Day 7 Dicks Creek Gap to Muskrat Creek Shelter

Today's miles 11.8.  AT total 81.4

It was a later start than planned today.  The only shop (Buckhead House) selling camping gas canisters in town was closed yesterday (Tuesdays) during the winter season. We needed more gas for our next few days of camping so had to wait until 10am this morning for it to open to resupply.  (Good news for anyone else coming thru, is she's open Mon&Sat from now on). We packed our bags and headed to Hardees again for breakfast.  A funny old local guy came up to us and said "You heading to Maine?  You carrying a gun? Those bears are a waking up!"  We replied , yes, no and just smiled!  After breakfast we went to Buckhead House for 10.  Luckily they had some gas in stock.  We bumped into 3 other hikers at the shop who had also been staying at the Budget Inn and had another good chat with them again before leaving.  Joyce kindly picked us up again from outside the shop at 10:15 to shuttle us back the 11 miles to Dicks Creek Gap to rejoin the AT. We took a photo of her at the gap and she took one of both of us together, ( I look frozen! )by the time we started hiking it was 10:45.

Hiawassee sits in a really picturesque valley and on the edge of a beautiful large lake, popular with water sports in the summer apparently.

It was much colder today, with a cloudy start.  A cold spell was forecast for today and tomorrow with temperatures around -2°C/28°F during the day, but remaining sunny and dry.  It's due to get warmer again by the weekend.
Our packs laden with new food supplies seemed really heavy, especially on the uphill of which there was a lot today.  Dicks Creek Gap was at a fairly low elevation , 2675 ft, yesterday we did a lot of downhill today it was back up again!
We passed two other hikers, Penguin Man and Cannonball near Plumorchard Gap Shelter and stopped briefly for a chat. We passed a massive tree that had fallen over in strong winds we presume and entered the Southern Nantahala Wilderness area. We continued gradually uphill until we reached the Georgia/North Carolina boarder. Wow we're in a new State! 1 down - 13 more to go!!

The afternoon turned out lovely and sunny again but cold in the wind.
Just after the border we reached Bly Gap where there was an interesting old twisted tree. The uphill from Bly Gap to Couthouse Bald (4666ft) the highest point on the trail so far, was a toughie especially with our heavier packs.  From the summit it was downhill for a bit to Sassafras Gap before another climb up to Muskrat Creek shelter at 4580ft, where we arrived at 5pm - the highest elevation we've camped at and the coldest! There are 4 other hikers here tonight, 2 section hikers and 2 thru hikers.

It was getting cold so we set up our tent straight away and cooked in the tent porch wrapped in our sleeping bags to keep warm!  We were tucked up in bed, plenty warm enough in our layered sleeping bag system, for 6.30pm!  When it's this cold that's all you can do to keep warm, makes for a long night though.   When there's no wind the forest is silent and still during the night.  I expected there to be more nocturnal activity in the woods, maybe it's too cold even for the wildlife. We've spent a fair bit of time camping in jungle environments in the past where nature is noisy in the night. The only noise's we heard last night were aircraft, I think we were camping right underneath a flight path!
We woke up early at 6.30 just as it was starting to get light, we'd been lying down for long enough.  Our water bag was frozen so we were melting ice for tea & coffee!

Day 6 Tray Mountain Shelter to Dicks Creek Gap

Today's miles 11   AT miles 69.6

It was a bit cloudier to start with this morning but the sky's did clear mid morning and we had another sunny day hiking, but with a cold wind.
Chainsaw was first up and out of camp very early.  We started hiking at 9am.  We planned a shorter mileage day today so we could head into Hiawassee town from Dicks Creek Gap and do a food resupply in the afternoon.  We said goodbye to Matt and Karl, they were hiking on further today, we hope to catch up with them again further down the trail.

The same familiar trails lead us through the woods, we passed some interesting trees along route early on.  We had our first two 'knobs' to climb up today, Young Lick Knob and Kelly Knob where we caught up with Chainsaw. We had a quick chat with him, and wished him the best then carried on our way.  He was taking it slower. With just under 4 miles to go to reach the gap we telephoned the Budget Inn in Hiawassee to reserve a room for the night and then phoned Joyce & Sally, for a shuttle Ride into town. (ask any hostel for their phone number).

We reached Dicks Creek Gap just before 1.30pm and Joyce arrived just minutes later to pick us up. They do a great service shuttling hikers around for a small fee.  She had kindly picked a parcel up for us that was waiting for us at Blueberry Patch Hostel and before dropping us off at the Budget Inn she gave us a quick tour of Hiawassee so we knew where everything was.

Our parcel contained goodies from our sponsor, Uncle Fool's Jerky Smokehouse.  We are delighted to be members of their 2014 thru hike team. In exchange for promoting their products we get jerky supplies sent to us along the trail.  Our first package had all sorts of goodies in it; beef and turkey jerky, 2 packs of dehydrated meals (another line they want to add to the Uncle Fools brand), candy, drinks powders and our team t-shirts.

We checked into our room at the Budget Inn (more like a motel) and jumped straight in the shower! So nice!  Once clean we headed down the road for something to eat.  Hiawassee is a one street town. We had burger and chips, the first of many I suspect on this trip, at Hardees, a fast food joint, they tasted good.  We then went to Ingles supermarket to do our food resupply for the next six days, a great grocery store, lots of choice.
Back to our room it took us about an hour to split and repackage all our food into plastic bags and daily portions for 6 days.  Whilst sorting the food we also got all our smelly clothes laundered!
So nice to feel clean and wear clean clothes!

Day 4 Neels Gap to Low Gap Shelter

Miles today 11.5.   AT total 43.2

We left Neels Gap at 8.45am, taking a photo of the white blazed trail going through the building archway and signing their trail register.  It was another gorgeous warm and sunny day.  The trail today mainly followed the ridge line along Blue Ridge through the woods.  We passed a few other friendly hikers, a couple of guys weekend camping and hiking with their dog, a group of scouts and another lovely couple with their collie dog who recognised us from Mountain Crossings Facebook photo they posted of us last night - fame at last! Lol.
We climbed and descended a couple of mountains, Levelland Mountain and Cowrock Mountain which had great views from a rocky slab on the summit before reaching Tesnatee Gap. 

Here we bumped into a lady thru hiking with her 6 year old son.  The little boy was quite a character, a big chat a box, he seemed to be enjoying his hike experience.  Nigel offered him some of his trail mix, his response 'you make awwwesome trail mix'!
From this Gap it was up and over Wildcat Mountain down to Hogpen Gap.  Then a couple more ups and downs to Low Gap Shelter where we are camping for the night.  A really pretty spot with a stream running in front of the shelter, bear cables and a privy, we arrived at 2.15pm so we had a nice relaxing afternoon in the sun.
We're here again tonight with Matt and Karl, (no trail names yet - we'll work on that!) they camped behind the hostel last night which is where they disappeared to. Also here are the 2 German guys Milk Monster and Amazing Ant and girl, Wall E. A lovely little hiker bubble we're in.  Poor Wall E was 10 minutes or so behind the guys getting to camp, accidentally missed the turning to the shelter and ended up walking another mile before she realised and the guys managed to catch up with her. We were getting quite concerned for a while when she took ages to appear.  Nigel and I agreed before we left that we would always stick together for safety and not walk separately unless with others. Wall E's experience just reconfirmed our decision was a good one.

We saw a couple of birds today, a small Dark-eyed Junco and a bunch of Turkey Vultures riding the thermals.  We've also seen American Robins, much bigger than our robins, more Thrush sized and Eastern Grey Squirrels.  We've heard woodpeckers but not been able to catch sight of them. Not a lot of wildlife around at the moment as its still winter.  The forests we've been walking through though are predominantly White Oak we think from the leaf litter on the ground.  Not a lot of plant life to see yet either until spring but the evergreens we've seen so far are  American Holly, Shortleaf Pine, Sheep Laurel and Catawba Rhododendron as far as we can tell from our guides.
We were in bed early, about 7.30pm arriving at camp early it seemed later than it was and going to bed to early made it a long drawn out night. We were up at 6.30am, temperature 2°C when we woke.  We made a hot drink in the tent then packed away before having our porridge/oatmeal.

Day 5 Low Gap Shelter to Tray Mountain Shelter

Today's miles 15.4. AT miles 58.6

We left camp today at 8.40am, getting 5 minutes earlier each day!  Another sunny day, slightly cooler though with a cool breeze in the morning which dropped in the afternoon.  The first 3 miles of trail followed a fantastic old forest track which ascended at a really easy gradient before heading off back to familiar forest trails.  The trail went over a few rocky sections which made an interesting change. We stopped by Blue Mountain shelter for a quick break and met Quailman and Kristen.  We knew of them via Facebook so it was really good to meet them and chat for a while. They were taking a 'zero' day (non hiking day) at the shelter.

From Blue Mountain it was down to Unicoi Gap where there was another Appalachian Trail metal plaque.  The gap on GA75 state road is a popular spot to hitch into a nearby town, either Helen or Hiawassee to resupply.   Quailman and Kristen had told us Kelly and Chase plus Sheila the dog were in front of us, another couple we'd had contact with via Facebook but we never saw them so they maybe got a ride into town. Sorry we missed you guys if your reading this. The trail had been pretty easy up to this point.  From the gap though it was a long steeper climb up to Rocky Mountain then down again to Indian Grave Gap then back up another long steeper climb to Tray Mountain. We resupplied with water from a spring at Tray Mountain Road not long before the summit. From the top it was about half a mile down to Tray Mountain Shelter where we're camping tonight.

There was one other guy already at the shelter, Chainsaw, so called because he snores loudly apparently. Matt and Karl turned up later. They walked with the Germans to Unicoi Gap where they went into town for resupply, hope we get to see them again down the trail.  I think this evening is the coldest so far, we were tucked up warm in our tent at 7pm, same time it gets dark.  There was an amazing red sky sunset this evening.

We're loving it out here so far.

The wind picked up in the night, it's a weird wind, you can hear it in the distance but then it never hits us, when it does it's like a ghost train rushing through, rustling all the leaves up and then it's gone in seconds! We had a very brief rain shower about 6am, all dry by the time we got up though and it was slightly warmer by this morning - 4°C.  Nigel brewed Tea and coffee in bed again - warms us up before packing up & breakfast.

Day 3 Gooch Gap to Neels Gap

Today's miles 14.5.  AT total 31.7

Another fantastic day weatherwise, lots of warm sunshine, around 60°F (15°C) and no wind today.
We were packed up, out of camp and on the trail by 8.45am.
We stopped at Woody Gap for half an hour as we bumped into Fresh Ground, a previous thru hiker with his dog, and 3 German thru hikers whose trail names are Wall E, Amazing Ant and Milk Monster.  We had a lovely chat with them all. They were also heading for Neels Gap today. 
On trail everyone uses trail names rather than their real names.  Some trail names people name themselves, others get given trail names on the trail. My trail name is Crunchie and Nigel's is TimeOut. We thought these up a few months ago, both with double meanings, 1 the chocolate link from my chocolate making days, both Cadburys chocolate bars, and 2 that they both refer to a bit of escapism.

From Woody Gap we headed gradually uphill to Preaching Rock where we had great views to the East.  Continuing through the woods downhill for a while and then uphill again.  It was a long drawn out uphill today towards Blood Mountain, nothing too steep but more tiring than the last two days.   We stopped for a lunch break at Slaughter Creek where we also refilled up with water.  We'd drank twice as much today in the warm weather. From there we thought it was going to be a steep final ascent up to Blood Mountain.  The trail turned out to be easier than what we'd already walked today so was a pleasant surprise and through beautiful dappled sunlit rhododendron forest.
We recorded our brief visit in the Blood Mountain Shelter, a stone built shelter right on the summit and had our photo taken on the summit rock.  It being a warm sunny Saturday there were lots of day hikers out.

Then it was downwards towards Neels Gap and Mountain Crossings where we arrived at 4pm.  A well known landmark on the AT the trail goes through their building. An outdoor gear shop and hiker hostel famous for helping hikers with too much gear and carrying too much weight by giving them a 'shakedown' and advising them what and what not to be carrying.  Perfectly located,  after a few days on trail. We signed their thru hiker register, we were thru hikers number 57 & 58 to come through their shop this year, then had our photo taken to go on their Facebook page.  A few must have already dropped out since Amicalola Falls!  We had heard about 9 thru hikers dropping out already! Only about 15-20% of all prospective thru hikers actually complete the entire trail. People drop out either through illness, injury, family ties, lack of money or a lot just decide the tough thru hiking lifestyle is not for them.

We topped up our food supplies for the next 3 days from their shop then went to the hostel where we are staying the night.  A cheap basic hostel with bunk beds and limited cooking facilities, they rely on hikers using their own equipment I think. The first thing we did was have a lovely shower and rinse a few clothes out.
The owner Logan, cooked some delicious pork chops for us all on his BBQ which were delicious, which we added our own flavoured packet rice for dinner.  We are here tonight with the 3 German thru hikers and 2 other day hikers.  Karl and Mathew made a brief appearance but then disappeared so we don't know where they went.
We managed to get all our gadgets recharged and these blogs updated and posted via WiFi, no phone signal here though.

Another great day, we're really enjoying ourselves. We checked the weather forecast, it looks good, warm still for 2-3 more days but then its due to turn bitterly cold! 

Day 2 Stover Creek Shelter to Gooch Gap

Miles today 14.4.  AT total 17.2

We woke up about 7.15 not long after sunrise. The rain had just about stopped although lots of rain water was still dripping from the trees. Nigel recovered our food bags from the bear cables, luckily everything inside was still dry, I did worry about them during the heavy rain in the night. We had breakfast, porridge or oatmeal as its called here, a daily staple breakfast from now on!  We packed up and started walking at 9am.
After a damp start the weather improved and we had a glorious sunny day, perfect for walking with a nice cool wind. We walked for a while through rhododendron forest which was a nice change from bare leafless forest. The AT is nicknamed The Green Tunnel because the majority of the trail goes through wood.  The bare trees though this time of year mean we do get glimpses of views across the mountains, when the trees are in full leaf later on in the year you'd get to see nothing but trees.
We had a few streams to cross today, luckily they weren't too swollen after all the rain last night and easy to cross via stepping stones. The trail consisted of lots of gentle ups and downs today on easy paths.  We stopped on the top of Sassafras Mountain for a quick sandwich break in the sun.  Shortly after we passed a few other thru hikers on our way to Gooch Mountain Shelter where we stopped for an hours break.  The other hikers gradually arrived at the shelter and we had a nice chat with them.  We met Dale, trail name Redleg, who we had been chatting with via Facebook, it was lovely to meet him.
After an hours break in the sun we carried on walking though for another mile and a half to Gooch Gap where we set up camp for the night.  We wanted to go a bit further while we had time and the weather was nice still so we don't have so many miles to do to get to our target of Neels Gap tomorrow.  We are the only ones at this camp spot tonight.
We set up our tent and Nigel cooked Mac and cheese for dinner (he loves camp cooking).  Nigel also did a great job of bear bagging on his first attempt - no bear cables so we have to hang our food from a high tree branch instead.
It's colder tonight, with clearer sky's, but at least it's dry and no wind either.
Another great day walking.

Not long after we had tucked ourselves away in our tent some hikers walked past us in the dark. We had our blue water bag hung from a low branch on a tree behind our tent (looks like a blue balloon in photo) and we heard them say ' what kinda bear bag is that'! Made us laugh. It was a much colder 2nd night, 3°C when we woke but we were warm enough.

Day 1 Amicalola Falls to Stover Creek Shelter

Total 11.6 miles
Approach Trail 8.8 miles
AT 2.8 miles

We're Off!!!
Leigh dropped us off at Amicalola Falls State Park visitor centre at 10am.  We weighed our packs - Nigel's 35lb and mine 33lb.  Slightly heavier than we would have liked, we were aiming for 30lb max, our food weighed heavier than we thought! We may be carrying too much food?  It'll be trial and error for the first couple of weeks how much we need to be carrying.
Next we signed in as thru hikers at the visitor centre, we are hikers number 75 & 76 for the 2014 season, then it was out the back door to the stone Archway which marks the start of the AT Approach Trail.  As far as we know there were just us plus 3 other thru hikers starting today, David who stayed at the Hiker Hostel last night too, plus Mathew & Karl.

The trail took us past Amicalola Falls, a beautiful waterfall with 600 steps to climb to the top of the falls, then gradually meandered uphill through woods.  The trail was easy going and nice and dry underfoot.  We didn't find the steps or trail too tough, our two weeks of uphill walking training in the Lake District definitely paid off.
We passed a few section hikers coming in the opposite direction.   Most of them assumed we were section hikers too because our packs were smaller than most thru hikers starting out (and maybe because we weren't walking with walking poles). That made us feel better about the weight of our packs!  We had a nice chat with Icy and Early Riser, two women who had been hiking the AT in sections over 12 years and had finally finished it all last year.
We made it to Springer Mountain (southern terminus of the AT) for 3pm and duly took photos of the 2 metal plaques marking the trail start and our first 'white blaze' and Nigel signed the trail register.  (2x6 inch painted 'white blazes' act as way markers along the whole of the AT).

From Springer Mountain we walked the first 2.8 miles of the actual Appalachian Trail downhill to Stover Creek Shelter where we had planned on staying our first night. A really lovely wooden two storey shelter that sleeps 16 with a covered over seating/cooking area out front.  There was just us plus Mathew & Karl here tonight.
It has a nice privy too! Plus bear cables to hang our food bags up high to stop bears stealing our food during the night.

We were lucky with the weather, a cloudy but mild day, quite humid, we were walking in t-shirts. A bit hazy so not such good views and it did turn a little misty on top of Springer Mountain briefly.  The sun came out for a short while whilst we were cooking dinner at the shelter (mashed potato, chicken & gravy) but by 7.30pm it had started raining. 
We had already planned to sleep in the shelter tonight rather than our tent because a big storm had been forecast to come through overnight. I was paranoid about mice!  I'd read lots of horror stories about mice in shelters.  I thought I could hear them but couldn't see any when I switched my torch on.  I think we got away mice attack free, no mice damage to any of our gear anyway!  We had some light showers of rain and some strong gusts of wind  throughout the night and then at 4am the storm hit us, heavy rain, thunder and lightning, glad we were in the shelter and not our tent!

We thoroughly enjoyed our first day out on the trail!