My wife and I notched another section of the AT this past October. We went from Dicks Creek gap in Northern Georgia to NOC in North Carolina. We covered 70 plus miles and averaged 12 miles a day. Our base pack weight was 18 lbs and when we added food and water we were at 22-23lbs. We made a lot of first on this trip. We crossed the state line into North Carolina, we passed the 100 mile mark and we made our first resupply ( leaving the trail for a short while to get more food). As usual it took about 3 days to get our trail legs and then the last three days we got into a nice rhythm of early wake times and longer hiking days. As much as I like to think I’m in decent shape the mountains showed no mercy. We had no major injuries but the first three days we were very sore and beat. In Louisiana there is hardly any terrain that you can practice on before hitting the trail so you do what you can and then just go for it. The weather for the most part was beautiful, but the last two nights got cold. We were prepared, but it’s still hard for us to sleep in near freezing temps. Our gear held up well and our food selection was pretty much spot on. If you ever go remember you are burning 3-4000 calories a day so you gotta eat. Water was no problem as we found our water supply spots, but it had been very dry the last few months so some of them were bone dry. Our resupply town was Franklin NC. Nice town that had an awesome breakfast place and a good grocery store for our resupply. We also hit two breweries that were there and had a nice local beer. The only mistake we made was getting dropped off by our shuttle at the low end of town. This was where the breakfast place was, but after we ate we had to walk up a big hill to the other places we wanted to visit. We met more great people and spent our days hiking with them and sitting around the fire at night. We met 2 people who were finishing up the triple crown of hiking. These trails make up over 6000 miles in length so anyone who can do this is a Superman in my book snd gets mad respect. Also met a nice guy from Germany who was here on a internship and was spending his last two weeks in the US hiking the AT. We hope to be back in the spring to knock out another 70-100 miles. This should get us near the Great Smokey Mountains National Park. Happy holidays my friends, and I hope everyone gets to spend time with their loved ones at Christmas.
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