Day 9

At 3:00 yesterday afternoon we reached the North Carolina boarder which is marked with a simple sign posted on a tree.  After hiking 78 miles I was hoping for something more significant like a marching band or maybe some clowns but we were still very happy to have reached our goal of hiking all of the Georgia section of th AT. 

After crossing the boarder we had to climb over two very steep and exhausting peaks just taking it one step at a time. Michelle could frequently be heard singing the "put one foot in front of the other and soon..." which is from one of the claymation Christmas movies. Another popular song on the trail was the Wizard of Oz "we're off to see the wizard..."  We quickly realized there is no skipping with a 35 lb pack on your back. 

The views from the tops of these peaks were amazing when you could see the through the tees and the sweat in our eyes. 

We reached the Muscrat shelter at about 5:30 where we had planned to camp for the night after hiking 10 miles. However, the lure of knowing that our car at the pullout was only five miles further (and that we were running out of TP) convinced us to risk hiking in the dark if it meant being done.  Luckily we were able to make it before dark and drive back to Chris's house by about midnight after stopping for a celebration dinner (and ice cream) at Dairy Queen.