Hawk Mountain Shelter to Gooch Mountain Shelter

Day Two - Saturday, October 1
7.3 miles in 6.5 hours
Hawk Mountain Shelter to Gooch Mountain Shelter

We awoke at daylight (7:30), prepared our breakfast of oatmeal with raisins (and peanut butter for Wait-Up) and coffee, packed up our bags and left camp at 9:00 a.m.

We were the first to leave Hawk Mountain this morning and the last to arrive at Gooch Mountain tonight.  But that’s okay, we got there.  The two D’s were waiting for us when we arrived, and they were just as tired and cold as we were. 

We thoroughly enjoyed walking in the forest and enjoying the beautiful views from the mountaintops as we listened to scripture on our Ipods.  We felt very close to our Creator out here in the wonder of his world.

On the other side of Horse Gap we had a pretty steep climb up Justus Mountain (551 feet in 2.2 miles).  One guy passed us as we were resting at the top and said, “That was a doozy!”  I agreed with him.

Right before we arrived at the shelter marker we stopped in the trail for a drink of water.  As Wait-up was bent over to get his water bottle, I looked up ahead and saw what looked like a large fat black dog approaching the trail from the right.  I was expecting his owner to come into view behind him, but no one appeared.  The animal loped across the trail and continued down the hill into the gap below and disappeared.  OMG – that must have been a bear cub!  If it was, fortunately it was the only bear we saw in 80 miles.

Gooch Mountain Shelter had a nice source of water coming out of a pipe.  We saw water sources like this several times on the trail. 

The Georgia Appalachian Trail Club does a magnificent job of maintaining the trails.  It was amazing the number of downed trees that were strategically placed right where one might need to stop and rest after an incline.

Another cold night.  The two D’s and other campers built a fire in the fire pit while we set up our tent and went to bed again at dark.  The next morning we were the first to leave camp along with two fellows who were going south while we went north.  In a little while they passed us again going north, they had gone the wrong direction on the trail when they came out of the shelter trail J. 

We learned quickly to keep our eyes open for the white blaze marks on the trees all along the AT. 

The trails leading off the AT main trail for water, campsites or shelters were marked with blue blazes.

 Wait-up was beginning to earn his name.  I watched his back most of the trip.  I suppose Catch-up was earning her name too.



See him way up there?

Springer Mountain parking lot to Hawk Mountain Shelter

Day One – Friday, September 30, 2011
8.7 miles in 6.5 hours
Springer Mountain parking lot to Hawk Mountain Shelter. 

From the Springer Mountain parking lot, you have to walk .9 south to the marker for the start of the trail, then retrace your path north, hence the 8.7 miles today instead of 7.8.  The alternative is to hike up from Amicalola State Park on the Southern Terminus Approach trail.  This trail is 8.4 miles long and would have been another day for us before we actually began on the AT, so we chose to begin at the closer parking lot.

Ah - Springer Mountain!  How exciting to be here!  We took lots of pictures to prove that we were here!  We were officially beginning to hike the AT - What a rush!

The marker on the rock at Springer Mountain.

Wait-up and Catch-up on Springer Mountain before beginning our hike.

"Catch-up" signing in the register on top of Springer Mountain.

We met a man and two boys who traveled the same distance we did the first day and camped at Hawk Mountain Shelter.  When we came back north and crossed the parking lot again, we met two young men from Georgia (the two D’s) who camped with us and crossed us on the trail for the first three days.  Another group of about 4 men and one woman passed us on the trail and camped with us for the first night, then must have gone further than we did on the second day.  A small community was formed quickly as we saw the same faces along the trail and at the shelters as we went north. 

Just down the trail from the starting point we saw our first marker for a shelter.  Since we had never seen a shelter first-hand, we decided to walk in the .2 off the trail to see the Springer Mountain Shelter, even though we would not be staying here.  Interesting…

Springer Mountain Shelter

The first half of our trail today was very pleasant and not very difficult with only slight slopes.  Actually, we felt more like we were strolling along under the cool canopy of trees through the forest.  We thought “This is a walk in the park!”  At 11:45, we stopped beside Stover Creek and had our lunch of a tuna pack and crackers and water. 

At Three Forks parking lot, everything changed.  There were several uphill sections with an elevation rise of about 670 feet in 3.5 miles.

When we arrived at the shelter marker, the man and two boys had their tent set up at the intersection of the white and blue trail.  We walked down the blue trail to the shelter and found the two D’s with their hammocks stretched between trees.  During the night they moved into the shelter because of the cold.  The large party had several tents already set up and a fire built.

Wait-up trekked down the hill behind the shelter 2/10’s of a mile to get the water.  We are using iodine tablets to purify our water, which takes some time before we can use it.  We have enough water left in our camelback bladders for the evening; the new water will be ready for us in the morning.  We set up our tent and started cooking our dinner.  Tonight we have dehydrated rice and an MRE entre’ each. (MRE’s leftover from Hurricane Ivan relief packages.)  We tested some of these before we left home to see if they were still good after some six or so years and they are, so we are trying to take advantage of them.  They have lots of calories.  As you may know, they come with a heater that is activated with a little water for heating the food.  We set it up and waited for it to heat our food – it didn’t.  We tried another heater, it didn’t.  So we had to figure out another plan.  We put our entre’ into the rice to heat it on the Coleman one-burner stove. 



After dinner, we hung our bear bag on the bear cable and went to bed at dark (7:30).  We were tired.  The weather had turned cold and the wind was blowing through the top of the trees all night, gusting pretty hard at times.  We had wanted cooler weather, and we got it.  Our Zero-degree rated sleeping bags came in pretty handy, it probably got into the low 30’s but we had a pretty good night’s sleep. 

Our first experience with an AT privy was an experience…..ummm.