Georgia part 1 of 2: Breakfast beer at Woody Gap

I’m heading down the mountainside and I see someone with a cooler in the parking lot of Woody Gap. It might be 930 am and I assume there’s pop (apparently some people call pop soda?) in there, so I’m planning on thanking him and hanging out but I didn’t want a pop at the moment. Then I hear “Hey buddy you want a beer?” I say “It’s like 9am.. obviously yes I want a beer.” The trail angel who goes by Mailman, delivered as he often does. We talked and laughed for 15 minutes and I kept going north. He offered to send me with to go beer too haha great guy. Thanks again! While we’re talking about the best breakfast beverages on trail.. Lately I like to filter 16 ounces of a puddle or whatever and add an instant coffee with 2 carnation instant breakfast packets, shaken not stirred.

Unfortunately, Georgia wasn’t all trail angels and IPA’s. I met some really dedicated hikers early on who needed to head home and heal. Tess has a great attitude even after sustaining an ACL injury coming down Blood Mountain. She plans on another attempt as soon as she is ready. Even after her injury and preparing to fly home her focus was on other hikers giving us her trail food and supplies. She is also going to do trail magic in NH when we get there. Mercury sustained an Achilles injury at the beginning of Georgia and walked to almost the North Carolina border with me, before deciding it would be better to go home and recuperate. So he can pick up where he left off at full capacity this spring.

So my goal with this blog is to highlight the positive, funny, the reality, and also the technical aspects that readers might be curious about. First, here is an armadillo with no context. Also, I know one thing I always wanted to see when reading thru hiker’s experiences was their daily progress so I plan to break it down each day. Of course weather and other factors will make every thru hike different. I’m just showing you where I ended up each night.
Night 1: Got on trail and Top of Springer mountain to Stover Creek 3 miles.

Night 2: Tented near Gooch Mountain at mile 16.

Night 3: Neels Gap at mile 31.

Night 4: Blue Mountain shelter at Mile 50. Typical 3 wall shelter was clutch in some heavy cold rain and stayed completely dry with the help of Mercury hanging his tarp across the open side.

Night 5: Sassafras Gap Mile 63.