Date: 2008-02-20
From: Hawk Shelter

To: Gooch Shelter GA
Miles today: 7.3

Day 3 ¢ Wednesday, February 20 ¢ Gooch Shelter GA ¢ Miles Today: 7.3   Total Miles: 15.1We had a bit warmer night last night. At 1:00 a.m. when we got up for our nature call, we noticed that it was actually a little above freezing. In our tent we could tell it was warmer because we no longer felt the need to keep our nose and entire face covered. When we got up around 7 or 8, we were really surprised to see it was already above 40 degrees - perhaps around 42 or 44. Wow.Today was another low mileage day - 7.3 miles. We took our time breaking camp and were on our way about 9:15. Shortly thereafter, we stopped for breakfast. Shortly after that we stopped for lunch. Shortly after that we stopped for another break. Shortly after that we stopped for a water filter and freshen up break and about 5 hours later we had finally accomplished the 7.3 miles and arrived at our shelter.   We actually got to do ridge walking today - a lot more like the AT that we had expected. We have also determined that Georgia likes stairs - lots of stairs on the trail today. We also determined that Georgia has rather sharp inclines and declines but are short in distance compared to what we are used to in the Smoky Mountains. Our wildlife today was just animals we heard - an owl during the night and turkeys during the morning hike. The weather again was very windy all throughout the day until we got to camp. We had the most delightful evening of our hike yet as the wind died. At 6:30 it was still 50 degrees! We could actually hang outside and visit with the other thru-hikers that are here and cook our dinner. We're here again with DonkeyLegs (he was sleeping in the loft of the shelter) and another thru-hiker couple that started two days before us - Mike and Gunilla (Baldthing). They are planning a 6 to 7 month journey, so this will probably be the last that we will see them. She's from Sweden and we think he might be American, but we're not quite sure. He was carrying a very heavy pack ¢ 50 pounds! Their tent weighs 6 pounds! It¢s the same as our old one - the Sierra Designs Meteorlite. Seems like they have all kinds of equipment, clothes, books and everything. They actually did a wash when they arrived at camp and had their clothes hanging on a clothesline drying. They also have sold their houses, I believe in Texas and Florida, and have no immediate post adventure plans. I guess they are just going to wing it. They just finished some sort of tour in Asia. I'm not quite sure what their careers are (possibly chiropractors) that take them to all these different parts of the world. Out here, we find that we don't want to spend too much time talking about work. We are under our new identities of Grasshopper and Brakeman, and the old Corporate America world really does not have a home out here on the trail.When we signed the register at the beginning of the hike, we saw that there was another Charlotte couple hiking the trail - Debbie and Johnny. We haven¢t seen them so we figured that we were going slower than them, but the hikers here have told us that we passed them already. We were quite surprised to hear that because we have not seen a single person that has started the same day as us and figured we were going slower than everybody. But now it turns out that we passed 4 people already that have started before us. It won't be long, though, before others start to pass us, we realize. It's not a race.I think we're about ready to sign off for the night. Tonight will be a challenge. The tent is pitched on quite a slope. At least our heads are at the high end but we have this feeling that we'll be pulling ourselves up every hour, if not more frequently throughout the night, as our sleeping bags and bodies slip to the other end of the tent. But it's warm and it's not windy and it's not raining so we ain't complaining. Life is good. Good night!