An Introduction To The Appalachian Trail

Thursday we hiked the Approach Trail from Amicaloca Falls to the summit of Springer Mountain, the southern terminus of the Appalachian trail. Our goal was to hike from here to Woody Gap, about 30 miles away.



To make it official and emulate the trek of a through-hiker, we started at the welcome center at Amicalola falls. Inside they have snakes in glass aquariums and stuffed bear to give you an idea of what there is to eat (and what there is to eat you) along the trail. I bought a walking stick having learned their value in the harsh volcano jungles of Nicaragua. M and Wanda did not. BIG MISTAKE. Out back (next to the port-a-potties) there's an archway over the 1 mile trail up to the falls. We drove the car to the top, dropped off Wanda and the gear, then hiked up. Michael, having a deep interest in the trail and knowing a lot about the route and through-hiker experience noted that the gravelly rock along the trail was like the AT in Pennsylvania. Maybe one day we'll experience that.

After the one mile hike up, we were at the official AT Approach Trail. The summit of Springer Mountain is the southern terminus of the AT. You have to hike over 8 miles to get there. So we did.



Along the way we ran into our first through-hiker, Cathy. I tend to hike a few feet ahead of the team so I encountered her first. I found it odd to come upon somebody sitting in the middle of the woods. I was even more confused by her gruff voice and the application of too much makeup. I'll be honest, I thought she was a man in drag and I was immediately suspicious. She said she was through-hiking to Maine, starting again now in July (late for a through-hike). She had started in March with her roommate who hates hiking. I can't figure out how you convince someone that hates hiking to join you on a 2175 mile hike through the mountains from Georgia to Maine. Cathy had all sorts of information about the trail: rumors of springs here and there, Snake sightings, distances to shelters, etc. When M and Wanda arrived we looked for the supposed spring but never found it. In the end we left Cathy there expecting we might see her again at the summit.

We set up camp just past the summit. Its foolish but I had not tested all my gear before leaving. I pretty much "prepared" everything about a day before we left. Having only removed the tent from the box to make sure it was more or less intact before leaving, this was the first time I'd set it up. Fortunately it was pretty easy. We still had plenty of light left in the day when we arrived but we all took a nap and woke up again just before dark with only enough time to fix a quick dinner. I think it was a 32oz dinner that M painstakingly carried up the mountain. It was a tremendous burden but it was worth it for the rest of us to enjoy mac 'n cheese with chicken mixed in.



The next morning we broke camp. I went down the trail towards the shelter to get water from the spring and who should be there but Cathy. She went on again about various trail topics but I didn't pay much attention and continued on to the water. Nice lady, she just talks too much. I felt sorry for her because hiking the trail alone must be, well, lonely but I didn't come all the way to the middle of nowhere to listen to jibber jabber and make small talk.

Back at camp, we were looking at the map of the day's hike when Wanda says "Uhm, Michael...". We all turn around to see an adolescent bear, not a small one, bounding away from us about 40ft away. We thought that a bear that size might be accompanied by its protective mother so we slowly stepped out of camp, back to back, guns drawn for cover. Panama Style. Muscle tees. Nah, we just left.



The second night we spent at Hawk Mountain. This time we decided to try the shelter. M had heard stories of mice infestations. You sleep in the shelter mice will crawl all over your face, eat holes in your pack, and crap in your boots. Well it wasn't quite that bad. At least not at this shelter. I found the shelter very uncomfortable compared to the tent but I like to travel light. That means no sleeping pad. All I took was enough food for THE WHOLE TRIP, a tent, a sleeping bag and a few incidentals like my Zune, a raincoat, etc. Cathy showed up again so M, Wanda, and I slept up top (the shelters are double-deckers) and let Cathy take the bottom. The spring was relatively far away but everything else was very convenient. The bear bag cables were right next door and the picnic table was directly in front of the shelter. Michael struggled to pull another 32oz dinner from his bulging plutonium pack. The sheer weight of it! How he managed I'll never know. But I enjoyed the cup or two of beef stew with summer sausage.

The next morning it rained but only long enough for us to get our stuff together. It was good that we stayed in the shelter or we would've had to pack wet gear into our packs in the rain. By the time we'd had breakfast and packed all our stuff, the rain was more or less over. Next stop, Gooch Mountain.

The shelter at Gooch was relatively new and, having not been overrun with rodents the previous night, we decided to stay "indoors" again rather than set up the tents. After we arrived we all laid down "just for a minute" and woke up some hour or two later to see Cathy strolling in at a half mile an hour. I had intended to sleep by myself on the lower deck of the shelter because Wanda snores like an air raid siren. On distant planets, advanced civilizations searching for life in the cosmos will detect Wanda's snores, shut off their SETI radio telescopes, and give up. With Cathy's arrival I had two choices, have my ears talked off during the waking hours or have them surgically snored off during the night. I chose the latter and moved my sleeping bag to the upper deck.

Later in the day two more hikers showed up. They were hiking the 70 or 80 miles of trail in Georgia to the North Carolina border. Then one of them was going to continue on, kayaking with another of his friends. Not sure what the other would do. They laid their sleeping bags on the lower deck and eventually helped us get the fire started. We had no luck with fire on this trip. We tell ourselves its because the wood and kindle was wet but I think we just suck at starting fires. This is something to work on as we complete the AT in Georgia. The other hiker had an easy time of it because he had an alcohol stove. Using a bit of the alcohol he started the fire right up.

That night the red glow of M's reading headlamp exposed that most devious of shelter beasts, the mouse. Wanda screamed. The mouse ran across the edge of the upper deck, no doubt about to attack, when I flicked or flung or catapulted it onto the picnic table below saving all our lives. Close call. But where there is one mouse, there are many. Michael's pack was infiltrated, cooking oils were nearly compromised. At least this time they didn't get to the critically low toilet paper supply. (At Hawk Mountain a mouse nibbled on the few squares M had left.)

With the uneven floorboards, squeaking mice, and freight train in the adjacent sleeping bag, I didn't get much sleep this night.



Here we are on a rainy Sunday at Woody Gap. I hiked ahead so I arrived before the rain. I tried to radio back to warn M and Wanda about the black clouds forming overhead but the radios were out of range or obstructed by the terrain. By the time they arrived quite a few motorcycles had pulled over at this rest area to wait out the storm. When M and Wanda arrived, we picked up their car at Amicacola and started back towards 400. Along the way we stopped at Waffle House (something that M didn't pack) and had our first real meal in 4 days.