Day 150: Fontana Dam, NC to Stecoah Gap, NC (14 mi) We slept in this morning in our super warm, dry and comfortable hotel bed, soaking up the glory of getting through the Smokies and hopefully the worst weather on trail. I was up late the night before dealing with Teledoc to get steroid cream ordered to a nearby Walgreens for a spider bite that seemed to be getting much worse in the past 10 days (blue and purple with lesions/broken skin in the center...). Needless to say we

Day 146: Davenport Gap Shelter to Peck’s Corner Shelter (19.8 mi) I woke up with a start as my phone read 6:53 am. Everyone in the shelter was still sound asleep. I woke up Fresh Feet and said “we’ve got to get up! It’s 7 o’clock!” He moved as quickly as I’ve seen in a long while. It was still oddly dark, but we were in a dense forest and it was supposed to be an overcast and rainy day, so I just thought it was super cloudy. Once we had everything ready to go, I looked at my

Day 142: Nature’s Inn hostel to Little Laurel Shelter (25.3 mi) Daylight savings totally surprised us this morning! Our shuttle back to the trailhead didn’t leave until 8 am, but when I got out of our window-less freezing cold (42 deg with the space heater...) uninsulated shed “cabin” at 6:45 am to go to the bath house. I was confused and surprised to find that it was completely light out! The sun hadn’t been rising until about 7:30 at the earliest and even then it wasn’t THI

Day 134: Damascus, VA to Double Spring Shelter (18.5 mi) We started this morning at about 8 am from the Dancing Bear B&B in Damascus. The first 6 miles was a very nice and gentle climb with a lot of switchbacks and very tame trail. Near the top of the climb we crossed the state line into TENNESSEE!! I was so elated to see that sign and finally have Virginia in the rear view mirror. Phew! What an exciting moment! We then continued walking along a ridge for most of the day with

Day 129: Bland, VA to Chestnut Knob Shelter (22 mi) We got back on trail by about 8:40 am. We dropped off our rental car at the Enterprise in Wytheville at 8:05. Bubba (local shuttle driver) met us there and then dropped us off at the trail intersection with the convenient store where he had picked us up a week ago outside of Bland, VA. We cruised on smooth trail as our bodies adjusted back to hiking. My new Hoka Stinsons felt very pillowy with all the additional cushion. Def