There’s a common saying on the AT: “no pain, no rain, no Maine.” It’s a reminder of the obstacles that you must inevitably endure during a successful thru-hike. Over the last few days, we’ve gotten a taste – mind you, just a taste – of these and other new challenges.

We headed out of Blairsville on Thursday morning. We had arranged with our shuttle driver from the day before to take us back to the trail, and Bret picked us up at our motel and drove us back to Neels Gap. Fun fact: the breezeway at Mountain Crossings is the only place where the AT passes through a man-made structure.

It felt really good and surprisingly relieving to be back in the rhythm of the trail and hiking. With Sophie’s encouragement, I had decided to take my new friend Ninja along for a section hike. I actually needed some convincing to do so, but hiking with Ninja reminded me of one of my mottos, “…but in the very long term, I know which will make better memories,” from Calvin and Hobbes. I strapped him to the back of my pack; thankfully, he didn’t add much weight! I got some positive attention for it, but honestly most people didn’t really bat an eye. One woman (who we met later) did tell us that Ninja’s balloon sword looked like a penis, at 8:30 in the morning.

That morning, we were surprised and delighted to run into Billy (2022 GA section hiker) and Laurie, who had given us trail magic a few days earlier! It was wonderful to get trail magic from them again(!) and catch up with familiar faces after a few more days on the trail.

In less good news though, I was starting to experience my first real pain of the trip with a twinge in my right hip. That made for a challenging rest of the day. We were going a little over 11 miles that day, which didn’t feel like too much, but I hoped I didn’t regret pushing on.

There was rain in the forecast for the evening, and we hoped to arrive at camp before it started. Unfortunately we didn’t quite get there, so we put on our rain gear for the first time and hiked a few miles in a light drizzle, expecting much more that night. When we got to the shelter, we were a bit disappointed to find it a lot more crowded than we expected. Sophie had hoped to stay in the shelter to escape the rain, but that ended up being impossible. The tent sites were unideal too, with flat ground being difficult to come by. Nevertheless, we set our tents up on a slant and settled in for the evening. With a bunch of people around, it felt tough to return to the social life of the trail after a day off with just the two of us.

We did meet some cool characters along the trail and at camp that day, including Ratchet, Gunny, and Patch McKraken. Gunny had hiked 1100 miles of the trail last year, and he’s back to thru-hike this year. He gave me the advice that my pack was sitting a little low on my hips, and that wearing it a little higher might help the pain in my hip. I was grateful for the idea and eager to try it out, as well as hopeful that a night of rest would help.

That night, the rain came, real rain, all night. My tent held up pretty well. Sophie was less lucky, and her sleeping bag and other gear got wet. We blame the slanted tent site. Despite the slant and the rain, I had my best night of sleep on trail so far. We stayed in our tents for a long time that morning, waiting out the rain that stopped around 9:30. While we were still there, we decided to get off trail for Sunday, which would be a cold, rainy day. Sophie booked us two nights in a hostel that was a little ways up the trail. This turned out to be a great idea, since later on the hostel filled up quickly! With this plan in the works, we knew we didn’t have to go very far over the next two days, so we continued our lazy morning and didn’t clear out of camp until after 11am. I felt a little antsy to be the last ones at the shelter, but we reminded ourselves to Hike Our Own Hike and stick to our plan. It was pretty filthy to take down our tents. I didn’t realize how heavy the rain fly got when it’s all wet! I strapped my rainfly to the back of my pack, where it kept Ninja company. Sophie did the same with her tent, and it flapped around her like a cape all day. We hoped they would dry out as we hiked and the sun came out.

We started hiking in a deep fog; it was a cool change of pace. As soon as we came up out of the valley, though, the fog swept away; it was magical how quickly it happened! Once we were hiking, it ended up being a pretty easy day. Sophie taught me “the Got It game,” and we discussed playing the “license plate game,” sort of, except with where hikers we meet are from. To my great surprise, we have yet to meet anyone else from New England, or any Californians! The sun came out and it warmed up, although it was very windy! We learned our lesson about eating lunch up on a ridge in the wind. We arrived at Blue Mountain Shelter at around 3pm. Overall, it was a healing day in several respects. My hip felt fine after a night of sleep, and wearing my pack higher helped. Ninja was hanging in there too, although his head had deflated significantly. I knew that would happen, but it still happened faster than I expected, probably due to the elevation. He just had five more miles the next day to get into town and complete his section hike! Our gear (especially Sophie’s tent) had dried a bit on the hike, and when we got to the shelter we joined others in putting up a clothesline to finish drying our stuff. Just had to make sure to tie it down, because it was super windy up there!

We had a chill evening at the shelter with some of the same people from the previous night. We had met them several times by now, and I was beginning to warm up to them. We prepared for different challenges that night; no rain, but high winds and it was going to be very cold, our first night below freezing. We slept with all our electronics and our water filters in our sleeping bags to prevent them from getting damaged.

Saturday dawned, and we celebrated one week on trail! It feels like a lot longer. Sophie saw a beautiful sunrise from her tent; I missed it. There will be plenty to come though 🙂 The night had indeed been cold, but our 15-degree sleeping bags kept us plenty warm. The morning at camp was still frigid, and this was more annoying as we ate breakfast and packed everything up. Thankfully, once we got moving and the sun rose more, we warmed up and it was a beautiful day.

We only had five miles to go that day, though it was not trivial terrain. First we summitted Blue Mountain, then descended into Unicoi Gap, where we were met with a double dose of trail magic!! It was unbelievable. Considering this was our only major stop on our way, and knowing it was a relatively major gap, I had been thinking how cool it would be to get trail magic even on a short day, but it was more than I ever could have hoped for. We are so spoiled!! It was such a wonderful double spread of food. Naked juice was a very special treat, and we had homemade barbecue at 10 in the morning, including something called Brunswick stew which was truly delicious. Can’t say enough about the generosity of the trail angels down here.

Then it was up and over the aptly-named Rocky Mountain for our last stretch of the day. On the way up, we meant some trail maintainers! They were working on water runoff points and carried huge pickaxes. It was great to talk to them and thank them for what they do – they make this all possible!

On the descent, tragedy struck. My beloved Ninja was beheaded. He had continued to deflate, and at some point it was too much for his balloony body and he came apart. I was so sad that he didn’t make it into town to finish his section hike. He fell only a mile short. I later laid him to rest at our hostel.

Oh well. We got down to Indian Grave Gap at noon, where a shuttle from our hostel was waiting. This was very generous of them since it was up what turned out to be a long and winding dirt road. We piled in and soon arrived at our home for the next day and a half, Around the Bend Hostel.

This place absolutely rocks. It has been such a wonderful stay, with great amenities and a fantastic community of hikers. There are two sweet cats here, and dogs, and plenty of massage equipment, and musical instruments to play! The hostel shuttles to several points on the trail as well as into the town of Hiawassee, Georgia. After we got checked in and showered, Sophie and I took the shuttle into Hiawassee to resupply and get an early dinner with some trail friends, new and old. We ate at an all-you-can-eat buffet, which had Southern-style food, and really leaned into a Gone With the Wind theme (hmm…). We reconnected with someone we had met our first night, now going by Dr. Pepper, and made some really cool new friends! Lefty and Helium are a pair who have previously hiked the PCT and the CDT, so will finish up their Triple Crown with the AT this year. They were very humble and helpful, which has not been a given for people with a lot of prior thru-hiking experience. They’re awesome. Then there’s Trinity, who is attempting a Calendar Year Triple Crown in 2023! It was awe-inspiring to hear about her preparation for such a crazy undertaking. Best wishes to Trinity! Back at the hostel, we played some Telestrations to close out the night.

Today has been a fantastic zero day here at Around the Bend, amidst a cold, rainy day. I just love the vibes here; it has been a definite highlight of the trip so far. We played card games, did lots of stretching and massaging, and discussed cool places to look out for along the trail. Sophie and I went back into Hiawassee with a big crew for dinner, where we hit up the local brewery known for its tacos. When I get tacos I always try to look for something on the menu that I can’t find elsewhere, and today I tried a cow tongue taco for the first time. (It was a pretty interesting texture; I thought it was good overall but I’m not sure I’d get it again. Glad I tried it!) Dinner was a lot of fun hanging out with more cool new friends, like Chaps, Gaga, and Tacos, who gave Sophie her trail name(!)…drumroll…Shoes! Basically all the potential trail names she had gotten had something to do with her galaxy gaiters or rainbow Crocs, so this made a lot of sense. It was an instant hit. Sophie really likes the word “shoes” to begin with so she’s pretty pumped about it, and I’m thrilled for her. Now that we’re both rocking the S names, someone told us that as a duo, we’re “S-tier.” 😎 We take those.

Just as I thought our zero day was winding down, there was a big birthday party for one of the employees at the hostel. It was packed and the energy was electric! I had a lot of fun talking to the various friends we had made. I even had a very nice conversation with someone I recognized from the interwebs from pre-trail (I played it cool and didn’t say I knew who she was. She was super nice!). In all, it was an exciting evening and a great conclusion to our day off. Tonight I realized that I felt the same way as during Counselor Week when I was a counselor at New England Music Camp, which is seriously high praise.

I’m pumped to hit the trail again tomorrow morning and start pushing miles into a new state. Georgia has treated us super well – now it’s time to see what North Carolina has in store for us!