Challenges, but also good things

 We have officially been on the trail one week, and gone over 60 miles, which is a lot for both of us! We are just about on schedule and feeling good! The past few days have definitely been challenging and set us back from our initial schedule by one day, which is to be expected. You can plan all you want but it turns out the weather is the true decider…

We absolutely froze the past three days!! The temp dropped big time and we spent the last few nights in below freezing weather,wearing as many layers as possible, buried in our sleeping bags. The night may have passed, but sleeping definitely did not happen. We decided to take our next town stop a day early to thaw out. I (Moonbow) was definitely feeling emotional and frustrated by constant cold and barely any sleep, so a day of rest was in order.  We said we wanted to ease into it in terms of mileage and that’s been going great, but we are learning that easing into trail life in other ways (like more breaks at beginning, and cutting ourselves a break from weather) is also important. Tomorrow is a big day with a couple big mountains, so we are resting up and heading back to trail where we left off nice and early. 

While there have been a few challenges, we are also really getting into the groove of meeting people on the trail, and that’s been incredible. It’s neat to have an instant bond with hundreds (thousands!) of people doing the same thing as you, that you come across in different moments as the days pass. These past few days we have been hiking and camping with our new friends Rope Burn, Captain Planet and Yoga Mamma. Yoga Mamma is late in life deaf so we practice ASL together and that’s been great. As her name suggests she is a yoga teacher, so she does classes for us at camp.

Last night we all huddled around a fire built by Lightning Bug and then hunkered down in Blue Mountain shelter to ride out the cold. This morning we woke to a gorgeous sunrise and “trail magic” (burgers, hot dogs and donuts) a few miles away! It’s been a Great group and we definitely hope to meet up later this week after we get some rest! 

us and the hiking pals

So far every single person we have met is so kind, open, supportive and fun to be around. The AT community really is pretty magical! The mountains are of course gorgeous, and while we hope the weather warms a bit, we don’t hAve anything to complain about!!