Date: 2003-03-26
From: Woody Gap

To: Woods Hole Shelter
Miles today: 6.6
Weather: overcast clouds

Best Day Ever!!!Well, it is Wednesday the 26 and I am back on the trail! I am sooo happy to be here! On a medical note, my blister is about half healed, so I can hike on it. But I came off the trail and my feet swelled up huge!! I freaked out and ran to see my wonderful physicians asistant, Deb. After some debate,it seems that they are swollen cause of trauma. My poor feet are in shock! Can you imagine?! Anyway, I am hiking and they will just have to get over it! :)   An interesting note...it turns out that since my last doctors appointment I have lost 14 pounds! The hysterical thing is that my last apointment was only 2 weeks ago! I am telling you, this AT thing will take the weight off of you, but it has to be the hardest form of weight loss EVER! :)    Anyway...back to the hike! After playing a concert last night I came home to pack and get ready to leave for 6 months. Needless to say, I was up til 2am! Christine, my friend that is house sitting for me, is coming to do the first night with us, so up we got at 5 am and headed North.   After picking up my mom and saying good-bye to my dad :( we headed to Neels Gap to meet Bumpkin and her husband Jerry. Bumpkin is, for now, officially my hiking partner (which I know will make many of you feel better about this hike!). I am really glad cause I think the world of her and am really looking forward to hiking with her! We stopped at the McDonalds in Dahlonaghea and in walked Silver Lining! Silver Lining is a woman that I met at the Gathering last fall and she is about one of the coolest people out there! She is thru hiking at the spur of the moment and I am so glad that I got to see her!!      Well, we finally got to Neels Gap and it was like a huge party! Hummingbird and Dutch Treat came to see us off, Hopeful was there from the AT-L list so I finally got to meet him!!(what a nice guy!) and Pirate, who I also met at the Gathering was there. Well, after weighing our packs, (mine is now 35 lbs after switching back to my Dana Designs Bridger, and Christines is 25-lucky girl!), and after removing the rocks that Pirate had hidden in my pack :), we were finally off.   Mom dropped us off at Woody Gap and took lots of pictures of us....Mud Butt, Bluto (Christine) and Bumpkin. We were a sight!! After a rousing rendition of the 'dance of the real woman' and a tearful goodbye, we were off.      Note: Saying goodbye to my parents was awful! Since we have a family business, I am used to seeing them every day. I think missing them will be the hardest part of this journey. I could never be doing this without them. They are really remarkable!   It was a glorious day! Beautiful weather for hiking. We took it easy, resting when we needed to, and finally ending up at Woods Hole Shelter. I will say that we went up and down big rolling hills all day, and the last mile was hard! I can already feel my endurance improving, and I am already getting better at going up mountains, but 6 1/2 hours of hiking is still hard!! There are 8 other hikers here and they are nice as they can be! We all sat around cooking, eating, and arguing the relative merits of the Lord of the Rings Movies. It was wonderful. :) It is now 8 pm and I am in my sleeping bag getting ready to go to sleep. How is that for the wild and crazy life of the thru hiker?:)    I will sign off for now. I know these posts are long, but enjoy them cause soon they will just say "walked all day.....stopped to camp...got up...walked all day..:)Love, Anna aka Mud Butt