Sprout Day 212 (Tuesday, October 25, 2016)

We had a great day! We woke up a little before 5:00 a.m. and started getting ready for the day. We got on trail after 6:00 and went 18.3 miles. We are staying at Overmountain Shelter.

The views up on Roan Highlands have been spectacular. The fall colors and mountains have been amazing. This is a perfect time of the year to hike through this area.

We made it over halfway before 11:00 and stopped down on Route 19 to try to hitchhike to the gas station. With no luck, we walked to a hostel .3 miles down the road to see what their general store had to offer. I ended up getting a couple of pops and energy drinks, candy, and some chips. Bubbles stayed back with the packs while Road, Bent, and I went down.

Overmountain Shelter is supposed to be in a spot with a great sunrise so we might stay here and leave right after the sun rises, or pack up and get moving a little down the trail.

The shelter is an old barn that was converted into a shelter with a lot of camping nearby. I made a fire tonight. We all sat around the fire and had dinner. Before we went to bed we heard two different packs of coyotes howling and yipping. It's such a cool sound hearing them off in the distance, although these ones sounded a little close. I heard them early this morning too as I was making breakfast. I'm going to make sounds like that when we finish the trail.

We crossed into North Carolina today, the AT rubs on the border of North Carolina and Tennessee before we get to Georgia.

Tomorrow is going to be a long day because we’re shooting for 20 plus miles and there's some significant incline changes throughout the day! We're trying to get big miles in so we can take a zero day in Hot Springs, NC and relax in a natural spring!

Day: 212

Miles hiked: 18
Total Miles hiked on the trail: 1810.6
Baby Bear: 1
Bald Eagle: 1
Bluegill: 2
Butterflies: 8
Chipmunks: 3
Cows: 24
Crawfish: 1
Deer: 20
Donkeys: 2
Grouse: 1
Horses: 15
Hummingbird: 1
Inchworm: 1
Really Big Dog: 1
Mice: 2
Moose: 2
Nest of bugs: 2
Newts: 2
Owl: 1
Rabbit: 1
Red Squirrel: 1
Skunk: 1
Snail: 1
Snake: 3
Squirrels: 12
Toads: 3
Trout: 2
Turkeys: 4
Turtles: 107
Vultures: 6
Woodpecker: 1

Sprout Day 184 (Tuesday, September 27, 2016)

We got a late start out of Four Pines Hostel. I set the tent up out in the barn because it was raining all day and night. The barn kept us dry and kept us from sleeping in the garage. The barn has enough ground space for a few tents and there are benches along the wall, some couches, and chairs inside too. It's such a big barn he also stores stuff in here, a boat, a tractor, and other things. No one else set up out there so we had the place to ourselves. It was dark inside even when the sun came up so it was hard to wake up and get going.

We did wake up at 8:00 a.m. and I made myself go down to the garage. I just wanted to lay there and sleep but knew I had to get moving and get back on the trail. We packed our bags and drank lots of coffee. Bubbles made us scrambled eggs for breakfast. The owners Joe and Donna have chickens on the property and let hikers have as many eggs as they want. I love fresh farm eggs so it was much appreciated. Thank you!

Another thing about Joe is that he loves to play corn hole. It was fun watching him play and funny listening to him talk crap to whomever he was playing against. I really liked four pines; it was a unique place with really nice people.

We hiked around 7 miles and are staying at Pickle Shelter. The weather should be nice tomorrow so hopefully we can knock out some big miles. We also had something different for dinner. We packed out a few red potatoes, an onion, and some garlic. We made a fire and cooked them in tin foil. It was delicious.

Day: 184
Miles hiked: 6.7
Total Miles hiked on the trail: 1499.4

Baby Bear: 1
Bald Eagle: 1
Bluegill: 2
Butterflies: 8
Chipmunks: 3
Cows: 24
Crawfish: 1
Deer: 20
Donkeys: 2
Grouse: 1
Horses: 15

Hummingbird: 1
Inchworm: 1
Really Big Dog: 1
Mice: 2
Moose: 2
Nest of bugs: 2
Newts: 2
Owl: 1
Rabbit: 1
Red Squirrel: 1
Skunk: 1
Snail: 1
Snake: 3
Squirrels: 12
Toads: 3
Trout: 2
Turkeys: 4
Turtles: 107
Vultures: 6
Woodpecker: 1