Here’s a quick update from Haley on Friday:
Ben and Haley spent Friday night (Night 5) at Swaim Gap. This is campsite was close to 2 miles from Neel Gap. With wind chill, temperature got to 10 degrees overnight. Pretty chilly but it seems to have warmed up over the weekend.
Haley and Ben have been busy the last few days! To make it easier to follow, their last 4 days of travel have been broken down by day.
Since they hiked an approach trail, Haley and Ben had officially only hiked about .2 miles of the trail. Despite barely being on the trail, their first night was interesting. Haley and Ben got to the shelter around mid afternoon and around 7 pm another hiker joined them. This woman had hiked the AT last year and warned them about mice in the shelter. A mouse actually ran across Haley’s head while she was sleeping (eek!) so suffice to say, the first night was not great for sleep.
It rained all night and in the morning Ben and Haley ate a nutritious breakfast of leftover pasta from the night before. They are finding they have too much food. It rained all day but they still hiked almost 8 miles.
When Ben and Haley arrived, there were already 5 other people there. Two of them were German hikers who chain smoked and cooked dinner at 9 after napping all afternoon. The others were a guy whose trail name was Rubber Ducky, a guy with large glasses who kept to himself, and another whose trail name was Maniac Cole. Below is the shelter at Hawk Mountain. So far the shelters have had two floors.
Wednesday’s hike was a bit of a haul, roughly 7.7 miles, but was a good day of hiking. Along the way, they hiked Sassafras Mountain.
There were people already at this shelter when Ben and Haley arrived. One of the guys was basically a hobbit, “Specifically Frodo,” according to Ben. Two other guys were Sinatra (as in Frank Sinatra) and Spaceman. Both had hilarious commentary and livened up the shelter. Spaceman was former military and Haley helped him build a fort out of tarps to keep out the heavy winds they were expecting that night. Sinatra was quite a character. He forgot a sleeping bag so he was sleeping with a zebra blanket.
Haley and Ben woke up on Thursday to a bit of a surprise. When the temperature dropped overnight to around 20 degrees fahrenheit, their shoes – that had been wet from all the rain the previous days – were frozen. So, they jammed their feet into their shoes and hiked 5 miles to Woody Gap, where they were able to call a hostel (Hiker Hostel in Dahlonega, GA) to pick them up.
They spent the night at the Hiker Hostel and were able to sleep in a bed, shower, and dry out their clothes. Staying at a shelter is great when the weather is terrible, as it had been the last few nights, but since the shelters have other people that sometimes have sleep apnea or eat meals at odd times, it is more ideal to stay in a tent near a water source when possible. Haley and Ben were happy to stay in the hostel and avoid injury and recuperate a bit . They reorganized and sent some things home that they didn’t need, making their packs much lighter. They sent another box to North Carolina, so they could get those things when they reached NC.
On Friday, Haley and Ben hiked Blood Mountain. Blood Mountain is the highest peak in Georgia at 4,458 feet. They have also just reached Neel Gap!
They plan on hiking 40 miles between towns, putting them at the next town every 4 days or so. Also, follow Haley on Instagram (@hax293) for less detailed but more frequent updates.
At around 11:30 this morning, Haley and Ben set off on their approximately 2,181 miles adventure!
They left from Amicalola Falls on an AT approach trail which was about 8 miles to Springer Mountain.
As of mid-afternoon, Haley and Ben had reached the official southern terminus of the Appalachian National Scenic Trail. Despite the apparent rain, they appear to be in good spirits! (How could they not be? It’s Haley’s birthday and they’re doing something they love!)
If all goes as planned, they should be staying at the Springer Shelter tonight. Tomorrow they are aiming to get to Gooch Mountain which is 15.6 miles from the Springer Shelter and about 370 feet lower in elevation than Springer.
Funny note about the Lazy Hiker brewery from yesterday: they may be back there in no longer than 2 weeks! Definitely not lazy hikers!
After 18 hours and 17 minutes of travel, Ben, Haley, and Haley’s mom and Cricket have arrived in Georgia! The roughly 1,175 mile journey took them through 11 states and 2 breweries.
The Lazy Hiker Brewing Company is quite ironic considering the trek Ben and Haley are beginning tomorrow. They are staying at a hotel about 30 minutes away from the start of the Appalachian Trail.
Fun fact of the day: In 8 states it’s not illegal to drink from open container of alcohol in a moving vehicle. However, in 2 states you can have an open container but can’t drink from it.
We finally managed to put our packs all together and though they look pretty gaumy, we’re happy about the weight. These weights include our heavier winter gear and also a little too much food. We packed more food than we probably need because we just don’t know what to expect. When we get into a routine, we’re sure it will be much lighter than what we have here. So here’s our dry weight (no Camelbaks yet):
Also to prepare for the trip, we both cut off most of our hair. Ben had his hair cut professionally whereas Haley had her mother cut it on the front porch (Mama Acker’s dreams finally came true). Goodbye #longhairdontcare
By no means did either of us decide to hike the Appalachian Trail to lose weight, but it’s a serious thing that happens on the AT. Now, we are trying to prevent serious setbacks from losing too much weight.
The average AT hiker burns roughly 6,000 calories a day. To put that in prospective, 6,000 calories is three times as much as the average person is recommended to eat in a day. Take your average morning cereal bowl and multiply that by three, same goes for your sandwich, three. That’s way more food than we’ll ever be able to carry. This hadn’t occurred to us as an issue until very recently.
So, to make up for this, we’ve been trying to put on a few extra pounds in the last month before we leave. We jokingly say we’re in our “bulking” period, but really we just eat everything. We would like to think that we’re getting the hang of this:
We’re not eating third breakfasts, nor are we constantly munching. Our mentality is when possible, finish all the food on your plate or think about ordering the bigger option. And of course, a whoopie pie and some chocolate are perfectly fine too!
One week till we start hiking and we are packing up our food and working on attaching our sweet gaitors!
T-minus 8 days until we head out for Georgia and t-minus 10 days until we start hiking! We are finally starting to gather all our stuff together:
A Long Strange Trip on the Appalachian Trail 