Rain, Rain, Rain, and more Rain...

We're in Pearisburg VA now (627 miles from Springer, GA)!

After leaving Damascus it rained for 5 days straight. Needless to say the trails were muddy :)  We were sliding around like two awkward penguins pretending to know how to skate in the mud. 

Our wildlife sightings have gone up!  We are now seeing countless cows everyday, haha!  Still no bears, but we have seen some very friendly deer:) 

We met a hiker who summed up the Appalachian Trail experience quite beautifully.  On the AT one eventually becomes "comfortable with being uncomfortable."  We are mostly at that stage now.  In normal life, one is in a state of constant equilibrium.  However in trail life there's always something out of whack.  For example, it's either too hot, too cold, too wet, too buggy, too hungry, too full...  We live in a world of extremes, and yet once you embrace this mentality then you can easily ignore all of these uncomforts and you truly become "comfortable with being uncomfortable." 

Everyone is hiking the trail in a different style.  "Hike your own Hike" is the best trail slogan for the AT.  We've met hikers who are spending years on the trail hiking <10 miles a day just experiencing life.  We've also met someone whose hiked the trail for the 9th time, and another who is running the trail (30+ miles a day).  And for some it can become another beer fest.  There's a few who participate in the suitcase challenge.  Where hikers dress up in suits and dresses and hike 24 miles while drinking 24 beers (carried in a suitcase) in 24 hrs.  Needless to say not many actually succeed in this challenge, but it was hilarious meeting them along the trail in various states of delirium:)

Were hoping to be in Harper's Ferry the weekend of June 18th.  So if anyone wants to visit just let us know through the blog or by email!

Happy Trails,
Amanda and Becky

In Damascus for Trail Days 464 miles and 5 weeks of hiking

Hi All,

We finally have a great computer with a SD drive, so this blog will be mostly pictures!! So sweet. We are currently in Damascus now for Trail Days, which is this awesome festival for hikers.  It's a great way to catch up with other hikers who we have passed or who have passed us on the trail.  Today is our first actual zero day, which means that we're not hiking any miles on the trail today. It feels weird not to be walking, but we're excited to have some time to update the blog with pictures:)

We've been camping in some beautiful spots! 

Many of the hostels along the AT are quite unique!  This one had a cat, which decided to sleep on Amanda's jacket all afternoon:)  At night they are excellent mice catchers! 

This is the tree that marks the GA to NC border.

Amanda decided to chill out on top of a bald.  We were two miles from camp, but we needed a break.  Becky jumped around saying "It's so pretty"  three or four times and took tons of pics, but they don't do it justice.

Becky decided to sleep in the sun during a lunch break on top of one of the fire towers.

Another beautiful spot in the Smoky Mountains.

Amanda eats tuna. Yikes:)  After 5 years as a hard core vegetarian, she has decided to become "mostly vegetarian" for the AT. 

We've been having some interesting wildlife encounters.  Still no bears, but hanging bear bags are still not easy!  It usually ends up with us cursing our third grade PE teachers for not teaching us how to throw well, LOL.  However we're improving ever so gradually.  Also, we saw two copperheads the other day.  Becky saw the first one and jumped off the trail. While Becky was taking a picture, Amanda kept walking, talking some science about copperheads, and nearly ran over a second snake.  She was not expecting two snakes in a row, haha. 

In order to finish before Becky goes back to grad school, we're increasing our miles to 20 miles a day.  So we'll let you know how that goes in the next blog!  Gotta go, we've been on the computer too long...

Best,
Amanda and Becky