Saturday 9/20/08
Trip: 5.2 miles
Elevation: 3400ft (max) 2890ft (min) ~800ft (total accent)
Time: 3h 15m
Temperature: 80 F
Wind: Light breeze
Conditions: Clear, no precipitation, low humidity
Pack Weight: ~30lbs (overnight lodge hike)
Pics
Summary:

After our stay at The Len Foote Hike Inn Friday night, we decided as a group to avoid a backtrack and take the Hike Inn Trail another quarter mile north. It dead-ends into the Appalachian Approach Trail. You have two options at this point – hike north another 3-4 miles to the top of Springer Mountain (and the official start of the Appalachian Trail) or hike south back down the hill towards Amacalola Falls and the parking lot.

Cresting Frosty Mountain at 3400 ft after a short climb up from the Hike Inn Trail made the start of the hike somewhat challenging for the inexperienced hikers of the bunch but from there it was all pretty much downhill on well maintained trail. Not much water on this section compaired to the Hike Inn Trail but it only took the group 3.5 hours to make it back to the parking lot. We ran into several people headed up to the top of Springer Mountain and I think one guy was actually trying to cover the Georgia Section completely.

Appalachian Approach Trail