Rob and Linda Hiking the AT 2010

The plane was a little Cessna 8-10 passengers. I sat right behind the pilot. We flew through a cloud bank and you couldn't see a thing. I just prayed no one would run into us or a bird fly into us. As you can see the mountains were right close. We arrived in Rutland, Vermont on the afternoon of July 23, 2010.

We got a great start on the AT hike. The day was sunny and humid. The temp was probably in the 80's. Katahdin, Maine is 487 miles to go.

Rough Day- My muscles were screaming. It was an uphill climb most of the day. Up and down we hiked and took breaks from 8-5. I could only last for about an hour and I had to stop. All is well now, we have our tent up and I am ready to rest. My pack is about 27 lbs. We went 7 miles on this day.

Arose at 4:30 AM, Rob likes to get an early start. We ate our poptart, coffee and protein shake. We were packed and ready by 6:15.

Today was a better day. I felt a little stronger. It was up and down today instead of mostly ups. It rained today but I didn't use my rain suit. It felt good. It helped cool me off.

We were surprised to find a ladder to help us get down to the trail. It was a little tricky getting on the ladder with my backpack.

We are camping beside a babbling brook. It is so nice to have water freely available with Rob pumping the water through a filtering system. Great to sleep with the sounds of the brook.

The white aspen trees were plentiful on the trail. You notice all the roots. I had to be careful not to trip on a root. They were a bit slippery from the rain yesterday.

The vistas were amazing. I took lots of pictures along the way.

We finally came to a shelter. We took lunch there and rested. We got water from the nearby stream. I used the little stand I brought to take a picture of Rob and me.

We went through some beautiful fields today and saw some red barns and farm houses

Hiking in the field.

We came to a road and met a nice gentleman with 2 kids and a dog. He was a 6th grade teacher. He told us about a neat place .2 miles down the road.

On The Edge Farm. I enjoyed a chocolate ice cream cone and Rob enjoyed an apple turnover. The ice cream was delicious.

Had a grueling uphill climb today. I set small goals to get to a certain tree to rest. I finally made it to the top.

We hiked until about 3 pm and started looking for a place to camp. It was hard to find a level place.

Finally we found one and pitched our tent and ate supper. Supper is usually a noodle combination of dehydrated green beans and dehydrated chicken or sometimes we add a little Knorr noodle mix to our Ramen noodles. My shoulders are real sore from the pack. I have developed bruises. I hope to solve the problem in Hanover, New Hampshire.

Mud, mud and more mud. We hiked through a section of mus and got my feet, socks and shoes wet. We tried to step on the side of the trail where the weeds grow, but to no avail still got wet/

The sun was shining today and it was a little hotter. We worked up a sweat. We had to stop by the hour.

Up and down today. On the ups, I started counting each step. At first I had to stop at 50 steps and I started increasing the # of steps and worked up to 100 before I had to stop. Counting got my mind off of my muscle aches and fast heart beat.

Early Rise this morning 4AM. It is still dark.

Right when we got on the trail this AM we saw the valley fog around the mountains. What a sight.

Then we came across a chair sitting facing East. A perfect spot to watch the sunrise. We wondered who would put a chair on top of a Mt. in nowhere.

These walking boards made it easy to get through the mud. Yea!