We're Home

We're home! It was a long drive home! We stopped in St. Louis, MO to visit with one of Dan's brothers & his family for an overnight stop from VA and then home to CO. Our rears and legs are sore from sitting so long! Wondering how long it will take for our feet to get back to normal, too (stop hurting). We're just thankful that that's all that we had bother us from this whole trek! We had turned our ankles a few times but no other major problems. Many hikers we met had to get off the trail because of Lyme Disease, Giardia, broken leg or ankles, strained muscles, etc. So we were very blessed to be so healthy! Oh, and the garlic tablets didn't work for me. Those pesty bugs kept biting except in the rain!

Just wanted to pass on info about the trail when accomplishing the whole trail, especially in one trek:
It's a total elevation climb of 471,151 feet.
Climb of 270 mountains.
Average climb of 3,000 feet every day.
It's like climbing Mt. Everest 16 times from sea level to its peak!



Before leaving VA, my sister-in-law, Cathy, and I feast on crab at a restaurant! So, those of you who don't already know, seafood is one of my favorite foods!



Pictures of Dan before he cuts his beard and moustache off!

For some reason this wouldn't turn for me, but hopefully you can still read it. It is one of the plaques on top of Springer Mtn.

All the packs hanging in a shelter we stayed in with other hikers! Just thought it was a neat picture!

A couple more pictures from GA!

On our way home we we're able to see some really pretty areas that had a lot of fall foliage! Especially in WV there were intense colors that were beautiful! Glad we were able to see some of it before we left. (Picture from our car)

Peace and blessings to each of you! We are so thankful for your support, prayers, and friendship!

Alexandria, VA

2175 miles (plus)! We are done! We summited Springer Mountain, GA, the southern terminus on Wed., Sept. 24th @ 6:00 pm! Yahoo! We did finish strong! We pushed and did 16 1/2 to 19 1/2 miles our last 5 days on the trail to finish a little earlier! Our first full day of hiking in GA had me a little concerned that we might take longer to finish. We did 17 miles that day and had 15 climbs, up and down, of mountains and big hills. That was an extremely tiring day! I was thinking if it really was going to be constant climbs that we wouldn't be able to keep up the miles/pace we wanted! But luckily we did have some level terrain that allowed us to finish strong! Our last day we hiked 19 1/2 miles to get to the top of Springer Mountain! We crossed the last road and had 4.1 miles to climb to the top of Springer. We did that 4.1 miles in 1 hour and 40 minutes! I think the adrenaline kicked in and wanting to be done that got us going hard and strong that last 4.1 mile climb! Maybe the Power Bar right before that helped, too? The last 2 miles I was crying...tears of joy and relief! Dan said he thought for sure that I would cry when we reached the top but I told him I'd already done it on the way up!

We camped on top of Springer Mountain amongst the signs "strongly discouraging" hikers from camping there because of high bear activity. Dan convinced me to stay there anyway because it was like the Smokies-there were warning signs everywhere and we saw no bears. So I agreed and camped there our last night on the trail!

On top of Springer Mtn., the AT southern terminus!

Our retired shoes, holes and all (yes, we trashed them at the end of our hike!) We both went through 2 pairs of shoes. I probably could have had a 3rd pair but after experiencing pain for 2 days when I changed out shoes before, I decided that these pair of shoes were going to make it through no matter what! We had duct tape if needed! Dan also threw away his shirt-it was pretty well faded.

Scenes from GA, our last state on the AT!

Acorns, aplenty, on the trail that made hiking like walking on marbles! Had to be extra careful!

Wow-what an adventure we had! Lots of different emotions, experiences, hikers, beautiful views and adventures. We thank you all for your support and prayers through our journey! We feel truly blessed that we were protected, kept strong, and healthy through it all! There are so many of you to thank but want to especially thank:

James-for sending us our resupply boxes and putting in the extra stuff that we needed at times; for taking care of the homefront for us; watching out for our bills; doing the all the extra "jobs"

Joey & Cathy-for allowing us to use their home for a home base whenever we were in town; for sending us great care boxes throughout our journey; organizing family get togethers when we were in town

Jason & Heather-for sending us calorie filled, great care boxes throughout our trek

Billy, Climber, Scout, Thru-Thinker & Herb-for making time to hike with us and bringing us treats

Dana, Bob & Rick-for hosting us and feeding us, we appreciate your wonderful hospitality

Thanks to all of you for your comments on our blog, for emailing and keeping in touch with us during our adventures: Kelly & Brian, Jenn, Jena, Billy, Carol, Ann, Heather & Jason, Brenda, Jayne, Donna, Clark, James, Michael

Herb-thank you for picking us up at the end of our trek and driving us to Atlanta

Mary Paq-thanks for the addresses we needed

Diane-thanks for the CHF updates we needed

Thanks to all of you who have sent in donations for our cause for Children's Hunger Fund! Those of you who have made a pledge, please send in your donations at your earliest convenience (see the top right corner of the blog for address). We appreciate your support for our cause! God Bless You all for sharing in this adventure and fundraiser with us!

Franklin, NC

We've hiked 2068 miles (plus) and have 107 miles (plus) to finish! We'll be in GA in 2 days. We're pushing to do 16-18 miles to finish but GA is suppose to be another tough hike. We'll hike up and down one mountain just to hike up and down the next and that's how it'll be throughout GA-that's what we're being told. We're hoping to be done by the end of next week! Continue to keep us in your prayers that we'll finish strong! We're getting tired and yes, our feet still hurt! Just one more week!

We hiked back and forth between TN and NC. Part of the trail is the TN and NC line. We could tell we were in a TN shelter because they don't have privies. You have to be careful where you walk and dig your hole!

In the Smoky Mts the shelters all used to have human "cages" to keep the bears out but some people are dumb. They aggravated and fed the bears through the "cage" links. So the shelters are all being updated by taking down the "cages" and extending the roofs to include a "cooking and eating" area in front. The updated ones are really nice. They've also included bear cables to hang our food bags.

We met a ranger on the trail and he told us that the bears are hungry and are going into the shelters to take packs and food bags. They're being more aggressive because they're not finding enough food. There were 2 shelters and a campsite that were closed due to aggressive bear activity at those places. One of the closed shelters was one that still had the "cage" and hikers woke to a bear trying to get through the roof in search of food/bags. The hikers fought it off with their hiking poles. We've been lucky in that we had not seen any bears-saw the scat but not the bears while we hiked through the Smokies!

The Smokies are a popular place for people to hike! We thought we'd have shelters to ourselves as everyone else would be back to school and work after the summer. But through the Smokies the shelters were very busy and one was full! Guess this is really a good time to hike and backpack. It's cooler and less busy! It's still been dark in the mornings till about 7:30 or 8:00 am.

We had a hiker friend that we met and hiked with in NH come to the Smokies (with another friend) and hiked with us for 2 days. They brought us lots of treats! We hiked to his truck and ate breakfast one day! Yum, yum! He liked to have campfires! Thru-thinker is the one in the blue shirt. He's actually one of the hikers that we gave our talk with at the NH huts! We had fun with him and his friend, Herb! Great guys! (Lucky is the one with the red/white/blue bandana hat.)

A peakcock-a resident of Icewater Springs Shelter in the Smokies! A surprise wildlife animal to say the least. She was not afraid of us and even tried to sneak food when one wasn't looking! Guess that's how she survives in the Smokies!

Some pictures from TN and NC.

One of the hostels that we stayed in TN-they had a wonderful huge breakfast! They also have farm animals and host a B&B. Very nice home and people!

Thanks again for all your prayers, support, donations to CHF and comments and emails! We're seeing the light at the end of the tunnel!