We earned our miles today with mostly steep ups and downs. We got up at 6:30, boiled water for tea & hot chocolate on the picnic table. Before leaving I used the roofless three-sided privy. I used my bear call, "Yo! Comin' through!" as I approached in case it was occupied. The powder blue seat and lid lent it an upscale air. Garbage(!) was dumped within the first mile.

Brass plaque and the first white blaze on Springer Mountain. We will follow these white blazes 2174 miles to Mt Katahdin.

We saw and chatted with frequent co-hikers. Tonight we're camped by ourselves in the back of a picnic area.

Wildlife report: we saw a big brown owl late in the day. Marcia saw centipede and millipedes all day. Several grey squirrels.

 

... GottaWalk

Thursday, May 01, 2003

Destination: Baggs Creek Gap Starting Location: Woody Gap

Today's Miles: 14.9 Trip Miles: 34.9

Woody Gap is the trailhead junction of the AT and GA 60. It has a picnic area with very old stone tables and benches so we camped by the most remote table behind trees so we were not visible from the parking area. It was raining when we got up so we skipped cooking breakfast and ate Pop Tarts while we hiked. Visibility was so bad we could see about 100 feet. We did see a cottontail running up the trail though. Rain continued off and on all day. Later we saw 2 deer race off through the forest. Deer here have much longer tails than in the west.

Ken in front of Walasi-Yi Center

Hiking was a challenge up and down over Blood Mtn, the high point of the AT in GA a 4461'! We normally amble along at 2.5 to 3 miles/hour. Here we are happy with 30 minute miles because of the steep rocky incline. Coming down from the picturesque stone shelter on the top of Blood Mtn involved huge rock steps. Ken's longer legs handled the big steps better than Marcia's.

We hit our first re-supply at the Walasi-Yi Center. The AT goes right through the breezeway so it made sense to send food there. We also had a Coke and Pringles and skipped the hostel and laundry. The same AT official was at the store and recognized us. He offered us 1-liter platypus bags as a Leave-No-Trace promotion but we don't want more gear.

Disaster struck after we did a few more miles up the hill to a campsite at Baggs Creek Gap. A deluge poured as we tried to set up the tent and we broke a pole. Duct tape to the tentative rescue and on to plan B.

 

... GottaWalk