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Currently we are in Damascus VA. Amy and I have both been putting off setting up a journal for quite sometime now. We have finally done it though! To catch up on the past 450 miles-
We started hiking the Appalchian Trail on April 7th 2008. The trail starts in Amacalola Falls, GA. From that point we hiked the 8 mile "approach trail" up to the top of Springer Mountain (the official start) before we could even start the A.T.
Four days in, we stayed at our first hostel, Neels Gap. At this point you could say we became fully involved in the hiker lifestyle. Four days walking through the woods, a night in a bunkhouse with 15 other people and a community shower is one lovely step above a "hobo", we are Hikers.
A week or two in we crossed the stateline into NC. Our first real landmark that let us know we realy are walking north from GA-ME. After we reached NC, we walked and bounced back and fourth along the TN/NC border. We climbed through the Smokies and saw the highest point on the AT at some 6600 ft. Halfway through the Smokies, we stoped in Gatlinburg for a resuplpy and ended up staying longer than anybody should have to. Gatlinburg is a town with an economy that lives strictly off of old time photo shops and wax museums of ripleys believe it or not.
After the Smokies, we hiked along to Hot Springs, NC. A nice one road town where we met up with Amys brother Mike. Mike spent this week happy as can be and told us that he loved it!(We heard from other sources that he "hated it"). A week later he left the trail in Erwin TN.
Since Erwin, we pushed miles to make it to the party in Damascus, VA - "Trail Days". About 40 miles short I (zak or "diesel") became too sick to hike any further. We were stuck in Hampton, TN. From there we hitched a ride to Damascus, enjoyed the party, I saw a doctor and now we are taking a couple days off to rest.
When we do decide to get back on the trail we will have to hitch back to Hampton so we dont miss our miles.
So there is a brief catch up on our journey so far and we look forward to updating you as often as we can. Pictures should be up soon...
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