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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Tuesday 6/3/08
Trip: 12.4 miles
Elevation: 3906ft (max) 2850ft (min) 2356ft (total accent)
Time: 6h 16m (moving) 4h 35m (stopped)
Moving Avg: 2.1 mph
Temperature: 80 F
Wind: Light breeze
Conditions: Clear, no precipitation but very humid
Pack Weight: ~35lbs (2L water, 5 days food)

Summary:

The run out of Gooch Gap towards Woody Gap was nice. Rolling trail with some neat rock formations on the left side and vertical drops off the right. Woody Gap has bathroom facilities and a trash drop and looks to be a popular stopping point for cyclists and day hikers coming up from Suches.

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Monday 6/2/08
Trip: 13 miles
Elevation: 3350ft (max) 2450ft (min) 2788ft (total accent)
Time: 6h 08m (moving) 4h 41m (stopped)
Moving Avg: 2.1 mph
Temperature: 70 F
Wind: Light breeze
Conditions: Clear, no precipitation
Pack Weight: ~38lbs (2L water, 6 days food)

Summary:
First full day with decent mileage. Georgia is famous for it’s constant series of PUDS (pointless ups & downs) – today was just a taste. At this point, it’s evident I need more cardio conditioning but it’s easily managed with interval rest. It’s also quickly apparent you spend pretty much the entire day sweating – which means you spend the entire day drinking water until you’re ready to puke – and then you drink some more. Dehydration is a serious issue at this point if you aren’t careful.

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Sunay 6/1/08
Trip: 5.77 miles
Elevation: 3750ft (max) 2650ft (min) 631ft (total accent)
Time: 2h 21m (moving) 1h 53m (stopped)
Moving Avg: 2.5 mph
Temperature: 70 F
Wind: Light breeze
Conditions: Partly Cloudy, no precipitation
Pack Weight: ~40lbs (2L water, 7 days food)

Summary:
Our first day was a relatively short hike. Mel dropped us off at the FSR 42 parking lot on the back side of Springer Mountain, we got our gear on, said our good-byes and started our ascent to the top of Springer (and the AT Southern Terminus). Having missed all the rain earlier that day, the trail was slightly muddy but in good shape. Water apparently wasn’t going to be a problem. Doubling back, we headed downhill for the rest of the afternoon towards 3 Forks.

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Saturday 5/17/08
Trip: 9.76 miles
Elevation: 1811ft (max) 981ft (min) 1620ft (total accent)
Time: 3h 44m (moving) 38m (stopped)
Moving Avg: 2.6 mph
Temperature: 71 F
Wind: Light breeze
Conditions: Clear, no precipitation
Pack Weight:

Summary:
This was a solo hike through part of the [Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park]. The weather was perfect – clear skies, no rain, 71 degrees F the whole day with a light breeze. It was surprisingly harder than I was expecting due to some of the technical sections and the vertical takeoff right at the start. The West trail starting at the Visitors Center is basically 700ft straight up via a switch-back trail that’s heavily traveled by visitors coming down from the bus ride up to the peak. From there, it’s all downhill through boulder fields and some technical rocky switch-backs. At the base of Kennesaw Mountain it eventually levels out and you start walking through some really nice open meadows and canopy forest. The trail at this point is well groomed walking/running trail. I hiked counter-clockwise from the Vistor’s Center along the West Trail down to Highway 120 and then back via the East Trail. No pictures this time unfortunately (the views from the crest are amazing) because my wife has both cameras in Sarasota.

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