What It’s Like to Hike the Appalachian Trail: Week 7 on the AT

Thinking about an Appalachian Trail thru-hike? Or maybe you’re just looking to get an idea of what it’s like? Then you’ve come to the right place!

Hi! I’m Cindy. In 2022, my husband, Barrett, and I completed an Appalachian Trail thru-hike! 🥳

I journaled daily while on trail and plan to have our entire AT thru-hike tale up on this website for anyone who may be interested in reading it!

🔗 If you would like to start at the beginning, with week one 👉 click here.

🔗 And you can find all the weekly journals 👉 here.

Just know that if you plan to tackle an AT thru-hike, you’ll be in for an incredible adventure!

Also, if you know us as flip-flop thru-hikers, it should be noted that we didn’t know at this point that we were destined to become flip-floppers. When we started, we had conducted months of research. We chose to begin our Appalachian Trail hike NOBO, in Georgia, in April.

(We now know that starting as Flip Floppers or in March would have fit us better. But that’s for a later post.)

Just know when picking a route to hike the Appalachian Trail, you can always change it up anytime!

👉 Click here for tips on where and when to start an Appalachian Trail Thru Hike. 👈
👉 And click here for advice on thru-hiking backpacking gear. 👈

Alrighty! Welcome back to my Appalachian Trail thru-hike journal series!

This is week seven of our journey, where we’ve now made it through over 330 miles of the AT and are working our way deeper into the North Carolina–Tennessee borderlands.

This week brought a mix of challenges and highlights: battling sickness, encountering our first rattlesnake, experiencing some of the rainiest and stormiest weather so far, and one of our favorite stealth camping spots yet. We also enjoyed a much-needed zero day in Erwin, Tennessee — complete with river lounging, Taco Bell, and trail friends.

If you’re new here, you can start with week one of our Appalachian Trail thru-hike journals or catch up on past weeks here. Otherwise, let’s dive into week seven on the AT!

Curious what it’s actually like to spend months hiking the Appalachian Trail? Well, here’s week seven:

Day 43

May 17, 2022

There was a lot of coughing and sneezing going on in tent Peitz-Scott this morning. Mostly from me at this point. Barrett’s on the up and up. But I wrote this on a delay because I opted for more sleep instead of writing this morning.

Before starting our hike, we bought Barrett some new shoes at 8:13 am from the tent.

Similar to yesterday, this was another beautiful day.

Here are some random notes I took:

• We went under I-26.

• We saw a snake. We still aren’t sure what type of snake it was (perhaps a Northern Water Snake?), but it could imitate a rattle to give off rattlesnake vibes and was sufficiently scary.

• There was a stretch of beautiful yellow flowers.
• We walked along a ridgeline for a bit that was full of black butterflies. One of them touched my nose while hiking!
• We also went through a tunnel of thin white trees.

Overall, the day involved a pleasant trail that spiraled along the side of the mountains (instead of cutting up them) to get up to Big Bald until the last half mile. I have decided this is my favorite way to approach mountain tops.

Even once we reached the top of the bald, the trail spiraled around it, allowing us to continue seeing different views of the mountains. There were beautiful views up here, and this time without the Max Patch-like crowds.

But it was pretty windy, and we were trying to split 27 miles over this day and the next, so we didn’t spend too much time up there.

The day ended with proceeding up and over Little Bald, which was very different than Big Bald’s lovely trail. We did cut straight up this one, and then the hike coming down was full of roots and rocks. Lots of slow going, watch your feet, technical kind of stuff.

Not much further after that, we arrived at a camp area we were aiming for reasonably late. It was packed, but we asked if there was room, and everyone welcomed us in. Remarkably, we even found an exceptionally flat spot!

We rushed to set up the tent and sleeping gear, get water, eat, clean, and so on, all before dark. We just barely got it all done and then set an early alarm so we could complete the other half of our big miles and land in town tomorrow at a reasonable time.

✔️ Length: 13.6 trail miles
✔️ Total Ascent: 3383′
✔️ Total Descent: 3781′
✔️ Total Grade: 528’/mi

Day 44

May 18, 2022

Morning! ☀️ I tried to write at 5:00 am this morning and did manage to get out a few paragraphs, but then went back to sleep until 6:00 am. It was a lofty goal, considering we got into camp so late and are now up and at it early this morning.

I felt very sick on this day. The struggle was real. But we woke up early and hit the trail by 8:00 am. We are Erwin cabin-bound!

This hike began, once again, in a fairy forest atmosphere, complete with a dense green forest floor, bugs and butterflies flitting about, and birds chirping. But then, there are also giant boulders jutting out in various spots.

There were then numerous mini rock footbridges over tiny streams.

We crossed Spivey Gap into rhododendron, pine, tall skinny green trees, and a rushing stream with a bridge.

We then climbed up through all of that into the bright green treetops.

Also, we had our first rattlesnake encounter of the thru-hike today! Barrett was in front and noticed a snake 10-15 feet away that instantly started rattling, coiling itself up, and lifting its head the moment we saw it. We darted backward and went through the woods to get around it.

These last few dips into trail towns have looked similar, spiraling along the side of mountains with a valley often cliffing to one side of us.

Once we got to Erwin, Uncle Johnny’s Hostel was waiting for us and our throbbing feet.

It was right off the trail, and with it, Barrett’s friend Quigley was also waiting for us, with open arms, White Claws, and beers. We showered, did laundry, and ate tons of Domino’s.

Barrett and Quigley rode bikes to the gas station to get more treats and beer. They hung out into the evening while I rested in our cabin bed, trying to finally shake this sickness that seems to be floating around the trail.

✔️ Length: 13.5 trail miles
✔️ Total Ascent: 2345′
✔️ Total Descent: 4529′
✔️ Total Grade: 509’/mi

Day 45

May 19, 2022

We zeroed in Erwin! It was a great day!

• Quigley greeted me with coffee. (So hospitable that one!)
• We took the 9:00 am hostel shuttle into town to resupply at the grocery store and then mobile-ordered Taco Bell, walking through the drive-thru to pick it up. We then took the morning shuttle back to the hostel at 10:30 am.
• We played bags.
• We spent a few hours on the Nolichucky River. I laid on a $10 raft I got at the grocery store. It was amazing.

• We also saw a water moccasin swimming rapidly against the current in the river while hanging out there.
• Barrett got his REI delivery of new shoes.
• We did a bit more laundry.
• And then Barrett and Quigley once again hung out for the evening while I called it early.
• I wrapped up the day watching Netflix on my phone in bed, while trying to heal my body up with a salad, Airborne, ginger ale, Pedialyte, and triple antibiotic ointment. 😹

Also, this is random, and I don’t remember the exact day this occurred, but during the past few days of constant nose blowing and coughing, I had a fun moment with Barrett.

He had cough drops from when he first started getting sick, which he was now sharing with me since I had also become sick.

He hates that I don’t suck on cough drops until the last possible moment. I tend to crunch them at a certain point. I can’t help it. He believes I am wasting them. (This is not new to the trail, just a little fun Cindy/Barrett tidbit, lol.)

Well, one day, he handed me five. I had two of them over a maybe 10-15 minute period. I thought it would be funny to tell Barrett I finished them all and would like more. So I did.

His face. 😹 You guys. He was so disgusted. “All of them?!?” he said in a massively upset tone.

I laughed and said no, and told him I was kidding. But it was so worth it and brought me joy for hours. These are the things that keep one entertained on trail. 😃 That is all for today.

✔️ Length: 0 trail miles
✔️ Total Ascent: 0′
✔️ Total Descent: 0′
✔️ Total Grade: 0’/mi

Day 46

May 20, 2022

It is shocking to me how much taking a zero day helps the body. We got back at it this morning, and my knees didn’t hurt, and my feet felt dramatically better. It’s truly remarkable how quickly recovery can happen.

We had a late start getting out of our cabin at Uncle Johnny’s Hostel and saying goodbye to Quigley.

We started the day crossing the river we had just spent our zero on, and then some railroad tracks, very quickly dipping back out of civilization.

There was a lot of pine in the beginning. (We love the pine sections of the forest.) For the first two miles, we hiked along a small mountain stream with tiny tumbling waterfalls and mossy rocks.

Not too far into the day’s hike, we crossed paths with a local who told us it was about to be the hottest May 20th ever on record for Erwin, TN. So that was exciting to hear!

It did reach 92 degrees down in town that day, but weirdly, I believe we’ve had days that have felt hotter. I think the upward hike, tree cover, and stream made it feel a bit cooler, but we were still sweating our butts off.

When it’s scorching as we’re leaving town lately, we remind ourselves that we’re currently walking UP a mountain and that it will be cooler soon. And just as it always does, a reasonably aggressive climb began around mile 3.5 of the day.

We reached a point where a massive tree with multiple limbs had fallen and covered the trail. This happens from time to time. As I was navigating it, I was on one branch, getting ready to jump left, but my pack had different ideas and pulled me down to the right.

It was memorable because, at the moment, I was yelling for Barrett to help me, convinced I was going to continue tumbling down the hill, but Barrett was watching me, stuck in place in a tree.

We had a good chuckle about it.

A few other things from this day:

• We saw our first blooming rhododendron.
• At one point, the ground slipped away beneath my left shoe, which freaked me out; thank goodness for my hiking poles!
• We met the “Nuts” family, a family of six, all with different nut-themed trail names.
• Why are orioles so noisy?! I thought something was coming through the woods to kill me while Barrett was off going #2 somewhere… It was an oriole.

Not gonna lie; at the end of this day, I was feeling pretty damn good for having just hiked almost 7 miles, and part of it with 3+ liters of water on my back.

If this had been the beginning of the trail, I would have been completely wiped out, resting in the tent at the end of this day. So I see growth, even if it still seems like gradual growth.

We stopped at another stealth spot that I read about on FarOut.

It was situated on a ridgeline, with mountains visible between the trees in either direction. We love these spots! They are so peaceful.

Boy scout groups passed us as we were eating dinner. It felt like the first night of gleeful camping on the entire trail in some ways. It was like going back in time to the good ol’ days of camping, and how I remembered them from my younger days.

It also felt somewhat like the beginning of summer, even though it’s still a month too early.

We watched the sunset through the trees on this particular evening. It was the kind of sunset that couldn’t be fully captured in a photo, as it was partially blocked, but it was still absolutely stunning. The whole campsite was glowing orange, including the tent. At the same time, the sky was bubblegum pink and the mountains a majestic purple. Then, with time, the sky switched to purple, and the mountains turned blue.

This was my favorite spot so far. It was hard to leave. I told Barrett we should just quit and live there now.

✔️ Length: 6.9 trail miles
✔️ Total Ascent: 2002′
✔️ Total Descent: 501′
✔️ Total Grade: 365’/mi

Day 47

May 21, 2022

The place where we slept last night was our favorite stealth spot on the AT so far. We pitched our tent on a ridgeline, with the mountains visible between the trees in either direction. Both the sunset last night and the sunrise this morning were gorgeous.

This morning, I wrote that I was finally starting to feel “in the groove” and had less anxiety about the unknown. I was feeling more energized and excited about meeting new people, finally, because I wasn’t spending all my energy spinning my wheels about how to survive out here.

Haha. It’s funny how quickly things can change… but more on that in a bit.

Now we’re up and at it, hoping to knock out a big day before any storms roll in.

We started off in a tunnel of mountain laurel and rhododendron, with a few blooms here and there. Barrett loves these tunnels. When we talked about attempting this thru-hike, I was worried it would be ~2,000 miles of these tunnels. I’m happy to report it has not been; however, one still pops up pretty much every day.

Early in the day, we hiked up to Beauty Spot.

It felt a bit soup bowl-like to me compared to the other balds, but it still possessed beautiful mountain views that we had to ourselves while we were up there.

We talked about how it’s not far from home and that it would be a fantastic spot to come back to and bring Marty. Obviously, locals agree, as we saw over 50 classic motorcycles make the trek up to the site throughout the day for what we’re guessing was some rally.

After the bald, we trekked through a fair amount of mountain meadow with tall, wispy grass. It drizzled for a few moments, with longer-lasting thunder crashing down beyond in the distance.

After that, we suddenly stepped onto a rocky path with mini pine trees all around us. The grass was tall, and ferns and trees were everywhere. It felt like we were portaled to a secret land.

Then, at the top of the mountain, it transformed again into a very unique mountain top — a dense spruce forest that looked eerie and dead, but was not.

All the trees had pine needles way up, only on the tippy tops. The ground was coated in moss.

Lastly, on the descent, it turned into Christmas tree land.

Such a unique area.

Shortly after walking through all of that, the storm started to sound closer. We looked at the radar, and there was a giant red blob suddenly headed right toward us.

I watch the radar A LOT on the trail. So much so that there is an attempt at “Radar” as a trail name for me, but I’m not sure it fits, so I haven’t
accepted it as of yet.

What’s wild to me is that these red storm blobs sometimes just suddenly appear in the middle of the yellow with little warning. I’ve told Barrett I’ll hike through the rain, but not the lightning. If that starts, we need to get to shelter.

Well, we spent the next 2.7 miles running to the next shelter. The storm grew increasingly intense while we ran.

The lightning started 4-5 miles away, then it was 3 miles away, and then at one point, it was crashing less than “1 Mississippi” away.

We got entirely drenched and assaulted by hail. But then, fortunately, the lightning began to move a bit further away.

We reached the shelter, but had no service there. So we did our best to wait it out and gauge when it was safe to carry on. We then changed our clothing and proceeded along after some time, engaging in friendly conversation with trail friends at the shelter.

For the last 4.4 miles, we hiked through what had been transformed into a glistening, bright green forest.

This was a long one, and my feet were done at the end of this day.

Other notes from the day:

• The trail has been relatively flat lately, lacking rocks and roots, which is always a plus!
• For how rushed the trail often feels, there was a moment today when I was able to calmly eat Pixar fruit snacks on a rock while watching Barrett try to collect water from a trickling tube.
• There are these merciless little bugs out here that hover in front of your eyes for a while and then, at any random point, decide to jump in. Why?!
• While at the shelter, I switched out of my wet bottoms into only my rain pants, only to find out at the end of the day that my rain pants are somewhat see-through. (I usually wear leggings under them, but I wanted to keep them dry). So it may or may not have looked like I was hiking semi-naked for 4.4 miles. Barrett said they’re not super see-through and that it’s not as bad as I think. So, here’s hoping. 🤞
• Getting in and out of the tent and peeing are now officially the two most challenging parts of my day. I try to stretch and roll out everything between my knees and ankles every night. Still, if anyone out there has any good stretches for making squatting less painful after long hiking days, I’m all ears!

✔️ Length: 14.6 trail miles
✔️ Total Ascent: 4087′
✔️ Total Descent: 3261′
✔️ Total Grade: 504’/mi

Day 48

May 22, 2022

Yesterday was a long day. We got rained on more than ever before! Now we are back up and at it again. Only 1,828.6 miles left to go! 😳😬😆

It’s 8:30 in the morning; I’m sitting in our tent eating turkey pepperoni and drinking coffee.

We’ve transitioned back into our wet hiking clothes from our dry, cozy sleepwear. I gotta tell ya, that’s always a sad moment.

We’ve been up since 6:00 am, hoping things would dry out. It’s finally happening, but it’s also getting hot, so who knows? Maybe in about two hours, we’ll wish everything was wet again. 😹 We’ll find out soon!

As I get out of the tent for the first time of the day, it’s been becoming excruciatingly painful lately.

On this particular day, we were in the middle of a meadow with no other campers around, so I absentmindedly yelled “fuck” as I lifted myself up and out and then looked up the hill and saw a hiker standing there, probably initially looking at his guide, deciding if he should come down for water, but now just looking at me instead. I waved, and he waved back. Then he carried on. 😹

We proceeded to move everything else single-file into every sunny spot we could find. After a short time, almost everything had dried. Within ten minutes, even the clothing I was wearing was starting to dry out, and I was beginning to sweat from the sun.

We got a late start, but it felt like the right call. I was thrilled to be hiking in mostly dry shoes.

Believe it or not, this is the first day I put in headphones while hiking.

Other notes:

• I either got eaten alive by bugs after the rain yesterday or by bugs in Erwin. I woke up in the middle of the night last night and slathered my arms and legs in antifungal cream because it was the only thing I had that would stop itching. It worked. I went back to bed.
• We stayed near a shelter a while back (the night I was pretty sick and felt like patient zero), where Barrett pointed out that some of the birds’ sounds almost sounded like an animatronic. The mechanical birds returned this morning, along with another bird that makes a gurgling noise.
• I initially noticed this yesterday; there’s a strong floral scent we’ve smelled after the rain. I think it’s False Solomon’s Seal. It is all around and still permeates the air today.
• We saw dozens of Red Spotted Newts and a toad.

• We watched a pretty big tree branch snap and fall into the woods.
• I noticed something bright red in a tree that I thought might be someone’s discarded trash, but upon closer inspection, we realized it was a beautiful, bright red bird, a Scarlet Tanager.
• A lot of this section has had a nice, cushy path.

On this day, we hiked through a beautiful, windy, bright green forest.

One of my favorite moments was arriving at a lovely little lookout point that truly took my breath away, called Little Rock Knob.

I don’t think Barrett thought it was much of anything special, but IDK, to me, it had an amazing view that I felt submerged in.

Instead of looking out at faraway mountains, the hills were right beneath our feet and rolled outward forever.

Overall, we have loved this area lately. We’ve talked a fair bit about enjoying the trail from Hot Springs to now. We frequently remark that we are so happy this is all so close to home.

I’ve especially enjoyed this TN-maintained portion, which started at Spivey Gap and still continues from here.

Also, despite the lack of privies in TN, they do have tons of cool stealth spots! We walk by so many that would make a great short trip destination in the future with the dog.

The day overall was breezy. We had a quick downpour of rain before beginning the trek up Roan Mountain, which did a relatively good job of getting us wet. Then, during the last mile of the day, it rained pretty hard, and we, once again, got drenched. Not as bad as yesterday, but still drenched.

We stopped halfway up Roan Mountain in a gorgeous pine forest gap. There were dozens of tent spots, but no one else ever arrived.

At this point, I was starting to feel pretty gross from the rain and sweat. Also, I was not entirely sure what I had left to wear tomorrow…

Additionally, the pain from my knees to my feet had returned. I took ibuprofen, ate dinner, and fell asleep.

✔️ Length: 11.5 trail miles
✔️ Total Ascent: 3427′
✔️ Total Descent: 2085′
✔️ Total Grade: 480’/mi

Day 49

May 23, 2022

Last night’s camp spot was awesome. Also, we are very wet. 😹

This day started out very windy and rainy at our pine tree-covered camp spot halfway up Roan Mountain. It had rained so loudly throughout the night that it woke us both up at various points.

Our cell signal was hit or miss here. Upon waking up, we spent longer in the tent than usual, listening for a break in the rain while trying to connect with my Mom and Dad to see if they could text us any info on the weather.

Eventually, we connected and discovered we were essentially screwed. We would be engulfed in a giant green radar blob for the entire day.

The problem is, we have to keep going. We honestly can’t take more than one break a week to make it to Katadhin in time.

Eventually, we had a brief respite from the rain, during which we quickly packed up our campsite, only for it to resume as soon as we finished packing.

We will be getting up and over Roan Mountain today. Our views will likely be obscured, but there is a bathroom and trash can 1.3 miles away that I am very excited to see! 🤗

Even though there’s nothing quite like putting a half-soaked shirt on in a cold mountain breeze, we try our best these mornings to make the most of an upcoming cruddy day by making jokes about our current situation and breaking out into song.

For me, this is kind of what it’s all about right now. My favorite part about all of this so far is the quality time I’m getting to spend with my best friend, Barrett. We’ve spent a lot of time on the trail lately talking about our future, what it looks like, and how excited we are to make Asheville our home after this.

So, as planned, we began our day by completing our ascent to the top of Roan Mountain.

We saw pine and massive boulders the whole hike up. However, the beautiful pine-wooded area had begun to more resemble the ruins of a high-altitude pine forest as we trekked up, with more trees lying on the ground than standing.

Overall, IMO, this mountain climb was not that bad, except for the whole being rained on the entire time thing. Physically, it was pretty gradual.

We reached the top of the mountain and arrived at the Cloudland Hotel site, where a resort used to stand in the 19th century.

These days, as FarOut notes, it is “just a grassy meadow with few ruins and fine views.” We saw no fine views. 😹 Just heavy gray air. However, it was fun to imagine!

We did take a moment in the rain to stand in the meadow and read about the hotel.

One fun fact I enjoyed learning about was that the hotel had a line drawn down the middle of the building to indicate the North Carolina and Tennessee sides, and that drinking was only legal on one side. There’s legend of a sheriff who used to wait for people to stumble across the wrong side of the line with their drinks.

Despite not seeing any views, we were very excited to reach this spot because we’d heard a rumor that someone had opened one of the bathroom stalls in the parking lot early (apparently, this whole area becomes open to the driving public on Memorial Day). And they did!

What a gem of a human! We used a flush toilet and even washed our hands with soap! We also threw all of our trash away in the parking lot’s bear-proof trash cans.

Just as we were wrapping up our short visit to this magical spot, we watched the rain transition into a downpour. We stood there, under the cover of the bathroom’s overhang, watching it and trying to decide how or when we should proceed.

We talked about what we would do if the rain never stopped. I make no joke when I say we considered everything from pitching our tent under the roof of the building, behind the building, or in between the concrete pillars of the building, and even considered sleeping on the floor of the very tiny bathroom if we had to.

Once again, we tried to get some radar info from my parents with our spotty cell signal. Eventually, after an hour and a half, we gathered enough information to deduce that it was not going to turn into a scary storm. So, we decided to continue once it slowed down a bit.

What followed was a hike through a lot of both tall and short pines.

For much of the day, we were essentially hiking up and down streams in the continuous rain. The trail turned into a rocky terrain covered in pooled up water, with a sheet of pine needles floating atop.

Barrett began entertaining himself by using his trekking pole to unclog all the trail drainage ditches of Pine needles.

We found it very exciting to watch the water suddenly gush downhill off the trail. 😹

I’d like to imagine someone behind us was briefly grateful.

Next, we hit Roan Highlands. We came upon an information board with beautiful pictures of lush, windswept green mountain vistas, featuring scattered small patches of brush and rocks that looked as though they almost belonged in an European country.

Barrett says, “I can’t wait to see that!” I cringe, laugh, and say, “Well, here ya go! Here it is!” Pointing to the gray gloom-covered view to our left. 😹

We laughed about it, but were also pretty bummed that we couldn’t see the views or even really anything more than 10 feet away from us.

We’ve very much loved the area over the past few days. So we agreed to return and experience this spot again later, since it’s not too far from Asheville.

Side note: Here we are, three years later, with our dog and daughter, making good on that promise:

By this point, the streams on the path had become even more extreme, with 50-foot stretches of ankle-deep water showing up over and over again.

The exposed highlands cause the rain to be brutally assaulting. I remember walking, eating jerky, just being slapped so hard in the face with rain as I chewed, thinking… “This is Fine.” 😹

Additionally, we saw only two people all day. One while we were packing up the tent, the other while I was intensely in the heat of explaining Bridgerton season 1 to Barrett (after I had just finished telling him all about Bridgerton season 2).

After the exposed stretch, the next area was super lush with tall, wiry green trees.

This was the Yellow Mountain Gap, which has Revolutionary War significance.

Also, Barrett had his second fall of the day in this area, and it was pretty impressive.

I don’t remember the first fall well; I think it was just a slide in the mud. But for this second one, he fell, but then his pack somehow launched him into a somersault!

After confirming he was okay, I, of course, snapped a few pics, and then we had a good laugh about it.

We called it at 9.7 miles at a neat stealth spot we made work for the evening when we finally couldn’t take any more of the skies’ brutal abuse. We set up the tent in the rain; I climbed in and squeegeed it repeatedly with my mini-cloth until it was dry enough to lay our sleeping mats down, and amazingly, we slept dry.

At the time, I was very disappointed because we were in a phase of trying to kick up our mileage. Looking back on it now, I can’t believe we made it that far on that day, even with slogging through the trail slowing us down and stopping for 90 minutes earlier in the day.

Tomorrow will be a very sad morning, as we have no water for coffee, despite being physically drenched in water. 😆 However, we are headed toward a B&B that supposedly has the BEST breakfast on the Appalachian Trail.

✔️ Length: 9.7 trail miles
✔️ Total Ascent: 2294′
✔️ Total Descent: 2544′
✔️ Total Grade: 498’/mi

Conclusion: Week Seven of our Appalachian Trail Hike

Week seven of our Appalachian Trail thru-hike was a real test of both body and spirit. Between lingering sickness, miles of hiking through rain and mud, and the challenge of pushing our mileage higher, it wasn’t always easy. But the week was also packed with unforgettable moments — breathtaking views from Big Bald and Little Rock Knob, the serenity of our favorite ridgeline stealth camp, and the comforts of trail town life in Erwin.

The storms, struggles, and small victories reminded us just how unpredictable trail life can be — and how quickly it swings between difficult and magical. With nearly 400 miles now behind us, we’re feeling stronger, more resilient, and more excited than ever to see what lies ahead.