Sunday, November 16, 2008

Georgia Thru Hike - Planning

We started planning about 3-4 months prior to our hike. The maps below show the elevation view of the trail through the State of Georgia and the portion of North Carolina that we completed.

The Original Plan

The original plan was to leave on Saturday morning and arrive at the Springer Mountain parking lot late in the afternoon. That night we would camp near the parking lot and start early the next morning.

Reality

Life has a way of changing your best laid plans, 0ur original plan was delayed half a day due to a bad back, and thus a late start. Fortunately this was only a delay not a cancellation. We arrived at the Springer Mountain parking lot on Sunday about noon. This put us about a half day behind.

The Original Plan

We had planned to hike about 14 to 15 miles per day with a couple 11 to 12 mile days thrown in for "easy" days.

Reality

We felt we were behind and wanted to make up ground, so we hiked almost 11 miles the first half day and more than 16 miles the second day. All of a sudden we found ourselves back on our original schedule, or so we thought (insert ominous foreshadowing here).

The Original Plan

We started off the last week in October and had planned for weather in the 60's during the day and the high 30's at night based upon historic high's and low's.

Reality

The weather started off very nice (60's during the day and low 40's at night) and was very nice by the end of the trip (about the same). There was not a drop of rain the entire trip, so we were grateful for the clear skies. However, the first night we were out the wind picked up and blew hard (and I mean hard) for the next three days. The temperature dropped and we recorded temperatures as low as 27F, this made getting up in the morning a real chore. I don't typically mind cold weather but because we were planning on high 30's/low 40's at night, I brought my 30F sleeping bag...it worked out fine, I just wore ALL of my clothes to bed.

2 comments:

Linda said...

Okay, I can tell you're an engineer by your "photos"!! :-)Love, Moppy

Unknown said...

OH MY GOSH!!! You are the only person I know who can turn a NATURE hike into an engineering event!!!!