Day 1 (technically)

Went ahead and pushed ourselves yesterday and got onto the official AT. Today has been a little rough. We started out with rain today and it hasn't stopped yet. If anyone hasn't told you, hiking up mountains is really hard. We had lunch today at hawk mountain shelter and boy was it full of people. All, of course very friendly and hunkering down out of the wind and rain. When we left Stover Creek shelter area (where we camped last night) to start today we were all wearing t-shirts and by the time we got to Hawk Mountain shelter we could see our breath. Cody and I met up with Gary there, who is a very fast hiker, for lunch. We stuck together after that for most of the day. We hiked through Horse Gap and went up 800 feet in elevation in less than a mile....talk about a work out! By the time we got to the top I was very cold and also very wet (despite having a rain coat on...hiking in rain all day will leave anyone water logged! If not from rain then it is from sweat stuck in your raincoat from hiking up a freaking mountain) Did I mention it sleeted today too? We, or I guess I should say, "I", made the executive decision that I was too wet and frozen to continue on and that we needed to stop, set up the tent, strip off all my wet clothes and crawl into my sleeping bag as fast as humanly possible. Once  I was all covered up and most of the moisture dried off my body I was fine but that took about an hour of shivering. Don't worry Dad, haha! Gary went ahead, we yelled for him and tried to catch up to tell him we were setting up camp but couldn't find the speed demon power hiking through the rain. We are assuming he has probably made it to Gooch Gap shelter. It is currently down pouring with uncomfortably close lightning strikes, but we are fine. Cody is setting up the stove and we're about to eat and hit the hay early tonight. We are hoping to make up some miles tomorrow so we will be getting up early. Tonight I'm having western style tamale with beef (dehydrated: boil 2 cups of water and let it sit for 13 minutes, then devour) incase anyone was curious. Cody will be having chili Mac with beef. Sounds like the rain is dying down for the moment, so that's a plus. Maybe we will venture out of the tent to see if the mist/fog we have been walking in all day has lifted so we can see the view from the mountain top. Everyone enjoy their dry feet and heated houses for us tonight.