Week 4 on the AT! Week Three Thoughts and Review

Hello Friends! Enjoy this weeks installment and the pictures below. Be sure to check out my YouTube (https://youtube.com/@qigongonthetrail) and/or Instagram (Qigong_on_the_trail) for videos and more photos of our adventure.

Before I share our daily journals for week 4, Paul and I compiled some thoughts on how things have been going so far on our hike at the conclusion of week 3…

Give some generalizations about your experience so far.

Paul: I enjoy every day. I’m eating way more than I even thought I would but my weight is staying on, so that’s good. All of our food has been satisfying for me and has not left me wanting certain things from town. We’ve gotten a lot more mountain views than I expected and they’re all enjoyable. I didn’t expect that well into late April early May as the leaves are still not on all the trees. I love drinking mountain spring water every day.

Laura: I also enjoy hiking, and I feel like this is pretty much what I expected it to be. It has really been a physically challenging experience, and also a mentally challenging experience. I find myself going through a variety of emotions every day from elation and love being here to wanting it to end immediately to just all kinds of different emotions. I’ve also enjoyed all the views, and I love drinking springwater every day. I feel well hydrated, and I feel well nourished by the food that we provided ourselves with.

What has been your favorite part of being on the AT?

Paul: Being outside every day.

Laura: I also enjoy being outside every day. And I really love sleeping in our tent.

What has been your least favorite part of being on the AT?

Paul: when my partner is suffering, and all I can do is worry with no way to really end their suffering.

Laura: All of the physical stress has manifested in a variety of discomfort for me, and the most lingering one is some pain in my left foot. I get pretty upset periodically just feeling like I’m not capable.

Is there anything that has surprised you?

Paul: I’m surprise that I’m just as excited every day to get up and hike.

Laura: Every time we make big miles or reach a mile stone like today making 300 miles it blows my mind. That’s what I think. I can really do this!

Is there anything that you miss from your regular life?

Paul: Not yet.

Laura: I sometimes miss planning things, and I definitely miss teaching my classes and interacting with people from home.

What is your favorite section of the trail so far?

Paul: I really enjoyed the part of the Smokies after you go through newfound gap and you walk along the ridge and see Charlie’s bunion and you just have these incredible views on left and right.

Laura: I really liked Georgia, because it felt so doable and aside from one day the weather was just perfect for the whole time we were there, and I enjoyed watching the hills grow in the mountains as we made our way up through Georgia into North Carolina.

Other thoughts?

Paul: Georgia was great, and definitely made us feel like we could do the whole thing. The mountain climbs were pleasant, and we had mostly good weather. North Carolina was a duality between gentle grades, and really steep up and downs. The Smokies were as expected difficult, but also beautiful views, and they had huge quartz boulders scattered throughout, the evergreen forest was especially wonderful to experience. our first trail town, Hot Springs was a wonderful place to be and a great rest spot.

Laura: I really loved when we came out of the Smokies. The terrain felt like home felt like Pennsylvania and I really have enjoyed that about the terrain after the Smokies quite a bit. I also really loved Hot Springs and just felt like it was very welcoming town.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask!

Now for our Week 4 journal!

Day 21

Are we awoke to beautiful clear sky this morning and a little bird singing it song. Two forest friends visited in the middle of the night. A mouse chewed up some TP and a snail climbed all the way up a trekking pole. So was birthed the trail name of Snail for Laura.

The terrain so much like Pennsylvania. We felt very much at home, and the weather was warm.

We were able to hike the 14 miles in the Hot Springs in time to get our bounce box and mail re-supply box before the post office closed at 3 PM.

And we checked into laughing heart hostel right off the trail and it’s a wonderful place. We have a queen size bed in a private room.

It’s nice to have the Hostel experience, but also have a little bit of privacy as well.

We were able to get some chores done we ate some of our own food. I went to the Dollar General and got a few things to eat as well. We went nice through the bounce box and took items that we feel will be helpful for us. We’ve completed our laundry, and I’ve tried a few things out, showered. We headed down to the local brewery, which was within walking distance and enjoyed a beer and some chips and salsa and a vegetarian taco. It was quite tasty while we listen to some live music.

Day 22

Our first zero day. We got up real early to make sure that we got to the diner in time for opening. Another local couple showed up to just before they open the door and said come on in enjoy the large breakfast and a cinnamon bun. It was a lot of food for not very much money.

We did some stretching on the lawn and practiced our Tai Chi.

We mailed or bounce box and went to the outfitter to buy Laura new pair of shoes, a men’s size for a wider toebox.

Connected with loved ones over the course of the day. And got to enjoy a beer with our friends who were taking their dog back to Maine.

We we ate as much of our food as we could at the hostel. We’re sure to stop by and get more snacks from hillbilly market.

More stretching, and foot, rubbing in the evening and one more shower for good measure 😉 that makes shower number four over the last three weeks.

We feel very rested and are ready to hike again tomorrow after the rain stops of course.

Day 23

It was raining this morning while we lingered at the hostel. We had such a rejuvenating time on her zero day and this morning had some coffee and got our things together and eat breakfast and we’re ready to head out back on the trail.

We stopped at the coffee shop and got a mango ginger muffin in a cuppa coffee. What is a cute little shop. They had lots of crystals, and all kinds of other lovely items.

Was a beautiful day for hiking temperatures were in the 50s and sometimes it felt better to just hike in shorts and a T-shirt.

Today we met Foghorn Leghorn who told us about Warrior Exhibitions, a non-profit group that sponsors combat veterans to hike the AT, PCT and the CDT.

We ended up hiking 14 1/2 miles which wasn’t too shabby especially since today was the day we had planned to originally arrive in Hot Springs!

My feet feel a lot better in my new shoes and Paul’s feet were doing good as well. it was really windy and it has been very windy since we put up our tent as well but seems like we’re having a moment of calm right now which is nice.

Since our food bags were heavy, Paul needed to hang two lines for the bear bag. A pine tree looked nice to hang both of them from. He got the heavy one up first then went to hang the lighter one, but the branch that it was on broke as he was pulling it up. It was a large branch, but luckily it got stuck in the bear line of the other hung bag and didn’t hit him in the head .

Day 24

The morning begin chilly, and we started hiking, making our way to the cookie lady, a woman who lives right off the trail and provides hikers with homemade cookies and filtered water.

We got to visit with her and enjoy peanut butter cookies they were delicious.

I had a hard time going today my foot was hurting me quite a bit. I just felt exhausted pretty much the entire day of hiking which turned out to be 12 1/2 miles.

We made it to mile 300!

We made it up to some cliffs, and a very rocky ridge they gave us some views we hadn’t had in quite a long time not since the Smokies.

We had some extra time in the tent for rest.

The weather has turned, pretty chilly and breezy.

Paul also did some figuring that we can make it to Damascus a week prior to our planned arrival there if our mileage stays an average of 16 miles per day for the next 10 1/2 days. At this point it seems doable.

Day 25

Paul decided that his trail name will be All Day. This is because he is the same all day long. He can hike all day long. He can be in a pleasant mood all day long and so on.

We woke up to a very windy, cold morning, and the wind persisted throughout the day.

19.7 mile day! Even with Laura’s foot hurting we can still do some pretty big miles.

We came across Shaman and his dog Athena, passing each other several times today. We are surprised not more people from our initial campsite passed us today because we are generally slow but we also go further, and perhaps they were just taking breaks at different spots.

There was plenty of sunshine today with all of the wind. In the late afternoon, the sky clouded up quite a bit and started to snow just a little. We were surprised to see the sun come back before we stop to camp.

Felt very satisfied with our variety of food and snacks today.

Ended up camping on a bald, which is surprisingly not windy even though we can hear the wind assaulting the area directly above us.

Day 26

Very windy start to the day. Fortunately, the hill we camped on, was somehow immune to the wind, but we heard it all around us flipping around. The sunrise was beautiful from our vantage point.

We headed out onto the windy trail seem to get windier as we continued on.

Fortunately, we had had a pre-breakfast, snack of nuts and were able to delay our breakfast for nearly 6 miles when we came to the big bald shelter.

Previous to that we found some awesome trail magic, and that included hard boiled eggs bags of potato chips, bags of cookies, apples, oranges, and YooHoo drinks.

Big Bald was amazingly beautiful and super windy and we very much enjoyed getting to see the mountains all around us once again. We were literally being blown off the trail with how strong the winds were.

During my break, I took my instant coffee crystals in my YooHoo drink, and made a mocha!

We came across a series of day, hikers, and slack packets.

The terrain was very friendly, and for the last 5 miles the wind had died down and the sun had come out. We made it to No Business Shelter.

Today was a 16 1/2 mile day.

We saw multiple trees that had their own gardens.

We saw a huge downed tree that fell just right beside the trail, and it looked like it had done so recently.

Paul noticed that he already has holes in both of his knee-high darn tough socks.

Day 27

It was Thursday, May 4 day 27 and it was my birthday!

We hiked 6 miles of beautiful trail from No Business Shelter down to Uncle Johnny’s Hostel on the Nolichucky River.

The weather was perfect, beautiful blue sky and much warmer than the previous few days. Hardly any wind.

We arrived in time to set up our tent, showered and took the shuttle to Food City. We enjoyed their salad, bar lunch with Flamethrower, and then leisurely stroll to the isles, picking out our food for the next few days we decided upon more tortilla meals, a nice variety to enjoy leading up to our next box.

Paul got a quart of churro ice cream. It was delicious and we ate it as we walked to the coffee shop. I got a coffee at the coffee shop and then we shared an Uber with Lego man back to the hostel.

We did our chores sorted through our food and wash laundry got ourselves ready for the next few days and then enjoyed some stretching time and just general hanging out.

We borrowed hostel bikes and rode the mile or so down to the Mexican restaurant in the gas station where we enjoyed another meal with Flamethrower and it was delicious.

Best birthday ever!