Thru-hike 2015: Post #2

This is the end of my second week on the Appalachian trail. For the first five days of this week all it did was rain. Many of the nights I was able to stay in a shelter, in the nights when the shelter was full I had to pitch my tent. My tent is very easy to pitch so when I had to set it up in the rain nothing really got wet because I was able to get it up in a short amount of time. The past few days though have been very sunny and with temperatures in the upper 70s. 70 is Way too hot to begin with especially in mid-March. I think I still prefer snow at this point over the super hot humid days down here. I've been drinking around 4 liters of water per day which is quite a bit more and I would drink normally. As of posting this I've done 136 miles on the trail. When it's clear and sunny out the views are spectacular. (last photo) Most days I've been spending my time above 5000 feet elevation so you really get to see all that's around when you're on top of these mountains. Just yesterday the bugs started biting in North Carolina, A little early in my book but thankfully I have some very strong bug spray that keeps them away. I haven't gotten a single blister yet, but when I see all of my fellow hikers talking about how they've got between 5 and 10 on both their feet I feel very lucky. In about three days I will enter the Smoky Mountain National Park, that will probably be the hardest section up to this point. I'm really looking forward to it and I've enjoyed every second I've had out here on the trail. Check out where I am according to my spot tracker and from there you can track my progress.

Asah