Cowboy
Setting up camp.
Sunrise at Symm’s Gap Meadow.
Two southbounders from 2009, Fisherman’s Friends and Tumbleweed, along with their friend No Deal provided us with some great trail magic. We had more hotdogs and beer than we could handle!
Exhausted from a long day of hiking.
I’m not sure exactly what day it was, but I swear that I blinked as a turned a corner and spring appeared. The forest is alive and getting more beautiful everyday.
Dragon’s Tooth
Rocker at the famous McAfee Knob.
Rocker trying to figure out how far away town is.
40oz tending to some worn out feet.
40oz resupplying in Daleville, VA
Guarding the trail.
Walking past a FAA tower.
Almost There
f you know me at all, you’ll appreciate how scared I was taking this photo.
Bird House Bob is back to finish what he started 5 years ago.
Count brewing up some dinner.
Bunyan thru hiked in 2009, this year he’s headed southbound to Damascus to meet his old friends at Trail Days.
Wildflowers everywhere.
Life is good, even when hiking with a hangover.
Snow White, finding her way through the thick fog.
Tenderfoot, 70 years young, with 29 year old Snow White. This trail is for everyone.
Blue Jay, hiking the A.T. like he does every year.
Rocker
Storm brewing at Spy Rock.
Cowboy at The Priest.
Snow White attempting to hang her food on a bear pole.
Cowboy
Snow White
A little wall walking in the Shenandoah’s.
Knee Deep
Hanging out at Dick’s Dome Shelter.
Skunk
Kimo is turning 67 years old this year, he started his first section hike in 1967, 43 years later and he’s completed the entire trail.
Bear’s Den Hostel is a great place to stay.
Hikelette is one of the coolest kids I’ve ever met!
Excited!
40oz giving the ticks one less place to hide.
Last day for my first pair of shoes, I went through 3 pairs.
Looks like I’m having PBR for dinner!
Cool Tool struggling to put his sock on and wake up.
The Picnic Sisters.
Forty, Snow White, Rooster and Rocker.
Grayson Highlands State Park.
Snow White making friends with the wild pony’s.
Wild Pony in the Grayson Highlands.
Cool Tool has a serious case of ‘jungle feet’.
Visitor Center beside Partnership Shelter.
Partnership Shelter
Relentless snoring by Roaring Lion forced The Count to sleep outside of the Shelter.
40oz
Looking at The Barn Restaurant from the gas station diner. We ate dinner there the night before but couldn’t return after Snow White embarrassed herself in front of the waitress.
I don’t even like pancakes!
Cowboy climbing over one of many stiles on the trail.
Crash Course and Silver.
Ghost
Target practice.
Snow White and Cowboy at the end of a 27 mile day.
No trees at this campsite so we had to improvise!
Found a little trail magic. 9am beer anyone?
Wood’s Hole Hostel, my favourite place on the trail so far.
Snow White and Suby helping with dinner.
Michael watering his freshly planted herbs.
We loved Woods Hole so much that we stayed a second night. It was a good decision because we we rewarded with a sushi dinner, something I’d been craving for weeks.
Suby, slicing and dicing.
Neville making some rice in the pressure cooker.
Michael stirring up some wasabi.
Neville and Micheal.
Snow White taking a siesta.
I’ve been on the trail for over a month now and can’t believe how fast time is flying by. This is turning into one of the greatest experiences of my life and I only expect it to get better.
I was asked the other day what my favourite part of the trail has been so far. The answer was actually quite easy to come up with and it’s definitely Max Patch. I spent a couple of hours up there, cooked myself some dinner and watched the sun go down as a crazy storm circled. It never actually passed over the bald, so I was left dry and able to take some beautiful photographs. While I was sitting there eating my delicious Ramen noodles, I thought back to a funny video I had watched last year. The girls in the video are Wags and Gangsta, I followed both of their online journals as they did their own thru hikes. I learned a lot from both of them, but there’s definitely one strong message I took away at the end of their journey and that’s to have fun, no matter the situation. If you’re considering a thru hike I would recommend giving their journals a read.
You can find white blazes in the strangest places.
Snow White, Roaring Lion and Cowboy.
Headed to a warm bed after a cold week in the Smokies.
My temporary office at Standing Bear Farm.
Frost
Cedar Tree, inventor of the Packa.
Hikers leaving Max Patch.
Circling storm on Max Patch.
I decided to cook myself some dinner up on Max Patch, as I set up my stove a storm started to blow in but it circled fully around me, leaving me nice and dry.
The trail passes right through the town of Hot Springs, it’s strange walking on concrete!
A sign of spring? I’m not holding my breath.
Another hint of spring.
Cool Tool
Sometimes we even walk on roads.
Sweet Potatoes, Tin Man, Half Pint. Yes, those are croquet mallets.
Hiking up Big Bald.
Sweet Potatoes stuck in the snow. Not a good day to be wearing a skirt!
Recovering at Uncle Johnny’s Hostel.
A beautiful sight.
Drinking some beer and talking with DMax, my second trail angel.
Snow White enjoying her dinner.
Sunset, my favourite time to hike.
A rare, fully enclosed shelter. If I would have know how horrible the next day was going to be, I would have stayed in bed.
Roaring Lion performing blister surgery on Snow White.
Rocker and 40oz
The result, a piece of thread through the blister, so the puss will drain.
You sleep above the animals at Mountain Harbour Hostel.
Snow White at Mountain Harbour Hostel.
Start of a crazy night hiking.
Watauga Lake
Watauga Dam
Welcome to Damascus, home of Trail Days.
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