March 18 - 12.4 / 27.5

I think for now on I will list the number of daily miles and the number of overall miles in the title.

Overall last night was good. I did wake up a few times but that comes with camping. I bought the thermarest neo-air air pad a few months ago. It is the best sleeping pad I have ever used. This morning Will and I were breaking down camp when someone asked us if we were the guys who did the 15 miles from Springer. It was someone we hadn't even met yet. I guess we are already making a name for ourselves.

The first few miles of the day we fairly decent. At 4 miles in we made it to Woody Gap and had lunch. We joined a couple (the lady who asked if we were the guys from Springer) and two girls from London. It was a good lunch. We then departed ways as they let us trail runners go first. Speaking of trail runners, we came across 6 of them today. They were putting in 40 miles just today. They are trying to get to Fontana Dam, NC, 162.6 miles, by the weekend. They are being supplied by two people at different road crossings. Will and I were actually able to meet Henry and Christi, the suppliers/helpers, earlier in the day. They allowed us to experience our first chance of "trail magic." They let us have some fresh water and a freshly made pb&j. It was a welcomed site. Trail magic is food or drinks left by "trail angels.". Sometimes they appear at road crossings and other times the food or drinks will be in a cooler off the trail.

After lunch, Will and I made our first big climb of the day over Big Cedar Mtn. It was a lot of no namers after that until we reached our current spot at Slaughter Creek. There are a few other tents here, but nothing like last night. Tomorrow we are only going 2.2 miles for the whole day. This will get us to Neels Gap and the Walasi-Yi Center. Interesting fact, the Center is the only place on the trail where the trail goes through a man-made structure. We are staying at Neels Gap in order to meet my friends Stuart and Clark. The are going to joins us for the weekend.

Before going for the evening, I will say we have meet some very cool people so far. We met Jerry, Richard, and Tom. They are all probably in their 50 or 60's. We spoke with them for awhile today. Jerry and Tom are trying to through hike. Tom was just joining them for a few days. We also met a guy whose trail name is "mom.". He was 73 and trying to get to Maine. Finally, we never got to meet her, but we definitely got to meet her laugh. This one girl last night was laughing so loud and sounded like a dang hyiena (sp?). A lot of people we talking about her today. Good times. Good night.