More fun from the first few days

Mom, Mary Reible, got all the facts right. Thanks mom!

Here are some fun, and funny situations, we have encountered so far.

Day one- after our ten miles we got to the top of Sassafras Mountain and i said "Elliott set up the tent please." He did and I took a 2 hour nap before I had enough energy to eat dinner... after which I fell back asleep.

Day Two- Dan left early to get to Justice Creek so he could cook breakfast because there was no water on Sassafras Mountain. Elliott and I left about 30 minutes later and after about a mile we passed Hat Rack, another hiker, at which time dog started following us. We assumed it was Hat Rack's dog so we let it hike with us the next mile and a half to the creek. It got there before us and stole Dan's tortilla bag. When Hat Rack arrived we asked if it was his dog... it wasn't. Cooking was quite the challenge with Hiker, this is what we named the dog because it just loved to run on the trail. Four ladies came along and fed Hiker 2 sandwiches so we thought that she would for sure stay with them, but once we started hiking Hiker followed us again. Later a another hiker passed us and we thought that Hiker would follow him so we took a break and let Hiker and the hiker go on ahead. Finally rid of the dog! JK about a half mile down the trail Hiker came running back. Poor thing was so skinny that we couldn't just leave her out there. We waited on a forest road to try to get cars to stop and take her into town, but no luck. So we hiked on. Finally, we got to a paved road and decided enough was enough, though we all loved the dog that adopted us, we had to get rid of her because we couldn't take care of her. Elliott and I started down the mountain road toward a town to find someone who could help us get the dog somewhere safe. After about a mile and a half of road walking we ran into a lady who knew a man that had lost a dog. She called him and he took us back to the parking lot were we left Dan and Hiker. It wasn't his dog, but he was kind enough to take her and get her to a shelter. His son had hiked the trail the year before and had a great time doing it. He also invited us to eat dinner with his family, but we had to keep moving. In all we hiked about 9 miles with Hiker... made for a long second day on the trail.

Day Three- Hiked up Blood Mountain which has the highest elevation on the AT in Georgia. It had a great view! After we hiked down to Neels Gap, the first civilization on the trail after you leave Springer. A man that had hiked the trail the year before donated some money for the hikers to have a good meal so the hostile host cooked up a huge spaghetti dinner with garlic bread, salad and ice cream. This very welcome after 30 miles of hiking. We met a lot of other hikers that night too and were glad that we had only been doing ten mile days instead of 15 because many of the hikers at the hostile were already suffering from injuries.

Day Four - 11 mile day. Elliott's foot started swelling and hurting. We got to Low Gap before the storm hit. That night there was a fierce thunderstorm with rain that just poured on our tent.

Day Five- Everyone woke up with wet gear, but for the most part we all stayed dry in our tents. We got a late start that day because we were drying everything off. This day Elliott's foot hurt to the point that he was struggling down hills. After about ten miles of hiking and not wanting to do another 1.5 mile 1,000 ft incline we chose to hitch hike into Helen so Elliott could see a doctor. We shared a room with Denis, from Iowa, and got a sweet hiker rate. Unfortunately, there were no medical services in Helen, but it was nice to shower and get a full meal.

Day Six- Back on the trail. Elliott decided to start taking aspirin for his foot and wait until Hiawassee to get his foot checked out. We did not lose any mileage due to the town night. We camped in Sassafras Gap with Sam W., Thunder Foot and Panda Bear and had a great time. This was the first night on the trail that we had a campfire.  We went to bed later than usual. Hiker midnight is about 9:00 pm.

Day Seven- We hiked 6.5 miles to highway 76 where we ran into Tatter Chip, a man that hiked the whole last year. He had a truck bed full of soda, water, Gatorade, moon pies and cookies. This my friend is what you call Trail Magic. It is almost like and oasis. Tatter Chip was very encouraging. He informed us that if we can make it through Georgia then we can make it through the Smokies. He lost all of his toe nails by the end of Georgia. Luck for us we still have all of ours. :) We hitched into Hiawassee got a hotel room. We all started sifting through our gear to see what we could send home to save on weight.

Day Eight - Zero Day. Elliott is finally getting his foot checked out, we are resupplying, resting, rebuilding our tired muscles, eating, sending gear home and updating the world outside of the woods on our happenings. Elliott's mom informed us that the shelters from Woods Gap to Neels Gap had been closed due to bears. Lucky we went through before that happened. Some of the other hikers were there a few nights ago and the bears were shaking their bear bag lines and smelling guys in hammocks. After some yelling and throwing of rocks the bears ran away.

Mom K, Nyoka Kasprzak, has been sending us food drops. Thanks Mom K.!

What an adventure so far... tomorrow we will be done with the Georgia section and will move onto North Carolina.