Birthday Surprise for Dirty Mike

It was Michael's birthday on Monday and to celebrate, we hiked 18 miles! Fortunately, at the end of the day, Mr. Blanchard showed up at the shelter to surprise Michael and bring him some presents and a cake! Michael was so surprised to see his dad walking up the trail.

Our Progress

We created a new page called "Our Progress" that will be updated on a monthly basis that will show you what we've done so far. Check it out!

Special thanks to my dad and brother, John and Charlie Williams for creating the charts!

Pics From The Trail

Just put a few more pics on the Flickr.
Also, if you are curious how to tell who writes each post, usually I (Michael) write a single paragraph with a lot of sentences and Matt breaks it up into different paragraphs.
Also, check out the blogs of some people we have traveled with!
http://panchtakesahike.blogspot.com/
http://ihearbanjos.blogspot.com/
http://www.sidewaysgaze.com

Here is my new hiking buddy! I upgraded from Matt to this dog, Copper.

Happy Easter Y'all

We have had a great few days. Thanks again Nanny, Uncle Chad, and Will for helping us out in Asheville! We made it to REI and got some new gear - new poles for Matt, a new stove for both of us, and new shoes and shades for me. Thank you REI for your return policy! We did 18 miles Thursday, which would've been normal except that we started at 3:00 PM! We got to a shelter at 6 after seeing some incredible views from Big Bald and decided to eat dinner and then push 10.3 more miles to the next one. We hiked with Super Fast Nate, his dad, and Roadrunner. Roadrunner's the man! He's an older man from Germany who had his first big cheeseburger (a whopper provided by Mr. Smith), and he loved it! Also, Roadrunner doesn't hike with trekking poles and he's a beast at spotting white blazes. Twice he spotted blazes when everyone else missed them. We saw a nearly full moon and an awesome sunset, and then we used headlamps and got in at 11:30. I was so tired, considering that 9:00 is hiker midnight, it felt like 2:30 in the morning! Then we got to Erwin the next day and got to the all you can eat pizza buffet, which was so good. We slept at Curly Maple shelter and then today got picked up by Mr. Smith and we are at his house right now! We are zeroing here for Easter, and looking forward to a relaxing stay here with some generous hosts and a great view of the mountains!

3 feet of snow... Unreal!

, a photo by mmontheat on Flickr.

We did a tough 17 today to Sam's Gap and got picked up by my Aunt! About 4 miles of the day was through 2-4 foot snow drifts, at some points it was legitimately above my waist. The last 8 miles took 6 hours, when it usually would take less than three! It didn't help that we were the first ones out there, so a lot of the time I was the one making the first footsteps in the huge snow. It was the most natural snow I have ever seen! Another hilight is that when Justin got picked up at Devils Fork Gap, his dad brought us all Whoppers and Mnt Dew! That was a great lunch break. They were so delicious and got us through the rest of the day! We had a lot of fun hiking with Justin and Denali, although the weather didn't really cooperate. Now we are fortunate enough to be at my Aunt's house in Asheville, enjoying a great dinner (homemade Chicken Enchiladas and black bean soup), heated building (we have been sleeping in the low 20's), a hot shower, and a hot tub! We will get back on the trail in the morning!

It Be Snowin'

Headed out of Hot Springs today with Justin! It was a great stay at Chuck Norris's hostel, and the past 3 breakfasts at Smoky Mountain Diner were great! Also, thank you to Panch's mom for treating us to dinner last night! That was fantastic!

Hopefully we don't get a foot of snow tonight. And thanks mom for the cookies! It was worth carrying that extra pound.

Bro Time

Charlie's Bunion with William and Bradley in the Smokies


also, we just updated the Flickr so check out the new pics from the trail!