You never know where you will end up.

5/5 & 5/6

• Miles traveled: 10 miles & a birthday ZERO
• Shelter: home, Valdese NC
• High point: JEANS, cotton socks, visiting with more family and friends
• Low point: feeling guilty about leaving all our fellow hikers in the snow and rain

When we woke up in our tent under the barn we realized it had stopped raining, finally. The sun was almost shinning but there was a chill in the air.





When we have cell service we try to check the weather as much as possible even though it is rarely accurate. We had been watching the weather for days and knew a cold front was coming. They were calling for snow at the higher elevations (right where we were).
Luckily I received a perfectly timed text message.

Lately we have been doing less "planning" and more "going where the trail takes us". We haven't been planning our days out or hitting a required set of miles. We have just been going until we are ready to stop and then we are done for the day. (Surprisingly, I am adapting well to this "less planned" lifestyle but more on that later.)
So... we opted out of snow and bad weather. Our trail angel/family friend/Russ' Godmother had offered to come and pick us up for the weekend and we took her up on it! We didn't have any other plans. My birthday was the following day. The weather was going to be pretty terrible, SO WHY NOT?!
We set a time to meet and then hiked 10 miles to meet Anita and Boyd. Those 10 miles packed a punch!
We started with Little Hump Mountain. The trail, on the left, goes all the way up the mountain in the "bald" spot and up into the clouds.

You can see Ziploc in the far left for size reference.

You can see the trail was a mess after all the rain. Hiking was very similar to trying to walk up a very soapy slip-n-slide.

The views were still amazing.


After we cleared Lil Hump Mountain it was on to Hump Mountain. More amazing views.

We have decided that this section of the AT from Carvers Gap to Hwy 19E (mile 378.9 to 393.7) would be an amazing weekend section hike. You would hike the balds, stay at the barn and catch all the views. It's on our list to revisit.
Anyways. After the balds we passed the LEAVING NC sign. We have been hopping the TN/NC boarder for almost 3 weeks. It's nice to have another state completely behind us, even if it is our home state.

We made it to Anita and Boyd and after a delicious lunch we headed home for two nights of rest.
Hiker trash comes home and airs everything out. Every thing stinks.

We visited with family and friends while we were home. We ate well and we relaxed. We also missed the snow and ice on the trail but we weren't too upset over that.

Happy to have this opportunity to visit with family and friends. Thank you to Anita and Boyd for bringing us back and Dad (Jay) for letting us in. 😂 We had no clue that morning that our day would bring us home... And it was just what we needed.