Saucy Hikes

Hello everyone! We are coming at you with our first on trail update. This has been a CRAZY first week on trail… so lock in.

Send Off

We set off for our six month journey on Wednesday the 11th not expecting to pull up to a parking lot full of search and rescue. Unfortunately, the morning we chose to start was also the morning there was a missing person in the forest we were about to hike through. Rough way to start the trail. Luckily, the sheriffs department and local authorities were on top of everything and cleared us to start hiking..

We said goodbye to the Watchman parents (shout out Laura and Greg for driving us down to Georgia) and set off up Springer mountain. There was an eerie energy as we started our hike, but we quickly let that fall behind us as we approached the iconic sign at the top of Springer.

We basically screamed when we saw the sign that was the official starting point of the trail. We were in complete disbelief that we had actually made it here and watching our dream become reality. We spent some time taking in the view and kissing the plaque for good luck as we chatted with other thru hikers starting their journey as well.

As we headed back down Springer mountain, we chatted with some more rangers that wished us well on our journey. A few hours in, we were made aware the missing person had been found, so we could breathe a little easier. Day one brought a lot of excitement, a beautiful waterfall, new friends, and some anxiety. Our first night as camp was COLD (the weather app said the feels like temp was 14°) and we woke up to our tent iced shut with mice crawling over our rain fly. The weather led to us hiking out the next morning in freezing rain, and a wind storm that almost blew us off the side of a mountain (mostly kidding). We even watched a tree fall a few feet away from our tent, and yes it did made a noise. Truly a crazy first 24 hours in the woods!

Pack weights for day 1–

Sarah: 33 lb

Lucy: 34.5lb

Life on Trail

Thankfully, things chilled out in terms of weather and missing people as the week progressed. We started day two with a gnarly climb up Sassafras Mountain which led to our current favorite trail lunch.

Meal of the week! Lemon tuna wrapped in seaweed with sriracha and tamarin sauce. (Living up to our name saucy)

Speaking of meals, we’ve been killing the backcountry cooking game. We’ve had chicken fried rice wraps, peanut butter + gf cookie bites, and lots of pepperoni and cheese. For those of you that don’t know, Lucy has celiac which means no wheat, thankfully Sarah is happy to be mostly GF with her!

Every day has brought new flora and fauna, and we’ve loved getting to walk up the state of Georgia. Some of our daily tasks include filtering our water at stream crossings, setting up our camp stove to cook breakfast and dinners, and pitching our wonderful tent. We’ve even mastered the art of a bear hang!

* A bear hang is a method of storing food in accordance with state park regulation to keep hikers safe from bears and more importantly, bears safe from hikers! In order to properly store food and any other items with a sent that could attract bears, we set up a PCT bear hang.

Sarah being awesome crossing into a very sunny Woody Gap! Also yes, we are obsessed with saying “Chattahoochee”

TRAMILY!!

We’ve been so lucky to be hiking with some awesome people that we are considering our week one tramily (trail family). It’s a group of about 5 people, ranging in age from 40-70 (we think) that all have unique and interesting story’s. Sarah even gave someone his trail name!

A trail name is a namesake that you take on that becomes who you are while you’re thru hiking, typically based on something specific to you that another hiker gives you. Dave became Boxer when we learned he’s carrying his dog’s collar who recently passed and sprinkling his fur up the Appalachian Trail (the dog was a Boxer). Besides Boxer, we’ve got Liz, Thomas, Burt, and Jes. They’ve been such a funny and supportive group of people to start our journey with.

Disaster strikes!! If you made it this far in our post… I hate to bring up some bad news. Unfortunately on day four coming down Blood Mountain Lucy sprained her ankle. There was no awesome story, she literally just fell over and rolled it, then got up to keep walking and almost immediately fell over again and rolled the same ankle. Thankfully, we were right near a highway crossing with a store and some extremely kind paramedics that helped out.

That being said, we’ve been held up in Helen GA, while we wait for the ankle swelling to go down. The doctors have cleared me to start hiking again after taking a few days of rest and a lot of ibuprofen- and doing lower mileage when we get back on trail!

Georgia!

We’ve been experiencing so much southern charm and hospitality down here in Georgia!

The amount of support that strangers have had to offer us, especially as we navigate Lucy’s ankle and getting on and off the trail, has been extraordinary. It has been such a testament to the community of the Appalachian Trail, as well as to Georgia as a whole. Anyone will go out of their way to help carry Lucys pack, and offer any medical advice that they have (in addition to buying us coffee😛). The hikers are all quick to give you extra ibuprofen or let you try their weird hiking meals. Even strangers have stopped to pray for us, and people chat in the elevator down here!

The tiny town that we have been living in as Lucy gets healed up is called Helen, Georgia. It really is something special! It is a complete replica of a German town, that was built by American soldiers after returning from Germany. Every single thing here is Bavarian! We’ve been fueling up with lots of bratwurst and sauerkraut and plan to hit the trail again on Friday morning.

Thanks for reading! Saucy signing off… until the next post 🧚💚🍀