We Goochie on Gooch

We woke this morning to 16 degrees with about 2 inches of snow at Springer Mountain shelter (about .2 miles from the start of the trail). After eating breakfast, filling up water, and saying goodbye to our dads, we headed out around 8:30 with a guy around our age named Ross, who stayed with us in the shelter.

Ross, being a good bit taller than us, booked it down hill with his long strides. Michael and I had to pretty much jog just to keep up with him. Eventually we agreed that we would just all meet at the next place to get water. Fortunately, that next place was trail magic! Which is basically when really nice people give hikers free food and water! We ate our fair share of doughnuts, apples, and candy while standing around a heater before heading back out to the cold and continuing our hike.

Our original plan was to hike about ten miles so that we could slowly adjust to walking every day but since we had already done that by about one, we decided to go on. Also, someone told us that 15 girls had started two days ahead of us (yeah right).

So after passing a few people and eventually causing Ross to have to jog to keep up with us on the up hill, we made it 15.6 miles to Gooch Mountain shelter around 3:10. There's 10 of us staying in the shelter and probably another 15 camping. It's gonna be a cold night but fortunately it's not supposed to snow.

Thanks to everyone who has helped us along the way to get ready for this journey and for those who are praying for us. Please check out penny per mile and donate. They're both great ministries, especially REBUILD! We'll continue to update as often as we can. Pictures will probably be uploaded in mass about once a week.

It's been an awesome two days!