June 8th Erwin, TN

The weather has been very hot lately, but no rain (I've been crossing my fingers). We've been sitting here in town for a couple days for some health reasons. I hope we can move out soon and get hiking again. The town is very nice with a river to go swimming and a movie theater where we saw Zohan and Indiana Jones. I have been reading a lot on this trip. I read No Country For Old Men and I am now reading The Broker. We Have hiked about 340 miles and have about 120 left until we get to Virginia. It is not too far away, I am very exited to get there. We had some trail magic the other day just before we got to the top of big bald Mountain. Trail magic is food that is dropped along the trail by non-thru hikers. We were hiking up a huge incline and felt like it was never going to end. Suddenly we saw a Tupperware box full of cupcakes, carrots, coffee, and water. It was the best thing i had seen in 4 days. We were hiking with three guys from North Carolina, it was fun camping every night and playing the guitar and singing songs from the 90's, i love that! Yesterday i realized that my pack was getting a little too big. A Guy from Manchester was looking to get a bigger pack so it worked out. I sold him min and picked up another one. I was able to drop 5 pounds from my pack yesterday. I've been missing home and especially Barb a lot but i have to get as far as I can out here. The hiking doesn't get any easier but i hope time goes faster.

Mike "Rolex"
GPS Logs:
http://wbafinc.motionbased.com
Williams Brothers Adventure Foundation:
http://www.wbafinc.org

June 1st Hot Springs, NC

The past few days our bodies have been feeling pretty good for the most part. I think that we are really getting in shape out here. I weighed myself today and i weigh about 165 pounds! When i left i was 183. The place we are staying in is called Elmer's. it is an old Victorian mansion with lots of rooms. It is mainly for hikers to stay while they are resupplying just like us. Recently we have profected the art of running while we are hiking. When we are going down hill our packs push us and we fly down hills only using our poles to slow us down a little bit. We figured out using the GPS that we can pick us about 5 miles per hour doing that! Lets hope no one gets hurt. I am glad to be out of the Smoky Mountains. Although there were some great views, there were some very hard climbs. It rained most of the time we were. We are about 180 miles south of Virginia, it is going to be so cool to hit there. We are all exited that we are starting to feel a lot better and do 20 miles days like we had planned to. Our spirits have been a lot higher and have been hiking and feeling a lot better. It really makes the trip better. I even climbed a tree right before we left the smokies. It looked as if it had been burned or and insect had killed it. either way it was a cool tree. We were also up in a cloud when i climbed it. We hope to have more days like we did yesterday where we hiked 23 miles. So far it has been a great experience!

Mike "Rolex"
GPS Logs:
http://wbafinc.motionbased.com
Williams Brothers Adventure Foundation:
http://www.wbafinc.org

Gatlinburg, TN May 27th

I am sitting in the lobby of the Grand Prix Motel. So much has happened since my last post. I have met a whole lot of interesting people along the trail, with so many different stories. That is sometimes the best part. The hiking is really rough, trying to hike 18 or 20 mile days, but meeting people is fun. We've still have been eating mostly pasta for dinner and snacking all day, not stopping for lunch. We have entered the Smoky Mountain National park about three days ago and hopefully we will be on our way out in two days. The trail has been running along the TN/NC border. It is really cool because you are hiking the trail but you're in two states at the same time. Resupplying has been taking longer then we expected. It is really hard to go into a town and not get distracted! Since we have been in the National Park we have seen some really nice views. On Thunderhead Mountain it was so nice, all you could see were mountains. I even said to my brothers i wanted to play Thunderstruck on top of Thunderhead mountain. They didn't get it, only a few people out there would get that one. When we woke up yesterday morning at Silers Bald Shelter, we walked 1.7 miles to the next shelter. When we got there we were standing and chatting with some other hikers when a Deer just came walking up only about 10 feet from us and started eating grass. It was really nice to see that. Yesterday we hiked to the top of Clingmans Dome, the highest point on the trail at 6,600 feet. Dave and Doug put their grandmother's ashes on top of Clingmans. It was a little hazy but it was still the best view I've seen all trip. We got to Newfound gap and hitched a ride from a really nice couple that drove us 15 miles, and had a lot of interesting stories to tell us! Hopefully we will find a ride back to the trail head so we do not have to pay $10! My feet and body still hurt, i hope they start to feel better by Virginia. That is what most people say will happen. We are heading to breakfast to get a good meal before we go back out and then we will stop in Hot Springs for our next resupply.

Mike "Rolex"
GPS Logs:
http://wbafinc.motionbased.com
Williams Brothers Adventure Foundation:
http://www.wbafinc.org

Franklin, NC May 19th

Two nights ago we made camp at the Standing Indian shelter. It was a very chilly night, and the fear of bears were certainly on our minds. There were no cables to hang the bear bags so we strung up a line ourselves. I set up my tent for the second time this whole trip at Standing Indian. I haven't had to set up my tent that often because i have had a shelter to sleep in almost every night. It was a windy one so i set up my tent. We made a campfire and played the guitar till our eyes got tired. We woke up, hit the trails and set forward for a good day of hiking. We heard there were reports of rain but we didn't see any precipitation in the morning. The terrain was flat and easy, it was a really good morning with views as far as the eye could see at 5,200 feet. We were walking through a dense pack of rhododendron when we saw a magnificent view of Georgia and North Carolina. It really made all the hard hiking worth it. My ankle is hurting me a little but not enough to stop me from going on. After a big morning of hiking about 12 miles the rain was slowing us down and we were in the need of more food. We wanted to stop at Franklin to get the resupply and laundry. We decided to stay the night in town. Dave, the motel's driver, picked us up and we headed for Haven's Budget Inn. The place is nice, but any place that has a shower and pizza close by is my kinda place these days. We realized on the trail that one can't really understand the true value of a slice of pizza unless they are hiking the Appalachian Trail. We decided to take a zero day today because Doug's hip his hurting him and Dave and I need a rest on our legs. We finally made it to the 100 mile mark and are exited about it. Tomorrow we hope to hike up Wayah Mountain and see some really good views and move on to our next resupply in Fontana Dam, NC right before the Smokie Mountains.
- Rolex

Diary Queen Hiawassee, GA

I'm sitting in a Dairy Queen in Hiawssee Georgia close to the border of North Carolina. The past few days have been very different. Sleeping in my tent and sleeping in shelters with mice as been fun! yesterday it rained and we went about 15 miles to Big Gap shelter. We hope to be in North Carolina tomorrow. The hiking has been tough but we are trying to have fun out there. We've been eating oatmeal for breakfast and snaking all day and eating Ramen Noodles at night. People ave been very nice to us. We have gotten rides to and from town from random people and even in a VW bus! Two days ago we were almost done our hike and a pack of wild boars crossed the trail in front of us. It was the scariest/coolest thing i have ever seen. The views have been nice and the hikes have been a lot worse but we will keep moving to our destination MAINE. My trail name is Rolex, i'm always worried about the time!
-Mike (Rolex)