April 4 in Georgia

April 4, 2005 | Day 8 | Miles: 12.2 | Total Miles: 75.3
End: Bly Gap, NC, Tent
Danielle:
Sun, sun, sun!
One state down and 13 to go! Yeah :-)
What a good day, although I was tired for the last few miles. But we made it past the GA/NC border so that was a rush. We are now camped right over the border in a nice spot, with 9 other people. Ghost left us today. He headed into Hiawasee and then was going to head up her tomorrow and then back down toward Amicolola. Back to work for him. So now we really have to make it to Gorham, NH as that's where he lives and works :-) We definitely have to stop in and see him. We will miss him out here. It's been fun. Looking back on GA, one of the things I enjoyed the most was the big rhodedendrum and mountain laurel thickets. With the rest of the woods being so brown, these huge bushes and trees looked even more vibrant and green. Great to hike through and beautiful! Also the GATC really kept the trail well maintained and they were quite forgiving with trail placement. Lots of sidecuts that avoided a few more ups and downs than could have been, which was nice. We have enjoyed our first 75.3m plus the 8.8m approach trail. 84.1m in 8 days. Not too bad! :-) I'm really proud of us for moving along so far at this pace. And we've been having fun too which makes it even better :-)

Ryan:
sunny, warm
welcome to north carolina. 1 state down 13 to go. leaving georgia was bittersweet, but we're psyched to be moving along. as usual, ghost was up and out before us, and we wished him well. he is heaed in hiawasee to resupply, and then back out on the trail for a couple days beore heading home to beautiful gorham, nh. we're looking forward to seeing him again when we get to gorham. he's been likee a second father to us since the first day, even if he is a blue blazing piece of hiker trash. from the sounds of it we missed quite a party at addis gap. i don't think the tales of roasted turkey, hot dogs or three kegs were exaggerated, and the tales of the hangovers were quite funny. today was tough. we're both tired. neither us is admitting to the other how tired we are, but, i guess we're supposed to be tired...afterall we've gone over 80 miles in 8 days. my heels really hurt. blisters that just won't die. hopefully they'll callus up this week...hopefully.