Back at it :)

Hey everyone,
We are back on the trail and loving it again!! :)

Lets see where did we leave you at... Damascus for Trail Days i believe. Well Elliott and I ended up staying there for 4 days because we were waiting for Uncle Jonny's Hostel to forward our mail drop to the Damascus Post Office. Trail Days was super fun. We met a lot of people that had thru hiked in previous years who had a lot of wisdom and encouragement. When we realized that it was going to take awhile to get our package we asked the Damascus Post Office to forward it to Troutdale, about 50 miles away. We resupplied and set out.

We left so late that day that we only went 1.5 miles and set up camp. It had rained on and off during Trail Days and again that first night out. We had sent our cold weather sleeping bags home because for 2 weeks we had not been sleeping inside them... bad choice. It got down to about 35 degrees that night and we had 45 degree sleeping bags. We shivered most of the nights and morning. It was raining when we woke up and we were slow moving. We did not pack up and leave until after 12:30 pm.

That day since we left so late and because we were not in the best moods we only hiked 7.6 miles through a very cold rain. Which was fine because we decided to do what we want while hiking and not push it if we don't feel like it. That night we had a shelter to ourselves so we set the tent up inside the shelter to try to dry it out. We also had picked up some Jiffy Pop from a pile of food someone left in the woods. GREAT IDEA. After eating dinner we made hot coco and jiffy pop. Who knew that could be such a mood lifter. That night was very cold as well even with zipping our sleeping bags together and wearing all of  our clothing.

5/18 We had a decision to make. Hike 6.6 miles and sleep at an elevation of 3,399 or hike 18 miles and sleep at an elevation of  5,430. Since we knew it would be even colder on top of the mountain we could only go the 6.6. So another short day of hiking in the rain.

The next day we summited the mountain. Can you guess it? Yup through the rain, but good news! By the time we were on our way down the rain and fog cleared up and we saw some of the most beautiful sights we have seen so far. The Grayson Highlands were amazing! And there were wild horses hanging out. They were not scared of us and actually liked to lick us because we tasted like salt. One horse even tried eating my rain coat. We hiked 17.3 miles that day and camped by a stream in one of the coolest camping areas we have been at. It warmed up a little and we were able to sleep.

The next day we hiked 15.8 miles in 6 hours and hitched to the Troutdale Baptist Hostel. The provided us with an amazing free dinner and a short Bible message. Guess what- No rain that night :)

We hiked 14.5 miles the following day and about 7 miles in another Baptist Church was offering shuttles to their church for lunch. We ate so much that the next 7.5 miles went pretty slow. On our hike that day we saw 52 millipedes!!!!! Yup we counted the whole day. Elliott didn't really get into it until I got to 35. That night we hitched a ride back to Troutdale and went to church the next morning.

The last couple of days we have been in Marion hanging out with Jon Schleef! We are both very excited to be hanging out with a such a great friend!

Tomorrow we hit the trail again. :) More adventures to come!!!!

p.s. i just figured out how to respond to comments... so go check it out