Julie walking to the top of Max Patch
Our writing is admittedly biased and we’re not able to give the full report of the trail life. This isn’t some sort of conspiracy but the fact is that there are times that we’re so involved in the moment that we either can’t report about it at the time, we’re too tired, or we simply don’t want to share parts of the experience while we’re in it. Also, it must be mentioned that we typically write these updates in a tent or a shelter and though we do have spell check, we’re not going through this stuff with a fine-toothed comb, so there are likely to be plenty of errors.
After the fact, we’ve thought how cool it would have been to be filming during the first big lightning storm for example. It would have been all dark without a flash on the camera but every few seconds, everything would have been visible, including our scared faces. Fact of the matter is that we were too concerned about the situation to think about filming. Julie was scared of the rain flying being ripped off by the winds and was actually hiding in her sleeping bag most of the time out of fear of what she may see during the lightning flashes.
Yesterday’s cold rains presented another great filming opportunity. We had snow and craziness in the Smokies but I was too wet and too cold to think about anything other than the task at hand. I actually thought about the real possibility of hypothermia on the mountain and it wasn’t until I was warm in my sleeping bag last night that I thought of how neat it would have been to have captured some of it on film.
There are also the emotions that we may not want to share that come out at times. I was super negative and in my child state a couple days ago towards the end of our first 27 mile day and nearly any comment directed my way would have likely been followed with some snotty remark. I don’t want to share these moments because they’re not my best and they don’t inspire or motivate anyone; but I do have them.
However, this experience of hiking the trail and sharing it with friends and family has been excellent thus far. It forces me to be introspective, to write my thoughts down, and to actually slow up on the trail in order to get a picture or a video. It’s also been fun seeing the other hikers’ personalities come out on camera when we’ve had the opportunity to share the filming experience with them.
We hope you enjoy this so far, even though there are parts you may never experience without actually walking the miles with us. We’re having fun trying to show you the trail life and hope to have many more fun stories and adventures to share.