Starting the Trek

Hello everyone and apologies for being so tardy on getting my first AT blog posted. It’s been a crazy six day start to the trail. I just now find myself with some time to get my thoughts together.  Forgive me for them being a bit scattered or not as structured as they will be later on.  I hope to get better.

One thing you will notice if you’re an Appalachian Trail follower is that on my first day I actually went southbound to the visitor center and then started northbound on my second day. This was because my wife spent three days with me in a cabin north of Springer Mountain allowing me to slack pack the first two days. Off, we go!

Day 1:  AT Miles 4.4 — Three Forks Trailhead to Amicalola Visitor’s Center

My trek actually began at the Three Forks trailhead about 4 miles north of Springer mountain. My wife dropped me off, and I hiked to the top of Springer Mountain where the Appalachian Trail starts. It was quite a view from the top of Springer, and extremely windy!

Soon I was at the top of Amicalola Falls with an incredible view. The full approach trail wasn’t open so I ended up hiking down the East Ridge Trail to the Amicalola Visitor Center to the famous arch.

 

Day 2:  AT Miles 16.1 — Three Forks Trailhead to Woody Gap

Day two started with being shuttled back to the three Forks trailhead. Now I will be northbound, hopefully until Maine. The day had so many incredible views, and beautiful creeks that I can’t describe, so here are some photos.

I was able to make really good time since I was slack packing and my wife was picking me up at the end of the day in Suches, Georgia.

Day 3:  AT Miles 15.1 — Woody Gap to Bags Creek Gap

Day three was an incredibly hard one for so many reasons. The first was that my wife of 39 years went north to our home and I was alone. It was also hard because this was the first day of having a full pack and not slack packing.  The day also included an early climb up Blood Mountain.

After Blood Mountain came the Mountain Crossings store and the famous shoe tree. This is where an estimated 25% of hikers give up and some toss their shoes into the tree.

When I left the store in Neel’s Gap, it was a long climb out.  But soon I was greeted with a beautiful Mountain Laurel tunnel. There are a lot of these on the trail and it never gets tiring.

The day ended at the Bag’s Creek campsite where there was a beautiful sunset. I was almost too tired to eat, but had a little something and was fast asleep.

Day 4:  AT Miles 15.0 —  Bags Creek Gap to Blue Mountain Shelter

I would like to apologize for the shortage of photos on this day. I was really focused on the trek and didn’t take my camera out of my pocket nearly often enough, but I did catch the sunrise.

Much of hiking on the Appalachian Trail has been on trails like this up the side of Cow Rock Mountain. It’s been a lot of rock hopping and slow going.

Day 5: AT Miles 15.2 — Blue Mountain Shelter to Deep Gap Shelter

There was a rumor going on around camp that there was trail magic at the upcoming gap. So I ate very lightly before the two hours of backpacking to get there. I was so hungry when I got there but Wow, was I rewarded by an awesome trail angel, Munn.

This was really the highlight of the day for me so I have to share a second photo of the two large fresh, blueberry pancakes he cooked for me on his griddle topped off with Starbucks coffee.

Here is one of the many tunnels of green mountain laurel that I went through today near Rocky Mountain.

Thunderstorms are expected to start around 6:30 AM tomorrow so the plan is to get up at around 5 AM to break camp and be ready to hike when a break in them happens. So off to bed early.

Day 6:  AT Miles 4.1  — Deep Gap Shelter to Dick’s Creek Gap

As expected, the thunderstorm started just as I completed packing up my tent around 6 AM.  After about 90 minutes of thunder and lightning it let up, allowing me to head for Dick’s Creek Gap. It would take about 4 miles in two hours to get there, and the entire time was a light rain, and lightning in the distance.

Just as I was approaching Dick’s Creek Gap, it began to rain hard for the second time today. And for the second time on my trek, there was a trail magic breakfast! This time it was very unexpected.

The people here in Georgia couldn’t be more kind and supporting of us hikers. It was so nice to not wait in a thunderstorm for a shuttle and instead enjoy coffee and breakfast sandwiches. We were caught off guard when a sudden gust of wind came through and blew the tarp off, but all the hikers and angels held down the tarp, long enough for it to be secured again. My favorite moment was the little girl taking names of all the hikers. She was adorable.

Now I’m off to Hiawassee Georgia to resupply and take a Nero which is trail talk for a near zero miles hiking day. With storms forecast for the entire day and not having had a shower or doing laundry in about six days I think I will take a half day off. Tomorrow it will be back to Dick’s Creek Gap and about another five days of hiking before I am able to post my next blog and clean up a little.

Thanks again everyone, for your support. I appreciate you.