January 8-9, 2016. Here is the start of the trail in the lower left. After about a mile hike you cross a forest service road and continue to our first stop at the Stover Creek Shelter just a little ways prior to the creek crossing. We arrived at around 8 pm so it was quite dark. We settled in cooked some dinner and crashed. Evan awoke with a start a mouse had decided that his sleeping bag was a nice place to explore. Falling back asleep I was woke up by another mouse rummaging around my backpack. I hung the pack from a roof rafter and we enjoyed a little sleep until the cracking of dawn got us going. Breakfast and coffee got our motors running and the day began. The shelter had a system of wire pulleys set up to put your food out of reach and there was a composting privey set up.
January 9, 2016. Getting going at 8:30am the day promised to be nice but an evening of rain was forecast. Just after leaving the shelter the green tunnel began as we paralleled Stover Creek down to the three forks area. There is a footbridge here and a spacious campsite. We gathered some water in our filter bags and headed up beside long falls creek. Parting with the Benton Mackaye trail we headed east to the Hickory Flats area and onward to the Hawk Mountain Shelter. Departing the shelter area we ran into a SOBO hiker trail name "carpenter" who was set to end his thru hike tomorrow. January 10, 2016.Down thru Hightower Gap we pressed on, Gooch Mountain Shelter was our goal for the day. At 16 miles it was a nice hike. Passing through Horse Gap we stopped for a drink and a energy snack the wind and some rain cut our stop short.
Pressing on we headed for the Devils Kitchen area, the map indicated a footbridge but we found none. Evan was able to jump here and I thought the wiser and waded through. This was a bad decision my feet and shoes where wet and with a cold night ahead I was not looking forward to the next morning's start with wet/cold feet. We found Gooch Mountain Shelter stopped for a stretch/rest and promptly fell asleep only to be woken up by voices approaching. Four guys from Chattanooga we got up and got ready to cook some supper. We decided to get up extra early and hike in the dark to ensure that we did not arrive at Neels Gap to late for the long ride home. A little later another three guys from Ohio showed up and joined in cooking supper. We fell asleep to be woke up several times
by the noise of the pouring rain.
January 10, 2016. We had agreed to get up early to get a head start on the day. Quickly packing and dressing we hit the trail at 4:30 am. The initial walk to Gooch Gap was easy, leaving the gap the trail became tricky and we found ourselves looking off in the distance at Dalonega, the trail dropped sharply to our right. It was here that I took a fall in the dark, my sleeping pad caught a rock threw me off balance and down I went bruising my knee and right hand. We continued on for some time watching the sun come up. We finally found a good stopping point and ate breakfast with a cup of coffee. Continuing on to Woody Gap the wind was picking up and the day got colder.
I took the lead here and set up a pretty good pace after a short while we heard an approaching hiker. It proved to a lady hike practicing for an upcoming through hike. I do not remember her trail name maybe Evan will and I'll update the post. She set up a fast pace and she slowly outpaced us. The wind picked up and we saw our first sign of snow and sleet. As we approached Blood Mountain the green
tunnel began again.
The snow increased and the area was covered in a light coating of snow. Running into a SOBO hike from the Boston area we shortly arrived at the Blood Mountain Shelter and explored the area. The descent began and we met several day hikers who had their dogs in tow. Finally making it down to Neels Gap we stepped in the store and enjoyed a cup of coffee.
The end of our first section hike.
You left out the gory details, I see. I'm pretty sure that mouse still has a limp.
ReplyDeleteI wanted to retain my honor!
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