Started Thursday on this out-and-back 2-nighter.
I was overdue for a walk in the woods because it had been over two months since my last backpacking trip (at Fires Creek Rim Trail), and I even decided to start the festivities on a Thursday because work was getting pretty stressful. This trip was my first solo backpacking trip on the Appalachian Trail, although that didn't occur to me until I was writing this synopsis. I found this trail on AllTrails.com, a site that I have been using for the last few months to find maps and GPS tracks for trips that I want to backpack. For the last few trips my strategy has been to select a hike on their website that looks good, add the GPX file to my handheld Garmin GPS MAP64, pack my backpack, and go. I am not much of a physical map orienteering master, although I did get the merit badge once upon a time. In fact, on this trip when I remembered that I accidentally left the map in the printer, I simply shrugged my shoulders and chuckled a bit. Tom would not approve.
This trip was an out and back (14+14=) 28-mile journey from Hogpen Gap to Unicoi Gap and back on the Appalachian Trail in Northeast Georgia. The dogs and I hit the trail at 4:00PM on Thursday and the rain started approximately an hour after that. Less than 30 minutes after that my shoes were soaked and they stayed that way for the rest of the trip. For the first four or five miles there were a lot of excellent vacant campsites and there was even a shelter at Low Gap. Shelters can be nice, but with two energetic dogs I try to avoid them since lots of hikers don't share the level of enthusiasm I have for my dogs. Anyway, I told myself that if I could hike until 8:15 and then find the next campsite after that, that would be the best plan. 8:15 rolls around, but at that point I had to hike for nearly another 30 minutes to find a decent campsite. Thankfully the rain had let up so I didn't have to set up camp in the rain.
On Friday morning I broke down camp and started walking around 9:00AM. Shortly thereafter the rain started. Then it started pouring. I was soaked, but my pack cover protected the contents of my backpack. Then, the steep descent to Unicoi Gap in the pouring rain. At Unicoi I dodged traffic and went to the parking lot across the street, where I met a 30-year-old guy whose father was dropping him off for his first 2-night solo backpacking trip (see photo). After a pleasant conversation on an otherwise rainy afternoon, I snarfed a bag of Quinoa for lunch that I had cooked a few days before. This was a real winner, and I definitely enjoyed the fresh homemade food. A great way to celebrate the half-way turnaround mark, and just in time for the rain to stop.
Just after noon, I started the ascent up the mountain that I had just come down. It was definitely easier going down. While my shoes were still soaked and there wasn't anything I could do about it, the wool socks fortunately kept my feet protected. Even at the end of the trip I surprisingly didn't have any blisters. At the top of the mountain there was about 15 minutes of sunshine, but it didn't really matter because the foliage canopy mitigated any of the drying effects.
I was tired, but I kept on hiking. Around 3:30PM I was craving the Mountain House Freeze Dried Chili Mac with Beef that I had loosely planned for dinner that night. It wasn't even a meal time, but I didn't care. It was really good, as was the tropical trail mix bag that I brought from the Aldi. It wasn't until I was leaving the spot where I ate my snack that I realized it was the same location I had spent the previous night. All I can say for myself is that things look different when you are going the other way. Either that, or I was just woefully unobservant and tired!
By the time I wrapped up my snack I decided that I wanted to cover enough trail on Friday so that Saturday morning would be short and sweet. It was beautiful and peaceful out there, but I was tired and wet and I had had my fill of the trip. That said, I did force myself to not just pack it out on Friday night because that would be cheating, and my sister convinced me of the merit of not doing that.
After passing the Low Gap shelter side trail for the second time, I decided to walk down there. Nice place, but there were people and a dog there, so that was a no-go. Not to mention, the radio reception down there was abysmal. I hiked up the next mountain on a mission for better reception, which I found. I set camp, left a lot of stuff out in the elements on the bet that it would not rain (I was right although I did hastily put the rain fly on my tent in the middle of the night when there was a threatening rumble in the distance).
Saturday morning I started walking at around 9:00AM. It was probably around 3 miles to the car. After a (mental) victory dance, I took off my wet shirt and shoes and got the hell out of Dodge. In all, it was a good trip, but I definitely don't miss the rain.
