So after months of "planning" my brother and I have finally started northbound on the A.T. The days preceding our departure were filled with that awful nauseous, anxious feeling in the pit of our stomachs. The moment we hit the trail on Sunday, it was gone. First day was not bad hiking at all. We did 8 miles plus 1 retracing our steps up and down Springer so it would all be official of course. Day 2 was not great in terms of all the uphill, downhill action - we only did a little over 7 miles. It was a warm sleep though! Then we woke up to snow the next morning and it snowed all day and the wind kept blowing... yea winter hiking at its best. We did 16 miles though and went over the highest peak so far, Blood Mountain (super creepy name - legend has it there was a huge battle among two Native American tribes. So many were slaughtered that the mountain flowed with the blood of the fallen. There's a sweet tale to tell the kiddies!) Hoping to stay at the hostel at Neel Gap that night... we found it to be full so we tented outside last night in the brutal wind (30 mph wind gusts). So rather than continue on with another day/night of sub zero nights with the windchill, we decided to stay at the hostel today/night. I feel no shame in taking a zero day this early on with the weather being this cold/windy. Also, I can let my sweaty clothes dry because although it's cold out, I'm still sweating doing all those miles. I do regret not taking any pictures except for at Springer and that's one thing I hope to amend these next couple days... it's just my fingers were going to freeze off if I tried pushing the shutter! So please enjoy this lame picture of my brother and me at the top of Springer! And this other photo from my iPhone!