The Battle Begins

So I want to say this post may be a little late. Signal can be spotty and it's been incredibly difficult to keep track of everything I've been doing. But fear not! I'll be updating this blog over the next few days as I work on it, so check back for updates.

P.s - My first YouTube video is in the works as well!

Part 1: 3/23

Today was a Great morning, despite being a little stiff from the cold night. I made a breakfast fit for a hiker; oatmeal and coffee. Everyone at camp was chatty and ready to start their day. We walked to our first checkpoint to find a trail magic box with soda, oatmeal cookies and fruit! About a mile up the trail we came across a man and 3 kids handing out apples, telling us they had a big cookout at Gooch Gap. Just like that our day had purpose, we now had to make it to Gooch Gap for this food. After a steep rocky climb, we found ourselves heading back down. I also found a perfectly good banana on the trail, so I snagged it for later. We hiked for four long miles to a beautiful brook and decided to have lunch. I'm good we did, because my legs were so sore. Fueled up and ready to go, we pushed to Gooch gap and sure enough there was a huge group of people making dinner, a fire and even doing breakfast in the morning! The day was made, our miles of hiking had finally paid off. We set up camp, changed into our camp clothes and went to socialize. It was a night filled with food, laughter and amazing people. One ill remember forever. But eventually I had to go to sleep.

Part 2: 3/24

Today actually started off great. Hot sauce and I woke up at 5:30, packed up our gear and headed over to help james at Benchmark get coffee and breakfast set up. We had planned to push to Neels gap today which was 14.1 miles. After breakfast and thanking everyone for their kindness we set off on the trail. We knew it would be a long day so we kept a steady pace. We passed people from camp on and off all day. Pushing on for miles, we eventually made it to slaughter creek where we had a quick lunch. We hiked with a guy named Pat, who was really cool. Eventually we summited blood mountain around 4pm and took a nice break at the top. Our last mile and a half to neels gap was a down hill, rocky scramble for quite a bit. Made it to mountain crossings and I got a new pillow, extra socks and some snacks. Hot sauce also found me a sawyer bag in the hiker box, which was exactly what I needed. One of the employees there was actually a hiking partner of hot sauce. He was very generous and gave us a trail bar for free. Pat had shared some of his pizza and they let us stay in their guest room for the night! He also drove us to dollar general for a food resupply. Packed up my food, charged my electronics and went to sleep.

Part 3: 3/25

I woke up at 7:30, got some gear at the shop, sent out my package home with the idea of sending my grandmother staff medallions and making a big collage board. We met a guy named keegan with an injured ankle and ended up getting a shuttle into blairsville. Heather, Josh, Hot Sauce, Keegan and I shared a hotel room. I did some much needed sink laundry and realized how gross my socks were. Once everyone was done with their chores we all went to Copeland's and I got a burger, fries and a (five) strawberry vodka lemonade. It was easily the best food I've had in a long time. After that we took a trip to Walgreens to get a few small supplies and I got some Epsom salt for later. Back at the hotel I did a little work on some photos and videos. Some other hikers were hanging outside so we all kind of chatted for a bit. One of the girls was wearing her buff as a shirt, so i jokingly said I'd wear mine as "pants". Everyone said I should, so I did. It was basically a really long tight skirt. No shame.. As We went back out to the bar and it was trivia night, met with the hikers from earlier and had drinks and played trivia. I stayed with the other group for trivia, we came in 4th place with name as "cooter pounder with cheese". Today was also Joes 25 birthday, so I paid for his tab and got a round of birthday shots for everyone! We all came back and keegan helped fix my pack fitment a little bit, it feels much better! Going to bed after drinks and good laughs, ready to hike to low gap shelter tomorrow.