Day 1: Thank you sweet baby Jesus for trekking poles.

8:42 pm

Miles in: 16 plus 1 mile up to Springer.
FYI: Updates will come sporadically. I wanted to post on certain days, but realistically… They will be posted at any time and no telling how often. 😁

I actually got some good sleep once I settled down. Woke up and ate breakfast and met some fellow thru hikers. Got ready to leave with the shuttle and was cursed early with the “Mullins” luck. 😂 I unfortunately didn’t tighten my water pack all the way and put it inside my pack… About half of the water spilt inside my pack leaving it dripping. 🙈 thankfully my water reservoir didn’t have a hole like I thought. Whew!!!

I forgot to mention that my lovely brother came in last night. So it was awesome to be able to hike with him today.  The picture above is the start at Springer Mountain.

There was quiet a few people out today. David and I felt like pac-man… We had a pretty quick pace compared to others. However hiked a little with a man named whiskey and his dog bullet. 😆 they are very friendly and plan to hike today and tomorrow. Met a man named John who we played tag with… Every time we stopped to take pictures like such..

(Ozzy wanted one too)

..he passed us. Then we would pass him once we would start again. We spent most of the time hiking just us two! I mean 3…Ozzy stared at David and it made him a little uneasy.
We hiked a total of 17 miles. I know it’s crazy. We are supposed to start slow but we just felt good and the miles went by. Definitely towards the last couple miles we slowed down and fatigue started to creep on us. Landed at Gooch mountain shelter and it was full!! So were recommended to hike on a little and got to a pretty clearing and set up camp. Where 4 others came.

Today was unreal. This is unreal. It hasn’t set in yet that I am actually doing this thing!! I found myself hiking and smiling to myself with just awe.

This isn’t easy. They are mountains. We go up. We go down. On repeat. Hence why I am so happy to have my trekking poles.. They really do help!

But if this was easy… I wouldn’t be interested. Challenge. Challenge. Challenge.

Its starting to get chilly now and I’m snuggled in my sleeping bag ready to read and hit the hay. This is crazy but absolutely awesome.

On to day 2.

Iz and Oz