Wordless Wednesday

Lunch and a rest atop Tray Mountain, GA

Florida Plates

So what happens when one of your hiking buddies can't go hiking with you? Naturally you steal something that they will miss...or at least miss it when they find out you stole it.

When Moses could not go to Georgia with us I did the next best thing and took something of his with us.


Now wouldn't it be great if I actually took this off of his motorcycle and he went riding around without it, how would you explain that one to the cop?

"Honestly officer, it was here yesterday!"

But alas, he sold his motorcycle a few months back, so I just stole it off of his desk.


At various points along the trail we stopped for a photo opp with the license plate...and people gave us very strange looks. I cannot blame them really, I would give me strange looks too if I could.


We took some photos of the plate at some pretty amazing views and texted them back to Moses.


My favorite was at the GA / NC border where there seemed to be a paradox of sorts...MYFLORIDA.com straddling two states.

Springer Mt to Sassafrass Mt: Mile 0 - 11

Our hike began rather ominously when, on the drive down, my wife discovered that I had left my camera sitting on the kitchen counter. A quick trip to Walmart solved that issue (no, not my forgetfulness...the camera).

Then...after hiking Springer Mountain Straight Leg realized that his Oakley sunglasses were missing. You can clearly see them on top of his hat in this picture, unfortunately there was no Walmart on the mountain.

Fortunately that was the extent of our missing items...unless we lost something that we don't miss, but then I guess we don't need it.

Springer Mountain was beautiful and we were excitedly looking forward to the rest of our hike. We left the parking lot at about 1:30 pm after hiking Springer Mountain with Pop.

The fist day was very uneventful, we felt good and we hiked fast. The trail was very flat and easy until Sassafrass Mountain. Up at the top of Sassafrass Mountain we set up camp along with another hiker, made dinner, and went to bed. And then...the WIND...

The "Ironman Hiker" and Poor Planning

Before starting our trek Straight Leg and I felt we had done a good job planning, we knew there were things that we had not thought of but for the most part we felt that we had things covered. We were carrying enough--but not too much--food, we had our gear portioned out between the two of us, and we knew where we were going (in other words we knew to follow the white blazes and we had our maps--not rocket science). These seemed like pretty standard planning items to us until we met the "Ironman Hiker".

In the parking lot at Springer Mountain we met a guy getting ready to start off on a stage hike of his own. His plan: to hike to the Georgia - North Carolina border and back in 7 days. I am sure he did not notice my jaw hit the ground--not because I felt it could not be done, not because it was approximately 150 miles round trip, and not because (for those of you who are simple math challenged like me) that would mean hiking almost 21.5 miles per day (keep in mind it is already noon on day 1).

Nope, I had my doubts for two main reasons...the first was that he was carrying a military style ruck sack that must have weighed in at more than 70 lbs (it must have felt like carrying a small elephant on his back). He commented that he did not know what to bring...so he brought everything!

What?!? Really, everything!?!

The second reason was that his opening question to us was "hey, do you know which way I am supposed to head on the Appalachian Trail?"
Ok, a little explanation:
The Springer Mountain parking lot is located on Forest Service Road 42 about 0.9 miles North of the Springer Mountain summit and the Southern Terminus of the Appalachian Trail. So to begin the hike you must hike South on the AT 0.9 miles to the Springer Mountian summit, then turn around and begin hiking North. The trail instructions/ directions at the parking lot are clearly marked.

If you want to hike to the North (he was planning on skipping Springer Mountain) and there is a white blazed trail heading North and a white blazed trail heading South...it seemed pretty clear to us which one to take.

We did not see the "Ironman Hiker" for the rest of the trip, we did however talk to someone who had seen him on day 3 at the Gooch Mountain Shelter (mile 15), heading South back to Springer Mountain...

He must have made better time than he thought...

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.