Kevin's AT Thru Hike

Day 29, Thursday, 4/14 – I woke up, and it wasn’t raining, which was exciting because it was supposed to start raining sometime early in the morning. I broke camp, ate breakfast, and started hiking. It didn’t start raining until sometime after 10am, and then rained for 3 hours.

I ran into some trail magic along the way, someone left homemade cookies in a Rubbermaid bin. So delicious.

I hiked alone for half the day and the other half with Blue, Sunny, Sprite, Willow, and Data. We hit mile 300 today which is another fun milestone. I hiked 16 miles to Jerry’s Cabin Shelter; which is at mile 302. I didn’t get into camp until after 6, so by the time I ate dinner and did my camp chores, it was time for bed.

I’ve heard that half of the people attempting an AT thru hike drop out by Hot Springs. I believe it. Up until now, most people have dropped out because the reality of the experience is different than they thought, or they became injured. But I heard from another hiker that Reid (Jukebox) is getting off trail. Reid started the same day as me. Apparently his reason is that he got everything out of the AT experience that he was hoping to get. I think that’s a great reason to stop. It just caught me by surprise because that’s the first time I’ve heard that reason for getting off trail. I imagine that reason will become more prevalent as more time passes.