My Big Hike

My friend, Caroline, is an amazing hiker.  Other than Brian, I'm not sure I've met someone that loves to hike as much as she does.  She is section hiking the entire Appalachian Trail one piece at a time, and planned a 5 day, 50 mile stretch from northern Georgia to southern North Carolina for the end of August.  

She kindly invited me to go with her and whatever friends of hers that were able to go.  I have always loved reading stories of AT thru hikers and Brian and I had planned on taking the kids for a week when they were old enough...so I said yes!  I knew I had some planning to do and spent the summer buying some gear I was missing, exercising more, and losing weight to be up for the trip.  We even did a trial run with the kids that gave me some confidence that I could, indeed, hike 20 miles with a heavy pack.  

The whole idea of going 50 miles and being gone from my family for 5 days equally thrilled and terrified me.  Although I have hiked, and camped, I had only backpacked twice and they were for one night only.  I was excited to see if I could physically do it.  It was a huge undertaking for me, but a great opportunity.  Plus, even though I love to travel, I rarely go anywhere without my husband or kids!  Thankfully, they were all super, super supportive of me going and my parents and friends filled in a few gaps watching kids after school while I was gone.  

At the start of the trip, I met Caroline at her parent's house in Tennessee and the next day we, and her friend Daniel, drove close to the trail head to meet up with two of her other friends that were going.  We followed one another to where we would end the hike and dropped off Caroline's car and squished into her friend's car and drove to Dicks Creek Gap in Georgia.  

I must admit in the car ride to Dicks Creek I was outwardly cool, but panicking inside big time!  It was about to get real!  What in the world was I doing?  What if I get injured?  What if I hate it?  What if I run out of food?  Ahhhhhhh!!!   But once the car was parked there was only one thing to do - tell my crazy brain to be quiet and put my pack on and take it one step at a time and see what happens.  So that is what I did!

Here we are on a warm Georgia day at the start of our hike.

All 2100 miles of the AT are marked with white blazes on the trees.  One blaze means you are on the AT.  Two blazes means there is a fork coming up in the trail.  Blue blazes sometimes mean water, but sometimes they are other side trails that hook into the AT.  

I kid you not, I have never, ever, ever sweat so much in my entire life as I did on this hike.  With an extra 40 pounds on my back and hiking hill after hill, my heart was beating so hard I could hear it in my head, and I sweat like somebody turned on some internal faucet.  I was a mess!  In the picture below, and all following pictures, I am completely saturated as though I had been in a rain storm....and I stayed that way for 50 miles.  I would take off my clothes at night to try to air dry them...but then just put the moist clothes back on the next morning.  Ew!  I did bring one change of clothes, but it quickly became gross too.  It was hot and muggy and that is just how it is in Georgia in August! 

We hiked 8 miles on our first day and got to the Georgia/North Carolina line right at dusk.  I was out of water, so I pumped lots, drank lots, and pumped some more from a tiny little trickle of a creek.  It was enough to do the job.  That first night, we all cooked our meals and then quickly turned in for the night in our individual tents.  Brian had packed me an encouraging note in my pack and I laid in my tent just reading it over and over and said many prayers of gratitude that I had made it through day 1, and prayed many more prayers for comfort and strength to make it the rest of the days.  I was tired, sore, and a little homesick oddly enough, but embraced the journey and tried to not listen to my fears of being mauled by bears in my sleep.

The next morning, Caroline's two friends had to hike out.  The girl had pulled her groin muscles pretty badly on day one, so she and her husband hiked back to their car and we continued on.  Luckily, they made it back fine and she has recovered. 

 With only 3 of us, we each kinda found our own pace.  Daniel was always first, then usually me, then Caroline.  We would make a designated spot to stop and meet for snack, or lunch, or a break.  So even though there were times that we hiked together and chatted, there were long times that we hiked alone.  I spent the time just letting my mind wander.  I would send telepathic "love notes" to Brian and my kids, hoping they would feel an extra measure of my love from afar.  I would sing songs in my head, I would look around, but mostly I just focused on not falling over.  Oddly enough, there aren't too many vistas.  You mostly just see tree after tree.  But here was one of the only vistas of day 2.  

On night 2, we set up camp in a cool little valley full of rhododendron.  We set up under the canopy for extra protection in case it rained...which it did!  There was a nice stream here and ample water.  We had both camp sites all to ourselves. We hiked 12 miles on day 2 and made great time going north into North Carolina.   Although I wasn't homesick on night 2, I was now praying for a tree to not fall on me during the big thunder storm that rolled through.  Luckily, no trees fell, and we were all dry and safe in the morning.

There were lots and lots of wildflowers and mushrooms all over the trail.  I regret not taking a picture of the mushrooms.  There must have been 10 different kinds.  Orange, yellow, white and even purple mushrooms.  Hairy mushrooms,  Fat mushrooms.  Tiny mushrooms.  I had to turn my phone all the way on every time I took a picture (to conserve battery) so I just never made the effort to take a picture of the mushrooms.  Oh well.  Here are some pretty flowers.

We stopped at all the shelters we passed for a break, or to use the privy.  

This side trail wins best name.

On day 3, we definitely hit our groove.  We passed the half way part of our hike and I was beginning to believe I just might be able to do this hike without dying!  We hiked 13 miles on day 3, including a crazy steep (as in practically rock climbing with a pack on type of steep) assent to Mount Arnold.  On top, there was a cool fire tower with an amazing view and cool breeze.  We hung out here for a while and met an older thru hiker going south.  

I loved all of the rhododendron tunnels on this part of the trail.  They seemed like they should be in a movie or something hiking thru them.  

On night 3, we stayed in a fairly new, and super cool double decker shelter.  We spread out all of our wet tents from the night before to let them dry, and started dinner.  We had the shelter all to ourselves!  Even though we saw a few hikers here and there, we never had to share a campsite or shelter, which I wasn't expecting.  Kinda nice though!

Each shelter has a trail book where you can write whatever you want - comments on the shelter, their hike, the weather etc.  It was so entertaining I read nearly the entire thing and left and little note from the 3 of us.  The book warned about mice in the shelter and that really freaked me out.  I hated the whole idea of mice running around me while I slept.  Yuck.  But, Caroline and Daniel assured me I would be okay and even though I did see a few mice once it got dark, they left me alone all night.  I wasn't taking chances though and slept with my mummy bag all the way zipped and cinched the opening tight.  No mice were going to get in my bag!  I was grateful to be in the shelter though because another thunder storm rolled through that night and I wasn't afraid of trees falling on me.

If you look close there is a huge bird on the trail.  This thing hiked along with us for quite some time and then flew off.  It was a little odd. 

Another shelter we stopped at for a break.

On day 4, we were supposed to hike another 10 or so, but we got to our shelter around 2 pm and thought we would hike on and just camp in our tents further down the trail.  

By the time we got to where we were going to camp for the night, we realized we had hiked 15 miles and were only 2 miles from the car.  Plus, it had started raining and setting up tents in the rain and then just staying in our tents the rest of the evening and night didn't seem that fun, so we all agreed that even though we were dog tired, and the last 2 miles would all be uphill, we agreed to hike on to the car...which we did!

The pictures below are on the final stretch to the top of Wayah Bald.  This was about mile 16.5 for day 4.  My legs were screaming and I was huffing and puffing, but the car was so close!  We were so excited!

Here we are at the top!!  We made it!!  We did 17 miles on day 4...making our 50 mile journey in only 4 days.  The feelings of accomplishment are amazing!!  It is the same way I felt after I ran my first half marathon.  It's the feeling of realizing that you were actually able to do something you weren't sure before if you truly could or not.  I realized that I can backpack by myself without Brian carrying things, and that I actually really love it! 

We were all on cloud 9 and so, so, so, so smelly.  Whew!  If you could smell these photos you would die.  I have never not bathed or showered for 4 days in my whole life, so this was a whole new level of gross, especially once you mix in all the sweat.  But, it is the price you pay to be able to see things that you can only see by walking there.  

A cool CCC tower on Wayah Bald.

Once we got back to Caroline's car, we changed into flip flops and put on a fresh shirt and shorts.  Daniel, however, realized he did not pack fresh clothes.  So, he decided to put on his frog tog rain gear without anything else on and ride into town where he could buy a fresh shirt and shorts.  I was so loopy at this point that I just couldn't stop laughing.  It still makes me giggle just thinking about it.

Here is Daniel walking to buy clothes in full rain gear on a hot summer night without any rain in sight.  Again, I couldn't stop laughing and laughing and laughing.  After he got some clothes, we went out for a yummy dinner and drove back to Caroline's parent's house, getting there shortly after midnight.  What a long and fun day!

Here are my trusy maps that show the ups and downs of the entire trail, where water is, where shelters or campsites are etc.  I loved these maps!

I am so happy that I challenged myself to go on this hike.  I really loved it.  I loved the company, the trail, and the adventure of it all.  We were mostly blessed with good weather, which makes a big difference.  I just might have to go with Caroline again on her next section hike!!