5 Percent of the Trail is Done!

Trail Names!

Here we are, 12 days in to our thru hike, and what a wonderful start it was!

First off: trail names. For those back at home who are not familiar with AT terminology, trail names are a pretty common thing out here – something that generally has nothing to do with your given name that maybe fits you or your experiences, or is maybe something with a funny story, or is something meaningful to you. Pretty much everyone gets one, whether chosen by the hiker or bestowed on them by another person!

Wally is now known as Diesel, Sunny is now known as Bumblebee, and Amy has an angel name, Foxtrot.

Diesel stems from a conversation with a new friend in the Tetons about hiking, how we big guys just trudge up the hill in 4-low but with a lot of low gear power; it also refers to my tendency to have a slow/cold start in the morning.

Bumblebees, according to physics, shouldn’t be able to fly, but they don’t know that so they fly anyway, doing the seemingly impossible on a daily basis. This is a perspective Sunny wants to take on throughout this journey!

Foxtrot is related to Amy providing trail magic out of an Arctic Fox camper, as well as being a Veteran spouse and utilizing the phonetic alphabet.

Finally setting off on the epic adventure!

Our hike started at the parking area on Springer Mountain; I saw no need to add 8.5 miles to hike that was already pushing 2200. We arrived late, grabbed our headlamps, and headed to the plaque for a few photos, after hiking down, we climbed into the comfort of the cab over camper and dreamed about the AT.

Springer Mountain sunset

The next morning, Bumblebee and I set out for a 8.5 mile day, with foxtrot meeting us at the first road crossing to check up on my ankle (more to come). I traded in my trusty boots for my new, but broken in, Salomons and ankle brace. I was extremely apprehensive about actually hiking in trail runners, but a triple crown friend, Wired, told me that if I tried to thru-hike in boots it would not bode well. Unbelievable, that’s all I can say. These shoes are absolutely awesome and my boots never again were in my feet, even though we were hiking from the camper to the camper.

Our plan was to ease into this with limited miles, slack packing, camper beds and full feed. Everyone we met was jealous of our start, but we did our best to include them by feeding them; it’s easy to make friends when you tell them to follow you to a full meal! This pretty much made up our first 5 days, finishing that off with a half pack 14 mile day. The next morning, at Unicoi Gap, we set off with full packs and every intention of splitting the next 17.3 miles to Dicks Creek into two days. We ended up getting awesome trail magic from Boots Off hostel, in the rain, and Bumblebee said she wanted to push all the way to steal another night in the camper. This hike had over 5000 ft of gain and losses, but we finished it, well after dark. We were about 4 miles short at dark, so we donned our headlamps and pushed through the fog and snow. My headlamp quit working after I bumped it, so I pulled out my phone and descended using that flashlight for the last hour. We made it; that’s all that matters. After that big day, we didn’t start our 35 mile trek into North Carolina until about 1:00. We made it to the first shelter and spent our first night in the woods, just happy to be out there! The next day was a pretty tough 13+miles across the border, and up-down, up-down. We finished that day at the peak of Standing Indian mountain where the wind almost blew us straight back to Springer. I’ve had some cold and windy nights while hunting in the Rockies, but this was just absolutely relentless.

And just for fun, we had a bear right outside our tent.

We came out the other side of that night knowing that we can do this crazy adventure as long as we have each other. The next day ended up being our biggest day yet, 18.3 miles to Rock Gap and Franklin, NC. The promise of that camper, and fully hydrated food, kept us moving all day and we finished with over an hour of daylight to spare. The next day we headed to town after doing the 3.7 miles to Winding Stair Gap, and had some delicious hiker chow at the Lazy Hiker Brewery. This morning, Foxtrot and our rolling hostel headed for Michigan, back to our young son and yellow lab, who we hope to see in 4 weeks during his spring break.

Today’s hike was 10.5 miles from Winding Stair to the Wayah Bald shelter and the weather to set up and eat was absolutely beautiful! We are enjoying our father daughter time immensely, and we’re meeting great people all along the way!