Day 5 - Chattahoochee Gap to Blue Mtn - 3 mi

Before we went to bed last night we decided that we would take a "near-o" day today (a day when you do little hiking and just relax; one step up from a zero day). We woke up whenever we felt like and spent most of the afternoon relaxing and catching up on chores (washing our dishes, writing in the log, etc). The sun was out and the wind was blocked due to us being on the eastern side of the mountain. Eventually we were hot and sweating - our Campmor keychain thermometer read 90* in the sun - which didn't go unnoticed by the insects... they were out in full force. Spring has started. In the late afternoon, after noticing numerous wolf spiders running around in the leaves we were camped in and then found a wood tick on our tent, we decided to pack up and get the heck out of there. (Oh and there were flies. Lots of them). We hiked a leisurely 3 miles to Blue Mtn. Shelter where we were suprised to find Baltimore Jack. He gave us advice and a tip on a campsite where we eventually decided to spend the night. Lots of flying bugs but otherwise pretty awesome. We basically have a 360* view of mountains and the night is clear and not too cold. We built a fire earlier in the evening, thought ahead to hang a bear bag (before it got dark), and tried out the beef stew that 
Mike's sister and her boyfriend Joe bought for us (which turned out to be somewhat lacking in... goodness. Mike ate it all, with the aide of hot sauce. Saw lots of stars and went to bed.

Day 4

Swaim Gap to Chatahoochie Gap - 13.5 mi

Woke up in clouds and cursed Baltimore Jack for telling us yesterday that today and the next three were supposed to be all sunny and up to 80*. Soon enough the clouds moved out and/or burned up and, along with our breakfast, we were quickly eating our words. Weather was clear, cool, and breezy but with nice warm sun. Enjoyed many nice views on the way up Cowrock Mtn. Had a good chat with a hiker named Matt, a marine back from his 2nd tour of duty in Iraq, who had become disillusioned with the entrapments of daily life and consumer society so he grabbed his dog Amos, wrote a note, and got a ride to the trailhead with one intention - of walking north until he didn't want to anymore. Great guy, incredible story. Took a break on Cowrock for the views and a snack. Headed off with our next intended stop to be a water fill up at a stream. As we reached Tesnatee (or Tes-Nasty as Mike keeps mistakenly saying) Gap we were greeted by 3 people from a local Baptist church, a guy by the name of King Tut among them, who gave us trail magic in the form of Fanta sodas, candy, chips, cream pies, and new toothpaste! (Oh yeah, and a trashcan!) Chatted and signed their trail registry, said goodbye, and kept on in search of water not wanting to take all of Tut's water supply. Stopped one mile later at Hogpen Gap, got our liquid, and headed on with the intention of camping somewhere right around Low Gap Shelter a little over 4 miles away. In no time we reached the shelter and yet again it was pretty packed and we weren't ready to stop. Just past the shelter the trail merged for a while with an old roadbed which made for a nice grade and easy mileage. We passed a couple of spots, unfortunately taken, and kept walking. Before we knew it we were watching the sun set from a mountain ridgeline and happened then to come upon Chattahoochie Gap where we decided to make camp. We spotted the roadbed again that we had been following earlier, tucked away to the southeast beside the trail, followed it for a short distance and found a discreet campsite.

Day 3 (expanded)

Henry Gap to Swaim Gap - 8.5 mi

Slow to break camp, had only a couple of miles to go to Neels Gap, our first re-supply, and we were a day ahead of schedule. Climb up Blood Mountain was easier than expected, and we were befuddled to find ourselves at the shelter on the summit before we thought we had even started the "tough part of the climb". Checked out the shelter (one of the oldest still standing on the trail circa 1934) and signed the shelter log. The shelter itself was all stone with a fireplace and had two rooms; every inch of wood beam inside was marked with the signatures of past thru and section hikers and visitors. Though there were no views, all clouds, it was a neat spot. Rushed to Neels Gap, not expecting our mail drop to be there yet, but looking to grab a shower, do some laundry, and eat something we didn't have to carry or make ourselves. We were pleasently surprised when they let us use the shower in the hostel (real shampoo!), treated us to an amazing tuna melt, and told us we could spread our gear out and do our thing for as long as we'd like even though we weren't staying at the hostel (which was way above and beyond - so very appreciated). After we warmed up to the situation a bit we had a good time meeting the other hikers, meeting Miss Janet who was more than willing to attend to our every need, and we had an awesome time talking to Baltimore Jack who imparted us with a ton of useful information and words of encouragement. It was cool to meet them since we had heard and read so much about them and even used some articles written by Baltimore Jack for our preparation. Very nice and generous people. Got all of our chores done by 5:30 and decided to push on and not stay at the hostel overnight, much to the dismay of our new friends. We made some phone calls as we left and hiked another 2 miles to our camp, enjoying nice views with beautiful lighting along the way (stuff the people at the hostel were missing!). Great day filled with great people. Clouds rolled in in the evening and Mike had trouble finding branches to hang the bear bag amongst the clouds/fog. Laura had indigestion from all the amazing food. Still a great day. 

Day 3

Neels Gap

Whew... 4 days in and it's still awesome! Reached Neels Gap at around 2pm, stopped to shower, do some laundry, and pick up some supplies (thanks Sooze and Alan), then headed back out into the clouds. Next town stop is Hiawassee, in 3-4 days. More updates soon/ as we're able. Thanks to everybody for your support, and we'll check back in asap.

Day 2

Sassafras Mtn to Henry Gap - 13 mi

Woke up to the sound of rain. Opened the tent and found ourselves in the clouds. Hiked 2.5 miles to Justus Creek to find Nate and Tyler (a hiker we'd met yesterday) stopped there. We chatted, pumped water, brushed our teeth, and parted ways. Stopped at Gooch Mtn Shelter to eat some snacks out of the rain and found 3 other hikers there. Two were teachers and one was a local that had thru-hiked last year but since had pretty much just lived on the trail. He lectured us for a little while about the importance of having the right gear (an area we are confident in) while offering to take some of our food for himself. We left. Stopped later at Woody Gap for lunch in the clouds in a parking lot. There we found Nate and Tyler with the guy who offered to eat our food whose name we found out was Moose. Headed up and out to Big Cedar Mtn where we got the first good view all day as the clouds broke, then rolled back in. 2 miles later we made camp at Henry Gap. 

Day 1

Black Gap Shelter to Sassafras Mtn - (1.5)+11 mi

Clear, cold, and very windy as we woke up and started hiking.  1.5 miles to the top of Springer, met a nice southern guy named Sam on the way up. There were tons of people at the top, maybe 15, all different kinds of people. We signed in with an older man named Many Sleeps who spends a couple days a week camping up there and signing people in. Headed down at 11am and were surprised by our first bit of trail magic a mile later in the FS42 parking lot. Mountain Squid gave us Huggie drinks (the little plastic barrells of "juice") and cream pies (mike's new favorite) and we signed in (yet again) with him. Spent a little time walking with Nate and getting to know him better then 3 miles then to Three Forks for lunch. Found a beautiful spot off-trail by the creek and had an awesome lunch of steak fajitas. Stopped in at Hawk Mountain Shelter 4.5 miles later to get water and decided to keep hiking and not stay the night since there were so many people there (people= noise, no privacy, and rodents). We made it 3.5 more miles to a nice secluded spot on top of Sassafras Mtn. just in time for the sunset. We made a little fire but it ended up being really smoky due to wet wood and lots of wind. Sat under a million stars and watched the trees above us sway in the heavy wind.

The Start (Approach Trail- Amicalola State Park, GA)

Start - Approach Trail to Black Gap Shelter - (7.3 mi)
Dad dropped us off, we signed in and weighed our packs (only 33lbs each!), took pictures, and said goodbye. Set off and immediately met a guy named Nate from Connecticut. Nice guy, we'll probably be seeing lots of him. Climbed a ridiculous amount of stairs to the top of Amicalola Falls and felt as if our thighs were made of jello. At least we're starting off knowing who's boss. Hiked one or two miles and took a break to let it all settle in. Continued another ~5mi to Black Gap Shelter. On the way there we got our first glimpse of Springer (the start of the AT) all shrouded in clouds. It was cold and windy and clear where we were. Tented near the shelter and called it an early night.

Almost there.

Howdy everyone. Mike and I have spent the past few weeks frantically getting ready for our wedding, spending time with friends and family, and now frantically getting the last of our gear together and organizing for our hike. It looks like now we'll be starting a day ahead of what we thought, actually stepping foot on the trail sometime Friday instead of Saturday.
We are currently in Sherwood, MD with Mom and Alan where we've been packing and relaxing for the past 3 days. Tomorrow morning at around 10 Mom and Alan will shoo us into the car after we check, double check, and triple check our stuff (and of course we'll leave something behind) and drive to Savage, MD where my dad will be picking us up and driving us the remaining ~9 hours to Amicalola Falls Park in Georgia. We'll probably get a hotel room somewhere on the way and set off on the approach trail to the southern terminus of the Appalachian Trail Friday morning or early afternoon.
We are out of our minds with excitement; I don't think we'll sleep a wink these next two nights.
2 days till AT. Holy moly!

Wedding

We had an amazing day and are deeply grateful for everything everyone did to make it so special. We were married at 5:00pm in Gladwyne, PA and we couldn't have been luckier with the weather - it was gorgeous.
Special shout-outs to Mom and Alan for a beautiful wedding that so much exceeded our expectations, to Uncle Lowie and Bee for being such warm and gracious hosts and letting us take over their place for the reception, to Jody and Greg for the wonderful party the night before, to Leila and Rian for all their help in the logistics and lighting and for hooking a bride up with hair and make-up, to Ma and Pa Catts for their continual support, and to all of our family members and friends who took the time to celebrate with us. It was awesome. Thank you all so much.
And so without further ado, here are a few of the long-awaited wedding photos. By the time we get back from the trail we will be able to get our hands on more. Enjoy.

Recovering

Hey all. We're here in New Jersey at Laura's dad's/the Hill's. Having problems sleeping but still very tired. We'll be doing official entries for all our missed days tomorrow or ASAP (got in day 10 today) and uploading pictures and stuff so stay tuned for that. Thanks for reading so far.
Part 1 COMPLETED!
Now to get married...
HECK YEAH!

Day 12

Coming soon...

Day 11

We awoke to another beautiful morning with tons of different kinds of birds singing, and took our time enjoying the first deciduous forest we'd camped in since we left the east coast over 5 years ago. Mike made an awesome breakfast of cheeseburger-mac, then hard boiled some eggs for our drive that day. It was funny to find out how close to the lake we had actually camped the night before. We had literally stayed on the shore of Shores Lake without even knowing it. Anyway, it was getting later so we packed up the last of our stuff, collected some junk from the surrounding sites to throw away, and headed back to civilization. The drive out of the park was pretty interesting since we hadn't seen anything in the dark the night before. We got a good overview of the whole lake as we drove up one of the (smaller-sized) mountains and were shocked at how much we had underestimated its size. As we drove on we got a good look at the houses we had driven past on the way in... and the residents got a good look at us from their front porches. Those places were as ramshackle as they get and we even had a run in with what we deduced to be the Ozarkian's take on neighborhood patrol. There was a dude... in a white pick-up truck... stopped at an intersecting road. As we rolled by he watched us and sipped his beer. (!!!) As we got on down the road he pulled out after us (no surprise), tailgated us for a couple miles, then eased up and continued to follow us at a distance until we got out of the forest. I guess you can't blame him for being curious, we've been a strange sight the whole trip in our Budget truck cruising around in backwoods areas, but we kept an eye out and didn't plan to stop at all... for any reason. Back on the highway, it was 3-4 hours to the Mississippi River and Memphis which would mark another milestone for us. Even though we're excited to be getting close to home, we can't help but feel a little sad that this trip is almost over. Tonight we made it into Knoxville, TN and decided to treat ourselves to a room with a jacuzzi. Unfortunately we don't have too much time to use it because we crossed into the eastern standard time zone right before we got into town, but we're doing our best to enjoy it. Tomorrow we should be making it home before dark and we're really looking forward to seeing Mike's folks.

Day 10

All through the night last night we heard yipping and howling, undoubtedly from coyotes, but aside from that slept well in the bags with liners. (A+ to Campmor's down bags.) We were up and packing by 9:00 CST when Laura first noticed a bloody fish head on the ground while on her way to the trash can. The area is open to fishing/hunting and while it was understandable for it to be there (field butchering is common), the hunters should know better... For us campers it's really not cool to sleep directly next to a tasty snack for wild animals. To our horror, on our final walkthrough of our campsite before leaving, we were shocked and appalled to realize we had set up camp amongst a whole bunch of different kinds of meat discarded on the ground. Apparently, we had missed all that in the dark when we arrived last night and were sleeping in what could have been a buffet for the coyotes (or whatever else they have in Kansas).
Trying to make up for oversleeping a little, we decided to skip over a hot breakfast and eat our snacks in the car and get our drive on. We watched the prairie turn to farmland while driving across the entire length of Oklahoma. We felt very authentic with the Oklahoma license plate on our truck until, of course, we would pull in for gas or go in for a cup of coffee and stick out like the crazy rain-jacket wearing, mountain loving, city people we are.
Hours passed. Many hours. And finally as it got dark, we crossed into Arkansas, made a left, and drove into the Ozark National Forest. Again, we had decided this at practically the last moment, but had a much easier time finding this campground than the last. On the way in we saw some wildlife (opossum, deer, raccoon, and shadowy bigfoots), drove up and down a couple mountains, and found our destination for the night. After a quick and chilly camp set up, we saw there was a bunch of firewood piled next to the firepit and a couple of pieces of half-burnt ones still in there so we took advantage of the opportunity to have a fire and burn up someone's leftovers. For the second night in a row, the temperature was in the 20's, and as we huddled around our fire we heard the coyotes again, this time MANY more of them and much louder because the sound was reverberating off the mountains and through the valleys. One of the sequences(?) of howling was strikingly melodic and it was creepy how much it sounded like singing. We managed to get a long series of howls in a movie on our camera, though this one was not nearly as harmonic. We let the fire burn down and went to sleep.

Day 9

So we're sitting here in a grassland in Kansas, the next grassland over from the one we had planned to stay at... just in a different state and time zone(!). It's hard to believe that just yesterday we were in the desert. Actually we saw some more desert this morning before heading up into the mountains of northern New Mexico/southern Colorado so that makes it all feel even more unreal. 








Anyway we pretty much just drove all day with Mike steering the ship and Laura tried her best to stay awake (but failed once or twice). Once again we got to see the landscape change, this time from high desert to snowy mountain passes to the prairie and, as always, got a bunch of photos. 
Outside of our tent right now is a beautiful clear sky with more stars than either of us believe we have seen before. It is cold as heck but we're staying warm under our down sleeping bags and speaking of, it is about time to hit the hay for us so this will have to be a short-ish entry.
Pictures soon.

Day 8

Where to begin.
Today was one of the most spectacular days we've had. The Petrified Forest was THE most unique place we've been to. It's awesome because you have these crazy ancient petrified logs laying around everywhere and if you start at the southern end of the park you see the landscape change from the Great Basin type desert to the Painted Desert. So it's kinda a two-for-one deal in that you get to see two incredible, remarkable,   almost indescribable natural phenomenons in one place, contrasted against each other.



The section of the park thats accessible without venturing into the backcountry consists of a stretch of road 28 miles long. We spent 6 hours there on that little stretch and still felt as if we had to hurry through. If any of you are ever in or near that area of Arizona, Mike and I URGE you to go check it out. It was so completely different than anything else we'd experienced that we're already thinking about how to get back someday and spend time hiking in the backcounty.  
We're still overwhelmed with it all and it's proving hard to find the words to describe our time there today. In lieu of descriptions we will post a ton of photos (as soon as we have wifi again).





After the park, sunburnt, famished, and tired we set off again on I-40 towards Albuquerque. An hour after that we arrived in Gallup, NM to grab some food and stop at a grocery store for provisions. It was at this point that Mike declared that he was "done driving for the day because New Mexico was even weirder than Arizona" and he just wanted to go relax and go to bed. I concurred and we got a room. 
Tomorrow, we just decided, we will try to skirt around Texas and head just a little north over to Colorado to stay in the Comanche National Grassland which seems to be some sort of prairie-like area. Better than staying in a hotel, for sure. 
Onward!