Day 5-6 23-24 March 50.3 of 2184 miles complete

Day 5 Whitley Gap shelter 7.7 miles. Up at Neels Gap and bought supplies  for next four days. I also sent home a few items that I have found I am not using. When I left my pack weighed 53 pounds including water. I was surprised as i thought I was sub 50. Makes me think I above 60 lbs on the first day...that's nutty. I think I will downsize my stove at the next stop to help the weight. It poured all day but walking in the rain is not really a problem for some reason...kind of refreshing. Besides, knowing that "BirdShooter" was going to meet me with a little "Trail magic" made it easier to bear...like the pun:). By the way Trail Magic is when some stranger shows up unexpectedly with treats...gatorade, pizza, donuts, etc. Well BirdShooter's trail magic was beer.  I think here I need to introduce the group of Merry travelers I have hooked up with. Everyone has trail names so I will just go with those. It's three individuals, myself, trail Name Zip as I was told bring one if you have one, "Redneck Gumby" as she Only has one green shirt and is from Tennessee, and "Walk-n-Eats" because when I asked if he as a name he said "nope, I haven't done anything stupid, all I do is walk and eat". So I called him that...turns out he is one eighth native American so it's perfect. We also have two guys who started with way to much stuff so we called one "Mattress Pad" because he was actually carrying them and his buddy "Atlas" as he was carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders. They got rid of a lot of stuff but they kept their guitar and ukellae. Another two are "Puddle Jumper", pretty self explanatory and "Tree Piper" as he is packing his 3 foot wood flute. The instruments are awesome and they improvise a jam session every night withbus on drums etc  We call ourselves the "Off the beat and trail Band".  There are always more who come and go but we have all camped together every night.  So, I knew BirdShooter was meeting me at a shelter 1.2 miles off the trail but I asked if anyone wanted to join and all six said yes.  So we hiked through solid rain for 7.7 miles, got to the shelter and set up. The rain broke and BirdShooter walked into camp with a 12 pack and some whiskey. The 12 pack didn't last very long so BirdShooter, MattresPad and a new random guy who was by himself offered to walk 2 miles back to the car and go get more. They came back a few hours later with two 30 packs...new solo guy is now called "30 Pack" and he has joined our merry group. Also wandering into our camp was Spam, Casanova, and Saph. Needless to say it was an very festive evening. Around the campfire  BirdShooter took some video of the jam session and will post it on his web page at some point.

Day 6 13.3 miles Blue Mountain Shelter. Thanks to the fresh mountain air we all woke up feeling surprisingly well. Had some breakfast and we all decided to have our first big day. BirdShooter had one last bit of trail magic in the form of Gatorade and chocolate donuts for us at his car...very very nice. Thanks again BirdShooter!! The rest of the day was just walking. A bit easier terrain so managed 5 miles in two hours at one point. Everyone from last night made it here by 6pm. We figured at this rate we are going to en up like Forrest Gump and walk into Maine with 300 people behind us. :).  The boys are doing great and seem to love it. I do not know how to upload photos to the blog from my iPhone but I did upload some to my face book if you are interested. We will be in Hiawassee  In two days if anyone is interested in hanging out at a budget in on a Monday. :)

13 June, Photo added...We did not realize it at the time, but this was the 1st day of the "Wolf Pack". From Left to Right...Zip (Papa Wolf), BirdShooter, MattressPad (The Big Bad Wolf), Atlas (WolfMan), Gumby, Queen of the Wolf Pack, 30 Pack (Fire Wolf), Puddle Jumper, Casanova (Night Wolf), Walk-N-Eats (Hungry Wolf), Bottom Row Trucker (Red Wolf and Safety Wolf), Spam (Wolf Meat)