The Conclusion of our AT Journey

About 3 weeks ago, we summited our final mountain on the Appalachian Trail. Climbing Mt. Katahdin was the end to the hardest undertaking we have ever taken on. Sure, walking 15-20 miles everyday is physically strenuous but having the mental stamina to beat ourselves up repeatedly tested our will. As our friend Chatty Kathy put it, thru-hikers are simply some of the most stubborn people on the planet.

The Final Push

I have fallen in love once again. Sorry Rob. Maine has whisked my heart away.

The leaves are a sight to be seen with brilliant reds, oranges, yellows and purples taking over the landscape. We encounter lakes everyday that reflect the beauties surrounding. Everything is so rugged and pristine. We have never been this far from civilization thus far on the trip. Oh, and there's moose! I could not imagine a more perfect state for the AT to finish in.

Just Keep Walking, It Gets Better

A long, long time ago, 185 days to be exact, Rob and I were perched atop Springer Mountain about to embark on the unknown. We were chatting with an ATC Ridgerunner who had thru-hiked last year and I asked him what his number one piece of advice was. He responded, "Just keep walking, it gets better". This piece of advice has stuck with me throughout the whole trip thus far. There isn't much context behind; not a whole lot of meaning. It is simple and straight forward. Each time I have found myself tired, bored, unhappy, or homesick I would tell myself "Just keep walking, it gets better". It always has. But, with the relative ease of the trail compared to the section we just entered, does this statement remain true?

The Magical Appalachian Trail

Welcome to New England. A place where pine trees dominate the forest, the air is slightly cooler and brisk, the hills are once again mountains, streams are charmingly called brooks, and the people are pleasant. They have cool accents again, too. This is where we are. It's beautiful. And magical.

The Legend of the Beer Stein

If I came across a little depressed in the previous blog, that's because I was. We had read once that when a vagabond loses something they use while traveling, it's a big deal because every item you have with you is extremely valuable. Double that with the fact that the item had captured memories on a trip of a lifetime and it is a very sentimental loss. Triple that with pounding feet because of these damn rocks and, well, it's like walking onto a flaming bag of poo on your front porch in middle of the might. Stupid Pennsylvania. Or so I thought...

Cool pics from the IPod

Our temporary fix for not having a camera. Hope you enjoy.

Pennsylvania Loved Us...

But now hates us. I'll come back to that later.

First things first... THANK YOU UNCLE RON FOR THE TREATS!!! There wasn't a thing in your present that we didn't devour. The jerky/sticks, banana chips, Carnation breakfasts, granola bars, milk and anything else I may have left out were unbelievably delicious. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

When Rob and I came back to the trail, we noticed that there were a few things we had to acclimate back to:

Funny Story

To start this off, here's a little background. We frequently stop along side the trail for bathroom breaks. One watches one way, one the other to save us (Candice)from having to wander too far into the woods to tinkle. This time as we were doing so, Rob stated that we needed to hurry to the shelter because he was having chafing issues in his nether regions. We'll spare you the details of that discussion. We had heard a couple of weeks prior that some hikers use Chapstick down there when Vaseline isn't available. Candice frequently uses Chapstick (for her lips) so Rob was joking that he was going to steal hers in middle of the night and put it back without telling her. During this conversation, we had tidied up and started to round the curve right ahead of us. Immediately, we saw two day hikers sitting on a log. They were looking at us with a deer-in-headlights kind of look and didn't even respond to a hello. Whoops... they heard every bit of our raunchy conversation. Lesson of the day: Even though you may feel isolated, there ARE other people in the woods.

A Few Fun Facts

 It's been awhile. Truth is... we're lazy. I'll just stick to the excuse of "We're out in the woods. It's difficult to keep up on things."

Rob and I have hit a few milestones recently. We're very excited about our progression on the trip and are trying to savor every moment out on the trail. After all, the woods are our new home and there is nothing quite like them. I don't know when in society that the "real world" saying has changed to mean living in civilization with man-made things, having jobs, keeping up on Facebook & other social medias, cars, TV, indoor plumbing and temperature-controlled rooms. If you want to see the "real world", find nature. It doesn't get any more real and raw than that. I'm starting to rant on a COMPLETELY different topic. Different post, different day. I said fun facts, right? Whoops. Here you go...

Our Most Valuable Gear

I know you've been wondering about this. Here is a list of the gear we have found to be extremely valuable out on the trail...

Wet Wipes - Have you ever had to take a crap in the woods while it is raining out? Well, if the wipes are supposed to be wet already, it works much better than the T.P. counterpart.

This Ones For You!

Candice and I have been talking about a way to get all of you more involved. We came up with a post (this post) dedicated to answering your questions and concerns. If you have any, at any time, we will continue to check this post as to answer all of the questions. So... feel free to ask anything or tell us what you would like to see us write about. We really want your feedback! To post a question, write it in the comment section below and we will respond as soon as we can.
Love Ya'll!

Ponies Make the World a Better Place

I'm not quite sure where to begin. I guess I'll start by bringing you up-to-date from the last time we brought you up-to-date... a long, long time ago. What can I say, computers aren't as readily available on the trail as I hoped...

10 Things I've Learned So Far...

1) Food is worth the weight. It is worth every ounce. Sure it sucks to leave town with the weight of a small person on our backs but we are very happy we chose to do so when our ferocious appetite rears its ugly head. Snicker's bars have become our new best friend (best friend that will rot our teeth out so we're trying to avoid them).

Mail Drops

Hello All,

Due to the recent inquires about people wanting to send us gifts, we figured it would be easier to cover it here. We decided that we will start putting the address of our next stop at the end of each blog post. We will post the address a couple of weeks before we get to our next location so that there will be plenty of time for the mail to arrive.

Rocks and Roots

Suck. No, it's not the name of some bad 80's rock band. Literally, rocks and roots suck.  When you aren't tripping on them, they push you around like an abusive husband on a drunken Saturday night (Disclaimer: In no way am I implicating Rob). I'm waiting for the day for my boot to get sliced open by a jagged rock. I keep an eye on the ground but it doesn't seem to matter. They jump up at you. They camouflage themselves under leaf's waiting for you to walk on top of them. They lurk behind other rocks looking for the opportunity to get ya. Sometimes, they team up with other rocks and roots and stab at both of us at the same time. No, I'm not being dramatic. It is better than walking on pavement I suppose. It is always a shock on our joints whenever we first get into a town. We practically run to the first food joint we see and our knees and feet scream at us for doing so. With all that said, it is worth it every bit.

Taking a vacation within a vacation

So it has been awhile... We have been out in the Great Smoky National Park for the past week and have not had any time to post updates. But here we are now in Asheville, N.C. just taking a couple of days off from the trail. This will give us some time to deal with some of the real world issues. Nothing major, we both love Asheville and though it would be good to give our bodies some rest.

Rolling on the River

Before leaving Franklin, Ron Haven, the local politician, invited us and some other hikers to a rotary club meeting where he was going to give a presentation. We all got a free lunch so that was enough to entice us all. When we got there Ron tried to talk the who's who of Franklin into understanding what the Appalachian Trail is. It seemed like some of them did not even know what the Appalachian Trail is even though it runs right though their backyard. A big portion of the towns economy is based on thru hiker traffic and that is what Ron was trying to tell the crowd. But either way the food was great and the sweet tea was even better.

Catching Up

Ok, we had some technical issues at our last stop in Helen, Ga so we were not able to make a post. With that said, a lot has happened since our last entry. I will just start from where we left off...

We're Still Alive!

The past few days have been a whirlwhind! We pulled an all-nighter right before we left to make sure we packed everything we needed. We made it to our flight one minute before they shut the gate. It seems that we're always pushing the limits.

Two Hobo's on the Run

Well, time ticks closer until we leave. We fly out this coming Friday to Atlanta. We will be getting picked up right at the airport and shuttled straight to the trail head. We were planning on staying in Dahlonega for a couple of nights for the "Spring on Springer Trail Festival". However, we decided to save our money and use it down the trail when we might need it (i.e. blisters, lyme disease, limb amputation). I can tell you the one thing that we won't need it for... tetanus. Yep, just got that pleasant shot 4 hours ago. If it is anything like Rob's experience, he says that it will feel like I played a game of arms with Mike Tyson.