This past weekend my dad (Waldo) and I went down to Georgia and did a 30 mile hike on the Appalachian Trail. Hiking on the AT is beginning to become a tradition in my family. In 2009 my brother, trail name being Huck Finn, through hiked the entire trail. My dad then got jealous and has since been section hiking the trail. Meaning he is not doing the whole thing at once due to work and such so instead he is just doing small hiking trips as often as possible in hopes of one day doing the whole thing. I am the unhealthy and out of shape one but I still love hiking and being on the trail so I joined Waldo for this one.
We started at Woody Gap which is the 20 mile marker on the trail and went to Unicoi Gap which is mile 50. I knew the terrain would be tough, several large climbs and descents but figured I would be able to suck it up. Well the trip became one I would not remember. First off, it is an 8 hour drive from Hamilton to where Woody Gap is, we wanted to leave around 5:30 Thursday evening but due to my flat tire did not leave until close to 7. We got to our hotel at 2 am and only got about 4 hours of sleep that night. As we began our hike on Friday we thought that it may rain some Friday but would be ok. Well it pretty much rained all of Friday, not hard but enough to get us wet and cold. There were some amazing views, or so we think, but because of the dense fog we did not get to see any of them. We got on top of Blood Mountain which is considered one of the best views in Georgia and could see maybe 10 yards off the mountain. We found a place to pitch a tent around 6 that evening after hiking 13.5 miles which was the farthest I had hiked in a day with a full pack on. That night it was pretty chilly but I have a good sleeping bag and so I was fine.
Saturday morning we awoke to rain. And it never stopped. We wanted to hike 15 miles that day but it was simply miserable. It literally rained for almost 20 hours strait and it was about 45 degrees so that made it all the worse. The wind was gusting at about 25 mph, it sucked! We also had one of the toughest climbs I have ever done, there were several other hikers doing it at the same time and all of us were struggling up it. After 8ish miles of hiking, roughly 4 hours, I made it to a shelter. Waldo had been there for 15 minutes waiting on me, that shows you how slow i was going. I thought I was dying and was ready to be done for the day, it was only 1. The shelter was full of hikers who were calling it quits early and so if we stopped there we would have to pitch our tent anyways. So after some food my dad convinced me to move on. We went another 4ish miles, ended up doing about 13 that day. We made camp at 430 and took shelter from the rain. Almost as soon as we made camp the skies opened up and the rain turned to an outright down pour. We did not leave our tent from 4:30 until 7:30 the net morning. I had one dry shirt and pair of pants and my sleeping back was wet. It was a miserable night to say the least.
The morning cold but it had stopped raining and we had only a 4 mile hike to the truck. I froze the whole way due to the lack of dry clothing. It was a tough 4 miles, my boots were soaked from the previous day which made my feet very sore. We had a big climb and then a big descent. Despite popular belief, hiking down hill is not easy. We went downhill for about a mile and it was extremely steep and rocky, not to mention the trail was essentially a creek at this point. When we made it back to the car I could barely move. Even today, a full day after the hike ended, my feet feel as if they are falling off.
All in all it was a good hike. We met several through hikers who are hoping to make it all 2175 miles. Statistics show that roughly 1 out of every 4 to start the journey actually finishes, so few of the guys we met will probably reach Katahdin. Even with the horrible weather I had a blast and cannot wait to get back on the trail!!
Opher, trail name Dough Boy.
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