Day 1: Make early adjustments

At 6:30 am I woke up at the picnic table. I never thought I would say that phrase in my life, but here we are. I was first greeted by a British girl who is also hiking. Before I could pack up my quilt, she already had it all packed, ready to go. We were quite impressed by the efficiency and structure of the camp. In comparison, we are complete amateurs, but we will learn.

Because of my dad’s snoring last night, I subtly asked everyone if they had gotten any sleep. To my surprise, no one had noticed. They were all a little smarter than me and wore earplugs. So my first lesson of this tour: use earplugs at night in common sleeping spaces.

A little sleep-deprived and groggy, we started with the official AT! But our mood improved quickly. The trees gave way to large rhododendron bushes and idyllic streams, which somehow gave off jungle vibes. Very cool. We were super relaxed and enjoying every detail!

But it wouldn’t be the AT if it were all flowers and sunshine. Our plan for the day was to hike about 15 miles to Gooch Mountain Shelter. Around mile 8 we had our lunch break and we were both tired and beat up from the trail. We were dreading the next 7 miles and getting back into camp late.

“Everyone has a plan, until they get punched in the mouth” – Mike Tyson

And they punched us in the mouth. We looked at our plan and realized that perhaps we had been too ambitious. The alternative was to camp at Hawk Mountain Shelter, just a few hundred yards away. Feeling a little defeated we decided to do it.

We rested a little, made a new plan for the next day, leisurely cooked our food, took a nap, set up our tent and were enjoying ourselves again. Everything in our body and mind told us that this was the right decision, even if it hurt our ego a little.

Surprisingly Good Macaroni and Cheese

We also had a friendly chat with Jared again; Last night he was one of the hikers at our shelter. It’s a little smarter at the beginning of this path. Walk no more than 8 miles a day for two weeks. After that, you hope to pick up your mileage and start putting in more miles. After the day we had, this made a lot of sense to us.

We’ve learned that it’s too early to do more than 15 miles a day, but we’re too impatient to limit ourselves to 8 miles a day. 12 miles should be doable, right? Because after 12 miles we reach Woody Gap and can get a ride to the Above the Clouds lodge. A shower, a bed and a hot meal doesn’t sound so bad, you know?

Let’s hope everything goes better tomorrow!

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