First four days of hiking.

I apologize in advance if I duplicate what Journey has already posted. I want to start off by saying that this is much more difficult than I originally expected. Day one was a long day but didn't have huge climbs or decents. We climbed two mountains and hiked 8.9 miles. It was a very tiring day and I hit the wall about 1 hour before we reached our campsite at the Hawk Mountain Shelter. The shelter was more than full so we pitched our tents behind it. In the morning I counted 26 tents, many with two people in them and about ten people were in the shelter. Needless to say it was a very busy day on the AT. After pitching our tent and eating dinner, we sat at the camp fire and met Honey and Bear. They are the owners of a hostile in Maine called the Cabin. Hopefully we will be staying with them in a few months. We also met Peter, a hippie from Chicago, who we spend quite a bit of time with over the next few days. Day two almost broke us. We only made 5.9 miles before practically calapsing at a campsite 1.5 miles short of our destination. We had climbed mount Sassafras which is said to be the most difficult mountain in Georgia. So far it has been. Day two took alot out of us and had us both thinking about throwing in the towel. That night we met Josia, from Pennsylvania, and Emily and Cass. Emily is from Hawai and Cass is From South Carolina. Cass is just out for a week to help Emily get started. There was also a couple from Vermont who's names escape me. Day three came and it was a fairly long day, and pretty tough. We hiked nine miles to a camp site by Lance Creek. This nite we camped with Josia and Peter. Many other familiar faces were there on the other side of the creek. Day four was supposed to be bad. We climbed the biggest badest mountain on the AT in GA, Blood Mountain. Today was a nine mile day and we pushed forward knowing we were going to stay at a hotel tonight and get a real meal at a restaurant. We are in Blairsville, GA and will take a zero day here tomorrow.