Week One – Georgia on My Mind

Greetings from Haiawassee Georgia! After about one week on the trail we pop in to Hostel Around the Bend for a shower (finally!), laundry, dinner, and a great night’s sleep in a real bed! The last seven days have seemed to fly by, and so much has happened. Here’s a summary of what’s been going on!

Day 1: On Monday March 20th, we completed the 8.5-mile Approach Trail from Amicalola Falls State Park to the official Appalachian Trail (AT) trailhead on Springer Mountain. These 8.5 miles aren’t technically part of the AT but rather just connect the Base Camp at Amicalola to the official trailhead. Although the sun was blazing it was still in the 30s, and the climbs were pretty difficult–after completing the approach trail I had a better understanding of why some folks choose to skip it! We took some time to celebrate at the trailhead, and then hiked in an additional 2.9 miles on the actual AT to our first shelter. The shelter was larger than I expected and had a loft–Mimi and I elected to sleep on the second floor and had it to ourselves. I knew there were about 55 people registered to start on the same day as us so I expected the shelter area to be crowded; while there were about a dozen tenters and maybe 6 of us in the shelter, the area didn’t seem overcrowded at all. The amenities at the various shelters on the AT include ways to store your food (either a bear box or tree cables), access to nearby-ish water source, and a composting toilet or privy (BYO toilet paper and sanitizer!). It was great to meet a few people at this shelter that we’ve been seeing every now and then this week: Rod, Keith, Mike and Jules who met each other on the shuttle from Atlanta, and Nacho Jim with his dog Dolly to name a few.

Day 2: On Tuesday it was again a cold but sunny day, and we enthusiastically climbed many ascents! It was approximately a 12.5-mile day to our next shelter and we crossed several “gaps” with steep climbs and descents. A “Gap” in the trail is basically a large dip where typically a road passes through, and the sides of the dip usually involve at least a gentle grade if not a treacherously steep one. We stayed in another shelter, this area was again clustered with tents but not over-crowded. We met a few more folks that we continued to see over the next few days, including Firemaster and Smokemaster (kindergarten friends), Anthony (a retired Navy guy pursuing his bucket list beginning with the AT), Renegade (from the UK), and a woman with bright blue hair named Hummingbird from Germany.

Day 3: It began to rain overnight, and while we stayed mostly dry in the shelter the cold, constant rain persisted all day. The temperature was still pretty low so I definitely struggled to stay warm whenever we paused for a break, but this just meant we hiked even more quicky! As we approached Woody Gap, we realized we should probably have Second Breakfast, and wondered if we could hop into the park bathroom to use our stove for a few minutes. As we hurried to cross the open parking lot, a group of huddled rain coats and wet pack covers called out “Come get some food!” Could it be? YES! Our first Trail Magic! Trail Magic is kindness shown by total strangers (Trail Angels) to Thru-Hikers, and can come in the form of a ride into town, gifts of food or drink, or other blessings. In this case, an AT Hiker who completed her hike in 2022 (trail name Monarch) and her tiny dog Zoby were holed up in an RV making waffles, eggs, and sausages for freezing and appreciative Thru-Hikers. It was such a gift to dig into the warm food with some of our friends we’ve been seeing on the trail! After enjoying a hot Second Breakfast we booked it for a total distance of about 10 miles, and set up our tent at about 2:30pm in the steady rain at Jarrard’s Gap. We had heard from a trail steward that bear canisters were required between Jarrard’s Gap and Neel’s Gap, so we couldn’t go any farther anyway since we don’t have canisters–and we stayed in our tent from 2:30pm until 7am the next morning with a quick 10-minute venture into the rain to hang our bear bag.

Day 4: On Thursday March 23, it was pretty humid in the morning but there was no rain. The sun came out as we hiked along in the morning, and eventually we met up with a quiet hiker named “Prophet” who had long white hair and beard. He commented on our hiking pace and asked if we were professional hikers, to which we replied “not yet!” We summited Blood Mountain and enjoyed the views and our Second Breakfast. Around midday we came across the first resupply points along the trail–Neel’s Gap! There is a Mountain Outfitter store right on the trail where folks can buy new gear, send unneeded gear home, resupply their food stores, and even buy new shoes. Mimi and I both purchased new insoles for our boots and a few food items to get us through the next few days After eating our lunch, filling our water bottles, and visiting with new friends, we left Neel’s Gap–and passed through the first major “quit point” where a debated 10% or 25% of hikers quit their Thru-Hike and leave the Appalachian Trail. We hiked a few miles beyond and set up camp, for a total distance of the day of just under 10 miles. We hung our wet clothes in trees to dry from the day before, which worked wonders. A little while later a local hiker passed through and casually mentioned that there was a mother bear known to rip down bear bags in this area, so make sure we hang our food properly! Thanks to Chris the Ridge Runner’s expert tutelage before we left Amicalola, we hung out bag with confidence and had no issues. I was a little more wary of the forest sounds during the night, though!

Day 5: On Friday we awoke to retrieve our intact bear bags and pack up camp. The weather was much warmer, with daytime temperatures reaching over 80 degrees. The spring foliage hasn’t appeared on the trees yet so much of the trail is currently exposed–resulting in a sweltering hiking day and a bad sunburn. I resolved to buy either a small tube of sunscreen or a stupid-lookokg brimmed hat (or both!) the first chance I got. We had heard that there was a bad storm coming that night, and so we preferred to sleep in a shelter rather than pitch our tent at a campsite…which meant that the next shelter was nealy 15 miles away. We pressed over mountains and through valleys (or gaps!) and chugged as much water as we could. The last 2 miles of the day involved climbing up a steady incline of rock fields, and eventually we came to the shelter we were looking for! We still had a few miles of sunlight to cook dinner and hang our bear bags using the cables, and settled in the for the night…the storm hit around 4am. The winds had picked up overnight and were gusting at about 40mph, screaming through the gaps in the shelter and coming up through the floorboards. Even in the shelter we were pelted with rain and spray, and the thunder was deafening. I couldn’t believe anyone would choose to sleep in a tent in that storm, and I worried about the tents scattered around the shelter. I’d wager that few people, if any, slept soundly that night! Eventually daybreak came and the storm faded away to a cloudy morning. Everyone in the tents said they got a little damp but nothing too crazy, but the wind was the scariest part. But we all survived!

Day 6: On Saturday we intentionally hiked fewer miles since we had done almost 15 the day before, and our 6-mile day took us to the Cheese Factory Site to camp. We were sad to find there was no actual cheese but the camping spot was very nice. After setting up camp we hung our bear rope, and then got caught up on chores like filtering water and cooking dinner–or, at least rehydrating it. In the afternoon our favorite Ridge Runner Chris came through and checked on us, asking is how we were doing overall and if we were staying warm. Mimi pointed out that we had heeded his advice and hung our bear rope as soon as we set up camp so we wouldn’t have to do it later–he assessed our work and called us “good hikers” before heading up the trail to check on other folks too. The afternoon passed into evening and Sleeping Bag O’Clock came at its usual time of between 7pm and 8pm. That night we heard a chorus of owls speaking to each other, with one that sounded a bit more deranged than the others…there’s one in every group I guess!

Day 7: On Sunday we woke up early after a brief rain and hiked a short distance to Tray Gap where we were supposed to meet our friend Ben to pick up some supplies. Ben had just run the 75-mile Georgia Death Race in the area the day before, and did very well (Congrats, Ben!!). At about 8:30 Ben called to say that the road was closed and he couldn’t get to us, so we checked our maps and the next good road crossing was about 13 miles down the trail at Dick’s Creek Gap. We had to get there before about 1:30pm of we were going to meet Ben before he needed to leave for his flight…Was it possible? We decided to give it our best shot. We packed up our stuff and took off. We flew up Tray Mountain and down the other side, and cruised along for about 7 miles before Ben called us. He said the nearby hostel folks told him that unless we were really fast, we wouldn’t make it and Ben could just leave our supplies at the hostel. We told Ben that we would make it…and we did! We climbed another mountain and another, flying just fast enough to still allow just enough time to carefully place each step to avoid injuries. We made it over 13 miles in about 4 hours, meeting Ben on the trail just south of Dick’s Creek Gap. We were able to spend about an hour visiting with Ben and our new friend and Trail Angel Tom who gave us some Gatorade and enough water to hydrate some Mac and cheese to celebrate. Although it was exhilarating, that pace is not sustainable for us, at least for now! After a break for almost 3 hours, we decided to press on SLOWLY for another 4 miles to the next shelter. The sun had come out and our packs were now laden with a full resupply of food for 5 or more days, so the last 4 miles were more difficult than the previous 13.5, but we eventually made it. We met up with our friends Mike and Jules at the shelter, and met some new folks including another Mike. We heard it was supposed to rain again overnight, but the triple-decker shelter was deep enough that we didn’t expect any issues with the rain. Despite a few chainsaw-ripping snorers in the shelter (I think it’s an AT law that there must be at least one snorer in every shelter at all times!), We both slept pretty well.

Day 8: Today! We woke up early and packed up camp before walking just over one mile to our extraction point where we would catch the free shuttle to Hostel Around the Bend. We got here around 11 and have been enjoying the cleanliness, charging all of our electronics, petting the sweet hostel cats, and resting. We’ll be back on the trail by 10am tomorrow, and plan on returning to the plan of approximately 10 miles per day. By this time tomorrow, we should have passed out of Georgia–one state down, 13 more to go!

One week in, I know we have learned so much about backpacking and even ourselves already. Spirits are high and we’re settling into the backpacking routine, trying to take joy from the big things and the small things. It’s been an amazing experience so far, and I’m thrilled that it’s still just the beginning. Can’t wait to see what happens next week!

Thanks for stopping by!