Friday – Saturday 4/2/10
Trip: 16.0 miles (plus another 3 mile road hike back to car)
Elevation: 128ft (max) 42ft (min) ~210ft (total accent)
Time: ~8 hours total hiking
Temperature: 85 F
Wind: Light breeze
Conditions: Clear, no precipitation, low humidity
Pack Weight: ~24lbs (overnight load)

Summary:

Myakka State Park is pretty typical for a South Florida lake/wetland. Full of wild life, flooded during the rainy season and miles of densely packed palmetto scrub brush with the occasional island of mossy oak or scrub pine. Oh and it gets hot. Really hot. And muggy if the humidity is up. Did I mention mosquitoes? But if you’re lucky and you time your trip right, hiking in South Florida can be rather pleasant. Myakka is close to the Gulf so in the spring when the sun starts to set, a nice breeze kicks up keeping most of the evening bugs at bay and provides some relief from the afternoon heat. The only real issue is dodging around days or weeks when the spring rains have flooded the low lands, basically putting everything under 2-3 inches of standing water. We managed to get everything but dry trail so I can’t complain too much about the trip.
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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.

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Friday 9/19/08
Trip: ~5 miles
Elevation: 3050ft (max) 2990ft (min) ~750ft (total accent)
Time: 3h 20m
Temperature: 80 F
Wind: Light breeze
Conditions: Clear skies, no precipitation, low humidity
Pack Weight: ~30lbs (overnight lodge hike)

Summary:

The Len Foote Hike Inn is only accessible via a 5 mile hike up Springer Mountain. After checking in with the Amicalola Ranger station, you park at the top of the falls and pick up the trail head on the opposite side of the parking lot. 200 yards or so off the start, the trail splits – taking the right fork leads up the Inn, the left fork will eventually spit you out on top of Springer Mountain (which is also the official start of the Appalachian Trail).

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I came across [The Pulse] while browsing [the Backpacker Magazine web site]. It’s a good read and I highly recommend it for people who spend time outdoors on a regular basis.

Steve Howe is their Rocky Mountain Editor and has a life-time of experience with alpine climbing and hiking. He reports and comments on Search and Rescue (SAR) efforts that occur each year across the full spectrum of out-door recreation. It gives you a hard look at what can happen (this is life or death) when you step into the wild unprepared or under-geared for the environment you’re in. It also sends a sobering message that no matter how skilled or prepared you are for a specific activity, Mother Nature can turn your adventure upside down and sideways in an instant.

His number one lesson? Be smart, be prepared, and don’t let your ego make the decisions for you.

Sound advice.

I‘ve finally gotten all my notes and pictures put together from our recent adventures on the Georgia section of the Appalachian Trail. Unforetunately, my knees couldn’t handle the prolonged punishment from carrying a 40lb pack and the constant ups & downs so I had to tap out late Wednesday night. It sucks because the issues I was having never manifested during my training hikes but we still had a great time and I learned a ton about long distance hiking. I’ve split up my journal entries by day – you can read more detail on my [Hiking Journal page].

Sunday weigh-in: 218.5 lbs
Wednesday weigh-in: 208.5 lbs
Sunday pack weight: ~40 lbs
Wednesday pack weight: ~33 lbs
Total Mileage: 38 miles
Total Ascent: 7826 ft
Max elevation: 4485 ft

Mark, Scott, and I are already looking at a return date for finishing off the parts we had to miss due to my injury. We’re thinking a long weekend some time in October. With that goal in mind, I’ve got some training I need to do between now and then – most importantly, strengthening everything from my knees down. I’m also going to use hiking poles from the very start and rework my entire packing list in an effort to drop my base weight even further. Oh and I’m changing my diet – it’s time to drop some of the extra baggage.

Springer Mountain – Tesnatee Gap

Wednesday 6/4/08
Trip: 10.1 miles
Elevation: 4485ft (max) 3175ft (min) 2051ft (total accent)
Time: 6h 16m (moving) 4h 46m (stopped)
Moving Avg: 1.6 mph
Temperature: 80 F
Wind: Light breeze
Conditions: Clear, no precipitation
Pack Weight: ~33lbs (2L water, 4 days food)

Summary:

Blood Mountain was definitely one of the coolest parts of the whole hike. The entire peak is nothing but bare rock, fantastic views of the N. Georgia country side and large stands of flowering trees. I’m glad we were headed Northbound though, coming up from the other side would’ve been absolutely brutal. Almost 1.5 miles of nut-kicker ascent across bare rock-face and carved out step-ups. It was bad enough headed downhill. There’s a bypass trail (Freeman Trail) that links Slaughter Creek to the other side of Blood Mountain without having to cross over the hardest parts of the top though.

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