Today we hiked 12 miles in the morning to Sam’s gap for a total of 330 miles in 21 days. We had planned to hike 3 weeks on the at so this major road crossing allowed for us to start to trek back to our van at the start of the trail. After about 10 hitches and 1 Uber ride we have ended up in the Cleveland Georgia only 41 miles to reach the van.

Hoping to fly back to California for more Sierras adventures with friends and family and hikers.

Today we crossed the 300 mile mark of the Appalachian Trail. We met a trail angel called the southern cookie lady. We hiked 20 miles to flint shelter.

We exited the Smokey mountains and now stay at three hostels in the past 5 days. Distances between towns and hostels and the opportunity to stay at some of the most classic at hostess helped made our decision to hostel rather than camp.

Today we hiked about 9 miles to reach interstate 40 where we had arranged a ride and stay at a hiker hostel.

We hiked 20 miles to the last shelter of the Smokey mountains.

We hiked for two days hiking about 18 miles a day and staying at shelters or camping next to them. Clingmans dome is the highest point on the trail at 6600 feet. Last night we reconnected with hiker friends from the pct of 2022 from Columbia who want us to come visit them.

We hiked 31 miles from the Noc to reach the resupply town of Fontana. We stopped the night at a nice empty shelter.

In 8 days now we have hiked about 140 miles to reach the Nantahala’s outdoor center. We have spent several nights in shelters and camped other nights.

The weather has been nice with some cloudy and rainy days and most days of the week sun and tree shade.

In 2 days we will reach the Smokey mountains and hike thru.

We drove from Jekyll island thru Atlanta Georgia to reach the southern terminus of the Appalachian trail at amicalolo falls where we started our hike.

We started late around 3 pm Sunday for rain and final prep and hiked about 8 miles to our first shelter. We hiked 17 miles the next day to another shelter and campground which was busy with about 20 hikers.

We hiked 15 miles today to blood mountain where we found a cabin to rent.

We parked the boat and left our friends in cocoa Florida and have headed north to start some hiking on the AT trail in Georgia.

It’s about 8 hours driving to the start of the trail. We stopped and spent an afternoon and morning with a friend who lives on Jekyll island Georgia. We did two bike rides on this state park unique island.

In the last few days we traveled up the inter coastal route to Cape Canaveral Florida where we hauled the boat out for summer and fall storage. The boat dock had a large sling that lifted out boat out of the water and then drove it to a yard for several months of storage. We spent about a day preparing the boat for the summer storage.

We saw many dolphins in the rivers

We were able to get a ride in some friends small plane from fort pierce to marathon to get the van parked there. We then drove it back to Fort pierce for a few days while we move the boat to cape canaveral.

We met up with some other friend in fort pierce for dinner and visits

Today we motored 26 miles north on the icw and anchored off of Palm Bay. It was a super crazy busy boating day being the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend and every operational boat was out today. Hundreds of high speed motorboats on the icw passing us all day.

Last night and yesterday we sailed about 110 miles from sale cay to fort pierce Florida.

We left sale cay at 9:30 am and arrived in fort pierce at 9:30 am. We had timed the entry into this entry cut to work with currents and wind.

It was a very light sail and we sailed and motored off and on for the first 12 hours and then ran the motor for the last 12 hours as the wind stopped.

It was a full moon so a good crossing with very calm conditions just lots of motoring.

We spent the day arranging boat yard storage which we found north 67 miles at Cape Canaveral.

We spent two nights at sale cay waiting for a good weather window to cross the Gulf Stream back to Florida, about 110 miles. It includes a night passage to arrive at fort pierce inlet at a current direction that matches the wind direction to prevent large standing waves from forming.

While we were waiting we connected with this brave sailor who has taken his 24 foot Corsair tri and sailing it solo in the Bahamas. He had only been day sailing on fresh water lakes before this trip and appreciated some cruising tips and navigating tools we shared with him.

We did two longer 20 mile sails in heavy winds and spent a long afternoon and night in a stormy anchorage at fox town. We sailed the next day to sail cay in heavy 20+ knot winds all day.

We made it thru the famous whale cut with no issues and stayed one night at no name cay and another night at new Plymouth and green turtle. At no name we walked the large beaches and snorkeled the reefs.

We made it safely back to the Abacos and now working our way northerly. A heavy rain and thunderstorm cycled all day yesterday. We snorkeled at sandy cay and sailed up man o war cay. We did some snorkeling off man o war in the reefs on the Atlantic as the water was very calm.

Today starting at 2 am we did a 54 mile passage and back to the Abacos Bahamas.

We had to leave early to time our arrival into a cut at little harbor during incoming tide the swells were 4-5 feet during the crossing and with an out going current could make very high waves to enter the cut.

Today we sailed 47 miles to egg cay so we can do an early 2 am sail to little harbor cut in the Abacos.

The wind was blowing hard from behind at 20 plus knots. we caught one fish, a baracuda that we can’t really eat or use so threw it back. Getting the hook out with those teeth wasn’t easy.