Day 4-10

Day 4

Fowler's the first of us to run into body injury. Until now I had no idea it was possible to get chaffing between the butt cheeks. Josh's new name is Sweet Cheeks. It was so bad we decided on staying another night at Pirate's hostel, making that our first "zero day." Sweet Cheeks bought some medicine and consulted a nurse, so no need for worry. That night we watched the movie Machete, and downed some white bean chile with some Budweiser. Good times.

So far on this adventure we've met some really awesome people. Steve and David (we met them at the shelter day one) are only doing sections of the AT. If you guys are reading this, thanks for all the advice!!! There's also Chuck. Ex-army infantry (get some!) and 45 years old. Chuck is also thru hiking the trail, and are paths keep crossing. He tells his boy back home that we are his Marine Corps escort. :-)

Day 5

It was best for Fowler to take a few days more days to heal. So, he hitched to Hiawassee inteneding to meet us two days later on the trail. Mo and I moved on. The weather was a lot better. Most of the snow melted and the sun was out in force. This was the only day in Georgia that we had relatively flat terrain. Therefore we walked 18 miles. We stayed this night at the very windy Blue Mtn Shelter, and once again met up with Steve. After informing him on Fowler's "condition," he gave us his extra pair of trekking poles. The Golden Child finds trail magic once again!

Day 6

This day we hiked a grand total of 8 miles. The terrain was absolutely hardcore. Mo's knee started hurting him bad, so we called Fowler and had him pick up a knee brace. My knee is also starting to hurt, but not too bad. Anyway we stayed the night at Tray Mtn Shelter. To our surprise Chuck joined us late in the day. It's pretty awesome that we keep running into the same people.

Day 7

We left Chuck and hiked 12 miles to Dick's Creek Gap. There we rendezvoused with Fowler and walked another mile to a campsite. Fowler delivered the knee braces and some multivitamins, but he failed to bring us some requested Subway. Doh!

Day 8

Finally! Finally we have left Georgia!!! North Carolina greeted us with a nasty uphill climb. But after that things flattened out. This days mileage was also 12 miles that ended at another shelter. This shelter lacked anti-bear food hoist cables. We simply used rope and Golden Child's knot skills to hang our food from a tree.

Day 9 and 10

Another 12 mile hike brought us to yet another shelter. That night we met a very interesting fellow. A South bound hiker named Gil. As a southbounder, he hiked the AT from Maine, heading to Georgia. Gil looked like he'd been out in the woods to long. He kept blinking both eyes in a twitching mannor. But then he warmed up to us at the campfire. Gil's long walk was rough. Despite starting in July 2010, he daily mileage was shot when he ran into massive snow in Virginia. He actually had snow shoes with him! Gil shared with us all sorts of information. I can't wait to reach the northern AT!

The next day I awoke with some gnarly lower back pain. It was horrible. LaMarca the machine has finally been brought down! We'll not quite. We took another zero day and it payed off. I think the problem is my sleeping pad. To solve the problem I will buy another sleeping pad - it's not too hard to get to an outfitter from the trail. That night two other hiker's showed up: Paul and Jordon. These guys are hardcore. Paul's pack weighs 20 lbs, and Jordon's 30 lbs. They also do insane mileage. Like 20+ miles a day! They both gave us all sorts of tips on how to cut weight. We then decided to stop by in the town of Franklin to mail some stuff home.

Day 11-12

Franklin.

We hiked 16 miles and called a shuttle to Franklin. This guy Chris, that we met on the trail, gave us a ride to the grocery store and the outfitter. Then from the outfitter the chick at the counter called her mom to give us a ride back to our motel. I swear. Southern hospitality just warms my heart. Franklin is a small town, but it's really nice. Of course we totally pigged out and hit some bars. I crashed early, but Mo and Fowler kept at it. They went to this one "private" bar but were asked to leave because Josh was "creeping out the girls." In an effort to not lose weight I bought a ton of extra food. We'll see how that goes.