My arrival at Neels Gap was important because the weather was forecast to get ugly and the Mountain Crossings resupply store there also represented a roof over my head, a shower, and a bed to sleep on in the form of a Hostel located next to the resupply store. The hot shower was great (I showered in my clothes as an approximation of doing laundry), the roof was adequate, but the bed was comparable to my pad on the ground….
I’m currently at mile marker 24 at the Lance Creek camping area. Neels Gap is next and is the first option for resupply on the trail. But between me and the delicious pizza they serve lies Blood Mountain. For the last few days I’ve been trying to keep the miles down to about 8 per day as I devop my hiking legs. So far the constant climbs and descents have been relentless and I always arrive at camp ready to…
The official southern terminus of the Appalachian Trail is on top of Springer Mountain. I’m now no longer in the negative mileage on the approach trail as the “Blue Blazes” change to the “White Blazes” I’ll follow all the way to Maine. A hooting owl kept me up much of the night last night, and a woodpecker on a nearby tree woke me up at the crack of dawn. This is awesome! I’ve got a long hike ahead of me…
Here we go! Day 1 on the trail… The approach to Springer Mountain.
Since I have some time off work, I thought it would be good to work in a visit to Mom’s, Boulder, and my family in Atlanta before hitting the trail. Mom lives in a small artist community in Arizona. Bisbee used to have an active copper mine, but after it closed down the town re-invented itself as a cute little artist town. Art cars, galleries, and quaintly painted houses are typical Bisbee, and the old timey downtown definitely draws a…
The stress has been high the last week as I wrapped up my jobs, finished packing my backpack, and packed for a week traveling in Arizona to visit mom and Colorado to visit friends and Lisa’s family before setting off to Atlanta to begin my adventure. I also had to move out of the guest bedroom (also my working-from-home office) which may be used by a house sitter while I’m away. All of this is on top of the emotions…
After what seems like weeks of buying bulk food, dehydrating fresh food, and accumulating pre-packaged food that can be readily eaten on the trail, I’ve finally finished boxing up all my supply drops. A large flat rate USPS Priority Mail box can hold about 10 lbs of food and costs about $20 to ship. I tried to plan for 5 solid meals of breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks (about 2+ lbs per day). I accumulated enough to put together about…
I’m just going to talk for a minute about the tech I plan to bring with me on the trail. My friends who hiked the AT over a decade ago didn’t have cell phone technology as ubiquitously as we do today. I’ve read that about 85% of the trail has coverage (Verizon). I think most people carry at least a cheap Walmart phone for safety in case they need to call for help or let someone know where they are….
I feel like I’ve been remiss lately in posting about all of the pre-trip planning I’ve been doing. There’s a lot of anxiety around planning that goes with being a green-horn on the trail. People who have done it know what to expect, what they like, and they all have a system. I’m making some guesses, which will certainly not always be right. But if there’s one piece of advice I’ve gotten consistently from my friends who have hiked the…
We’ve had some epic snowfall here in Eugene, OR this past week… over a foot, which shuts this town down. In Colorado, that’s nothing, but without plows, and trees that break huge branches off under the weight, the roads are impassable and the power is out for much of the city. So far we’ve been lucky, but rather than training, I’ve been doing research for the hike. On the plus side, I put on ALL of the clothes I am…