Welcome to North Carolina!

My parents dropped Tim and me back on the trail this morning after a brief trip to the gear shop. It was great getting clean and doing laundry, but we're both happy to be back on the trail.
It took about an hour to get my trail legs back, but once I did we rolled along at a pretty good clip. We started walking around 9:30am and took a 30 minute lunch, but still did our planned 9 miles by 2pm. We stopped just after the sign for the GA/NC border, and we were ready to celebrate! One state down, just 13 left to go. It's a pretty exciting moment. The camp area was big and wide open, but unfortunately slanted across the entire expanse. Tim and I got to choose our areas first since we were the first to arrive.
Two of our Israeli friends pulled over next (the third has left the trail). They started a fire, which was nice because it was absolutely freezing today. Tim and I had every piece of clothing we brought on to try and warm up, and the Israelis were painfully cold as they weren't prepared for this kind of weather.
We had a crowded camp tonight and a lot of fun. CVS was out in force as always, plus Lavender and the newly named Xena were here as well. We met Axle and her two friends and dog; as well as Salty Hiker, a man in his 70s from Indiana. There were more as well, but you get the idea.
While eating and chatting, huddled dangerously close to the fire, we all stretched and laughed. Lavender pulled out a tube of cinnamon rolls, explaining how she met a guy named Squirrel (because he couldn't spell it) who told her this trick. She offered them up to people, with the idea being to unroll them and then roll them along a stick. It comes out looking like a little corndog, and I can't wait to do this in the future!
Cinnemon rolls were roasted, Christmas carols were sung (some in cat meows), and bear bags were hung with care. It's a very cold night and we're sleeping with winter hats on, but everyone is grateful to be out here.

Hiawassee weekend

We were given a ride into town (thanks to the Hiawassee Inn) in an incredibly beat up old van. I especially enjoyed the pile of crushed soda cans, ashtray overflowing with butts, bags of fast food, and metal baseball bat the driver kept at his side.
The Inn was pretty dumpy, but we were all pretty pumped to have four walls. Beast Mode stayed with Tim and me, while CVS stayed with our Israeli friends. We relaxed, ate lots of food, and at night all got pretty drunk.
On Sunday Beast Mode moved on, while Tim and I moved to the Holiday Inn Express to meet up with my mom and Vince.
Food was stocked, gear was abandoned, and Game of Thrones was watched. Here's to HBOGo!
It was a great time in civilization, but Tim and I were eager to get back on that dusty trail.
With all this great food and our packs both a bit lighter the future keeps looking up. Of course when mountains are looming you kind of have to, but stronger knees and stronger backs should help us carry our weight.
One last night in luxury, and then back to the solitude of our camaraderie.

Right on track

It was appropriately hazy this 4/20 on the trail, which I'm finding I prefer. I don't mind throwing on a rain jacket to avoid all the bugs and the heat of the sun. I'm already hot and sweaty enough thank you very much.
Today went swimmingly. My knees stopped hurting and I was able to walk without frustration. We only did the 9.5 miles today as planned, but there was still a lot of climbing and it was strenuous. I left early, and Tim stayed hoping that his socks might dry (they got rained on). About 5 miles in I bumped into CVS on the trail so we hiked together. The topic of conversation mostly revolved around movies and food. Food is an ever present topic though.
After a bit Tim caught up and joined the conversation. We made good time, exhausted ourselves, and pulled into the shelter around 4pm.
This is one of the nicer shelters we've seen and it even had a loft.
By 6 the rest of our crew from the night before had pulled in, along with Olde English and many others. It's a hoppin' shelter tonight! Beast Zone maintained the fire that he built with Tetley, and after we all stuffed ourselves, we filed in around the flames. I've heard it called hiker television, and that seems apt.
A few stragglers pulled in after sunset, quickly attempting to make camp. There really are a lot of interesting people out here, and it's good to have a day that was smiles from beginning to end.
Tomorrow we hit town for an all you can eat steak joint, and then a plan for nothing other than partying; though a real shower will be almost as exciting. My first week is in the bag and I'm still happy to be here. Happier each day.

Night and day

Breaking camp with everything wet is never fun. Especially in a secret grove of poison ivy (that seems to be thriving in Georgia). I started early today, around 7:30, and only took 2 breaks that were longer than 2 minutes until 6:30pm when I stopped.

It was brutal and the most exhaustive exercise I've had in my life. We finished at 13.5 miles today, but hardly by choice. I was ready to collapse at 11 miles, but the campsite shown on the map seemingly didn't exist.

The real stars of the day though were Blue Mtn and Rocky Mtn, because climbing across them kicked my ass.

So after going well beyond my comfort zone, walking the longest hike in my life over the harshest terrain, I arrive in camp and collapse.

Thankfully my night didn't end there. Mr. Fantastic, Beast Zone, Bear, CVS, and I all sat down to dinner along with 3 guys in the Israeli army (one of whom was quickly named Tetley for offering up some delicious piping hot tea). A few others made camp here, but didn't join us.

It was an amusing dinner, and we all talked food, tomorrows plans, and Hiawassee (being the first town we'll cross, and that it's coming up). We're all very excited by the prospect of a supermarket, and possibly taking a zero day there to wait out thunderstorms. We're all running very low on food, so we plan to walk a relatively light 9.5 miles tomorrow to a shelter. The next morning we'll walk a short 4 miles and get a ride into town. Beyond that, Xanadu.