Day 78 | Appalachian Trail Thru Hike 2024 | Blue Ridge Views

Good morning, it's day 78. Aw, hey little guy. You've got to rescue him off the trail. You're right in the middle. You can't walk right in the middle. He wants to go now. He's like, no, I want to go with you. Take me down the Appalachian Trail. There we go. My leg. Squat. There you go. Bye, buddy. So, the plan for today is 15.7 miles to Middle Creek Campground. We packed out three days of food instead of four so that we, one, can have a lighter food carry and hopefully conserve calories by carrying a little bit lighter weight. But also, Middle Creek Campground, once we get there to the trailhead, I think it's like a couple miles, but they'll come and pick you up and you can camp there. I think there's a cabin or two. Bunkhouses. I haven't made any reservations yet. Kind of just going to see what's available when we get there. But you can take showers and best of all, there's an option to resupply, so we'll grab another day's worth of food. And also, they have hamburgers, nachos, milkshakes, and other things that you can eat for lunch or dinner. But also they cook breakfast. So that will be exciting for us to have extra calories on this leg of our trip. It's about 7.45 this morning. Not sure what the temperature is, but it feels really nice and hopefully it stays this way throughout the day. It ended up not raining at all last night. So that thunderstorm that we spent most of the day trying to outrun just passed right by us. So that's great news too. Because it also means that I'm not packing out a heavy wet tent. So score for the bears today. They're supposed to be in the forecast a thunderstorm coming later on today. But who knows. We're just going to keep on walking. We're coming up to Taylor's Mountain Overlook. It's very bright. Alright. Looks like we go back in the woods. Pops you out for a quick little view. And then back in the woods. It begins in Georgia. Oh yeah, okay. Wait, what next? Uh, this road. No, this is talking about Oh, Blue Ridge Parkway for 100 miles in Virginia. Oh, that's cool. Montvale View. Although all of this is absolutely stunningly beautiful. But I find the most beautiful currently right now is this trash can. We were just getting some really awesome views today. Popping out in the woods and seeing all of these overlooks. Today we walk along the Blue Ridge Parkway which is this. I think for about 8 miles. And so we had a choice. Apparently the Blue Ridge Parkway the road that I showed you guys used to be the original AT. And then I'm not sure when. Oh, I didn't see it. I'm not sure when, but at some point they changed it from road walking to puds. Pointless ups and downs in the woods. And so that's what we're choosing to take. I don't remember how many miles back it was. I think it was like 2 or 3 miles back. You have an option where you can just start walking on the road for 8 miles. Or the original AT or you can take the new AT which is what we're on right now. I was really tempted to take the old AT because you walk on that road the whole time which would have been sunny. It's not a busy road. Obviously it's much more level. No rocks. A lot easier. But really because you get views the whole time. The entire time you get the scenic overlooks. And so Little Bear and I kind of went back and forth on whether we wanted to do that or come to the new AT. And so ultimately we just decided to stick with the new route. Not that I think that if you took the old route it would be considered cheating honestly since it was the old AT and you're still walking the 8 miles. But I know some people probably would think that it is. I think Little Bear felt a little bit reluctant that it was taking the easier route. It's obviously easier because there's no rocks and there's no real difficult ups and downs. But either way we're still getting to pop out here and there and see some of the overlooks and the views. And also we're getting some shade from the trees on this trail instead of just walking the road with no shade at all. So it's a win win. And I think we're both happy with our choice. Slim Jim needs to come up with a better way to open their product because every single time that happens. Alright, I'll help you. Little Bear and I were just talking about how cool this looks. Obviously this is the rock wall that helps to stabilize the Blue Ridge Parkway that's up there. But it just looks neat. Kind of like we're traveling next to a medieval castle. What did you find? A lizard? Why are you pulling out of my hand? He thinks you want to eat him. I'm just trying to move you off the trail, buddy. I don't want to hurt you. He's going to crawl out. Crawl on the leaf! Are you okay, buddy? We're starting to see a lot more of the red or I think they're orange. Today, yeah. Yesterday we saw a couple too. They're really cute. They're probably one of my favorite friends on the trail so far. Yeah, but look how cool this is. This just looks neat. 20 feet maybe? It's like an AC. Oh yeah. So there's like this vent way in here and you feel the cold air coming out. It literally is like an air conditioner. It's probably 15 degrees colder than the air we're feeling right now. That's cool. Makes sense though. That cold air is being cooled down by the rocks. Oh yeah, just another little view. Today's walk has been quite nice so far. Lots of puds, quite a bit of work but the views have been worth it. Yeah. Coming to... Here it is. We're getting very nice views today. Honestly, I can see why people just walk this road. Because you see this the entire time. And it actually goes back into the woods here. Look at this big guy. Whoa. They're huge. We're gonna carry on with our day. Can you carry on? It's your day. It's so hot today. I know. It's almost 80 degrees and the humidity seems to be 100%. Plus this up is pretty uppity. Yeah. Well, we're about two and a half miles from where we should get picked up to go to the campsite tonight. I already forgot what the name of it is. Anyways, we've reserved our tent site and just like a normal campground where there'll be a bath house and little bear may be able to swim if she wants to. So that'll be kind of fun and we'll be able to have dinner. I think they have burgers and nachos and milkshakes. So that's exciting. On a serious note, I know I have, or we have, little bear and I, have many, many of you out there that are Christians and pray for us daily and we can't thank you enough for that. What I would like to ask you all is to say a prayer for one of our friends. We just found out that someone we met in the very beginning back in Georgia has just suffered an immeasurable tragedy. Now, she was never on camera so it's not like I'm giving away any of her privacy or anything like that but it turns out that out of nowhere, which I guess it often is, her husband just had a massive heart attack and passed away. Friend, I just want you to know that we love you and that little bear and I are praying our hearts out for you and your son during this difficult time. Life is so short and I know that we never know what tomorrow holds. So friend, know that little bear and I are praying. I hope this community watching this channel stops right now and prays for her and for her son because I can't even begin to imagine how terrible and how awful that had to be. So we love you and know that we are thinking of you and praying for you. Beautiful birds. We just came out of the woods and now I think the campground people will pick us up over here on the other side of the bridge. At least that's what Far Out said. So we're going to walk over here and I think she's going to be here in about another 15-20 minutes. Oh, it's a deer. Wow. Oh my gosh, there's a mushroom on the grass. How cute. Hey, friend. He's looking right at us like, hey. You just enjoyed that grass. We're going to walk right on by. This is Jennings Creek. There he goes. That is beautiful. I think you can go ahead and cross the street and then we can wait over here in the parking lot. And some chips and soda. I'll get you some tea. I opted for apple juice. I don't know why that sounded good. But here we are. Just a regular old campground and so we've got our tent pitched. A regular old campground. Although it's super rocky so it was kind of a hard pitch. We couldn't even get that rainfly to stick out. Yeah, it's fine. It's not a big deal. I mean, we could, but it is so... It's the hardest pitch we've had yet. It doesn't look too rocky, but underneath this is just rocks. Hello. Hi, guys. Welcome to the closing of day 78. Yes. I just looked and I actually just forgot. So, okay. Day 78. Well, today was a long one, huh? Yeah. We went about 15.7? Yes. 15.7 miles from the unnamed kind of stealth sort of campsite we had yesterday to Middle Creek campground. Yeah. Let's jump right in. What was your highlight or what are your highlights for today? I would say... I would say definitely getting here and eating the buffalo wings because those were seriously really good. Those were actually really good. Yeah. I mean, we're at a campground, but the chicken wings were really, really good. I could have ordered, like, two, three orders, but instead we had ice cream. Yeah. To add to it. I got, like, two big scoops of, like, ice cream. Strawberry. Yeah. And I had espresso chocolate chunk. That was really good. Those were delicious. Yeah, that's my highlight, too. Straight up, like, that's my highlight is getting here and having a nice, solid dinner. That was delicious. Yeah. It was great. What about your character builder? The heat. Yeah, it got really hot today. I can't remember how hot it got, but... 79. Yeah, and the humidity was, like, 80? At least. At least, yeah. It was a nice start to the morning. Yeah, like, we woke up pretty early and, like, left about 745. Yeah. So that was really nice, but it just got so hot after, like, 12. Yeah, from 12 to about 330 is where we when we finished the 15.7 miles, and, wow, like, we definitely stopped several times because we're, like, it's just really hot. Yeah. And then the long water carry. There was about 8, 9 miles with no water. Yeah, I think so. At all. So that was tough, too, but, yeah, those are character builders that we're kind of getting used to both of those, though, because we've had quite a few of those days where it was high humidity, high heat, and... Those aren't the funnest days. Little water carry, though. It's kind of, like, it's not a great combination, but nonetheless, like, yeah. Yeah. Kind of just getting used to it. Yeah. Anything else you want to add? I know we've kind of went quick on this video, but anything else you want to add? Here's Ellie. I already kind of peeked her in, but here she is. So... Yeah, we're doing a little conversation right now, so we're going to go finish Lance. Yeah. So... Yeah. Yeah, well, we'll go ahead and end the video because, yeah, you're right, we're kind of in the middle of a conversation and... We forgot to do it and it's, like, 8 something, so... Yeah, we were almost forgetting to do our closure video, so... Alright, well, we'll finish our conversation and we will see you guys tomorrow on Day 79. Bye. Bye. Love and light to you all. See ya. Bye.