Saucy Hikes

Hello beautiful blog followers! We’ve got some exciting updates…

State Lines:

FIRST OF ALL we’ve crossed the border from Georgia into North Carolina! This means that we’ve completed an entire state of the AT! Only 13 more states to go! We’ve loved getting to notice the change between states in the flora and fauna. The mountains have gotten bigger, we’ve started to see pops of green, flowers starting to bloom, and amazing ridge lines. We will miss Georgia and all she had to offer, but it was time for us to move on and we’ve been loving NC (shout out Elon grads, it’s nice to be home!) 

WE HAVE ALSO HIT 100 MILES!!! We did have to climb the second steepest mountain on the AT to reach this point… we’ll remember you Albert 🙄

Trail Names

Alert alert! Sarah is now known as “Ladybug.” This name actually stemmed from before the start of the trail. Saucy was in Harper’s Ferry (halfway point of the AT), when Sarah first saw a ladybug on her. Considering it was February and all ladybugs should’ve been hiding, she took this as a good luck symbol. On the trail, she has been seeing ladybugs everyday and they keep landing on her, despite no one else seeing them! So naturally she became “Ladybug.”

Lucy has a slightly different story… She’s had MANY different names pitched to her for potential trail identities. However, picking one name to encapsulate all things Lucy, has been difficult. Some examples of names include: bone broth explosion, chameleon, creek, calorie, beetle, puss in boots, and of course, pickle. All of these names come with funny stories, but none of them fit quite right. So she will continue to be meticulous with her trail name decision process. 

Trail Peeps

The social scene on trail has been all over the place for us. Because we were off trail for a few days, our original Tramily is a few days ahead of us. For a few nights, we found ourselves alone in the woods with no other thru hikers! Luckily we caught up with another group as we crossed into North Carolina, and have been hiking with them for a few days! Highlights include getting a trumpet send off as we hiked up a mountain and being serenaded by a harmonica from a man who may or may not have been homeless at camp. There really is not one “typical” thru hiker! Everyone comes from different walks of life and surprisingly we’ve been some of the youngest people out here.

Silly Misfortunes

At approximately 4AM the other night, while saucy was caught in a major wind storm on the side of a mountain, the side of our tent decided to cave in on a sleeping Lucy. Sarah was wide awake and promptly goes “Luce, our tent fell down” and a half asleep (very grumpy) Lucy responds “I see that Sarah”. But all was well when Sarah went outside to admire the stars as she fixed the tent (thanks Sar). 

Next, we were fortunate enough to resupply in a cute little town called Franklin where we hung out at a brewery on a Saturday afternoon. Unfortunately… the food resupply happened after the brewery and now we are stuck lugging around a lot of unnecessary food bought under questionable circumstances. 

Meal of the Week

We took a Nero (near zero) day in Hiawassee, Georgia, and naturally decided that we needed to pack in some sushi to the backcountry. Everything tastes better outside!

Trail Magic🧚🏻

We’ve been incredibly spoiled with trail magic this last week! Almost every single day wonderful people are at the parking lots on trail providing fruit, soda, water, beer, and some magical fresh food such as soup and grilled cheese! It’s been so fun to chat with all of these trail angels and their support of this adventure is very motivating!

Ankle Update

Thank you all for the kind thoughts toward the ankle injury! Luckily, it’s been healing very well and it hasn’t provided any real delays in our mileage per day. We’ve been taking the downhills slower, and Lucy has been very diligent with wearing the brace and doing ankle strengthening exercises when we arrive at camp. We’ve started to up our mileage and tomorrow we have our biggest day, 16.5 miles! 

Forest Creatures

Since we are living in the woods, you wouldn’t be surprised to know we’ve seen signs of many creatures. We’ve noticed lots of bear fur and scat, heard coyote’s and wild goats wailing at night, and many interesting birds. So far the coolest thing has been a snake that slithered right across the trail as we were walking! 

Trail Ins and Outs

INS:

North Carolina

Nerds gummy clusters

Morning miles 

Post lunch siesta

Full nights rest in the woods

Bear boxes

Trail legs!

Deep trail convos

Trumpet send offs/harmonica playing

Packing in fresh sushi 🍣

OUTS:

Georgia

Teriyaki chicken packets

Sleepy afternoon hiking

Subtle misogyny 🙂 (sometimes not subtle)

Tent falling down at 4am

Bear hangs 

Stiff/sore/blisters

People yelling on trail 

Packing out sushi trash😖