 today. That's all we did today lol we started a mile from a lil store and white water rafting store this morning. It was the lowest elevation around 1700 ft from there is was non stop ups for 4 hours we climbed and climbed. We reached well over 5000 ft at the highest part. After we reached the top we were denied any views. All in all it sucked lol . After wards we had a series of bunny hills that last the next 9 miles all which weren't to bad until the end. We had to go up a stretch called Jacobs ladder and let you me tell you what. I about fainted lol. For those people close to me they know how much I sweat . For those who don't it looked like I just got out of a pool all day long. I was soaked I couldn't replace water fast enough . I probably pounded close to 2 gallons of water today and I never took a pee. Going up Jacobs ladder I started to get a lil funky but my baby was there to pick me up and we knocked last part out . 

Today was another great day for wildlife. We saw a total of 5 snakes. One of them was a massive black racer. He had to be around 4 foot long. Also Kayla and I had a mini heart attack from being scared so bad. We were walking down the trail and then all of the sudden we hear a loud russelling about 10 yds in front of us just off the trail . All I saw was a basketball size brown thing moving around making this freaky sound. Kayla and I were freaking out. Then the blur jumps on the trail makes some more weird noises and runs down away from us. Haha It was one of those birds I was talking about yesterday . Like a chicken or something . It made these crazy sounds and was trying to pull us away from it's nest where it had babies. We followed the peeps from them and we found them. I couldn't get over how they blended in. They look just like leaves . Pretty awesome stuff. 

Some side notes 

Last night looked like a scene out of the movie avatar, after we went to bed we looked out side of tent and everything was glowing. There was so many lightning bugs it was crazy.

Tonight for dinner I ate 3 packs of ramen noddles... Like a boss

We saw 3 kids hiking with a mom. If they complete half the trail the 2 youngest kids will be the youngest to ever hike that far on the AT. They had to be around 4 or 5. We heard them from hundred of yards away singing jingle bells . I felt bad for mom her pack weighed over 50 pounds carrying stuff for all 3 kids.

Jeff asked me In a comment what we eat  on the daily. Our daily food is a pop tart for breakfast then we snack on everything and anything until dinner. Today I have 4 energy / protien bars , plus peanut m&ms some small snickers . A whole bag of flavored pretzels. Then I had 3 packs of ramen noddles with some   Cheeseits.

 

Kayla eats a lot too maybe not as much as me but def more then she did back at home . 

And too DD no way the spurs are winning it all this year 

That's half the snake rapped around tree 

Can you spot the baby below in second pic

 

Day 10

Day 10 guys!!! I wanna start out by saying you guys are lucking we are posting today because we are tiredddddd. Today was a super long day . We only did a lol over 15 miles but most of it was steep downhills. Those downhills beat your body up. They pound and pound all your joints. Today did have some positives lol we had some great views today. Pictures will be below.  Also today was a good day for wildlife. We saw two different ground birds like a pheasent and 3 different snakes.  I guess I almost stepped on one. Out of no where Kayla screams Dan move snakes so I have no idea where the snake is or what kind, if it's poisonist or anything so I start to jump and gallop and all kinds of weird movements lol and thennn after I get about 10 feet away I look back at Kayla and she is doing some weird thing with her legs haha it was like one of those Russian dancers who gets real low and legs are straight out haha I couldn't stop laughing haha. We laughed for hours about it. We Also saw some kind of weasel animal or something closely related. For wildlife is was great day ! O and we saw a white oak that had to be over 80 feet and almost 5ft width . It was a massive tree . 

Both of us are feeling pretty beat up tonight so i don't know what tomorrow has planned for us. We planned on doing  16ish but might cut back now. 

It's calling for thunder storms tomorrow so keep fingers crossed it holds out for us. 

We are crashing sorry for short one tonight. O and for Anyone who is following our blog and has specific questions about trail or things we do out here please ask and we will answe them in next post . Night everyone !!

Day 10

A quick little post. Some of you guys are having trouble posting comments on blog.  The easiest way is to click the link under post where it says 0 or 2 comments or however many comments there are a comment box will open. Type your post there but you have to be signed into a Google account.  If you don't have one real easy to set up. Takes a few seconds. Once that is made and signed in it will let you post comments

Day 9

Hello again ! We finally made it to camp today. Today was a longgggg dayyyyy but I will tell you how I went to bed last night. We staid in long branch shelter last night. It was our first time staying in a shelter, we usually just camp around the shelter a tent spots but we thought we try cause it's a newly built one. The shelter itself was very nice. Plenty of space, places to hang gear it had an upstairs loft. I even think it sleeps 16 comfortably. Anywho we were all cozy in our sleeping bags, Kayla is Already asleep like usual. I swear she is asleep as soon as head hits pillow,even before trail. But me I stay awake for 10 to 15mins but last night I couldn't sleep because scampering of little feet ...lots of little feet and by little feet I mean mice.  Shelters Are notorious for having loads of mice because people leave so much food and trash behind. So I was up for a bit listening to those guys. A cool thing kinda about mice is when it gets dark the trees come alive with owls hooting away. Just waiting for one of the mice to come out of shelter . There had to be a couple of owls in trees around shelter last night.

As for today we got a pretty early start on trail around 650. We hiked for 7ish miles till we got to winding stair gap then we hitch hiked into franklin North Carolina. It's are second time hitch hiking and we got picked up pretty quick. A local who picks all hitch hikers she sees. She drove us right to the store we wanted to go. We were very thankful. Then we headed over to biglots bout weigh to much food. You start buying food by how much it weighs not by how it taste haha.  Thennnn we headed over to Pizza Hut haha got a large pizza sat down and ate whole thing lol. We hitch hiked out of town pretty quick again and nice older gentlemen who used to work on trails pick us up and dropped us off. After we got back on trail it was all up for the next 11 miles slowly then steep parts then it drop quick then right back up . I didn't mine today though because I have a marble size blister on pinky toe and uphills don't bother it so bad . We had another great view today. It's called wayah bald stone tower . Google it there pics will prob be better then  ours . When you get up to a view like that it makes your whole day worth it .

Side note we were on feet hiking for over 11 hours today . Hiked total of 18.3 miles . Then for dinner I ate 1600+ calories of peanut m&ms haha that's a whole giant bag and I'm still starving haha. O and I hiked most the day in my crocs because they don't hit blister but you feel every root and rock so I switch out .

Kayla is a camp like usual and only think bothered her today was her bladder and knee lol she pees a lot haha. 

P.s.s 

I really miss nba playoff basketball :(