Hiking the Appalachian Trail - Georgia to Maine USA

3,510 kilometres from start to finish - no kidding!  At the moment, I'm sitting in a public library in Erwin, Tennessee.  It's one of those quaint little mountain towns that you would see in American movies.  Think Dirty Dancing, Forrest Gump, The Princess Bride (and not Deliverance or Blair Witch Project).

Today is day 25 on the trail and we have had one full day off so far.  In the hiking world this is called a zero day as there were zero miles hiked that day.  Today we are having a nero day which is a small amount of miles hiked and the rest is usually taken in town, in a hotel room, eating lots and lots of food!

The scenery so far has been beautiful.  Coming from Australia, the land of the perennial drought, I've never seen anything so green and wet.  There is water anywhere.  The one problem we had back in Oz was always water - walking from water source to water source, hoping that the tank or well wouldn't be dry.  Well, we've just walked out of 4 days of downpour and water, water everywhere!  I probably would have taken drought over the last few days we had.  It was about 5 degrees celcius Tuesday and Wednesday, it rained all day, we were wet and cold and tired and hungry.  But we kept our tent and our sleeping bags dry and we had each other to get through the cold nights, and it made the all-you-can-eat pizza buffet we just ate all that much more worth it.

The climbs are steep, but usually not long.  You would think that would be okay except that you can climb sometimes 5 peaks in a day!  Plus, you will (very) often climb to a peak for an hour, get to the top, and not have any view to speak of!  That is frustrating.  The trail either skirts just below the peak of the mountain, or there's so much brush you can't see past it.  OR, it's so foggy and misty that all you can see is nothingness.  Talk about a anti-climax!

You're probably wondering why I'm doing this then, right?  There's a few reasons such as, I'm running up mountains faster than I ever have before and am actually thinking of running a marathon at the end of this hike.  My fitness has improved so much and I feel so strong.  Plus, I've lost between 5 and 10 kgs and feel great.  Skinny jeans here I come!  I'm unemployed with no responsabilities, so why not.  I'm not sure when I'll next get 6 months spare time to just walk in the woods.  Plus, being outside with only bare necessities, thinking only of fuelling my body, and staying warm and dry, helps remind me how lucky I am and how not to take things for granted.  Whether that be hot water out of a running tap, having a healthy body, or having the awesomeness of mother nature and all things alive around me.

So, we're 547 kilometres down and about 4 months to go.  I'll try and put some pictures up when I can.  I'm off to eat my weight in McDonalds now.

Anyone on the East Coast of the US right now, let me know because chances are, I'll be walking near your neck of the woods one day soon and it would so good to catch up (and maybe use you for a warm shelter for the night!).