[Transcriber's note: I can't quite bring myself to pretend to be Emily by using language such as "I" or "my" it just feels weird. Maybe if you didn't know I existed it would be easier. Anyway, I'm going to write in third person, and you're just going to have to deal with it.]
On day two, Emily put down another 10 miles and found a place to camp on the ridge line and spent the night in solitude. Apparently there is a wildfire off in the distance, because she told me she could see the smoke from her camping spot.
So far the weather has been warm enough to hike in shorts and a tee shirt during the day, but some rain is on the way and so is a cold front. =(
In the "good news" category we have several things to mention. First is that Emily experienced her first Trail Magic - brownies! A kindly day hiker thought ahead and brought treats to the trail. Also a bag of apples was found, the details of which I was not told.
On the evening of March 8th, Emily arrived at Neels Gap, 30.5 miles from Springer Mountain. She stayed at the Walasi-Yi Hostel for 2 nights. While in Neels Gap it's necessary for one to visit Mountain Crossings outfitter. This gear store and more is unique in it's position and catering to AT hikers. Going in originally for a new rain cover for her pack, Emily came out with quite a bit more. She got a gear shake down which includes first weighing one's pack.... Emily's weighed 50 pounds! Yikes! The experts at Mountain Crossings were able to help her pare it down to just 35 lbs. This included the (unexpected and slightly expensive) purchase of a new pack. It might be worth it though, if it saves your back and knees and feet and neck and arms and hips and...
No pictures yet, due to technical difficulties. If we were going for 'typical hiker' we should have gotten her a smart phone. Apparently everyone else is online whenever and where ever they want. But how good of a picture can you take with a camera phone? High quality pictures on the way.
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Fifty pounds might seem like a lot, but Emily is a rugged Mainer, comparable to some described in Kenneth Roberts' "Trending into Maine", such as Robert Lord, a native of Kittery, "who had a reputation for hardiness at a period when a man was thought delicate and ailing if he couldn't eat a quart of baked beans for breakfast and walk twenty miles a day with a sack of flour on his back...his hardiness was so prounced that when he came home...he had to sleep on the floor because featherbeds irritated him."
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