6/13 (7:00-7:20 PM 1.0 mile Springer Mountain Shelter)
GPS location
I flew from Atlantic City at 1:30 PM and touched down in Atlanta at 3:20. I arranged a shuttle from Ron Brown to drive me from the airport to top of Springer Mountain.
It was 96 degrees in Atlanta when I landed. In hindsight, that was kind of funny because before I actually knew it was 96 degrees, I was trying to convince myself that it wasn't hot. I kept telling myself, "This ain't so bad." But in the back of my mind, I was like, "Its kinda freaking hot. Maybe I should have hiked up north again." That was my one big fear for this trip- it being too hot for hiking. I looked at the weather forecast before I left and it predicted 85 degrees for a town near the trail.
Again, how I found out it was 96 degrees outside is kind of funny. While I was waiting outside of the terminal to get picked up for my shuttle, I heard some lady say, "Dang, its 96 degrees out here." And for some reason I tried to block that from my memory. I was deep in denial about letting the temperature effect this hiking trip. Once I made the decision to hike down south, I was all in, so if I had to trick my mind into not thinking it was hot, then, well, thats pretty simple.
So anyway the guy that shuttled me to the trail had a thermometer in his car which confirmed the lady's declaration. I arrived at Springer Mountain at about 6:45 PM and luckily the temperature there was 85 degrees, which was a great relief. I have read that, on average, for every 1000 feet of elevation change, the temperature change is about 3.5 degrees and Springer Mountain is about 3700 feet above sea level, so from Atlanta that should be about a 12 degree difference which it just about was.
Ok so when I landed in Atlanta it was absolute clear skies and on the 2+ hour ride to the trail, it was clear skies. As we were approaching the mountain, there were a few dark clouds approaching Springer summit and the dude was like, "that might be a problem" As we started up the forest service road up the mountain, it began to drizzle. And as we went up farther and farther it began to turn into a decent rain. So I quickly got out of the truck, got my gear ready and headed off, hoping to beat the heavy stuff, because the shelter was only 1 mile away, which is about 20 minutes of hiking. Well, within 2 minutes of hiking, it turned into a torrential down pour. The trail turned into a creek, my clothes, body and boots were soaked. I stopped to put my water proof pack cover on my pack, so that didn't get too wet.
So I finally got to the shelter and there were 3 teen boys. Their stuff was everywhere and one dude was trying to make a fire under the overhang of the shelter. They were cool. At night while we were talking, they told me that they had just got arrested this week for possession of marijuana. They had bought a quarter ounce and parked in some desolate off road pull off to smoke and the cops were all over them. They found out later, that this spot was a popular heroine drug dealing location. The cops checked them thoroughly for track marks. They didn't believe that they weren't there for heroine. And in further talk with them, one of the boys revealed that he had also been arrested twice for shoplifting. The first time he stole a video game from Wal-mart. He got a small slap on the wrist and put on probation. Then the numbskull got arrested again for stealing some food from a convenience store, which is a total stupid move and almost seems like a cry for help or maybe he just has to steal stuff. I know you're probably thinking this kid was a total weirdo creep, but actually he seemed completely normal and a sweet heart.
Lastly for this day... I felt very excited getting on the plane. I love flying and I haven't flew since going to Colorado in April of 2009. However, I was surprised at how UN-EXCITED I was to be hiking. It was kind of scary because usually I live to hike. It was an eery feeling. As I was falling asleep, I thought this may be my last Appalachian Trail trip. . .
6/14 (11:45-4:00 8.5 miles Hawk Mountain Shelter)
GPS location
So because of how the roads work on the mountain, the guy had to drop me off already 1 mile north of Springer Mountain summit. So this morning I had to walk south on the AT to get to Springer, then retrace my steps back North, and the summit of Springer Mountain was very anti-climatic. We always see the pictures of the North End of the trail (Mount Katahdin) and they are majestic. Well Springer's summit was small and boring, so I just stopped to eat my breakfast (cliff bar dipped in nutella), sign the register and move on quickly.
It didn't take long for that feeling on not-excited to turn into joyousness. Simply, I just feel so good while hiking- the exercise, the fresh mountain smells, the pristine spring water fresh from the mountain. I feel completely at home out here.
I have no mileage goals this summer. Last summer I had a mileage goal with a deadline and it made it very stressful and I probably pushed my fat, out of shape body too hard. So this summer my goal is to enjoy each moment and be tobacco free.
There were a lot of people at the shelter tonight. A high school biology teacher, a retired principal, a medical student, a traveling actor, a college student, two father and son tandems, and some dude I didn't really talk to along with his dog.
Oh yea and two Army Ranger patrols passed us at the shelter. They were going through Ranger school. They looked very tired and hiked very slowly. And at night as I was trying to go to sleep, they were practicing ambushes and raids, so it was pretty loud, but cool. It reminded me of good times at Camp Buckner.
6/15 (9:00-4:10 9.2 miles Gooch Mountain Shelter)
GPS location
Well the retired principal, who is a pretty cool dude, is a first time hiker and he was a little nervous. He asked if it was ok to hike with me. I was hesitant, because I like to be alone, but I said, "of course," we started off together. Well I decided to hike out of camp without water, because there was suppose to be a stream 0.4 miles from the shelter.
So we're hiking and hiking, no sight of a stream. Actually let me tell you something else first. I noticed there was a bee's nest (maybe hornet, i have no clue) on the trail that seemed to fall from a tree. I slowly walked around it, but a bee had latched onto my left calve and did its work. I swatted it off and kept on hiking. It wasn't bad, it didn't really swell up, but I kept a close monitor on it because of a past incident I had with a bee sting. So back to hiking and no sign of a stream. We finally make it to a road and I'm getting thirsty. No water. So I look at my guidebook and the stream is suppose to be before the forest road. So I think of just pushing on to the next water opportunity. I look at the guidebook- next water source- 6.4 miles. So I'm like shit, I have to go back. The hiking sin- back tracking because of a bad decision. So I start walking back to look for the 'stream.' The principal hiked on, which was cool with me, because, again, I like to be alone. So I'm looking, looking, looking for this steam, and I eventually found what was suppose to be the stream. It was a little flow from the mountain side, and it was dry as a bone. So now, I had to walk all the way back to the shelter's water source. I wound up walking 1.4 miles extra because of this bad decision to not get water at the shelter in the morning. But that's not the worst part of it. On the way back, I got stung by those bees again... in the same calve!! rascals! (You know what they say- "Fool me once, strike one. Fool me twice, strike three") So after running like a screaming, fool away from the bees this time. I turned around and memorized some landmarks so when I had to cross that nest for the 3rd time, I wouldn't stung again.
I hiked on while monitoring my body for effects from the bees' stings. It seemed to be ok for a while. After a few hours, I noticed something weird. I had a huge knot of swelling in my right forearm. How the heck could getting stung in your left calve cause swelling in your right forearm?? At the same time, I did start to swell up in my left calve a little too, but my forearm was much worse. So luckily there was a forest road nearby. I hiked there, took a benadryl and chilled for about an hour. The swelling got better so I moved on... (Side note- there were more Ranger patrols)
I got to the shelter after hiking for a few hours after taking benadryl. I felt like crap. I was very tired and had a headache. (I'm guessing a side effect of benadryl) However, when I got to the shelter, there was a snake eating a frog. Pretty cool looking.
6/16 (9:00-11:30 5.5 miles Woody Gap- Hiker Hostel)
GPS location
When I woke up, there was a little swelling in my calve, but I felt well rested and when I started hiking, I felt very strong. I was pounding out the miles.But as I hiked more and more, the swelling got worse and it started to itch pretty bad. I had stopped at this populated gap with a road crossing for lunch and the more I had thought of it, the more I knew I should take another benadryl. Then I thought about how crappy I felt yesterday when I took a benadryl, so I started thinking about a way to stay in town. I looked at the guide book and there was a hiker hostel 7 miles down the road. I stuck my thumb out and the first car that passed me, picked me up and took me there.
This hostel was very nice. It was a super clean log cabin. It had Netflix and a Chinese restaurant delivered to it. So I ordered some Chinese and watched episodes of The Office. It was nice.
There were other people there with cars. Some of them were bikers and some were day hikers. I was hoping one of them would ask if they could give me a ride to town for dinner, but no one did. I'm not salty. I guess I probably should have asked if I really wanted to go. But I hate being a burden to someone or making them feel uncomfortable. I mean, even if they didn't want to take me, they probably wouldn't have said no, and I didn't want to put someone in that position. So for dinner, I looked in the hiker box and had some oatmeal and peanut butter. (A hiker box is a box in a highly used hiker area where hikers drop off stuff that they don't want anymore that they think other people may want)
The guy who worked the hostel was interesting. He was quiet and reserved. My kind of guy. Well after hours of people coming in and out and asking questions, I came to find out that he was an ultramarathon runner. A little while ago, he entered a 500 mile race. 5 people entered, 2 people finished. He was one of the 2. It took him 5 and a half days. So basically this job was perfect for him. He lived for free, got paid a small wage, only had to do a little baby sitting work and he got to run the nearby mountains all day for training.
Another guy at the hostel was there for a special bike route. There is a race around this area called "The 6 Gap ride" I think its about 100 miles, but it goes through 6 mountain valleys or 'gaps' which means its a lot of ups and downs. He didn't do the race, because its not this time of the year, but he rode the route, tough stuff.
I also found out later that the travelling actor guy that I had meant at the shelter the other night had also got stung by the same bees as me. He reaction must have been worse, because when the Forest Ranger saw him at Woody Gap, he used an Epipen on him and sent him to town for supervision of the town doctor. Apparently he had swelled up very badly.
GPS location
I flew from Atlantic City at 1:30 PM and touched down in Atlanta at 3:20. I arranged a shuttle from Ron Brown to drive me from the airport to top of Springer Mountain.
It was 96 degrees in Atlanta when I landed. In hindsight, that was kind of funny because before I actually knew it was 96 degrees, I was trying to convince myself that it wasn't hot. I kept telling myself, "This ain't so bad." But in the back of my mind, I was like, "Its kinda freaking hot. Maybe I should have hiked up north again." That was my one big fear for this trip- it being too hot for hiking. I looked at the weather forecast before I left and it predicted 85 degrees for a town near the trail.
Again, how I found out it was 96 degrees outside is kind of funny. While I was waiting outside of the terminal to get picked up for my shuttle, I heard some lady say, "Dang, its 96 degrees out here." And for some reason I tried to block that from my memory. I was deep in denial about letting the temperature effect this hiking trip. Once I made the decision to hike down south, I was all in, so if I had to trick my mind into not thinking it was hot, then, well, thats pretty simple.
So anyway the guy that shuttled me to the trail had a thermometer in his car which confirmed the lady's declaration. I arrived at Springer Mountain at about 6:45 PM and luckily the temperature there was 85 degrees, which was a great relief. I have read that, on average, for every 1000 feet of elevation change, the temperature change is about 3.5 degrees and Springer Mountain is about 3700 feet above sea level, so from Atlanta that should be about a 12 degree difference which it just about was.
Ok so when I landed in Atlanta it was absolute clear skies and on the 2+ hour ride to the trail, it was clear skies. As we were approaching the mountain, there were a few dark clouds approaching Springer summit and the dude was like, "that might be a problem" As we started up the forest service road up the mountain, it began to drizzle. And as we went up farther and farther it began to turn into a decent rain. So I quickly got out of the truck, got my gear ready and headed off, hoping to beat the heavy stuff, because the shelter was only 1 mile away, which is about 20 minutes of hiking. Well, within 2 minutes of hiking, it turned into a torrential down pour. The trail turned into a creek, my clothes, body and boots were soaked. I stopped to put my water proof pack cover on my pack, so that didn't get too wet.
So I finally got to the shelter and there were 3 teen boys. Their stuff was everywhere and one dude was trying to make a fire under the overhang of the shelter. They were cool. At night while we were talking, they told me that they had just got arrested this week for possession of marijuana. They had bought a quarter ounce and parked in some desolate off road pull off to smoke and the cops were all over them. They found out later, that this spot was a popular heroine drug dealing location. The cops checked them thoroughly for track marks. They didn't believe that they weren't there for heroine. And in further talk with them, one of the boys revealed that he had also been arrested twice for shoplifting. The first time he stole a video game from Wal-mart. He got a small slap on the wrist and put on probation. Then the numbskull got arrested again for stealing some food from a convenience store, which is a total stupid move and almost seems like a cry for help or maybe he just has to steal stuff. I know you're probably thinking this kid was a total weirdo creep, but actually he seemed completely normal and a sweet heart.
Lastly for this day... I felt very excited getting on the plane. I love flying and I haven't flew since going to Colorado in April of 2009. However, I was surprised at how UN-EXCITED I was to be hiking. It was kind of scary because usually I live to hike. It was an eery feeling. As I was falling asleep, I thought this may be my last Appalachian Trail trip. . .
6/14 (11:45-4:00 8.5 miles Hawk Mountain Shelter)
GPS location
So because of how the roads work on the mountain, the guy had to drop me off already 1 mile north of Springer Mountain summit. So this morning I had to walk south on the AT to get to Springer, then retrace my steps back North, and the summit of Springer Mountain was very anti-climatic. We always see the pictures of the North End of the trail (Mount Katahdin) and they are majestic. Well Springer's summit was small and boring, so I just stopped to eat my breakfast (cliff bar dipped in nutella), sign the register and move on quickly.
It didn't take long for that feeling on not-excited to turn into joyousness. Simply, I just feel so good while hiking- the exercise, the fresh mountain smells, the pristine spring water fresh from the mountain. I feel completely at home out here.
I have no mileage goals this summer. Last summer I had a mileage goal with a deadline and it made it very stressful and I probably pushed my fat, out of shape body too hard. So this summer my goal is to enjoy each moment and be tobacco free.
There were a lot of people at the shelter tonight. A high school biology teacher, a retired principal, a medical student, a traveling actor, a college student, two father and son tandems, and some dude I didn't really talk to along with his dog.
Oh yea and two Army Ranger patrols passed us at the shelter. They were going through Ranger school. They looked very tired and hiked very slowly. And at night as I was trying to go to sleep, they were practicing ambushes and raids, so it was pretty loud, but cool. It reminded me of good times at Camp Buckner.
6/15 (9:00-4:10 9.2 miles Gooch Mountain Shelter)
GPS location
Well the retired principal, who is a pretty cool dude, is a first time hiker and he was a little nervous. He asked if it was ok to hike with me. I was hesitant, because I like to be alone, but I said, "of course," we started off together. Well I decided to hike out of camp without water, because there was suppose to be a stream 0.4 miles from the shelter.
So we're hiking and hiking, no sight of a stream. Actually let me tell you something else first. I noticed there was a bee's nest (maybe hornet, i have no clue) on the trail that seemed to fall from a tree. I slowly walked around it, but a bee had latched onto my left calve and did its work. I swatted it off and kept on hiking. It wasn't bad, it didn't really swell up, but I kept a close monitor on it because of a past incident I had with a bee sting. So back to hiking and no sign of a stream. We finally make it to a road and I'm getting thirsty. No water. So I look at my guidebook and the stream is suppose to be before the forest road. So I think of just pushing on to the next water opportunity. I look at the guidebook- next water source- 6.4 miles. So I'm like shit, I have to go back. The hiking sin- back tracking because of a bad decision. So I start walking back to look for the 'stream.' The principal hiked on, which was cool with me, because, again, I like to be alone. So I'm looking, looking, looking for this steam, and I eventually found what was suppose to be the stream. It was a little flow from the mountain side, and it was dry as a bone. So now, I had to walk all the way back to the shelter's water source. I wound up walking 1.4 miles extra because of this bad decision to not get water at the shelter in the morning. But that's not the worst part of it. On the way back, I got stung by those bees again... in the same calve!! rascals! (You know what they say- "Fool me once, strike one. Fool me twice, strike three") So after running like a screaming, fool away from the bees this time. I turned around and memorized some landmarks so when I had to cross that nest for the 3rd time, I wouldn't stung again.
I hiked on while monitoring my body for effects from the bees' stings. It seemed to be ok for a while. After a few hours, I noticed something weird. I had a huge knot of swelling in my right forearm. How the heck could getting stung in your left calve cause swelling in your right forearm?? At the same time, I did start to swell up in my left calve a little too, but my forearm was much worse. So luckily there was a forest road nearby. I hiked there, took a benadryl and chilled for about an hour. The swelling got better so I moved on... (Side note- there were more Ranger patrols)
I got to the shelter after hiking for a few hours after taking benadryl. I felt like crap. I was very tired and had a headache. (I'm guessing a side effect of benadryl) However, when I got to the shelter, there was a snake eating a frog. Pretty cool looking.
6/16 (9:00-11:30 5.5 miles Woody Gap- Hiker Hostel)
GPS location
When I woke up, there was a little swelling in my calve, but I felt well rested and when I started hiking, I felt very strong. I was pounding out the miles.But as I hiked more and more, the swelling got worse and it started to itch pretty bad. I had stopped at this populated gap with a road crossing for lunch and the more I had thought of it, the more I knew I should take another benadryl. Then I thought about how crappy I felt yesterday when I took a benadryl, so I started thinking about a way to stay in town. I looked at the guide book and there was a hiker hostel 7 miles down the road. I stuck my thumb out and the first car that passed me, picked me up and took me there.
This hostel was very nice. It was a super clean log cabin. It had Netflix and a Chinese restaurant delivered to it. So I ordered some Chinese and watched episodes of The Office. It was nice.
There were other people there with cars. Some of them were bikers and some were day hikers. I was hoping one of them would ask if they could give me a ride to town for dinner, but no one did. I'm not salty. I guess I probably should have asked if I really wanted to go. But I hate being a burden to someone or making them feel uncomfortable. I mean, even if they didn't want to take me, they probably wouldn't have said no, and I didn't want to put someone in that position. So for dinner, I looked in the hiker box and had some oatmeal and peanut butter. (A hiker box is a box in a highly used hiker area where hikers drop off stuff that they don't want anymore that they think other people may want)
The guy who worked the hostel was interesting. He was quiet and reserved. My kind of guy. Well after hours of people coming in and out and asking questions, I came to find out that he was an ultramarathon runner. A little while ago, he entered a 500 mile race. 5 people entered, 2 people finished. He was one of the 2. It took him 5 and a half days. So basically this job was perfect for him. He lived for free, got paid a small wage, only had to do a little baby sitting work and he got to run the nearby mountains all day for training.
Another guy at the hostel was there for a special bike route. There is a race around this area called "The 6 Gap ride" I think its about 100 miles, but it goes through 6 mountain valleys or 'gaps' which means its a lot of ups and downs. He didn't do the race, because its not this time of the year, but he rode the route, tough stuff.
I also found out later that the travelling actor guy that I had meant at the shelter the other night had also got stung by the same bees as me. He reaction must have been worse, because when the Forest Ranger saw him at Woody Gap, he used an Epipen on him and sent him to town for supervision of the town doctor. Apparently he had swelled up very badly.
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