One week in...

Sup everyone! After one week on the trail, we're starting to get a pretty solid idea of what this adventure could become. We all have our own different paces, and we are all learning to hike our own hikes. It's turning into both a solo and group journey.  Some days we will walk alone all day but we always have a group to return to at night. The whole trail is becoming a family, so even when we are all separated it's hard to be completely alone with such a thriving community of backpackers. On our first day we got to Springer pretty late and so we had a short day. After a few more days of hiking we had our first hostel stay at Neels Gap. We all had our backpacks shaken down, and the employees at the outfitters (attached to the hostel) showed us how to pack our packs correctly, and helped us figure out what we could send home. Even the few pounds we were able to shed off made a huge difference! The next day there was a really horrible storm, so we busted out a little over 11 miles before lunch. There wasn't enough shelter space for all of us, Jim and Gil stayed in it, and the rest of us got into our tents right away. It was cold and rainy, so we didn't get out of our tents until the next morning. We woke up to cold weather the next morning with wet tents and gear, so we decided another stay in town to dry off, warm up, and resupply was in order.  We caught a ride into the silly town of Helen, GA.  Truly the silliest little southern Appalachian town, designed to look like a little German town.  Helen is the only place in America where you will find an American flag, a Confederate flag, and a German flag all hanging next to each other.  Our packs are restocked and we're ready to get back onto the trail to follow the white blazes.

Joe, Nate, Austin, Jim, Gil