![]() |
The first white blaze and plaque on the AT at the summit of Springer Mountain. |
The weather was gorgeous and the trail was mostly downhill until I arrived at my stop for the night, Hawk Mountain shelter.
I met a few thru-hikers here that I would see along the way.
NOTE: I will use trail names when I can even though some of the names were bestowed after I actually met them.
Here I met Cloud and his dog Raindrop, No Heart, Nightingale, Crow, Curry, Snowman, Kilroy, and Waka-Waka.
Day 2 - It turns out that I am the early riser of the group. I just can't sit around in the morning when there's hiking to do. Like day 1 the weather was great. I made good time.
![]() |
An AT critter crossing my path. The largest thing I've seen so far is a squirrel. |
That night the rain came and I was glad to be in a shelter.
Day 3 - On day three I caught up with Curry and walked with her for a while. Along the way she christened me Little Hill because of the little hills I trained on near my home in Nebraska. We met up with Two Sticks (later rechristened Pack Flip). She was going to hike a long day up and over Blood Mountain. I seriously considered going with her but, when we stopped at my original goal for the day I reconsidered and decided to stick to my original plan and camp at Lance Creek. Looking back this was the right decision for me. Curry and Pack Flip moved on.
![]() |
A, so far, typical foggy day on the AT. |
This was the first time I'd ever put up my tent on this AT attempt.
Day 4 - It was a foggy, overcast day as I climbed up and over the ominously named Blood Mountain, the highest peak on the AT in Georgia. Because of this there were no views this time and fewer people up top. Climbing the mountain wasn't nearly as tough as I remembered it but going down was just as hard, if not harder, than I remember.
![]() |
The Neel Gap shoe tree where quitters surrender their shoes. |
I met Shark Chow here. He is a kayaker and a journalist.
Day 5 - This was the longest day on the AT so far. It was nearly eleven and a half miles with a crap ton of ups and downs. When I arrived at Low Gap shelter I was pooped. Crow was here along with Llama Mama. The whole family showed up here soon afterwards.
![]() |
Some views today before the fog and clouds came rolling back in. |
Day 6 - the last whole day on the trail before my first break was a relatively easy one to Blue Mountain shelter. It rained on and off this day and my rain coat got a workout.
![]() |
Just love the stacked stone. |
This was, by far, the wettest day so far. Everything felt damp and wouldn't dry.
Days 7 & 8 - I left the shelter early at 7:30am and headed down Blue Mountain. It wasn't raining as I'd expected it would be which made the wait for the shuttle at the bottom better.
Laundry, lunch, shower - these were the main tasks for the day. I also wrestled with editing pictures and downloading track file from my GPS. My file renaming and photo editing apps, which are great on my Chromebook at home, did not work properly on my tablet. My GPS, which has worked great so far, stopped talking to my tablet. I spent a few hours fighting with things that should have taken me less than an hour to complete. *Sigh*
Today I'm trying to stay off my feet, which is turning out to be hard since I have to walk around town to resupply and get food to eat. I resupplied at the local grocery store. I only need two days since I will be resupplying at the Top of Georgia hostel/outfitter.
To my surprise Crow and Curry showed up at my hotel. They pushed hard and got off at Dick's Creek Gap and came into town. This made the last evening of my zero day fun.
Tomorrow I get shuttled back to the trail and head back out. Weather is supposed to be good the first day but rain returns.
This is a fairly long post but I haven't even tried to tell all the stories behind all the trail names or all the other stories heard along the AT. If I did the post would never come to an end - and this is after only one week.
Pictures can be found in my 2019 Appalachian Trail Google Photos album.
Section Distance: 55.47 Miles (89.27 km)
Section Elevation Up: 10,983 ft (3,348 m)
Section Elevation Down: 12,395 ft (3,778 m)
|
![]() |
The map for my first section of the Appalachian Trail from Springer Mountain to Unicoi Gap (Hiawassee, GA). |
No comments:
Post a Comment