Hiawasee

Hello everyone, well today marks a week out here on the AT.  Hiawasee is our location for the day and night because it is rainy and cold. Also im trying to heal my blisters, currently there are four blisters on four toes.  Besides the blisters everything else is fine so thats good news, and no pain no rain no Maine. We have been averaging around 10 miles a day, yesterday was our longest so far at 13 miles which wasnt too bad. Hopefully those 15-20 mile days are not too far in the future.  We reached Hiawasee a day ahead of schedule which is very uplifting to my spirits. I feared i would get behind schedule by now but everything seems to be working out greatly.  Around two days ago I began to feel a little home sick, but since then living in the mountains is slowly starting to feel like home.  We have gotten to meet many current and former thru hikers all with some great stories.  The guys staying with us tonight at the hotel are Rambo and Jack Rabbit.  Rambo is 25 and from Germany, he earned his name by carrying a huge knife, living off the land, always having a fire at the end of the day and being extremely resourceful. Jack Rabbit is a 22 yr old fresh out of college at Appy state, he says his spirit animal is a jack rabbit so thats how he got his name. Heres a good story; The older man that gave us a ride into Helen two days back hiked the AT when he was 70. He told us this story "I was up in Maine trying to hitch into town and this man on a Harley Davidson motorcycle pulled up and offered a ride. Well i didnt think anything of it and just hopped on, so here i am at 70 yrs old holding on for dear life on the back of a Harley speeding down the mountain roads with a full pack on my back"! He was an awesome character to meet with a lot of good advice.  His name was Roots.  I havent been fortunate enough yet to see a bear but have spotted many scatt piles along the trail.  Seems as if they just sit close to the trail and watch us hikers as if some sort of entertainment. Its amazing to see the transformation from a normal person to a thru hiker first hand.  I can tell everyday im getting stronger and more willing to carry my load. Which is only around 32 pounds now. The guys at Neel Gap went through my pack with me to help thin out the load.  My schedule everyday is wake up when the sunrises and eat breakfast, then hike for 5-8 hours stopping somewhere along the way to eat lunch, and then get to shelter or a campsite and eat dinner then fall asleep around 7.  The weather has been great one day and bad one day. But overall we have been blessed to have weather that is as warm as it is.  A couple days back we had to call in a rescue EMT crew to get a guy who hadnt been filtering his water and we think he had a parasite in his stomach. It was very quick how it happen.  He was fine at dinner and for a bit after that then all the sudden he started to puke over and over again. He even became quite unresponsive and we had to carry him into the shelter.  But as far as we know he is doing better now.  We come out here to get away from a lot of things but its always nice to know that in case of an emergency we have some sort of back up.  This made me a little more cautious while i filter water.  But i guess this is long enough haha. I am about to go to Rite Aid and get some medicine for my blisters. 

until next time
Squatch