Stealth Camp to Woody Gap, Day Two

Stealth Camp to Woody Gap
Day Two
October 22, 2021

After an eventful night of a thunder and lightning storm, we started out on the trail about 8:00.  Since we thought we were camping on Sassafras Mountain, we then thought we were climbing Justice Mountain way before we got to it.  We were all messed up.  It's like we never used Gut Hooks app or the guidebook!  I don't know what happened, but we did video all day and said the wrong location, lol.

We hiked approximately 12 miles today, making the total from Springer Mountain to Woody Gap 21.1 miles in two days.

At Woody Gap, there were lots of people hanging out.  We met one hiker couple who reportedly had been holed up there for several days waiting on a ride to take them home after the bailed out on the trail.  I didn't understand what the problem was that they couldn't get a ride.

We on the other hand, called Michelle and arranged for her to pick us up the next morning to take us to the car at Unicoi Gap. We are "bailing out" too.  We blame it on the lack of sufficient sleep for two consecutive nights and the lack of fall colors that we expected.

We hiked about a mile north of Woody Gap and camped in the woods to the side of the trail.  Then met Michelle back at the Woody Gap parking lot the next morning as she was dropping off some other hikers.  

Video of Campsite to Woody Gap

Springer Mountain to Campsite, Day One

Springer Mountain to Stealth Campsite
Day One
October 21, 2021

We spent the night last night in Hiawassee, Georgia, bringing back memories of the year 2011 when we hiked Georgia the first time.  We wanted to eat at Daniel's Steakhouse again because we remembered the food was so good.  And also, it is near the Holiday Inn where we stayed before.  

We took part in their buffet for dinner an apparently either ate too much or ate something that didn't agree with either of us, because we had gastric discomfort all night.  That's not a good way to start an early morning hike.

We drove to Unicoi Gap - a 15 minute drive - to leave our car.  Michelle met us there and we had a pleasant drive down to the Springer Mountain parking lot to begin our hike.  

It was nice to be on familiar territory, as we hiked the .9 down to Springer Mountain to see it once again.  So nostalgic.  

Then we turned around and headed north.  Thee first part of the trail is so nice and easy to hike.  We hiked past Hawk Mountain Shelter at the 8.1 mark and kept going.  We felt pretty good but knew it was going to start raining soon.

We were enjoying the hike, but were disappointed that we were not seeing any fall colors!  You would have thought that this time in October, the colors would be turning.  

We stopped to make camp a little knoll about a mile past Hawk Moutain Shelter (somewhere between Hightower Gap and Horse Gap).  Unfortunately, we set up our tent in a low spot and the rain settled under our tent.  The lightning got pretty bad too, so all that made for another night of little sleep.  

Video of Springer Mountain to Campsite

Short Trip to Georgia October 2021

REVISITING GEORGIA
Wednesday, October 20, 2021

So we are getting the hiking bug again and have been thinking about trying to re-hike some of our favorite places on the trail.  

Starting with Georgia - we were very fresh and naive when we did it the first time back in 2011.  We didn't know "nothing about nothing."  We were not in good shape physically and we made it through the entire state without dying, so we figured we should be able to do it again now.  

We are not in the best shape now either since it has been two years since we finished the Appalachian Trail by section hiking over 8 years.  We have been walking, but certainly not to the extend that we did back then to prepare for the trail.  But - we do know so much more about logistics, gear, pace, etc. etc.  than we knew back then.

This seems like a good time to go north.  We should be able to see some fall colors in Georgia.  

So here we go - we made our plan to hike the 85 miles from Springer Mountain Georgia to Deep Gap, NC in two parts.

Drive to Unicoi Gap and spend the night.
Get a shuttle to Springer Mountain parking lot the next morning.
Hike for four days to Unicoi Gap.
Spend the night and have dinner in town.
Transfer to Deep Gap, NC.
Shuttle back down to Unicoi Gap and hike north to Deep Gap.  

We chose Michelle Coffer as our shuttle driver and made plans with her.  

On Wednesday, October 20, 2021, we drove to Georgia, stopping by to visit the Amicalola State Park Visitor's Center.  We skipped it in 2011. And we will skip the hike up the approach trail again this time, but I wanted to see the center and the starting point of the AT Approach Trail.  

Video of the beginning of the Approach Trail