Appalachian Trail - 2024

Well, we finally finished the approach trail to Virginia. There was a single focus today -- get to Damascus ASAP.  We woke up and started moving at 7. After packing up, eating breakfast, using the bathroom, and filling up water, we were on trail by 8:30.  While filling up water at low gap right after our campsite, we had a SUV fly by us, slam on the brakes, throw the car in reverse, roll down his windows, and ask us if we wanted any cold beer. It was 8:30... lo and behold, we declined the guys offer. Can't say I've had that experience before. Especially since he really insisted. Whatever -- we're just not the 8:30 am AT Thru hiker beer drinkers I guess... Anyways, our day was super simple. Just like yesterday, we had a series of ridge walks that were even easier than the day before.  At 11:50, we hit the VA line! And by 12:45 we were walking through the downtown streets of Damascus. Not much had changed in the small southern town, but like many areas that relied on small bu

I've never hiked a marathon before but today we broke that.  Camping near the lake worked out perfectly for us. We had a nice tentsite and although a local, I swear, was burning rubber for half the night, I slept pretty good -- 50 degrees makes for great sleeping.  We got on trail by 830 and the intention was to hike 26.3 miles to a campsite right before US 421 / low gap, and that's exactly what we did.  The morning consisted of getting back to elevation, and by the time we had lunch at slightly before 12, we had only gone 8.5 miles. However, we had chipped away at roughly half our elevation for the day -- 2500 feet. A day or two earlier when we were in the roans, I pointed out the ridge that we would walk all the way into Damascus. Now, at elevation, it was time for that ridge walk.  Although it was a long day mile wise, it wasn't a hard day. We really did just walk the ridge. There were minor ups and downs, but compared to the smokies for example, it felt like we were wal

We almost got a full marathon in today and the rain held off!  We woke up at 6:45 and of the two groups in the shelter, we were the first to get moving. The weather people had called for gusts between 50 and 60 to come through our area of TN the night before, but we thankfully really didn't experience them. Even if our whole intention for staying in the shelter didn't materialize, we still slept well last night. In fact, since it was moderately warm, that was the first time that I had really slept decently in two days. We got on the trail by 8:15, and spent the morning walking through rhododendren forests. There was the occasional moment where we'd pop out into more hardwoods, but for the first 9.5 miles of the day we skirted ridges, walked in rhodos, and passed a few small waterfalls.  Around 12 we stopped for lunch at a shelter to get out of the wind and slight rain that had started. Originally, there was supposed to be rain all day long, and anywhere from a half inch to

The Station at 19e might be the best hostel on trail.  We woke up at 8 and began packing up frantically to get out of the wind. Throughout the night, a cold wind moved in and started rushing up the hill we were camped on. In the middle of the night, I developed a random headache, had to pretty much put all of my clothes on that I brought with me, finagle with the bear bags for 30 minutes to get them down (which is a whole different story), grab ibuprofen, and then get back and go to bed. Really, I only slept from about 330 to 8. Not to bad, but not ideal.  Our day was split up into two sections -- descend from the roans, and head back into the mountains after resupplying. One caveat is that before we could descend, we had 1.5 miles of hiking up to hump summit... In 2020, when Walker and I summited hump, we had brutal rain / sleep and horrendous winds. We'll, this time, we didn't have rain, but the wind was otherworldly. Based off what we felt and based off what we head from oth

The only thing that I could possibly even remotely complain about today is that the morning and night time temps were a bit cold -- but really the day was perfect.  I woke up at 8, started to pack up, and we were on trail slightly before 9. We went 1 mile to warm up, and then stopped for breakfast. We've been really slow in the mornings recently, which was exemplified in the fact that by 10, we had only gone 1 mile. Needless to say, it was time to get moving.  In the morning, we climbed up a thousand feet to a Vista that overlooked eastern Tennessee. The climb up was a little chilly, but the views were nice and the sun had started to warm up the rocks. After the summit, we climbed a couple miles down to Hughes gap, at the base of roan high knob.  Roan high knob was our big climb today, going slightly over 5.2 miles up, and ascending more than 2,000 feet. By 1:15 we were 1.2 miles from the top, and stopped for lunch at ash gap. During this time of day, there was almost no wind and t

Without a doubt, it was the right call going to the shelter last night. Thr rain came down all night. Waking up inside a dry shelter, being able to move around without getting wet, and being able to slightly enjoy the morning was quite nice.  Plus, although not major, a wet tent does add a pound or so to the total pack weight -- something that I'd rather avoid. On that note while I'm thinking about it, I weighed my pack the other day and without water or food, my base weight is 13 pounds. So, on some of these days when I'm headed into town and only have a quarter liter of water and a single meal, my pack doesn't weigh more than 15 pounds -- which is just great!  As expected, the most common injury out here is just overused muscles. Even though having adequate gear is important, my philosophy is to be as ultralight as I'm comfortable with and reduce the total weight that I have to carry. It might not seem like alot, but carrying 10 less pounds every day compared to s

Today was your typical downhill ascent into town.  I woke up around 7:30, called Kristina briefly while she was heading off to work, and then started to pack up afterwards.  By 8:40, we were done eating breakfast and were ready to get out of the wind that had started to blow through the east side of big bald mountain.  Today, our main objective was to FINALLY HIKE into the town our Erwin, grab our resupply, charge our phones, and then hike slightly out of town.  As for the descent, there's really not much to say about it. There was a nice mix of hardwood and rhododendren forests, and there was even the occasional softwood thrown in there. 90% of the trail was gradual, and even the few steep sections didn't last very long.  Having started the day at 8:45, we were down into Erwin around 3:50. By 5:45, we had packed up and started heading out.  Originally, we were planning on camping 1.5 miles out of town, but after thinking things through and noticing the impending rain cloud, we

Woah does it ever feel good to be back on trail.  After 8 DAYS of zeroing, we woke up this morning in Banner Elk NC, ate breakfast, and started driving back to devils fork gap, west of Erwin TN.  We had gone out last night and got our resupplies to last us all the way until Damascus. So, on our way over to devils gap, we swung by the station on 19e, dropped off a 4 day resupply, and then swang by uncle Johnny's in erwin and dropped off a 2.5 day resupply.  Although we're well rested, I was curious to see how we'd feel hiking. Our bodies have obviously had a rough go of things, and dehydration is no joke. To my surprise, we all felt really good. Spencer was a little light headed at sections, but all in all, we were good. Wouldn't you believe it too, Freshgrounds was at devils gap when we got there! Having just eaten breakfast, we only said hello before continuing down the trail.  Really though, I should say up the trail. We started our day with a several mile, 1600 feet

Rest and recovery. Getting back on trail on the 21st. 

I have both Norovirus and Astrovirus, which when gotten together, according to the doctor "is like winning the lottery." There's no medicine to fix it, just time really, and I should be on the tail end already.  I'll just keep resting and go from there. 

The guys are basically better. They can eat food and drink water.  Myself on the other hand, really regressed in the past 3 days. I can't eat or drink, and I'm back to vomiting and diarrhea whenever my body says it's time.  Dad picked us up yesterday and brought us over to banner elk, so I'm going to go to an urgent care of an ER to try and gets some meds. My first priority really is to be able to drink more than a pint of water each day without dispensing more than that out of me. Food would be great and all, but being able to drink water again would really be cool.  I can't tell if my symptoms are due to norovirus + dehydration and they're just amplifying each other, or if something else is going on.  I don't have a lot of faith in finding the answer out after someone asks me a few questions, but again, maybe there's some sort of medicine they can give me that'll calm, or solidify, my stomach.  Anything to drink water again.  I'll try to keep t

If you would have told me how today would have turned out in the morning, I would have laughed at you.  I woke up slightly before 7 and called Kristina briefly. Besides wishing her a good day, I told her that I was feeling great and ready to do another day of big miles.  Shortly afterwards, we tore down camp, ate breakfast, and got on trail. Since we had already gained a ton of elevation the previous day, we had two relatively easy ascents this morning: firescald knob and big butt. We had a great day of weather, and the quick ascent and ridge walk up firescald was fantastic. However, when I was coming off it, I started to get the sense that something was seriously wrong.  See, typically, if I'm fresh and hiking on flat ground or downhill, there's rarely a time that I won't go at a pace of 3 miles per hour, if not more -- and due to the amount of hiking that I've done, I'm usually a decent judge of my own personal pace.  Between firescald and big butt, there was at l

Having done a different route in 2020, I forgot how much uphill we'd have today! In 2020, we never went into Newport, going straight through the smokies and into Hot Springs instead. When in town, we stayed at the Alpine court, eating dinner the night before, and breakfast the same day we walked out of town.  This time, things were a little different. The Alpine court was closed, which resulted in us walking .5 out of town and camping on the river, and not going back into town for breakfast. We also only went 13 miles out of town in 2020 I believe.  With this is mind, we had plenty of time to do the 21.5 miles we had planned -- or so I thought. Once you finish the half mile river walk, which is where we camped, you immediately go 1000 feet up. The views in this section are pretty nice, as you're still listening, but now viewing, the French broad twist and turn in the valley below.  From there, you have some minor ups and downs for the next few miles, until you start going up ri

We did a lot of planning today.  We woke up around 7, to a temp that had to be in the high teens. It was a pretty cold night, and one that I'm really glad didn't involve any wet gear from the day before.  We tore down camp, ate breakfast, and got on trail right before 9. Our plan today was to get into Hot Springs, resupply, and go anywhere from a mile to 3.5 miles out of town. After eating, we chose the mile option.  Before explaining town, and taking a step back, we had two mountains to get up; walnut, and bluff. By 12:15, we were about 5 miles into the day, and up and over both of them.  From there, we only had less than 10 miles into town, predominantly all downhill, which we made short work of.  Once we got in town, we went to the post office and got our resupply, ate at the smoky mountain diner, which is just as good as in 2020, and got a few more food items at dollar general.  Really, there wasn't much to say about the hike today -- other than being a little chilly, w

Today flew by.  As I'm writing this now, it's hard to imagine that I woke up this morning in a real bed. Really, I know this to obviously be the case, but if you spend enough time out on the trail, the zeros fade into the distance and it feels like you're just always on trail and in the woods.  Anyways, I woke up to my alarm going off at 7am this morning and after a few rings, Walker turned on the lights. I had the majority of my things packed already, but I went ahead and loaded everything up after doing one last check.  Instead of going to cracker barrel this morning, we tried out the breakfast of the hotel, and it was really good. Eggs, country fried steak, biscuits and sausage gravy and a blueberry muffin was my breakfast choice this morning. And it served me well.  At 8:30, Ron picked us up and drove us back to Davenport gap, where we came out of the smokies two days ago. To our surprise, while the valley got a good downpour last night, the mountains actually got a dus

We did exactly what you'd expect from a zero today -- absolutely nothing.  For breakfast I got a huge meal at the cracker barrel and for dinner I did a ginormous meal at a local Mexican place -- so much that I think my stomach almost exploded. The Mexican food was incredible.  Apart from that, I showered, did laundry, and did a minor 2 day resupply. There's been a decent amount of rain that has come down today, so it's been nice being indoors.  I'll certainly get a other good night of sleep tonight, and I'm looking forward to getting back on trail tomorrow. Hot Springs here we come.  Thanks for following along.  Tyler M.

Today went exactly to plan.  We planned to wake up at 6, pack up, and get on trail around 7. At 5:45, I woke up, checked the weather and trail for the day, and started packing up around 6. We ate breakfast, stretched, and were on trail by 7:15. For the day, we had 3 minor uphills, and a whole lot of downhill. Surprisingly, we didn't get rained on as much as we originally thought we would. The original forecast was rain by 7am, but we actually didn't get a single drop until 1pm, and it was incredibly light.  At 10:15, we had done our first 7.7 miles for the day and stopped at Cosby knob shelter for a quick meal. At 10:45 we got back on trail, summited our final mountain in the smokies, and began our 5 mile descent down into davenport gap.  By 1:40, we were at the bottom, having done 15.5 miles in roughly 6 hours and 30 minutes.  At 1:55, Ron, our shuttle driver, picked us up, and dropped us off at the Best Western here in Newport Tennessee.  Since then, we've been eating and

Our experience today is exactly why in 2020 I said the smokies truly deserve to be called great.  The alarm went off at 7am this morning and I started packing up shortly afterwards. I enjoyed a 30 minute "returning to the normal routine" call with Kristina, and then we headed over to "Crockett's breakfast camp" in Gatlinburg. Their breakfast wasn't bad, but nothing compared to the Everett Street diner in bryson city, which was the maybe the best diner I've ever been to -- and I've been to a lot while traveling.  After an abundance of food, as per usual, our shuttle picked us up at 9:10 and took us back up to newfound gap.  For most of the drive up, there was extremely thick fog, but with a couple miles left to the gap, we broke through the fog and entered a different world.  Here, there were sprawling mountain tops for as far as the eyes could see, with fog, whisping over them. The sky was blue and the sun was out.  We started hiking at 945, and by 9

If yesterday was when we discovered other hikers, then today is when we found the rain. From when it started raining last night, it hasn't stopped. Last night alone, I'd guess we got wind speeds up to 35 mph, and probably 2 to 3 inches of rain. Although there wasn't much for wind during the day, I bet there was at least another 2 inches that fell. It was so unbelievably wet. Usually I don't set an alarm on trail, but we had decided to get on trail before 8 which meant I needed an alarm. Without one, I wouldn't have been able to hear other people moving and know to start moving myself.  Anyways, we packed up in the rain, walked up to the shelter, ate breakfast, and got on trail before 8. What we initially noticed about the trail was the severe mud from nanthahala had returned and the ground was quite waterlogged.  Clingman's dome was the major objective for the day and the 200 mile mark associated with it. Before then, we had a couple small ridges to climb in the

Well, we found some hikers. I slept fairly good last night. I fell asleep somewhere between 10:30 and 11 and I slept clean through to 3am. At 3am however, something unexpected happened -- I woke up to the sound of someone throwing up. Now, since we were the only people at this campsite, I knew that either spencer or walker were throwing up, turns out it was walker. We're not quite sure what caused it, but we're guessing he got dehydrated coming out of Fontana and then drank to much water immediately after getting to camp. Like I said, really not sure. Could have been an electrolyte imbalance, but it doesn't seem to have been any sort of food poisoning, waterborn illness, or norovirus since it was just a one and done event. Anyways, we woke up around 7 and we were on trail slightly before 8:30. For our morning climbs, we had doe knob, and devils tater patch. Each climb was mild, and so was the weather. Probably 45 and mostly cloudy. There isn't a whole lot to say ab

I'm looking forward to going through normal towns.  I woke up at 6:30 this morning and started writing my blog for yesterday. I was absolutely beat last night and the second I started writing, I started to nod off. After finishing the blog, I packed everything up and crawled out from my tent. After taking the tent down and grabbing breakfast, we were ready to get on trail around 815.  Our day was split into two sections. Getting to Fontana, and then getting out of Fontana and up to birch springs campsite, right after shuckstack mountain. The day didn't quite go as planned. For the first 8 miles of the day, everything went smoothly. We hiked up and down a couple small ridges this morning, until we hit cable gap shelter. From there, we walked 2 miles up some no named mountain, and then dropped 3 miles down in Fontana dam.  This is where things got interesting. Last time we were here, we were able to coordinate a schedule with the resort. This time however, they had altered the pa

Yesterday was a long day.  Although I slept good, the 7 am alarm came quickly. We started getting a few things together, and headed back over to that breakfast place we ate at the day before. Somehow, I got even more food this time!  We got back to the motel around 8:40, packed up the rest of our gear, and Patrice picked us up at 9.  Upon arrival at the NOC, we needed to print out of smoky mountain permits, pick up a mail drop, and Spencer wanted to flip out some gear out. His sleeping pad has been deflating on him the entire trail, so before entering the smokies we wanted to fix that.  After all our little tasks, we were on trail right around 10:10. Our morning had one goal, get up cheoah bald. It was a 4000 foot climb over the course of 8.2 miles and as I've explained before, my calves were certainly feeling it.  We probably got to the top right around 2:30 and enjoyed a quick lunch. The view really was fantastic, I'll give it that, just a hard ascent and descent.  The rest o

Today was a zero so there's not much to share.  Ate a huge breakfast and got wings in the afternoon.  Showered a bunch, did our laundry, and enjoyed a climate controlled room and a nice 70 degree day and sun when in the town.  Fontana dam is 1.5 days away and then afterwards we'll hit the smokies. In 6 days from now, we'll have gone an additional 107 miles and cleared the biggest challenge of the south.  The weather is looking like 3 or 4 days of sun, and 2 or 3 days of rain over the next 6 days. The overnight temps don't look like they're dropping below 35 all to often so we should have relatively clear sailing -- but of course all of that could change in a heartbeat.  Of course, I'll keep everyone updated. Looking forward to being back on trail and chipping off some miles.  Thanks for following along. Tyler M.

Yesterday was really something.  We woke up briefly at 5:20 to the sound of pouring freezing rain outside of the shelter. At 730, we woke back up, started to prepare for the day, and ate breakfast. By 820, we had our rain gear on, and stepped out from underneath the dry shelter, into the freezing rain.  For the next 5 hours and 50 minutes, we didn't stop moving. We descended a few small peaks off of wayah bald until we were at the bottom of rocky mountain. For the day, we had two big climbs, Rocky, and Wesser.  The climb up rocky actually went surprisingly quick. It was a nice gradual incline, and the rain hadn't completely soaked us through yet. This was about to change.  Before summiting rocky, there was a 2 mile ridge walk that you had to do, called the copper ridge. You pretty much got up to elevation, but then had to walk over to rocky mountain proper. Most of this walk was fairly exposed, and the rain really started to come down during this time.  From rocky, we dropped d