Week 10 - 2024

HUGE MILESTONE THIS WEEK:

1600 MILES ON THE APPALACHIAN TRAIL!!!

WHAT WE’VE LEARNED THIS WEEK:

“Welcome to Killington, VT! You’re killing it!”  Thank you so much to our trail angels this week - Anthony, Meagan, Suzanne, Kimi, Kendra and Sam - my sister and family, for our latest box of goodies! It was Christmas in July!  We are truly enjoying everything you’ve sent!  Love all y’all!

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I have become directionally challenged.   “Let’s get off the AT and head into town, I said. It’s really not that far. According to the map you go this way and we’ll be in town in a couple miles.”  Yeah, no … those couple miles ended up being 5 to 6 miles, totally going the wrong way!  It was a hot day and neither one of us were happy campers by the time we arrived in town (after being rescued by the city bus!)  FYI: I have been banned and no longer in charge of reading and leading from maps.

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We prefer to be looped! Discovered that we prefer hiking on loop trails versus in and out trails.  Probably why we enjoy the AT so much.  With loop trails you’re always moving forward and not backtracking like you do with hiking a trail in and then back out,  seeing the same things twice. And why did you need to know this about us? I have no idea. Store it away as useless information you know about Faith and FROG.

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They are really starting to bug me! 

Whose idea was it to hike during black fly season anyway? Those pests even bite through your clothing!  Thanks Lorrie for telling us about “Repel”, applying that on our clothes and wearing our bug nets has helped a lot. We ran into a hiker who told us, “Just wait until you hit Maine, the bugs there are so huge they will carry you away.”  Joy of all joys! I can hardly wait (she says sarcastically!)

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Sometimes things don’t always go as you hope or plan.  One step down off a rock/boulder can twist an ankle enough to put a halt to well laid out plans.  Taking a much-needed break to see if FROG felt well enough to continue resulted in our making a decision to end our hike earlier than we had planned.  It was a tough decision, but we believe the right decision for us at this time.

GOD is in the interruptions.  It wasn’t our plan to end before our 600-mile goal, but maybe it was His plan. Sometimes you don’t know why things happen but we just need to trust and have faith in what we can’t see or understand.  Maybe we would have gotten hurt worse than an ankle twisting, maybe there was real danger ahead, or maybe it was just time to stop. We may never know.  We just need to “FROG” and have “Faith.”

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“Your best champion and cheerleader is yourself. Always be proud of your accomplishments, big or small.” - Ayanna Howard

As we sit here in beautiful Vermont, we can’t help but reflect back upon our journey on the Appalachian Trail. So many ups and downs, highs and lows (literally and figuratively) that we have experienced together; memories that we will cherish our lifetime. 

We have met some amazing people: fellow backpackers who share in our crazy dream of hiking the AT; the many trail angels that surprised us with trail magic, given rides, or helped with a need; church groups that fed us smorgasbord’s of food; hostel owners who lovingly invited us into their homes and took such good care of us; shuttle drivers who safely got us from point A to point B, with so many of the above becoming good friends.  

The struggles we endured as we climbed up steep pathways, some full of boulders, stopping periodically to catch our breath to finally being rewarded at the top with out-of-this-world views!  So much beauty that at times we ran out of words to express God’s magnificent creation and masterpiece that He made for us to enjoy!

Slowly making descents down, some paths smooth, others filled with boulders, taking it one step at a time, feeling the ache in our knees and making sure we planted each foot securely so not to twist an ankle.  It is a miracle that we made it as far as we did before that actually happened.

Conquering some very intense rock scrambles, rock ascents and descents and even though it was kicking our butts and even made us fall on our butts, we never gave up.

Rejoicing when we came to a path that was smooth and flat so that we could look up and enjoy what was around and in front of us and not having to be mindful of every step we took.

Enjoying the many different wildflowers along the path, the birds singing to us, wildlife scampering around us hoping not to be seen.

Stopping in trail towns to enjoy the modern day conveniences that we took for granted, the comfy beds and indoor plumbing at motels and the restaurants to enjoy anything but trail food and filtered water.  

Going through rainstorms, thunderstorms, sleet, hot & humid conditions, and just missing a microburst. So thankful we didn’t experience any snow, we certainly wouldn’t have had our long johns, hats or gloves to have kept us warm because we sent them home so early.

We made so many mistakes, had our mid trail disagreements, thrown our poles, said some choice words, fell and bled, cried many tears, walked to pure exhaustion, bruised and lost toenails, but we wouldn’t have traded this experience in for anything else.  We learned to rely more on each other, to laugh at ourselves and each other, to not take things so seriously, to go with the flow and not have to follow a plan, and the biggee, FROG learning to listen to his wife. (Okay, so the map reading didn’t go so well, but most of my other ideas were spot on!)

The many “GOD Moments” that happened that we just couldn’t explain.  Sometimes what we thought was an inconvenience that was happening ended up being opportunities to pray with people, to share our faith, to bless others as well as being blessed in return by others.  Yep, GOD is definitely in the interruptions.

There is so, so much more that we could write and express - it was an adventure of a lifetime that we wouldn’t have wanted to do with anyone else but each other, our best friend.

Even if we never walk another mile on the AT, we can hold our heads high with pride and say:  

WE HIKED 1600 MILES ON THE APPALACHIAN TRAIL!!  WHAT A HUGE ACCOMPLISHMENT!

Thank you to so many friends and family that sent us resupply boxes, met us on the trail, opened their home to us, drove us to different points on the trail, took us to the trail, picked us up after our hike was over - your snacks, kindness, love, compassion and hospitality means so much to us.

Thank you to our support team on Facebook and our nightly phone support team who followed our journey, leaving comments and encouragement to us along the way.   We truly know if we hadn’t had your support, love and prayers, we wouldn’t have gotten this far.  Seriously. Thank you!

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You can’t get rid of us that fast.  Our hike may be over but our adventures together still continue.  We decided to stay another week and enjoy more of the Green Mountains here in Vermont.  More pictures to follow next week.  

Never stop dreaming and living the adventures GOD has for you!