We've notched the first 100 miles and are now settled in a motel in Franklin, NC.

Highs and lows have been pretty extreme as cold, rain, snow, even hail have made some days a battle against, not only the elements, but our own knowledge of how comfy it is to sit around a wood stove with a good book. Several days of sunshine, wonderful companions, new friends, and our improving physical conditioning have made for some pretty good highs to offset the 'bad' times. We headed for a night in town after the snow, were sitting in a shelter when it hailed, and usually can fight the cold with moving along. Last night we tucked the bottom of one 40 degree sleeping bag inside the other and more or less shared to combat the below 40 temp....seemed to work...and we've had some 'cool' nights. We strongly recommend a 20 degree bag or better....for now anyway.

We've climbed around 6-8 mountains so far....mostly in the 3-4,000 foot range, but yesterday we did Albert Mountain which was over 5,000 and a pretty serious climb with packs....even the kids were complaining as the last part was much very steep stair-stepping and rock climbing.

As far as finding the 'fountain'....it's working pretty well so far, but is a moving target. Mornings it seems we've gained a bit on the aging process, but by mid-afternoon a nagging doubt has set in, and by evening it's pretty sure we're not there yet.

Better go for now, thanks for reading.
Plowboy