Rick’s Appalachian Trail (AT) Journal-Part One
2/2/00
Flew out of Austin yesterday. Uneventful flight to Dallas and then to Atlanta where I was happy to see my backpack and box come down the baggage carrousel. Linked up with my old West Point/Army friend Randy Bray and his wife Linda who live in Atlanta. We went out for a great dinner and then went back to their house to catch up on old times. Randy and Linda are great people and they have a couple of dogs including a golden lab that is really pretty.
Next morning, Randy dropped me off at the airport so I could catch a ride to the AT. The shuttle guys name is Marty Rogers and he was real interesting and knowledgeable about the AT. He filled me in on a lot of background information as we drove to Amicola Falls and then up Mt. Springer. Can’t actually drive all the way to Mt. Springer, but there is a forest service road that goes within a mile. There was a lot of snow and ice. The trees were covered with ice so thick that they looked like crystal figurines. As I said goodbye to Marty, we noticed that the ice was melting and dropping off of the trees. Turned out to be a little tricky dodging the icicles. Actually, I got hit twice, as I was alone with my thoughts when I got hit, I kept looking around for who threw the ice at me. It hurt a little and I was glad I didn’t get hit by any of the bigger blocks of falling ice.
I signed the register at Mt. Springer and took off from there for Hawk Mountain Shelter. Took me close to 5 hours to go 7.6 miles because of the slippery icy conditions. I fell probably a half a dozen times. I was glad to have my hiking poles, which helped me from falling more. I followed some boot tracks all afternoon through the snow and met up with Matt at the shelter. Matt graduated from high school last summer and is taking a year off before going to Kenyan College in Ohio. Definitely nice to have somebody to talk to and his hiking experience was similar to mine today.
My stove wouldn’t pressurize to cook so Matt let me borrow his. I read in the trail register where another person had problems with his stove because of the cold so I will continue to tinker with it.
After dinner, we tried unsuccessfully to start a fire. Felt like a failed Ranger- where is Ranger Joyce when you need him? Anyway, it is too cold to do anything but jump in the sleeping bag and stay warm. That is I am writing this from. I will write more tomorrow.
2/3/00
Speaking of Ranger Joyce (a guy in my Ranger Squad who could start a fire anywhere, anytime), last night we could hear a couple of Ranger ambushes off in the distance. I feel sorry for those poor guys-their gear isn’t nearly as good and they are up and out for 20 hours a day slipping around on the ice.
Matt and I got up around 7am and took off hiking by 8am. Hiking today was really hard-hit patches of ice where I just could not walk. I must have fell a dozen times – pretty frustrating. Matt and I met Seiko at the Gooch Gap Shelter. Seiko has hiked the AT numerous times-he claims that he has hiked 27,700 miles of the AT (the AT is 2,154 miles long). He had a lot of good words of wisdom-his basic philosophy is to take it easy at the beginning. He also helped me get my stove lit. My spirits are much lifted after talking with him and having a good dinner. Seiko says it will definitely get better.
2/5/00
Yesterday I got up with Matt and Seiko and took off hiking about 815am. Hit another patch of ice early on. Matt is able to walk through the ice without slipping nearly as bad as I do. I’m not sure if it is boot design or that I weigh more.
Put in a hard day hiking (12.6 miles) and hit 2 bad patches of ice in the afternoon. Ended up getting to Blood Mountain Shelter at around 5pm- it had snowed for about an hour by then. Blood Mountain is the tallest point in GA, but I couldn’t tell it in the snow. I was really cold when I got to the shelter so I made some hot cocoa. The shelter is a two-room stone shelter but open windows on both sides let the wind come in – cold place! I jury-rigged some tarp material over the two windows in the second room and that helped a little. I pulled out the trail register and saw that Matt had passed through but had decided to keep hiking into Neel’s Gap (town) about 2.4 miles further. I would have loved to have done the same thing, but it was too cold and too late, so I stayed put. I think the wind chill was down about 0, which made me glad that I had gotten a 0-degree sleeping bag. It was a bit lonely except for the mice that were numerous (one ate a hole in my food bag). About 830pm I heard a couple of voices. Three guys from Lawrenceville, GA had made a Friday night outing to head up to the shelter. They said it was really rough climbing up, which made me glad for my decision to stay put. Helped them unsuccessfully try to start a fire (even the fire starters didn’t want to start). Also shared a couple of shots of Crown Royal and 7-Up with the guys. They set up two tents in the front room. We all got up about 7am and hustled down the hill. It was icy but the snow helped a little with traction. About halfway down the hill, we parted ways as they took another trail to where their truck was parked.
I hit the Outfitter in Westley at about 9am. Bought a re-supply of grub, met with Matt who was continuing on. I decided to take the day off and let some of the scrapes heal so I wished him luck. The Outfitter’s were real nice people. They didn’t have ice crampons but they did have a lightweight rubberized version for $30. Unfortunately, they don’t have them in my size, but I was able to get a large to fit over my boot. So I bought them and will use them for the icy patches as long as they last.
Got a cabin, took a nice shower and cleaned my gear. Sleeping bag still has ice on it. Also found a hole in the ass of my hiking pants-guess they are not meant to be slide on my ass pants. Will mend them and hope they hold up for another month until I can switch to shorts.
2/6/00
Hi, I took yesterday off after hiking down from the cold and icy Blood Mountain. It turned out to be a mixed bag. It was good from the standpoint that it let me get cleaned up (helps when you have a rash) but my hiking buddy, Tuck had already moved on. Beyond that, the dilapidated cabin I stayed in had neither TV nor radio, nor could I get the mobile phone to work. It was almost like being in detention, it was that boring and lonely. Thankfully, Allen, the guy running Goose Creek Cottages, invited me out with him and his friends Ben and Bonnie for an all-you-can-eat rib dinner. The ribs were good (not as good as the Salt Lick) and the restaurant was homey but I really enjoyed getting out and talking with people for a while before going back to “the cell”.
Did meet another hiking couple, well only the husband, staying at the cottages. They had started out the day before me but she sprained her ankle on the ice by Gooch Gap Shelter – the same place where I busted my butt a bunch. Guess I should have invited myself up to their cottage to say hello (and see if their cell had a TV or radio) but I didn’t.
Today’s hiking was really good. The sun came out, only a few icy spots (and my new pseudo crampons worked well there) and it was pretty country. After hitching a ride to the trail, I got started at about 0930, finished about 4:00pm. And did around 10.6 miles. Passed a couple hiking and talked with them for a bit. Also met a couple from Atlanta that maintains a 2-mile section of the trail. They were out checking for blown-down trees from the ice and wind. They were pleasantly surprised on how few trees were down. Mostly it was because there was not a lot of wind that came with the ice storm here. In addition, I met a guy out day hiking. He is from Atlanta and works for weather.com. But for the most part, I hiked alone and am here at the shelter alone.
The shelter is a nice one with a creek right out front for water and a picnic table. The shelter is a basic one-room building with an open front. This one is known for a mice problem so I will be careful about hanging my food. On water, I am using a hand-pumped purifier to filter the water. Not safe to drink the water straight from the streams anywhere on the AT but with a little work, the pump works well.
Have a dilemma for hiking tomorrow. I like to stay in shelters in this weather (also more of a chance to meet people) but the next one North is 7 miles (short for a day’s hike) and the one after that is 15 miles (would be the longest hike yet). I will have to play it by ear tomorrow and decide as I am hiking. Off to make Lipton noodles with Alfredo sauce for dinner. Wish anyone was here.
2/18/00 Most of this happened on 2-7-2000.
Heading back to Georgia after spending 2 weeks in Austin. I decided to go back to Austin after running into a scary situation with ice on the trail that made me question whether it was wise to continue hiking.
I had been making good time hiking that last day and had hiked 5 miles by 1030am. I felt confident that I was going to make the Blue Mountain Shelter by lunch and the Mike Tray Mountain Shelter by dinner (another 7 miles further). I had just passed Chatanogee Gap when the trail began following the shady side of a mountain where there was ice. I put on my ice spikes over my boots and continued on. The ice seemed to get worse as I continued on, getting thicker and slick. At one point, it was just too slick and my feet slid out from underneath me and I started sliding down the mountain on my back. I didn’t have time to get scared at that point, but I did build up speed until I was able to reach out my leg and catch myself on a tree. I grabbed a hold of the tree and stood up. I had slid about 40 feet from the train, the mountain went down around another 150 yards and all of it was covered with the dull glow of thick, slick ice. My map had come out of my pocket and I had somehow missed (or maybe broke it) a jagged mountain dew bottle sticking up out of the ice.
At this point I was scared. There wasn’t a clear way out of here. Beyond that, my ice spikes had become wasted (my left side was missing 3 of the 8 ice spikes, my right had only 2 spikes left). So my ability to walk on ice was even less. At this point, I decided I could either go up to the trail or go down to the valley. The trail was closer and I ultimately wanted to be on the trail so I decided to go up. I clawed my way up from tree to rock until I was back on the trail (about 10 feet behind where I fell the first time).
I started again on the trail, moving slowly, taking small, incremental steps and digging in with my hiking poles for all they were worth. I hadn’t gone more that a couple feet, when I again slipped on the ice and flew down the mountain on my back. This time my backpack inverted on me so that the top of it was pushing down on my neck. I slid a little further this time and slid into another tree. I laid there for a couple of minutes saying a prayer but had to move as my butt quickly started freezing on the ice. This time I decided to proceed down the mountain. I had considered using the cell phone to call for help but I was probably 5 miles from the nearest road. It would take the rescuers forever to get to me provided that they could maneuver on the ice. I also wasn’t hurt, had made the decision to hike, and felt that it was my situation to get myself out of. I did say a number of prayers asking for help in getting out of this situation.
I took the backpack off and slid it down the mountain (maybe to punish it some for flipping on me). It went about 20 feet before getting caught up. I slid down very ungracefully, grabbing at branches, rocks, and using my hiking poles to slow the decent. After reaching the backpack, I pushed it further down. I continued on in this manner until I was close to the bottom of the mountain.
My concern at this point was figuring a way back to the trail as I no longer had a map (deciding it was not worth the effort to retrieve) and didn’t want to get lost by going too far cross-country from the trail. As I looked around I could see part of the slope another 100 meters north (the same way that I was traveling) where the ice looked thinner. Leaves were poking through the ice as were ferns and rocks. I decided to try this approach. After I made my way over to this section of the slope, I started my ascent back up the mountain.
Basically, I would kick the foe of my boot into a soft spot in the ice until I could get enough of a toehold to support my weight. Then I would shift my weight to that toe, jab in my hiking poles and begin working on the other toe. I followed this approach and made my way slowly up the mountain going over the trail and continuing up the mountain to the top. I finally made it to the top of the mountain where there was no ice (the sun had melted it here) and took a break. It had taken me 2 & ½ hours to get to this point from where I had initially fallen. I was tire, sore (neck and right leg), scraped up (hands, elbow, and butt), and had ripped the butt out of my hiking pants.
It was a pretty easy decision to go home to Austin and not risk hiking any more on possible ice. I was extremely thankful to have gotten out of this situation. I made my way slowly to the road, stopping to change into shorts so that I would be able to hitchhike. Pretty quickly hitched a ride to Hiawassee, GA and got a room at the Holiday Inn. The room had a jacuzzi and it felt good to soak myself for a while. Made some calls and arranged for a ride, booked a flight back to Austin, and called KJ to let her know that I was coming home. Less than 24 hours later, I was back in Austin, still sore but grateful to be back home.
Probably wondering why I am heading back and I don’t know that I have a good answer. I have checked and all reports say that any ice on the trails is gone (weather has been in the 70’s for several days). Also, more people are beginning to start their AT hikes. If pushed for a reason, I guess that my response is to say that I want to give it one more chance before I give up on this adventure. Will see how it goes!
2-20-200012.5 miles
Beautiful day of hiking. Randy and I got up this morning, hit the Huddle House for a waffle breakfast and drove to Unicoi Gap. Got started hiking about 9:30 am and it was still a little chilly. Talked to a couple of people hiking and it was really cold last night (below 0 with a lot of wind).
All day, the hiking was beautiful blue sky with great views. It included a couple of climbs that were challenging.
I met Art at Deep Gap Shelter. Art is a Vietnam veteran and interesting to talk to. He started on February 11th and it some ice. He is going into Hilawasee tomorrow, and I think I am going to continue on and take a break in Franklin, NC.
Art was able to get a nice fire going and I helped scrounge up wood. All I all, this first day of hiking has been very positive.
Played a little radio that KJ bought me a couple of times. That helps when things get a little too quiet. Wondering how Scott and Frank did on the Motorola Marathon. I hope those guys were able to qualify for Boston after the hard work and training they put in. Will try to cell KJ tomorrow to find out.
Art said that there is some snow in the Smokies. Quite a bit a while back. A guy walked up while we were sitting around the fire. He is a southbound hiker so he doesn’t have far to go. He lost his gloves last night and had noticed that after hiking 9 miles. He had hiked back 7 miles looking for them already and was headed back the other 2 to look for them. I would be hard pressed to walk 18 miles for a pair of gloves, but after 2000 miles, those gloves must be pretty special to him.
2-21-200015.2 miles Muskrat Creek Shelter
Another good day of hiking, beautiful weather. Also made it into North Carolina! Hurrah. A couple of challenging mountains in today’s hike. Sounds like that is the way it will be in North Carolina as there are a number of mountains above 5000 feet (the highest is GA was just over 4500).