0-100 Walking the approach trail was an interesting feeling. I had just started something new and there was a lot of different feelings as I made my way to Springer mountain and I quickly realized I was pretty out of shape and my 50 lb pack was way too heavy for the next 2200 miles I was about to travel. I made my way to Springer and stayed at the next shelter. From springer the next few days the goal on front of me was making it to Neil Gap and Mountain Crossing store. There was a quick adaptation to this new way of life it was amazing and rough but I loved every minute. At mountain crossing I was able to send a lot of my stuff back and upgrade a lot of my gear and I was able to cut my weight down to 25 lbs. Which compared to some that was heavy but it was an amazing feeling for me. After the upgrade the miles went a lot quicker for me and making it to Hiawasse Georgia I met a lot of friends on the trail and took my first zero day before making it to the 100 mile mark which is in North Carolina. A few days later I made it to the 100 mile mark which is a steep climb up. it was icy and snowing so I quickly got a picture and decided to quickly move out as I was doing my best to not be stuck on the mountains with an incoming blizzard. Later that day I made it to Franklin NC and enjoyed a nice pizza and beer. (I will post photos at a later time as my previous phone broke on the trail and I am still trying to recover the photos.)
Miles 100-200. From Franklin the next big challenge was the Smokey mountains the days leading up to it felt easier than the miles I had already done which was nice as I felt I wasn’t so sore day after day or maybe I was just getting stronger. As I hiked on with the tramily I traveled much of the miles with, we decided before the smokies we would take a zero day in Fontana Dam and that was at beautiful resort that was filled with AT hikers and had a lot of games and stuff to do on a zero day that helped take my mind off of the next day which was going to be a steep climb into the Smokies. The first day into the smokies was easier than I had thought it would be and the first shelter was easy enough to get to. The next day was a full day of freezing rain. Although the freezing rain was tough the next day after allowed for such amazing scenery as ice covered all the trees and the refraction from the light allowed for some beautiful views that pictures don’t bring justice. That day I made it to Clingmans Dome which is the 200 mile marker and about halfway through the smokies.
Miles 200-300. Clingmans dome was quickly followed by a steep down climb that was like walking on a vertical icerink and resulted in a couple falls and my phone at the time to break. The good part is as I traveled lower in elevation the ice melted and made it to the next shelter. The next day I had only planned a 12 mile day but I missed the sign for my shelter off the trail and hiked an extra 8 miles to the next shelter in a windstorm that knocked down a few trees on the trail and made for a stressful night as I had no map as my physical map only went to Clingmans Dome which was behind me now. This seperated me from my tramily at the time. The next day was another 20 miler to get to the standing bear hostel. Where I waited for them. While I waited I decided to hitch a ride to the nearest town and look into getting a new phone. The hostel was nice and I was able to relax after that stressful day on the Smokey mountains. After that I met my tramily and we hiked out and we were on our way to hot springs. Hot springs was a magical small town in the mountains and was the first fancy meal I got for myself on trail as I got a nice surf and turf dinner. From there I was on my way to Big Butt mountain for mile 300. Big Butt mountain was a normal climb but it was good to get mile 300 done with and I was making some progress on the trail.
