I slept poorly last night, but that was no fault of the Green Dragon Hostel. That place was top notch, and the owners–Bill and Donna–were both great as well. I think that it had more to do with just being in a different environment. It was always like that on my other trails. I’d get to a trail town and not be able to sleep because it was different than my tent. Seems too early to be so attached to my tent, but here we are.
Breakfast at the hostel was good, and we were back to trail soon after 8am. I say “we” as there were several hikers returning to trail from the hostel together, and I ended up hiking with one of them for a few miles. His name was Austin, and I met him in the first hostel I stayed in before starting the trail. He was already a few days into the hike at that time. We made a few miles together, but it wasn’t long before he fell behind and I was hiking by myself again.
I met several other hikers at the GA/NC state line. It was the first state line crossing of the AT so far, and I had packed a Key Lime pie out from the last trail town to celebrate. I ended up splitting it with several of the other hikers that were there at the water crossing by the state boarder.
I feel like I’m in the main “group” of AT hikers now, but it’s also hard to tell. I seem to be meeting around ten others a day, but then walking by another ten to twenty who are stopped at water sources, off trail, or at camp earlier. I still expected to see a lot more than this.
Most of the others I don’t talk with much; we just cross paths and I go on my way while they go on theirs. But I did talk with a guy today who had a knee injury. We hiked together for a bit before I broke ahead.
Speaking of injury, I’m starting to develop some issues in my lower legs. My achellies tendon on the left side is becoming very painful particularly. Today it reached a point of pain that was starting to bother me in one of the climbs.
I’m so tired here tonight that I can barely keep my eyes open. I need to go to sleep.
It’s something so familiar, being on trail again. The AT is also becoming a lot of what I hoped it would be. It’s been interesting meeting so many other hikers (far fewer than I expected) and having a continued feeling of admiration from them in learning that I’ve hiked other trails.
It also feels good to feel strong. I’m more experienced than before, but I’ve also prepared for this trail particularly well. The AT scared me when I was thinking about it for the last 8 months. But now that it’s underfoot it’s like heaven. I keep saying that over and over again–“it’s just like heaven.” I sang The Cure several times as I bounced up trail today.
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I set an alarm for 630 this morning, but immediately turned it off and slept in for another hour. I wasn’t quick to trail.
Last night I had planned to possibly come to the next trail town to resupply on food, then head back to trail, but then upon looking at my food more closely, I felt like it didn’t need resupply yet. When I woke today however, I started rethinking and decided to hitch into the town of Hiaawassii, GA. No, that’s probably not how it’s spelled, but I’m giving it my best. So many of the town names have been weird out here. Many of them memorable. Dick’s Gap. Gooch Gap. Butthole Gap. Swinging Dick Gap. I’m only making up one of those four…
It was kind of comical when I got to the road crossing to hitch into town. There was a dude–who clearly didn’t look like he was associated with the trail–literally cheering in my direction. I literally didn’t think it had anything to do with me. He said “way to go! You did it!” As if this part of the trail is some kind of turning point or important crossing. It is in fact neither.
He welcomed me across the road and offered some candy and water–neither of which I needed. But when I asked about where to stand to hitch for a ride into town, he immediately said, “done.” And drove me the frew miles in for resupply.
I signed the thru hiker wall at the outdoor store, bought an AT town shirt, and bought groceries for the next stretch of trail. Along the way however, someone mentioned the Green Dragon Hostel, which I’d read good things about before. After hearing that they had showers and laundry, I was sold.
I’ve been with hikers at the hostel most of the afternoon. We went to town and I had an amazing 16oz ribeye. I ate as much fruit and hard boiled eggs as I could. Oh, and so far I’ve chosen to stay away from alcohol. Maybe for the full trail. I had 4 non alcoholic beers while the others drank. Considering that I use other medicines on trail pretty liberally, I feel like refraining from drink is a nice demonstration of my claim that I’m not just out here to “get fucked up” all the time. I’ve actually felt much better having refrained. And rehydrated from the NA beer.
I also got to do some bodywork on one of the other hikers, which I’m progressively enjoying more and more.
When I walked into the hostel, one of the hikers immediately commented on my legs. I thought it was funny. When we talked some more he said that he’d heard of me from others on trail. A few people have talked about my milage as well as my being a massage therapist–although over and over people confuse it for physical therapist. Whatever.
I do have a pain in my left Achilles today that was not there yesterday. And a persistent knee pain. But the knee feels better when I stretch it out, even just for 30 seconds on trail, and it’ll continue to keep an eye on the heel thing. It’s expected to be hurting at least somewhat at this point.
Tonight will be my last night in Georgia. I’ll have breakfast with the other hikers and the owners of the Green Dragon (who are fucking fantastic, by the way!), then back to trail at 8. I wanted earlier, but I’ll live.
My favorite moment today was meeting a hiker and her dog, whose name I forgot because I was too detracted by trying to devise a plan to kidnap her pup. I literally cried after we parted ways.
I slept intermittently through last night, somewhat cold, but mostly just excited to be out on trail.
I was about half way up Blood Mountain when I set camp last night. I didn’t really know that when I set though. All I knew last night was that I was insanely exhausted and needed to call it a night. This morning I wanted to be back to trail by 7:30, but ultimately chose to sleep in an extra half hour or so, which put me on trail a bit closer to 8. I was still happy with this. It was so cold that making it to trail any earlier would have been uncomfortable.
As the trail continued up Blood Mountain, it just got colder and colder with the ascent. But I don’t like sweating in my trail gear if I don’t have to, so I dropped my rainpants and down jacket pretty early on. If I’d known that there was going to be frost and ice from last night on the leaves and branches, I might have held off a bit longer, but still, I feel more comfortable hiking in shorts. I move a lot more freely.
But when I stepped into the AT Shelter at the top of the mountain, there were a couple of guys in there freezing their asses off, and they remarked that it was odd to see me there in shorts. I didn’t hang around long. The secret to hiking though cold weather in shorts without freezing your ass off: don’t stop hiking; just keep moving.
Okay… so here’s maybe one of my bigger problems that I’ve run into so far. I may have mentioned it in my journal last night (I honestly don’t remember; I was so tired when I wrote that), but here’s the deal: I accidentally ended up with the wrong rain fly in my pack, and although it fits my tent, it doesn’t fit it properly, and it’s not going to hold up on trail. So it needed to be replaced.
Fortunately there was a place called Neal Gap, where there was an outdoor store, showers, and pizza. The showers and pizza may not seem relevant to this discussion, but be assured that i wasn’t going to just solve my tent problem without pizza and a hot shower. So it was convenient that there was a gear shop on trail where I could not only swap out my tent with a new one but also mail it back home, but new ultra light tents don’t come cheep. It ended up being around $400, plus the pizza and shower. Worth it when you consider that I’ll get more than 100-200 nights out of this tent, but heartbreaking that I had to drop that cash this early on the trail. But it’s not a trend that should continue.
There were maybe a half dozen other hikers at Neal Gap, and I talked with some of them for a bit. A lot of them ask where I got my trail name. Some of them I tell, and others I tell them that it’s a secret. Maybe it’ll be a story for another time if I haven’t told it on here already.
I hiked with an Austrian girl named PopTart for a few miles around noon, and it was the first time that Ive shared any miles with another hiker. It was nice, but didn’t last all that long.
There was a church group set up at a road crossing with huge quantities, but I didn’t know that they were a church group until after they insistently fed me (along with several other hikers who were there), and I started to go back to my bag. That’s when they asked if they could pray over me, and feeling like it would be rude to say “no” after the free food, I let them do their thing. It seems like a fair trade considering that they fed me a couple of sliders and a half dozen hard boiled eggs. It’s so damn hard to get protein out here that ya gotta get it when you can.
I’m absolutely in love with the trail so far. I find myself literally dancing up trail all through the day. Quite literally. It’s just amazing out here.
Oh! There was a point today where I saw a couple of day hikers with two dogs, and when I dropped down to greet one of their pups, the owner warned that “she jumps.” But I didn’t care. I opened my arms, and only then realized that she was a Stanfordshire Bull Terrier. Immediately I asked the owner if I was right, and he confirmed. I told him that my heart lives with Staffys. I see myself getting a dog after the trail, and as my last pup was a Staffy, I would like to get another. He remarked that he actually found her abandoned in the forest, and it literally led me to break down in tears after they went their separate ways. Not because of that dog specifically, but because it was the closest reminder of what it was like to have a pup, and I cannot wait to get one again. I even saw the possibility of it happening on trail, but the chances of it are low. Never know though…
I made dinner around 4 miles back at a shelter, then hiked on. I love the miles after dinner, especially if the sun is still up.
Tonight I’m camped at a hillside just past a Gap. Tomorrow it’ll be another day.
I need to start thinking about resupplying food tomorrow or the next day. Provisions are growing low.
Appalachian Trail Journal 2025 