May 2 - Watuga Dam

From PJ:

Hey. I'm at Watuga Dam. I have really good reception here, so I'm gonna send some pictures.

This video shows where we camped last night.

I came down these stairs. Really sketchy.

A waterfall.

Flowers on the trail - my best guess is that it's a Pink Shell Azalea

Scarecrow

Mariposas

This storm (above) is on top of me right now. Super windy.

Yikes!

Only YOU can prevent forest fires...

This is Catania: When PJ sent me this picture, I asked him, "Uh oh...was this fire caused by lightning?"

From PJ: Sadly, no. Someone actually did this one on purpose.

I heard they caught the guy.

It was black for a good 3-4 miles on the trail yesterday, and today we hit another patch of burned woods.

April 26 - A Late Hot Springs Update and Some Pics from the Last Few Days

On the Trail

Making Progress

The AT

Mom's is an actual store - open for business

From PJ:

[This is actually from a few days ago - April 22 - when PJ went into Hot Springs. He didn't have enough wifi to send it to me until April 26 in Erwin]

Good morning from the real world. We are excited today. We are about to go into Hot Springs. About 2 1/2 miles. It's only about 7:50 AM, but it's been 12 days since I've been in civilization, so I'm kind of excited to eat and shower. I'm going to buy every Gatorade there is. I'm so thirsty right now.

But yeah, I'm so excited to stay in a hostel tonight, get some chores done, get some clean clothes. Hopefully in a couple of hours - no - in an hour or so, I'll be eating some eggs and bacon.

***

We are walking into Hot Springs. We are still technically on the AT, even though we are walking on the road. We got Patriot up there, Fritz, and the dog Oakley. It's kind of weird. Nice little town so far, but I'd say we've got half a mile before we get some grub.

***

We're in Hot Springs, NC. And we're done for the day anyway. And even if we wanted to, we cannot hike. The next 20 miles is closed because that is smoke, not fog. That is a fire up there.  So that is interesting. We've gotta figure out. Hopefully it's gonna rain tonight, and I don't know - we've got to figure something out because the next 20 miles are shut down.