A lot has been going on since we last updated, everything is going great!!  We've walked 463.5 miles thus far.  The weather has been phenomenal...highs in the 60s-70s and lows in the 30s-40s (we still have our winter gear so we've been toasty at night) with lots of sunshine!  The wildflowers are blooming and the trees are beginning to get leaves and wonderful scents of spring are filling the air...life is good.  We've discovered ramps (wild onions) and have been adding them to our dinners...mmm y'all know Sideways loves onions.  The day after leaving Erwin, we got some awesome trail magic up on Beauty Spot...lots of hot dogs, Mountain Dews, cookies, chips...thanks BillyGoat and Momma Goat!  We crossed over Roan Mtn the following day, which was a heck of a climb, and the last time that we will climb to over 6000 feet until Mt Washington in NH.  April 11th has by far been one of our favorite scenery days on the trail.  After the descent from Roan Mtn, we walked over a series of 5 or more grassy bald mountains known as the Roan Highlands.  We don't know how we lived fairly close to this beautiful place and never went to check it out...all you East Tennesseeans reading this better get there!  The trail runs along the NC/TN border for many miles.  We finally crossed into Tennessee officially and have completed the section of the trail that runs through the state.  The terrain seemed to flatten out once we got into Tennessee, which we are thankful for, and the trail has been much more rolling and gentle.  We saw our first waterfalls on the trail in TN, Jones Falls in particular was amazing.  We got off the trail to resupply near Hampton, TN, but were without internet and cell service so we were unable to update.  We stayed at the well-known Kincora Hostel-a great place that has been host to many trail "celebrities".  After leaving Kincora the trail winds around Watauga Lake...we sat on the beach by the lake for awhile and waded in...the water was freezing.  Yesterday we crossed over the VA state line...woohoo.  We are now in Damascus, VA..."the friendliest town on the trail"  they say.  We are taking a zero here and hopefully will be able to get out of here early in the morning and without a hangover this time.  We are staying at Dave's Place, a small hiker hostel.  Hoping to eat large amounts of good food here, as well as take care of our usual chores.  Hope all of you are doing well...we are thinking about you!  Take care...

I was distracted by conversation and dogs  when I wrote this so I will attempt to make it a bit more informative.
So you all know that we get up in the morning, walk a little bit, go to bed and do it all over again the next day.  We figure that some of you are probably wondering about the details of our everyday lives out here, so we will attempt to fill you in.
We wake up pretty early, about 6 or 7.  Moonshine always wakes up first.  Those of you who know me well know that I am not much of a morning person, so it usually takes me a few minutes to get going.  We decide what to wear based on the weather, not that we have many options.  We do have long underwear and rain gear for cold and wet conditions.  We pack up our things.  We usually eat a cold breakfast to save on time, we eat pop tarts, high calorie breakfast pastries, honey buns.  We sometimes have Carnation instand breakfast as well.  In all, it takes us about an hour (on a good day) to an hour and a half.  If we are at a shelter, we try to "take care of business" if you know what I mean, before we leave.  Most of the shelters have a privy, which is an enclosed  platform with a toilet seat over a hole in the ground.  Otherwise we have to dig a "cathole"...We have been trying ot get on the trail as early as possible since it has been hot out, so we can get some hiking done before sunrise. 
Once we set out, we usually are hiking about 2 miles an hour, depending on the terrain and how we are feeling we may hike a little faster or slower.  We stop every hour or 2 and take a break to eat a little snack (trail mix, nuts, little debbies, candy bars, etc) and get a break from our packs.  Since it has been hotter, we have been stopping mid-day for a LONG lunch break (1-2 hours or more), we usually so that at a shelter somewhere along the way in the shade.  For lunch we usually have bagels with pepperoni or summer sausage and cheese.  We also get more water on our lunch break if we need it.  Conveniently, there is a water source very close to all or most shelters.  We usually hike for about 8 hours a day, we have been hiking about 15 miles a day or so.  We are always glad to get to our destination.
We mostly hike to shelters, although that does not necessarily mean that we stay in the shelter.  Since the weather has been nice, we have preerred to stay in the tent, most often outside of the shelter.  The shelters offer the convenience of, like I said-water, as well as bear cables, and fire pits.  The shelters also most of the time contain what is called a register, most thru-hikers sign the regiter as they come through so you can keep up with your friends.  We wetup our tent if need be, and then setup our beds.  We sleep on 2.5inch thick sleeping pads which we blow up by mouth and lay our sleeping bags on top.  We then find the water source and collect our water for that night and the following day.  We have a pump water filter to ensure  that we don't ingest any dangerous trip-ending parasites..lately we have been getting a little lenient when it comes to filtering water.  Our water filter has been malfunctioning and giving us problems on a daily basis...so we may consider switching to another water purification method.  This is a chore that usually requires both of us.  Then, it's usually dinner time, which is always exciting.  We make whatever we can cook with boiling water.  We carry a small stove and a canister of fuel and a cook pot.  We usually eat pasts/rice sides, ramen, instant potatoes, etc with a packet of chicken or spam thrown in for some protein if we are lucky.  Unfortunate for me, I don't like tuna or salmon, which is commonly found in packets.  Lots of socializing takes place at the shelters, but we try to do a bit of journaling when we think about it.  We gather all of our food, dishes, odorous items, place them into bags and hang them on the bear cables, if they are not available we have to hang the food with a rope.  We are not so much worried about bears, but moreso mice and other rodents.   Bedtime is pretty early, around 9:00, also referred to as hiker midnight.  Since it is light later, bedtime is gradually getting a little later. 
Our packs weigh about 26-28 lbs with very little food and water up to 35-ish lbs with full food and water.  We have been resupplying about every 4-5 days.  When buying our food we mainly look at the calorie content and consider the weight.  We are not eating very nutritious food out here!  Moonshine's waist strap of his backpack is pulled as tight at it will go so he can't afford to lose anymore weight!  We have both lost about 5 lbs we think, but my body mass has decreased and I have gained a lot of muscle in my legs, which look like tree trunks now in my opinion.  Often times I am the only female around, there are very few females on the trail.  I don't mind at all most of the time, I probably can get along with men better than most women.  There are usually many people around in the evenings at the shelter, which is another (possible) advantage of staying at the shelters-the socialization.  If one is really looking for solitude out here, it is not difficult to find.  Most days we don't see many hikers on the trail until we stop for lunch...there are usually hikers congregated at shelters around lunchtime.  Some days on the trail we see many people, sometimes we are made a spectacle and have our picture taken and are asked lots of questions.  The sense of community out here is unlike anything we have ever experienced and we are loving ever second of this adventure!

Leaving out of Hot Springs was pretty rough, the booze was flowing freely, and needless to say we were feeling a little (or a lot) under the weather when we left out of there.  The walk out of any town is usually unpleasant, as it is always coming out of a valley which means a lot of UPHILL, and our packs are fully loaded with food, which equals heavy.  We had an amazing time though...thanks Bryan, Nicole, John, Maggie and Jordan for coming to see us...it meant the world and our throwdown is still the talk of the trail :)  Oh yeah, amidst all the boozing, Robin obtained a new trail name...Sideways D (because she smiles all the time and her smile looks like the letter D sideways).  We had a great trip from Hot Springs, excluding the hangover.  The weather has been excellent, though it seems that we had skipped spring and gone right into summer.  We've pretty much been hiking along the Tennessee/NC border and we've gone over some awesome balds and gotten some great views, every day has been clear and HOT.  
We are now in Erwin, TN.  We got in yesterday about an hour before rain hit...rained all day and woke up this morning to sunny skies.  Forecast looks great for the upcoming week, and it's going to be a little cooler than it has  been which will be much appreciated.  We are now at the Nolichucky Hostel and Outfitter, aka Uncle Johnny's, on the Nolichucky river as well as right on the trail!  We stayed here last night in the bunkhouse...out of the rain!  We gorged at a pizza buffet yesterday for lunch, ate Mexican for dinner, and a large cheap country style breakast this morning.  Of course we had to do all of our obligatory chores here as well, laundry, shower, grocery shopping, post office.  Wehave been full and happy here and we will be heading back out onto the trail in the next hour or so.  We're going to do a short day today probably, about 4 miles to the first shelter.  Should be a small party going on there, several of our hiker buds grabbed some beer before heading up there and we have done the same...sounds like another day in paradise!    We plan to take 6-7 days to Hampton, TN to resupply.  We are both happy, safe, and healthy....hope all of you are the same!!  Take care, until next time...

We got into Hot Springs, NC this AM...the trail actually runs right through the main street of the town!  We have walked 271.8 miles thus far...only 1907.3 to go!  That's a bit overwelming to think about, so we just take it day by day and create small goals for ourselves.  We are glad to be here, as we haven't showered in more than 10 days!!!  Needless to say, we are pretty stanky and greasy.  The last few days have been absolutely gorgeous and it is now apparent that spring is here!  Last we posted, we did our longest day yet (16.9 miles) to make it to Max Patch, which is a huge bald mountain in North Carolina that offers 360degree views of the surrounding mountains.  We made it there just in time for sunset, which was awesome because the sky was totally clear.  Also, lucky for us, it was a full moon...we saw the moon rise over the mountains, which was a first for both of us.  We slept in the tent right on top of the summit without the rain fly so that we could do some stargazing, and woke up to a beautiful sunrise.  We have been doing longer mileage days for the past bit, at least 15 miles a day, but our bodies are feeling it!  We did an easy 3.2 miles this morning into Hot Springs and will take a day off tomorrow.  We have some good friends coming from Knoxville to see us so we are super excited about that...should be good for our morale :) We are camping out in the Hot Springs Campground for the next couple of nights.  Of course the town is named after the natural Hot Spring here, so we are going to take a well deserved soak in the naturally heated spring water...should do our bodies good!!  LIFE IS GOOOD!