Hello again,

Finally have a few to update everyone on the progress of Operation: Appalachian Snail.

We got up on the morning of the 11th and packed up our gear. We faced North again and headed back over the mountains we had hiked the last two days. 

As soon as I had reception on my phone I called my Dad to verify that he was coming. He was. So, we continued Northbound on the trail.

We hiked back up Kelly Knob. Kelly Knob is a 4,176′ high mountain. The last mountain over 4,000′ feet in GA. Tipawa has gotten so good at hiking we walked up the whole mountain without taking a break. An amazing feat.

We hiked back up to the Vista. Hiked back to and over Powell Mountain. And on down, down, and down some more to Dick’s Creek Gap. Where my Dad was waiting to pick us up.

We lifted our gear onto the roof of our Pathfinder, but we did not have enough rope to tie everything down. We had to drive as slow as possible to the Top of Georgia Hostel to see if we could get some.

When we got to the Top of Georgia we found out that Bohemian Gypsy Nighthiker was there.

Me and Bohemian

We talked with Bohemian and got some rope from the generous volunteers at the Top of Georgia Hostel. We safely tied down our gear and headed for the house.

We got home around 01:00. I can’t describe how strange it felt to be home after 2 months on the trail. It was like being deployed again. Everything felt new and fresh. We didn’t know what to do with ourselves. But we made the best of it by eating and drinking everything we could find… Then showered and slept in our beds!

So we were home. But we still had alot to do. We rested. We cleaned. We repacked. And repeated. I thank God we went home when we did. We got to have birthday party for Skyla while we were home.

Skyla’s Cake

Refreshed and resupplied we were ready to drive back to the trail on the 19th.