Hot Springs

Sunday morning we were on our way by 7:30. We were planning on going into Hot Springs and loading up on food, doing laundry, and getting a shower. We arrived at the tiny little town around 1:00. The town was small enough that we could just walk around to all the different places we needed to go. First off we loaded up on food at the dollar store. We then walked down to the laundromat and as we were waiting for our clothes to wash we quickly consumed a pack of cold hotdogs, a pack of string cheese, and a quart of ice cream. It was absolutely delicious. It was strange through, after we were finished eating we were satisfied, but both felt as though we could still eat more. I never thought that I would be able to eat so much food! After our laundry was done we walked down to a campsite and asked if we could use their showers. For five dollars we were both able  shower and smell so much better! By this time is was 4:00. We decided we would try to get in a few more miles. We went another six, making a total of 19 for the day. Monday morning we got up and decided that since we had a longer day on Sunday we would only aim for 14 miles, especially since it was supposed to rain all day. We walked 14 miles in beautiful weather and made it to a shelter around 2:00 where we ate lunch. As we were eating in the shelter it started pouring! It rained really hard for about ten minutes and then the sun came out. Then it rained really hard for another ten minutes and then the sun came out again. Hoping that it wouldn't start raining again we decided to get a few more miles in since it was so early in the day. We walked another 6.5 miles in beautiful weather and didn't get rained on once!  Thank you Jesus for timing the rain perfectly for us! 

Stop, look around, enjoy!

Friday we accidentally went 18 miles. We were originally planning on going 13 miles, but after reaching that goal we decided to go 3 more miles to the next camp site. Sadly we were out of water an there was no water at that campsite. So we had to go 2 more miles to get to water and a campsite. Overall the day was easy. Just a difficult climb at the end. This stuff is difficult compared to the Smokies. We followed the ridge line on the Smokies which was overall flat. Sometimes it felt like we were walking in Ohio... until I looked both left and right and saw that we were 5,000 ft above the valleys below. Since getting out of the Smokies we hike up a mountain and then back down. No more following ridges. 

Today, Saturday, we only went 13 miles. After walking 3 miles, we came to a road with some trail magic. Pancakes, cookies, fruit, hot chocolate, soda, coffee, eggs, orange juice, and Oreos were waiting for us. If I would have known this I would have skipped breakfast. Oh well. We call it "second breakfast". After eating we had a hard time walking again, but we completed the next 10 miles crossing beautiful bald mountains and lush green valleys with rivers. The trees are beginning to bud and the flowers are blooming. This takes me to what I've been thinking a lot about on this trip. 

We see a 2 foot wide trail 95% of the time when we are hiking. Nothing special. Just some dirt with some rocks and roots. We are so focused on not tripping and staying on the right path. This is good, otherwise I would be splattered at the bottom of a cliff. However; since I'm looking straight down most of the time I miss the beauty what's around me I miss seeing the colorful flowers. I overlook the obvious grand mountains towering around us. I miss looking up the river to the raging waterfall. And I'm sure I'm blind to the animals around me. I've seen some deer and squirrels but I'm sure I've missed many more deer and squirrel, possibly bear and other animals just because I'm too focused on the trail. I've realized that I need to stop more often and enjoy the beauty around me. I think this can be a lesson for all of us. So often we are so busy with life. We focus on everyday chores, making sure we get ahead and not fall behind. By doing this we miss the important things in life, the beautiful things around us. Family, friends, hobbies, a relationship with God. Just as I need to stop for a few minutes on the trail to enjoy the beauty around me, I also need to take a break from everyday life and enjoy the important things in life. The blessings that God has given me. I'm not saying that we should just sit in one place and watch the same flower or the same mountain our whole life. We do need to focus on the path that God placed us on and make sure we don't trip or lose the path. But we do need to stop on the path and enjoy family, friends, relaxation, and our relationship with Jesus... the blessings that God has given to us to enjoy. God loves it when we are happy. Don't ignore this blessings. 

This reminds me of a song the the Beitzel's sing often. "Count your blessings". Take 5 minutes and count your many blessing. Try it! Name them one by one. It's amazing how quickly you can think of them. My amazing wife Danae, my parents, my siblings, my friends, chocolate, flowers, water, trail magic, Jesus, sleeping bag, sleep, iphone... I could go on forever. 

Stop, look around, and enjoy!

New heights - Pictures

Thank you for taking us to town and back. 

Top of the AT 6,643 ft

Wild Ramps (Onions). Illegal to pick in the Smokies. Maybe that is why they taste so good. 

New heights

Exciting things have been happening in the past few days! I'll start with yesterday. We woke up to the kind of chilly weather that makes you want to stay huddled in your sleeping bag and not force your sore body out to start another day. The day before it had rained all day so we struggled into our wet shoes and socks and got hiking as quickly as possible to warm up. We hiked three miles and then reached clingmans dome, the highest point we will reach on the A.T.  At 6,643 elevation we had quite the view. After celebrating this milestone in our hike we walked down .5 miles to a parking lot to hitch a ride into Gatlinburg to load up on food. Since it was still fairly early in the morning, and not many people were out and about it took about 30 min to get a ride. The two gentleman that picked is up were very nice and took us into town and waited for us to shop and then actually took us half way back as well. ( they were planning on doing some hiking in the area) We were then able to hitch another ride the rest of the way back. This time we were picked up by a guy who thru hiked several years ago; so it was fun talking to him about the trail! By the time we got back to the trail it was already 1:00 so we quickly began hiking again and were able to make about 11 more miles before we arrived at an extremely full shelter area. In the smokies you are required to stay in a shelter, and if the shelter is full, camp around it. When we got there, there were already between 10 and15 tents set up and at first we thought we might have to hike another 7 miles to the next shelter. Luckily we were able to squeeze our tent into the cramped mass of tents. It was very sloped so it made sleeping pretty interesting :) this morning (Thursday) we once again woke up to chilly weather. We reluctantly pulled ourselves out of our sleeping bags and were on our way by about 8. The hike today was fairly easy. A few uphills but a lot of downs and flats. Our exciting piece of news is that we made it 20 miles today!! Despite having sore feet and backs by the end, the day seemed to move right along and we're both glad we got in the extra miles! 

Now I (Zae) would like to take some time to share a few things that I have been learning while on the trail. Now obviously I have a lot of time on my hands since were  walking all day:) Iv been trying to get in the habit of praying about different things as I walk and today I listened to a sermon. ( great idea Lisa ) Through these things God has been showing me lots of areas in my life that could use work. An example would be patience :) I am finding that I am not a very patient person, and God has been giving me plenty of opportunities to work on this, such as walking all day in the rain, or better yet setting up our tent in the rain :) Although I don't really like realizing how impatient or selfish I can be a lot of the time I am so glad that God has been helping me work on  these areas, and others. God has also been showing me His majesty and glory through all the things we have been able to see! God is so awesome and I'm excited for all the things that He will continue to teach me! 

- Zae 

Fontana Dam - Pictures

Here are the pictures that belong to the last post. 

See the fire tower on that mtn?? That's where we hiked to after 4 miles. 

Fontana Dam

Sunday we woke up early and were on the trail by 7:45. We walked a total of 18 miles but it didn't feel that long. We had some steep climbs, but overall the terrain was easier than normal. There was some trail magic at the first roa crossing we came to. It was about 9:00 and there was a guy with bananas, bottled water, and Fig Nuttons. We devoured the banana giving us the necessary potassium for the 18 mile day. The Fig Nuttons also have us more energy than normal for the morning. At the road crossing we met up with Neon again. We walked with him for about 9 miles. We talked the whole time which helped make the first half of the miles fly by. He is a ski instructor for kids aged 4-7 in Vermot. He is from NH. He told us we can come visit him anytime and get 50% off or free ski tickets. Sounds like we will have a good ski trip this winter. We separated from Neon when he stopped to get water and wait for another friend. After 12 miles we at lunch. A tortilla with tuna and a side of trail mix and beef jerky. Shoutout to my father-in-law Stuart for the delicious jerky. After hiking 17 miles, we came to another road crossing where we would take one last break before camp. There was a soda vending machine!!!  We bought a coke. It was the best coke ever. There was also a lake. Another hiker convinced me to jump in the lake. He said it was refreshing. I jumped in the freezing water and was able to cleanse myself and my clothes. However, this was unnecessary because the campsite we were staying at that night had showers! This shelter/campsite is know as the "Fontana Dam Hilton" because of how nice it is. We were able to get a hot shower that night. Since it was Easter Danae and I wanted to do something special. It's hard to do that when we don't have much with us, but The Lord provided once again. As we were setting up our tent we heard a groups singing. We went over and it was the YWAM group having an Easter service. We joined them in singing. After the service the leader have us chocolate Easter eggs. They also had leftover soup that they offered. We then talked to them for an hour before we took our shower and went to bed. 

This morning we left Fontana Dam and entered the Smokies national park. We had to pay $20 per person to hike this 70 mile section. Today was a difficult climb. 16 miles. 15 of those miles were inclined up. We started at 1,700 ft and are now up to about 5,000. Tomorrow is also mostly uphill as we approach the highest point on the AT. Clingmans Dome. Since we are running low on food we will try to Hitchhike from Clingmans Dome on Wendesday into Gatlingburgh TN to get some groceries. 

Tonight at camp we met a group of Germans. They all speak English very well. They are required to learn English in Germany. We asked them what they like most about the USA and what they hate most. Their answers were funny. The like the free refills of soda at Restaurants. They dislike our bread and how the drinking age is 21 instead of 16. The one guy is 20 and he hates this USA law. Anyways, I should go to sleep. We will hike 13 miles tomorrow in the rain if all goes well. I will post pictures in the next post. Cell service has been little and I can post this quicker without pictures. 

Rain Rain Go Away

Yesterday (Friday) was out new longest day. We went 16 miles! Yahoo!  It was a cloudy day hiking (good for letting the sunburns heal) and then it starting raining just as we started to setup our tent. We camped 1 mile away from the NOC. A place with several stores for white water rafting and hiking. After setting up our tent we walked up to where some people were gathered around a camp fire. Coco and his brother (we forget his name) were there. We camped with them about 5 days ago. There were also 3 other guys there. The one guy hikes the trail often. He even hiked this section in the winter getting hypothermia and tried to convince his friend and doctor to let him continue hiking. They didn't let him. You'll meet a lot of interesting people out here with interesting stories. While we were talking to these guys we cooked dinner over the fire like usual. This time we made a mistake. The one log rolled and so did the pot and everything in it. We were able to recover 3/4 of our supper. After eating and talking some more we went to our tent. We normally read or a little and then listen to an audio book. Ranger's Apprentice. Thanks to Danae's cousin, Dion who gave us the audio books, we have some entertainment in the evening. 

After waking up, we had to roll up our tent in the rain. No fun!  The tent is gross and probably weighs and extra pound thanks to the water that falls from the sky. We walked the 1 mile to the NOC and printed our Smokey Mountain permits. $20 per person just to walk a few days in the smokies. We then sent some more extra weight home. A pair of leggings, an extra pot, soap, medical tape, and cream for foot fungus. Afterwards we went to a small shop and bought those chocolate package doughnuts and a 3 Musketeers bar. We finally got back on the trail at 11:00 with only 1 mile behind is. By the way, the NOC is at 1,700 ft elevation. We then hiked 8 miles up to 5,062 feet. This was the most difficult day for me (Shazz). My heel was feeling great this morning, but the continuous uphill made it sore again this evening. After reaching the summit, we hiked down 2.4 miles to camp. Once again it started raining 30 minutes before we setup camp. We took out our already wet tent and quickly setup the tent so that no more water gets in. It is now 5:30 and we are waiting for the rain to slow down so that we can cook food. Mashed potatoes tonight! We are camping with Neon (pictured below) tonight. We met about a week ago and bump into him almost every day. He is about our age and fun guy to talk to. Hopefully we keep bumping into him. Tomorrow we are aiming for 15 miles. Only 2 miles from Fontana Dam, the beginning of the Smokies. It's all downhill tomorrow. Sadly Monday will be all uphill. 

Us and Neon

Ice and Rest

Yesterday it was suppose to rain all day. We were planning on staying in our tent all day so that our sleeping bags wouldn't get wet since it was suppose to get below freezing that night. A wet sleeping bag is as useful as no sleeping bag. The rain stopped at 11:00, so we decided to walk a few miles. By 5:00 we walked 11 miles. We met a group of YWAM students. This is the first year YWAM has a group on the AT. I forgot to mention, they provided trail magic the day before by handing out snacks. After we setup our tent and cooked supper, we went to the camp fire and talked to the group. By the time we went back to our tent, ice began to form on our tent that was wet from the day before. We jumped in our dry sleeping bags and were warm for the rest of the night despite the 27 degree weather. 

We did not set an alarm this morning since we knew it would still be cold. We started hiking later than normal today. We hiked 12 miles on the fairly easy trail to I-64. We needed to get to the town of Franklin NC which was another 10 miles off the trail from where we were at to resupply on food, get a package at the post office, wash clothes, and hopefully shower. Danae and I prayed that God would help us with all I this. We hitchhiked into town thanks to a young guy and his pickup (this is how most hikers get from the trail to town). He took us to the post office. Here I (Shazz) picked up the package that my parents sent to us. It contained food, a new water bladder (the one I had was leaky), and encouraging notes. While I was in the post office, an older couple asked Danae if we need a ride. This is a "hiker friendly" town according to my AT book. Everyone here knows that this is a town where hikers go to resupply. Anyways, the couple asked us where we need to go next. They took us to the grocery store so that we could restock on more food. After coming out of the grocery store they offered to take us to a motel. When we arrived they told us that it is already paid for and that we are just to checkin at the main office and go to room 8. What a blessing!!! We could now shower and wash our clothes! I haven't been this clean in days. Literally. God answered our prayers. He used the young guy to take us into town and Thomas and Catheryn to take us everywhere else. Not only that, but they were generous enough to get us a place to stay! After all of the errands, we we starving! We went to this Pizza place called Vito's. We ordered a 18" pizza and ate over 3/4 of it. The rest is lunch tomorrow. Now we will get some rest on a soft bed instead of on the hard ground. 

Danae's foot is healing, but still hurts some. She now has poison ivy. I'm still having trouble with my heel and back. Hopefully all of this will heal soon. 

Today God showed me that He will provide us our needs! All glory to God and may he bless those who helped us today. 

Ice

Thomas and Catheryn. The couple who drove us around town and got us a motel room. 

My first thought was "I don't have to filter this water"!

Turtles

Well folks, Sunday we made it 14.2 miles!! I know this doesns sound like much, but trust me, it really is :) it was a fairly difficult day with lots ups and downs. It was one of my (Zae) better days because my feet hardly hurt at all!! My blisters are finally beginning to heal and Iv had a lot less pain in them in general! However it was a harder day for Shazz because his heel started hurting him. He was a great sport about it though and even towards the end of the day when he was really tired he was making up songs as we hiked along. In case any of you would care to hear the lyrics to his lovely song, i have included them at the bottom of this post. Even though he was hurting and we were both tired we were glad we were able to push through considering we're running low on food and two full days of hiking from town. Don't worry, we have figured out that if we eat trail mix for breakfast and lunch we should have enough supper foods to get us through :) Monday we were considering taking a zero day since it was calling for rain. After checking the weather we decided to try to get in at least a few miles since it wasn't supposed to start raining until 10am. We packed up and headed out by 8 and hiked till about 1:45. And let me tell you it was a tough hike for the first little while. I didn't know that such steep mountains existed. And I have no idea why there would need to be one right after another!  For the first 8 miles we only experienced a mild drizzle, but shewy those last two miles it started coming down!  We were headed for a shelter and were hoping to find it empty. Boy were we in for a surprise, we arrived only to find the very tiny shelter full of about 15 other people with not much room left. So we stood there, and shivered, and stood there some more, etc...we were hoping there would be a break in the rain so we could put up our tent. (seeing how all available sitting down or laying down spots were taken) After standing there for about 45 minutes we finally decided to just set up in the rain, which had slowed slightly.  I have to say I hope we never have to do that again! Around 4 we were finally in our tent attempting to sop up the puddles that had formed as we were bringing in our wet backpacks and selves. Around 4:30 we were at last inside our sleeping bags, staring at our wet clothes strung all around our tent, hoping that we would not become icicles that night.  

-Zae

Shazz's song! ( actually it was kind of like a chant) 

Ahead is a mountain and I want to cuss it out, 

But I'm not going to because God created it. 

And it is beautiful and it has a nice view, 

Especially when you're at the top!

"Am I not turtly enough for the turtle club"? (Master of Disguise)

Oh yeah. We also made it to North Carolina today. Goodbye Georgia!!

Angels and Magic

I always get the spelling wrong on Angle and Angel. In this post I will hopefully use the correct word. Angel - the white human-bird things that have halos above their heads. 

Today we left our campsite at 8:00. We walked about .5 miles and refilled our water and ate breakfast. After walking for about 1 mile, a local hiker told us that there is trail magic ahead. Trail magic is when someone or some people perform a kind deed to the hikers. These people are called Angels. After walking another 2 miles we came to road and there was a Baptispt church group giving out burgers, apples, clementines, cookies, brownies, chips, soda, and much more. Even though we just ate, we were not going to say no to some hot food. We stayed there for about 1.5 hours eating food and talking to other hikers and the church group. This gave us a late start for the days hike, but we didn't mind. Around 2:00 Danae and I agreed that this was our most difficult day. There were not many flat sections on the trail. It was mostly steep climbs and steep descends. Even with the late start and the difficult terrain, we made it 12.6 miles today!  

Check out this guy. He has a guitar on his pack. 

Are we at the top yet???

Yesterday we woke up to a beautiful sunny morning! We quickly gathered our things together and bid farewell to our friend ranger. We set off down the trail wondering when we would reach the dreaded "blood mountain". As it turns out it was not as bad as we were expecting. Yes it was extremely high and took us a while to reach the top but the climb was fairly gradual with enough switchbacks to keep out legs from giving out. Upon arriving at the top we enjoyed a beautiful view and a lunch of tuna and peanut butter with our new friend Neon. After a 2 mile hike down the other side of the mountain we arrived at Neal's Gap. This place is famous for shipping home un-wanted pounds for hikers. We took advantage of this and sent home several pounds of un-necessary things from our pack. We also used real toilets and even ate snickers! How much better could a day get? After this welcomed break we pressed on for several more miles giving ourselves a total of around 12.5 miles for yesterday. We were then able to camp with a group of people we had met along the trail. This morning we woke up to another beautiful day! It took us a little longer to get moving since we were about out of water and needed to spend some time filtering water from a near by creek. We use a ceramic filter pump (one of many options) which takes about five minutes to filter about 2 liters. In my mind this is simply way to long! Maybe God is trying to teach me patience :) Despite getting a later start we did manage to hike about 13.5 miles. In my case it was more like drag myself 13.5 miles. This whole hiking all day thing is kind of hard! :)  We met many friendly hikers on the trail today and ate lunch with about 5 of them. We keep hoping to run into our friend Ranger again sometime, hopefully down the trail!  Well it's getting close to 9 and that means bedtime :) Below is the pump we use and one of the many beautiful streams where we fetch water. 

Blisters!!

Today is our second day on the trail. Yesterday we hiked 10.5 miles today 12. It is a lot more difficult than we originally thought. Why do we have to climb up and down the mountain? Why can't we go around? Oh well.  Today Danae (Zae) got several blisters on her feet. I only have a sore back and feet, so does Zae. I go my nickname right as we got on the trail. Shazz. It comes from Beltashazzar. Daniel's (from the bible) Babylonian name. So from now on I am Shazz. We met a cool guy yesterday before we left camp. We call him Ranger. Is is an older guy (compared to us). He just retired as a mechanical engineer. His youngest son is a is going to get his PHD in nuclear physics. We saw him several times today. We passed him and then he passed us. After we setup camp he came along and we invited him to camp with us. We enjoyed having supper with him. He even shared his Jelly Bellys with us. Speaking of food, everything tastes better when hiking. I hate Ramen noodles, but they rated great yesterday. Danae hates pop tarts but she loved them today. Tomorrow we are hiking Blood Mtn. The name scares me. We are at 3,100 ft now. Blood mtn is about 4,600. Don't worry. This mtn is small compared to the 6,000+ mountains we will climb in NC, TN, and Maine 

This is Ranger. He is also pictured in the campsite photos

"Come down to Georgia with me please!"

Danae and I are currently headed down to Georgia thanks to my parents who are willing the drive us the the head of the trail. Only an 11 hour drive from Accident. 11 hours seems like a long car ride, but 11 hours will seem like a short journey when our legs are headed for Maine. Before leaving I had to do one last thing... Buzz my hair. I figured that short hair (or no hair) will be easier to maintain while we are out in the middle of the woods without a shower for several days. Danae also cut her hair shorter than I've ever seen it. When she puts it in a ponytail I call it her nub. My parents agreed to eat at The Cheesecake Facotry in Knoxville TN this evening. This will be our "Last Supper". My goal? Stuff as many calories down my throat as possible. Is this goal a sin or me being wise? Anyways, a hiker burns on average 6,000 calories a day. That's almost three times the amount I normally use in a day. Having too much food in our stomach will never be a problem while we are on the trail. 

Yesterday Danae and I were headed back to our home from Bible Quiz camp. On the way back we were discussing how this AT trip is like a wedding. For the last 2 months we have been planning our trip in great detail, making sure that we are completely prepared for "the big day".  The last couple days have been suspenseful. We are excited and nevous; glad that this day has finally come! I wish my legs luck.