Backseat What?!?

As I go through more of the photos and info, I find great little nuggets of info like this. Remember, I'm just a messenger, here. -- rb

We presented Momma Charlotte (trailname "Backseat Hollywood") with an AT sticker since she is now an official AT section hiker after hiking one mile up and back down Springer Mtn.

JimmyJen checks in and talks about hiking!

I know that you hear more about resting from us and it's probably because we are so excited to rest after hiking everyday. Rest time is also when we are able to communicate with anyone. So enough about resting, here is a bit about hiking...

Our shortest day was 4 miles, longest day 15.9 miles. No sign of bears yet but we have seen a white tail deer, two snakes, and lots of worms and nasty bugs. A white butterfly flew directly into my face and I thought I was under attack. I inevitably began crying and got a big hug from Jimmy.

Albert Mountain was our hardest summit yet with an elevation of 5,220 ft. It had huge rocks with not many footholds and an old fire tower at the top. Magnificant views!! Standing Indian Mtn. was the highest elevation at 5,498 ft. but the trail took us up a bit slower than Albert so it wasn't as hard.

Setting up camp at night and breaking it down in the morning has given us a chance to work together and figure out each of our contributing roles. For example, Jimmy is good with the stove so he cooks. I am scared it is going to explode so I set up the tent. He usually washes out the pot but I will do it sometimes.....makes me feel like my hands are a little cleaner than usual. While Jimmy is cooking, I lay out our thermarests and sleeping bags. We bathe using wet wipes.

For breakfast we eat pop tarts, oatmeal, or grits. Lately, we've been mixing in instant mashed potatoes with grits if they are too runny. Lunch is small snacks throughout the day. Luna/Clif bars, slimjim, little debbies, sardines, chex mix, cheese its, you name it. Dinner is Ramen Noodles, Pasta Sides (Alfredo or Chicken flavor), or two boxes of kraft mac & cheese. From that, it varies very little. Needless to say, when we arrive to a town/hostel, eating at restaurants is our favorite thing to do. After a shower of course!!

So far, the weather has been great! It has only rained two of 13 days. But we are realizing exactly what "the grass is greener" really means. If it is sunny, it is dusty and hot and people say they wish it would rain. If it is raining, people say they can't wait to see the sun again to warm up. For me, sunny all the time is fine. Thunder and lightning is scary, hail hurts, and rain is very cold. Raingear is not that comfortable. But we will just take what we can get.

We have met some very nice people out here. Among them are Mountain Squid, Pacer, Johny Cash, Old Grey Mare, Jellybean, Low Gear, Green Bow, Crutch, Granny Frannie, Rayway, Big Toe and his wife Mrs. Toe, a girl who is hiking for Katrina relief, moonbeam, Si, Alex, and probably our favorite trail character....John Peterson who is a 70 year old photographer and second time thru hiker. He has lots of funny and interesting stories.

Other than that, hiking is hiking. Uphill, downhill, straight stretches, rocks, dirt, mud, clay, trees, flowers, it's all day everyday. Lots of time to talk or think. Our knees and feet hurt at the end of the day but our spirits are still very high. We talk to each other a lot about our state of mind. I am a bit slower than Jimmy so he walks behind me. We enjoy staying close so we can talk.

Jen a.k.a. "Bed Bug"

Trail Names Revealed

Via postcard from Neels Gap, GA, I have been informed that Jimmy's and Jen's trail names are respectively "Big" and "Bed Bug."

One of these days we are sure to hear about hiking or something...

Relaxing in Hiawassee, GA

Our friends Trip and Tiffany of Asheville, NC, drove JimmyJen to the Hiawassee Inn in Hiswassee, GA for some rest & relaxation.

Arriving at Neels Gap, GA

JimmyJen checked-in on Wednesday for the first time since leaving on the trail about a week ago. They delayed their departure by one evening due to the rough weather that hit the area and arrived at Neels Gap (Georgia, about 40 miles from the Springer Mountain launch point) on Wednesday, April 12.

Thursday, April 13, is supposed to be a "day off" since they are a bit tired after the 40 straight miles they've already gone.

Jimmy stated that the hiking is "pretty hard" but was not tougher than what they expected.

At Neels Gap is the Walasi-Yi Center (pictured above, taken from WhiteBlaze.net), where workers at the center help novice hikers go through their heavy packs and unload some weight where necessary. Both Jimmy and Jen dropped about seven to eight pounds from each pack. Jimmy's notable item dropped was the water filter, which became a nightly chore to use, clean, and store. Switching full-time to iodine tablets and using fresh water found along the way is the easier alternative.

Jen, however, held tight to her IPod Nano despite a worker's suggestion she send the "luxury" item back. As we all know, Jen can't stand to be separated from her Britney Spear's Greatest Hits playlist.

JimmyJen stayed at a nearby hostel the first evening, which was filled to capacity and had about five people who managed to snore out loud in unison. The second evening was less crowded and both of our hikers were looking for a better night of rest.

In the coming days, Jimmy promises to send more pictures from the trail and a list of four or five locations where friends can send messages, care packages, or rental car vouchers (kidding).

Who we are, What we are doing

We are a couple who grew up together on St. Simons Island, GA. After years of going to seperate colleges and living seperate lives while keeping in touch, we finally got together.

Living in Midtown, Atlanta across from Piedmont Park has been fun but more so has served the purpose of getting us ready for our next step together: We are leaving on April 8th 2006 to thru-hike the Appalachian Trail. Jen has been working at REI and has bought all kinds of fun stuff that we'll need.........sleeping bags, boots, camp stoves, you name it!

On the weekends, we have been hiking all over the Atlanta area from strolling the city streets with our back packs on to hiking the approach trail to Springer Mountain which is where we are starting our journey.

As we hit the trail, we'll be sending ya'll updates in three places: A JimmyJen Blog, our MySpace Account, and the JimmyJen Flickr Photo Site. Use the links above or send us an email to get notified of our updates.