I lie awake the night of September 17th, 2012, thinking about the
adventure that I was to begin the next morning….a 32 mile trek on the Georgia
section of the Appalachian Trail.
Covering the distance between the parking lot .9 miles short of the
summit of Springer Mountain to Mountain Crossings at Neel’s Gap would take us
four days if all went well. It was a
hike that I’d been planning with my brother, Scott and my sister, Debbie, for
months and now here we were….nestled in our warm (dry) beds at the Quality Inn,
awaiting dawn’s arrival and the beginning of what would prove to be the most
physically challenging four days of our lives.
Mr. Jack Bulleit arrived to pick us up right on time. We’d partaken of the hot breakfast served at
the Quality Inn, doing our best to load up on the protein and carbs we knew a
long-distance hike would require of us.
We stood outside the hotel lobby, anxiously awaiting Mr. Bulleit’s
arrival as we contemplated the task that we faced. The weather was not our friend that day, or
at least not for most of the day, that is.
It was cold and rainy, but we loaded our gear into the back of Mr.
Bulleit’s truck and headed for the top of Springer Mountain via a forest
service road that was well on its way to be washed out. It seemed the higher we went, the harder it
rained and by the time we reached the parking lot, our kind transportation
provider told us he was willing to sit up there with us for a while and “wait
it out.” The offer was tempting, but we
knew that we had miles to cover that weren’t going to walk themselves so we
mustered up our spirits and jumped out of the truck, hoisted our packs onto our
backs, and bade Mr. Bulleit a fond farewell, assuring him we would call as soon
as we reached Neel’s Gap 4 days later.
There was nothing left to do but put one foot in front of the other….our
journey had begun.
It took approximately 5 minutes to soak us all the way
through (and that was with rain gear, mind you). The trail was under water, standing almost
ankle-deep in places. The higher
elevation tossed a chill into the wind.
Funny thing was…..I felt better than I had in months as we stood atop
Springer Mountain, gazing at that small, bronze plaque that marks the southern
terminus of the Appalachian Trail. I was
finally living my dream….or a small portion of it anyway. I was hiking the A.T. Not even the inclement weather could dampen
my spirit!
DAY 1: SPRINGER TO
HAWK MOUNTAIN (8.1 miles from summit to Hawk Mtn + .9 miles from parking lot to
summit of Springer)
I’ve already stated that we began our trek in the pouring
rain. After spending a few minutes on
the summit of Springer, we moved out towards our destination for the day, Hawk
Mountain. Because my brother had never
seen any of the area, we opted for a short detour to the Springer Mountain
shelter so he could see what it was like.
As we approached, we could make out several figures huddled inside the
shelter. Trying to be courteous, we
walked up quietly but did ask if the occupants minded if we took a break from
the rain. We all struck up a
conversation as we admired their “bear traps” they’d set up to alert them of
any large “friends” that might have walked up on them while they were
sleeping. We didn’t stay long, but I
will say that these four young men became our trail companions for three
days. It’s been a joke between my
brother, sister and me that every single time these young men caught up with
(and passed) us, we were eating. Having
learned the hard way on a prior hike the importance of eating correctly, we had
planned to stop for a hot lunch each day.
Stover Creek Shelter (approx.2.8 miles from Springer) was our chosen
lunch break for that day. There was a
water source down the mountain (behind the shelter) and a privy. I believe this is a fairly new shelter and is
in very good shape. We stopped for
roughly an hour before packing up again and heading out. I have to say that on a scale of difficulty
from 1 to 10, our first day on the trail rated about a 5….maybe a 6 since we
live in Florida and have no way to prepare for the rocks and elevation changes….but
looking back on it, we all agree that day 1 was relatively easy. We pulled into the Hawk Mountain shelter area
around 6pm, bidding a warm hello to our 4 young companions we’d met that
morning. We wanted to tent camp so we’d
told them to take the shelter. Honestly,
I’m not much for the idea of bugs and such running all over me while I sleep
and the thought of having “walls” (so to speak) around me, gave me
comfort. Up to that point, I’d spent a
total of 2 nights in the woods. For
those of you who have never spent a night in the woods, it’s nerve-wracking…..there
are MANY things that go “BUMP” in the night….suffice it to say we got no sleep
that night. We set up camp at one of the
tent sites, had no luck getting a fire started…and had one heck of a walk to
the water source…..but we did it. I laid
in my tent that night, listening to the winds come through the tree tops as it
blew in a cold front across the mountain.
The night seemed to take forever to pass as we all lay there, listening
to the nuts falling from the trees and waiting for heavy footsteps we were
certain would come. Dawn finally broke,
and after some coffee and breakfast, we packed up our gear and set out once
again for Day 2 of our adventure.
Stover Creek Shelter
Campsite on Hawk Mountain, Sunrise over Hawk Mountain Shelter
DAY 2: HAWK MOUNTAIN
TO JUSTIS CREEK (6.2 MILES OF BUTT-BUSTING CLIMBING)
When we set off, we had two possible destinations in
mind: Justis Creek or the Gooch Mountain
Shelter area. Still riding high off of
our achievements of the day before, we were certain we’d have no problem at all making it to Gooch. Well…we were wrong. Very wrong.
I’m not certain of the name of the first mountain that presented
itself to kick our butts, but I believe it was Conner Mountain. The best we could do was take a few steps and
then stop for a short break. We did this
for hours. This was truly a day of
climbing. It took its toll on us. My knees were killing me. Scott was wiped out. My sister was literally sick from the
exertion of it all. So, when we finally
reached the top of Justis Mountain, we knew we were stopping for the day. There is a campsite at Justis Creek….a very
remote, lonely, deep-in-the-woods campsite.
We were the only ones there, but it was amazingly beautiful and we were
ready to stop for the night. While Scott
and Debbie set up the tents, I trudged all the way back down to Justis Creek
with our bladders to get water for our dinner and breakfast the next
morning. As I squatted by the creek,
filtering away, I looked up and it hit me how isolated we were. It instantly gave me the creeps but I worked
through my fear of being watched by some giant beast who was licking his lips
and waiting for just the right moment to eat me for dinner…..I filled the
bladders and climbed back to camp. In
retrospect, it seems that all the water sources were a hefty walk (after a long
day of climbing anyway) from the camps. Because
of the rain, we were once again unable to get a fire started so we ate our
dinner….we use an MSR Pocket Rocket stove….and waited for darkness to
fall. Just as dusk was taking over, we
wearily climbed into our tents and settled in for another long night. The (not-so-silent) silence of the night was
broken around 10pm by a thunderous crash and snapping of branches that came
from the hillside directly behind our tents.
I believe that I stopped breathing as I felt a fear come over me that I’d
never known. I didn’t have to see what
was out there to know what it was…..our camp was being visited by a black
bear. None of us spoke….I can honestly
say that I cannot remember being as scared as I was in those moments ever
before in my life. I listened to our
visitor make its way around the brush behind us and then it must have gotten
bored and ambled off. The next morning,
we were sitting there with our coffee when my brother said “Did you hear our
visitor last night?” All of the pent-up
adrenaline came rushing back as we talked about how each of us was feeling,
knowing that something so big and potentially dangerous was so close. Needless to say, we kept a very alert watch
of the area as we packed up camp once again.
After having the crud beat out of us by the mountains the day before, we
began Day 3 very slowly, knowing that our next stop was Lance Creek, 10 miles
from where we stood that morning. There
were doubts that we would make it after the day we’d just had but we set off
with determination. One thing about us Keith’s: we aren’t quitters.
Justis Creek Campsite
Justis Creek
Our bear bag at Justis Creek
DAY 3: JUSTIS CREEK
TO LANCE CREEK (10 Miles)
I suppose the “hiking gods” were shining on us this day
because we kicked butt and took names as we tore across various ups and
downs. By this time, we had come up with
a nickname for the look we all would get as we hiked down the “easy” part of
the terrain into the gaps. We called it “Gap
Emergence Face” because we quickly learned that what goes down must go up. And go up it did! We were blessed with a few amazing viewpoints
as we made our way across the mountains….and it was those places that made all
the hard work so worth it. A little more
than halfway, we crossed a road into Woody Gap.
There’s a trash dump spot there as well as a privy with actual walls
surrounding it. I pointed out that if we
wanted to end our adventure, we had to do so at that point or there was no
turning back. It didn’t take long for
Scott to say “I’d like to try to make it.”
My sister answered, “Let’s do it!”
So off we went…tired, beat up, but ready to do what we came to do. Leaving Woody Gap, we still had about 3.8
miles to go before we would arrive at Lance Creek. Thank goodness the terrain eased up on us a
bit and we finally made it to Lance Creek around 6pm….we’d covered 10 miles in
about 8 hours, including an hour stop for lunch. Yeah…we were proud of ourselves for that
one! Lance Creek is in the process of
undergoing a shore restoration project so much of the area was roped off but we
chose a tent pad not far from the A.T. and set up camp. The creek was running, but it was easy to
imagine that it would be dry if it hadn’t been for the rains from a couple days
prior. Once again, our attempts to start
a fire were unsuccessful so we ate and prepared to retire for the night when
dusk fell. I don’t think we’d been in
our tents 5 minutes when a gosh-awful scream echoed through the woods….obviously
some animals in a fight. I think my
words were “any ideas on what that was?”
None of us knew but also, none of us were going to get out of the tent
to see. By the 3rd night, I
was completely exhausted and prayed that sleep would come, camp visitors or
not. I think I dozed in and out until
maybe 5am when I heard my sister say “Stay where you are.” Yep….there was a visitor outside. This time, however, I think exhaustion beat
out my fear…I rolled over and tried to just sleep. We followed what had become our morning
routine once dawn came, and then headed out for Neel’s Gap….knowing we still
had Blood Mountain ahead of us. I’ve
climbed Blood Mountain before….I knew it was going to be a formidable opponent.
Our view from Woody Gap
Our tent pad at Lance Creek
Our Lance Creek home for the night
DAY 4: LANCE CREEK TO
NEEL’S GAP ( 7.4 Miles)
We set off on the trail that day with thoughts of getting
our hands on an ice-cold diet coke once we reached Mountain Crossings. We also started our day with a climb out of
the gap….so our Gap Emergence Face came on early that day. It proved to be another day of butt-busting
climbs but we finally reached the base of Blood Mountain. Now, Blood Mountain is a popular tourist
spot, so we encountered a couple of families with small children. At one point, I overheard one of the kids
asking their dad how we had walked so far.
I felt myself swell with pride…yes, I had just about hiked 32 miles
carrying between 35 to 45 pounds on my back.
Yes, I had just spent 3 (very long) nights in the woods. Yes, all my planning had paid off and we had
everything we needed to complete our adventure (and then some). Yes…I was just about to complete a portion of
my dream of hiking the A.T. Yes…we still
had to climb Blood Mountain and then traverse the rocky descent before our day
was over. We were beat. We were tired…our bodies ached…my knees and
feet hurt….but as we sat atop Blood Mountain later that day, looking out across
the mountains….I had never felt better….my spirit was truly free! Let it be known that the descent of Blood
Mountain is treacherous and one must use extreme caution to prevent serious
injury. That being said, when we crossed
the road and walked into Mountain Crossings….which is the only place the A.T.
actually passes through a man-made structure….I felt like I’d truly
accomplished something. I’d done
it! We’d done it! We were now experienced hikers who lived to
tell about the journey!
Our view from the summit of Blood Mountain
Still smiling atop Blood Mountain (Day 4)
We did it! Neel's Gap at last!
I reached the end of this adventure...but not the journey!
2.5 MONTHS LATER:
BACK IN TAMPA, FL
All I can say is that I will always be grateful for the time
I got to spend with my brother and sister, proving to ourselves just what we
were capable of doing when we put our minds to it. To many, our accomplishment might not seem
like much and it pales in comparison to those who have walked the entire 2200
miles of the A.T., but it’s a start….and I can only hope to continue what I’ve
started in the near future. To quote
John Muir: “The mountains are calling
and I must go.”
P.S.
While this was not taken on our hike, I think it's a fine example of our "Gap Emergence Face"
