Hiking the Good Hike

4/13 Day 41 Partnership Shelter to campsite at mile 548 - 17.9 miles

We were up and moving early to get a jump on the crowd. After hiking several miles in the forest we started hiking through farms and pastures. As we hiked we noticed little flowers blooming all over the place. The trees were just beginning to leave. It's nice to slow down and take the time to notice the subtle changes.

We continued hiking through fields and farmland and eventually came to a sign just before a road crossing stating, "Go to the Barn- AYCE." We saw the barn restaurant down the road and walked that way. AYCE met us at the door introducing us to his girlfriend who was celebrating her birthday. We were happy to see AYCE and meet Maria. The rest of our group was there and so was Nomad. We hung out there for a while before parting ways with AYCE and Nomad. AYCE was zeroing and would catch us later and Nomad was heading south to do some trail magic.

We planned to hike six more miles to a listed campsite. As we hiked Camaro decided she was feeling good and would like to continue to the next shelter making a 25 mile day. We were worn out and told her we didn't want to move on but she insisted on hiking further. Her and Chevy took off and we stayed behind. We set up camp with the rest of our group. We also met a couple of section hikers from Columbus enjoying the AT for the first time. As we cooked dinner the other group started to roll in turning our campsite once more into a tent village.


4/14 Day 42 campsite to Jenkins Shelter - 26.7 miles

Long day. The hikers from Columbus wanted to get rid of some food so they brought over a bag of their extra stuff. We quickly took care of the poptarts and oatmeal cream pies. The hike started with some climbing and then more hiking through farmland. At a road crossing we found two coolers filled with Sam's Cola and Little Debbies. As we ate and rested we met Lumbermack who was responsible for this trail magic. He had thru hiked previously and had since bought land in the area and was working on opening a hostel.

We took a break for lunch at Knot Maul Branch shelter. We took another break at Lick Creek to go swimming. The water was cold but felt nice. After the swim break we had a 2000 foot climb to Chestnut Knob Shelter. This was a really nice shelter. It was four-walled and fully enclosed with a door. We decided to cook our dinner and move on. We wanted to put some miles between the two large groups to make camping and sheltering easier. We left the shelter at 6:30. It was ten miles to the next shelter. The guide made the terrain look easy but it was very rocky with many ups and downs. The sun set and we realized we had picked a terrible section to night hike. As we continued stumbling up and over rocks in the dark it began to rain. It was a long ten miles. We finally got to the shelter a few minutes before 11:00. We set up camp, ate a snack, and went to bed. Hoping for a shorter day tomorrow.


4/15 Day 43 Jenkins Shelter to Helveys Mill Shelter - 14 miles

Nice easier day to follow yesterday. We had a slow start packing up our wet gear but the first five miles were easy. At the Laurel Creek road crossing there was a man offering to take us to a church for breakfast. He told us this church serves breakfast on Mondays during thru hiker season and today was the first day. There's no way we could turn down an offer like that. We piled in his truck and away we went to the church (which I sadly did not write down the name of). We were warmly greeted as we walked in and they served breakfast casserole, pancakes with local maple syrup, grits, toast, coffee, juice, and milk. They called themselves ATOM (Appalachian Trail Outreach Ministry). After filling our bellies they insisted we take bags of homemade cookies to go. We didn't argue. They're generosity was amazing and really made our day. The kindness of people on and along the trail continues to impress me. They shuttled us back to the trail in groups and off we went up the mountain.

At this point we had only nine miles to go. Many of these miles were not so enjoyable. We had to do some road walking as we crossed I-77 and then we had a steep uphill climb before finally arriving at the shelter. We chose to grab a spot in the shelter to hang out with our buddies. As we were hanging out in the shelter laughing and telling stories we heard a familiar voice asking, "Does anyone have a cell phone I can borrow?" (a kind of punch line to an inside joke we have). It was AYCE. He had hiked 33
miles to catch us. We were all happy to see him and made room to squeeze him into the shelter. It was a good end to our already good day.