March 14, 2012 Gooch Mountain Shelter to Jarrard Gap

Long day.  Started from Gooch Mtn Shelter around 9:20.  Shuffled down the trail for a while until we came to a stream.  Spent 45 minutes filling everyone's water bottles and bladders.  From there the groups split up again and headed for Woody Gap.  Nothing too memorable about the terrain between Gooch Mountain and Woody Gap--there were some nice springs that we stopped at and we walked up some hills and down some hills. 

Woody Gap was really nice though, a beautiful view and some picnic tables.  There was a road to cross. Told the kids not to get run over (that would be hard to explain) and met a ridge runner who was concerned about whether or not we had blisters. We have none.

The climb out of Woody Gap to the top of Big Cedar was very challenging. Switchbacks!  Hand-over-hand scrambles!  Steep!  But, we made it to the top. 

We all met up on top of Big Cedar and decided to find a place to camp around Burnett Field Mountain, rather than pushing on to Jarrard Gap.  I took off with the faster group to look for a place to camp. When we got to Burnett Field Mtn there wasn't much of a field.  The topo showed some flat ground there, and there was, but no one had camped there in a while and it would have been more work to find a campsite than to just press on the extra mile-and-some to Jarrard Gap. 

Lots of other folks at Jarrard gap--which is a flat area with lots of tenting area right before the beginning of the Blood Mountain climb.  We're camped here with lots of folks we've been keeping up with since Hawk Mtn.  A couple asked for assistance with their MSR stove.  Bert was pleased to show them how to light their stove.  ( A proud moment, go Girl Scouts!).


Feels good to be out on the trail, hard to believe this is our last night.

Getting water.

Getting more water.

Yup, still getting water.

This is a tree.

This is where water comes from.

Lunch break at Woody Gap.

Photo ops at the Woody Gap sign.

Big Cedar belongs to us.

Getting some water.

Dinner at Jarrard Gap.

Tenting at Jarrard Gap. You know, in the middle of the trail (shhhhh).

In other news: Africa?

Why I'm hoping this Africa thing works out:

Because, who wouldn't want to spend time with these kids?  They enjoy school.  They come to school early to help clean, because they Love school. And finally, they sing every morning!

March 13, 2012 Hawk Mountain to Gooch Gap

Everything is drying out.  We had a rainy breakfast but the fog lifted and the sun came out.  We hit the trail around 9:30 and walked the shoulder of a mountain and had a nice view of the valley and mountains for the first time.  Had a few climbs:  Sassafrass Mtn and Justis were both challenging, but spirits were high and the miles went by quickly.  We blew down the north side of Ol' Sassy and jumped over Cooper Gap and owned Justis.  We dried out gear and tents in the sun on top of Justis, but folks were out of water and some crankiness was beginning to seep into the mix.  From the elevation profile (We're using the ATC maps) it looked like we needed to climb Phylis Mtn next, on the way down to Justis Creek.  However, we had a nice surprise--the trail was a gentle meandering grade down to the creek.  No climb!  

Justis Creek really is a marvel.  It's wide and shady.  The girls took off their shoes and played in the creek for a long time.  They found a 'tiny lobster' (crawdad) and saw salamanders and tried to catch some water-striders with no luck.  Water bottles were filled, morale soared once again.

Out of Justis Creek we hiked up a short grade (1/2 mile) and then it was flat the rest of the way to the Gooch Gap Shelter.  This place is packed full.  The shelter is on a hill and there are very few flat tent sites.  We're all on a slope just below the shelter.  We can hear all the shelter-goings-on.  Tall tales!  Bad choices! Swear words! 

We had our GadoGado Ramen for dinner.  The girls give it an enthusiastic Thumbs Up!  "Thbhitthhh itthhhh gohhwhhhoodd"  says Mo with her mouth full.   

Pictures!  (I thought I had pictures of Justis Creek, but I don't.  Maybe they're on the Other Camera?)

Our mudpuddle camp at Hawk Mountain

 The sun comes out!

Packing wet tents :(

Hill camp at Gooch Gap

Making Dinner

Stove Master

Feeding frenzy

You know, hangin' out.

Teeth Brushing!

 

And finally, Bert's shoulder catches on fire. Alarming!

March 12 2012. Black Gap Shelter to Hawk Mountain Shelter

Girl Scout's 100th Birthday.  The Operator's 13th Birthday.



We didn't get up until 8am and didn't manage to get out of camp until half past 10.  We were fogged in and we all took a fair bit of time to organize ourselves.  We made Springer Mountain around 11:15.  Took lots of foggy pictures and headed downhill to the FS42 parking lot where we would meet Top Banana's dad to pick up supplies for the remaining 4 days.

We picked up resupply and celebrated Girl Scouts' and The Operator's birthdays with cupcakes.  I love a good birthday...  It's been difficult going for some of the girls and the break at the parking lot boosted spirits a bit, as well as the promise of some flat ground ahead.  The Approach trail certainly was a cruel shock for us.

It was foggy but manageable all day until around 4pm.  Mo was puking again and Bert was attending to her feet when it started raining.  Sprinkling, not raining too hard for full-on rain gear but promising to start pouring soon.  The Rogues (what we're calling the faster group of hikers) made Hawk Mountain around 5:30 and started setting up tents.  There is lots of flat space around the shelter, but there are also lots of people tenting here.  We managed to locate a spot with only a small puddle where half of our tents could fit comfortably but all of our tents could fit uncomfortably.  The Sweepers arrived around 6:00.  The rain started coming down harder and instead of our usual cooperative dinner making I just took the reigns, lit the stove and put Bert in charge of the rest.  It poured all through dinner.  Everyone was starving and hovering around the stove.  The stove was in the middle of a mud puddle.  This was a distinct low point in my camping-life.  Crankyness abounded.  Rain poured.  The puddle in the middle of our site grew and tents were relocated amid groans and whines.  Water dripped off the bill of my rain coat into the Mac and Cheese--usually a favorite camp meal but this night it tasted more like sawdust.  Muddy sawdust.  We couldn't keep the mud out of the food and we didn't care.  The girls went straight to bed after eating.  There was minimal giggling.

All of my gear is wet.  Everything is wet.

Breakfast at Black Gap

The log at the top of Springer

 

Signing the Springer Log

The Eaglet Express on top of Springer on the 100th Anniversary of Girl Scouting

The Operator's birthday cupcake

Only picture taken at Hawk Mountain.  Mo looking properly miserable.

March 11, 2012 The Hobbit Hole to Black Gap Shelter

Housekeeping:  I'll be posting my journals from the trip, but I'm hoping that the girls will chime in with their own take on these days.


Here we go.

Day 1.  Woke up too early at the Hobbit Hole--a single family home/simulated English village complete with thatched cottages where toolsheds, barns or other outbuildings would be.  The lovely folks there made us a delicious hot breakfast and shuttled us to Amicalola Falls State Park. 

We got to AFSP around 10am, filled water bottles, signed in, weighed bags (one of the girls' bags was quite heavy--~30 lbs!--and we pleaded with her to turn over any excess weight she was smuggling, she aquiessed and turned over a book and an extra top.  I suspected there was more. 

We took pictures under the arch and were off, straight up the hill.  In the wrong direction.  A ranger at the bottom of the hill sorted us out "Well, you can go that way, but if you go the right way it'll be easier."  The 'easier' way led us by a stream and straight to the base of 600 strenuous stairs.  Strenuous.  I felt the burn, I huffed and puffed.  Though I suspected some of the girls would cry on the way up, none of them did.  The day continued to be strenuous (why doesn't anyone ever say that the Approach trail is HARDCITY?  Seriously, folks at home?  The Approach Trail is HARD.) 

Besides the stairs we did two more big climbs over Mt. Frosty and out of Nimblewill Gap over Black Mountain.  Though the trail was initially steep out of Nimblewill gap, the trail crosses the mountain and then begins a gentle, meandering descent into Black Gap, where we made camp. 

No one was using the shelter so we put the girls' tents behind the shelter and made dinner at the picnic table in front of the shelter.  Tortellini and pesto and sundried tomatoes.  Yes, these girls have gourmet taste.  I'm not complaining.  Hung our food--the shelters in Georgia all have bear cables.  Basically, there's a heavy duty cable strung between two trees.  From this horizontal line hang 4 pulleys with clips at each end--think flag poles--and these are fastened to the two outer trees.  You unclip a cable from the tree, attach your food bag to the business end, hoist it up to the horizontal cable and then clip it to the tree.  Easy!  Though hanging bear-bags is usually the most hilarious part of the day, I was glad for the user friendly nature of the bear-cables.  After the food was up we had a campfire and were in bed by 9 (Hiker Midnight).

The Eaglet Express

No Joke

Taking a break at Nimblewill Gap

Making Dinner

Checking out tomorrow's topo

Plotting something mischievous...

Feral Cat vs the Spitfire

Why my tent has patches.  Originally posted March 12, 2010


Meet the Spitfire. It weighs in at 2 lbs 12 oz. It is pretty much a little mesh pod with a bathtub-floor sporting taped seams. It is light weight, breezy and the perfect solo-hiking tent. I love it. Love Love Love.

I get home from backpacking last weekend, and like the good scout that I am, I set all the tents up in the backyard to air out. The $30 Walmart tent, Laura's 2 person tent and my Spitfire. All in a neat little row taking in the Miami sunshine and ruffling slightly in the cool ocean breeze.


Now: Meet Feral Cat.

Feral Cat crawls into the Spitfire because I left about a 6 inch gap in the door when I threw the stakes in after setting it up. The Spitfire is not free standing, so I figured I'd just put the two end stakes in--so that it would stand--but not fully stake it out, because after all, it was just airing out.

When Feral Cat gets into the Spitfire, she must have decided that it wasn't roomy enough for her and that she would rather be Out of the Spitfire. But Feral Cat is stupid or something because instead of crawling out of the little gap that she came in through, Feral Cat decides to start bouncing back and forth within the Spitfire. From one end to the other with claws out.

I see this going on through the window and run down to let Feral Cat out of the Spitfire. But instead of how I envisioned this rescue mission: open the door, Feral Cat runs out without any further trouble, it actually goes like this: Feral Cat sees me approach and breaks into an all out sprint--still inside the Spitfire--which just rips the stakes loose and collapses the Spitfire. Now Feral Cat is REALLY mad. Feral Cat continues to sprint, wrapped up inside the noseeum netting and nylon, all around the yard before landing on a pile of debris behind the laundry room. On top of an old rusty ironing board. At this point I'm able to grab onto one of the tent poles and slowly reach down and unzip the door. Feral Cat is free. Spitfire is down for the count.

Anyone have any suggestions on how to repair ripped noseeum netting (think dozens of dime to hand sized holes) and torn nylon?

Feral Cat 1, Spitfire 0

Andrew Skurka 22 March 2012, Asheville NC

I spent a day hanging out in Asheville, NC.  I stayed at the Sweetpeas Hostel right in the old-timey downtown area.  Long lasting economic devastation started by the Depression ensured that historic buildings were preserved. Now there are hostels with historic brick walls and Urban Outfitters with vintage wood floors.  Sweetpeas was alright as hostels go, it was expensive, brand new (Ikea!) and had lots of rules.  Lots!  (e.g. no alcohol or barefeet).  Hostels, regardless of how many ridiculious rules they have, are great places to meet folks.  I had my backpack stuffed under my bunk (no backpacks on beds! Rule!) and another guy in my room noticed.  "Hey, do you do like, real wilderness backpacking?"  "uhhh, yeah I guess so."  I was brushing my teeth at the time, but really I was thinking "Thanks for noticing? Wanna know my baseweight?".  Later, in the more appropriate environ of the swanky living room, we got to talking--FellowBackpaker and I (FB).  He asked "Are you going to the Andrew Skurka talk tonight?"  Andrew Skurka! Is in town? Really?  What luck.
"No."
"Oh, too bad.  I saw his slideshow last night and it was really amazing.  Tonight he is going to do a gear-talk"
So we talked a bit.  I use a tent, he uses a tarp.  He did the same section (Amicalola to Franklin) last year that I'd just finished.  Isn't the AT Cool? 
Eventually we decided that I would indeed like to go to the Andrew Skurka talk and that FB would give me a lift.  I whiled the day away in Asheville.  I went to see a Tragic foreign film at the local art-house-cinema, picked up the maps and guide for the North Carolina/Tennessee sections, a new CD (support music stores! yeah!) A Note of Hope (Because Woody Guthrie would have been 100 this year too) and drooled over some ultralightweight windshells and then met up with FB again.

The talk was at the Grove Park Inn.  Nice place.  When I'm rich and famous I will stay there instead of hostels.

For two hours AS wowed us with stories of Peril! Adventure! and Gear!  AS had his gear spread out on a few folding tables.  He's got a friendly presence and smiles easily.  He was wearing jeans and a stylish black sweater with big buttons half way down the front and the collar turned up and, to my horror, brown leather shoes.  I can forgive him for this, though.  He is clean shaven and looks like he came from the farm next door.  He credits his success in long-distance hiking partly to his appearance. "If I walk up to a farmer in Minnesota with a scraggly beard and say 'Hi I'm Paul Revere', it might not go so well."

He begins his talk in this way:
"You guys should see this," he started pulling off his shoe and sock.  "I was running on the AT yesterday and...."  His big toe was a black and blue swollen mess.  Gasp from the audience.

"Is it broken?"

"I don't know,"  he put his sock and shoe back on.  "I can walk on it so I guess it's okay".

The audience was mainly old guys and a handful of Cub Scouts.  AS asked at the beginning if anyone wanted to share who they were and why they were at the talk.  "Because you're a celebrity" would have been my contribution, but I kept my mouth shut.  Instead a loud Boy Scout leader stood up, "I'm a Boy Scout Master and our last trip was a disaster"  I'm sure it was.  

The main point of the presentation was to introduce beginners to the types of gear you can carry to improve your experience.  Beginners often carry foolproof gear (tents, water filters) anything that requires little skill to use properly.  They also 'pack their fears' for extreme what-if scenarios.  Both of these things increase the weight of the pack and thus decrease the ability to enjoy hiking.  So you need skills--or the 'stuff between your ears'--to decrease the weight of your pack and increase the enjoyment of the hiking part of hiking--not necessarily the 'camping' part.  AS can blow through 30 or 40 miles a day but the second he makes camp he's in his sleeping bag and sleeping--he only carries gear necessary for hiking, not for camping--mainly that's clothes and food.

AS and I agree on many points.  Our first aid kits, shorty sleeping pads supplemented with backpacks for foot insulation, cooking kit and water purification systems are identical.  According to him, though, I could trim my weight significantly by switching from tent or hammock (foolproof!) to a tarp and from a full sleeping bag to just a quilt with a sewn in footbox (basically a sleeping bag missing the back half).  Also, I could downsize my sock collection from three pairs to two.  Of course, my system (tent, full sleeping bag and three pairs of socks) have served me well enough so far, but I can't help myself.  I have a problem. I am tickled by the possibility that I might NEED more gear.  AS SAID so and he is an Expert after all.

AS describes his diet as "lots of snacks and bars, all containing some sort of chocolate, before a hot dinner of mashed potatoes or anything I can throw into hot water".  He also pre-packages all his food in small ziplock bags.  This would help to ensure that you knew exactly how many calories were going into your pack.  The recommendation was 3,000 calories a day and carrying food dense in calories--at least 150 calories per ounce.  (Assuming your food averages 125 calories per ounce, that's 1.5 pounds of food per day).  Olive oil added to a dinner is a great way to add really dense calories at the end of the day.

My pack was definitely heavier than it needed to be when I left Neel's Gap.  It was 30 lbs (! I'm embarrassed to admit this)  Unseasonably warm temperatures made my 20* down bag overkill--I sweated most nights--and I ate much less food than I anticipated.  Whether or not I replace my sleeping bag and tent before I head back to Franklin I will be streamlining my food supply.