This weekend's hike was a big one for us! Not only did we add a new AT state (Georgia) to our list, but we also broke 100 AT miles! Woo-hoo! There's almost no better place for a milestone hike than Springer Mountain, the southern terminus of the AT. Or as most people call it (because most thru-hikers start at the south end and go north), the "beginning" of the AT. The only better place will be the one that ends at Katahdin in Maine, which will be the last section we do (because that's where you're "supposed" to end, and I want that experience even though I'm not doing it all at one time).
We got up well before dawn Saturday and drove to the Springer Mountain parking area on a gravel Forest Service road near Blue Ridge, Georgia. There are a couple of different ways to get to the Springer summit, where the AT starts. There's an 8.5-ish mile "approach trail" from Amicalola Falls State Park, which I've heard is basically an 8.5-mile staircase, or you can park at the Springer parking area, which is actually on the AT about a mile north of the summit. I'll probably go back and hike the approach trail someday just to say I've done it (it is a climb, after all), but right now I'm focused on accumulating actual AT miles, and I didn't want to waste more than half a day's hike on non-AT miles. So we parked at the Springer parking area, hiked a mile south to the Springer summit, then backtracked a mile back to the parking area and continued our hike north on the AT (just for clarity, when I tally my total AT miles, I'm only counting that mile once even though we did it twice).
We hit the trail around 8:15 AM. The weather was great. It was 50 degrees when we started out, and I actually put my rain/wind jacket on for the first mile. I had warmed up sufficiently to remove it when we reached the Springer summit. The high Saturday was only 77, and it was sunny all day, but we weren't in the sun a lot due to the forest cover. Just perfect.
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| Family hiking selfie at the Southern Terminus |
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| After the shedding of the jacket. It IS gameday, after all. |
The mile up to Springer from the parking area was a steady climb, but nothing too strenuous. In fact, for about the first two thirds of the hike, I was thinking we had finally found an "easy" AT hike. The trail was nice and wide (probably a product of the thousands of thru-hikers who start here every year - attrition hasn't hit too bad at this point) and, for the most part, was dirt or sandy soil rather than rocks (although there were some pretty rocky patches - the mile between the Springer summit and the parking area being one of them).
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| Look how wide this trail is! |
There were several stream crossings, which Tigger enjoyed.
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| White blaze on the foot bridge! |
The elevation change was also minimal, typically only with gradual inclines or declines, and if there were steep areas, they were very short. I told Ben that if I were a thru-hiker, I would be lulled into a false sense of security that the trail isn't too difficult and that I'd be in Maine in a couple of months. Then we found the last third of the hike. There were a few short but steep-ish climbs and descents, and then a longer, steeper climb, followed by a relatively steep descent (up and down Sassafras Mountain), at the end. The last 3-4 miles were also really rocky. Ah, there's the AT I know and love...
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| Roots, rocks, and rising elevation! |
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| Still going up, and still rocky. |
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| Up, up, and away! |
There weren't really any astounding views on this hike. I caught glimpses from time to time of what looked like pretty amazing views obscured by a bunch of trees, but there was really only one spot where we could see through the trees enough to catch any view to speak of.
In spite of that, I enjoyed the hike and thought it was really pretty. There were some wildflowers, which surprised me a little bit at this time of year.
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| Wildflowers in the first mile on the way up to Springer. |
There were a lot of rhododendron (not blooming, but I still like the "green parts") along the trail, and a lot of cool-looking trees.
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| Hollow tree |
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| Tree growing on a rock |
We also took a short side trail to Long Creek Falls and had lunch near the falls. We had planned to eat at the falls but didn't because there were about 15 other people there. I guess it's the time of year when we should get used to a relatively crowded trail when hiking in an area that has several trail access points with parking.
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| Long Creek Falls |
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| Tig got in a little playtime at lunch. |
This section of the trail shares space for several miles with (and criss-crosses at several other points) the Benton MacKaye trail, named for the man who envisioned the AT, so that was a pretty cool little reminder of the trail's history.
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| The Benton MacKaye Trail is marked with white diamonds, so we had diamonds on one side of the trail and the AT's rectangular blazes on the other for a few miles. |
Our shuttle driver for this hike was Ron Brown, who shuttles all the way from Atlanta to Fontana Dam. He is really a treasure. By the time I called him last week, he was already booked all morning on Saturday but said he could pick us up at the end of our hike and shuttle us back to our car at Springer. I always prefer to have the shuttle on the front end of the hike so we don't (a) feel pressured to finish at a certain time and can take a little more time if we come across a scenic spot or a side trail we want to explore (or if my knee blows out and I'm moving slowly); or (b) give a pick-up time that builds in extra time for wiggle room and be waiting for an hour on our driver if we finish early. BUT Ron comes highly recommended (for good reason), so I wanted to shuttle with him if at all possible. We set 3:30 as our pick-up time, and Ben (whom I sent ahead of me on the last downhill because I knew we were cutting it close on time) rolled into Cooper Gap right at 3:30 (I rolled in approximately two minutes later). At least I have a good handle on our hiking pace, I guess.
Ron's shuttle comes equipped with every kind of phone charger you could ever need, water (including several jugs that he just leaves out on the trail at different points as "trail magic" for people who aren't even shuttling with him), Gatorade, moleskin and other first aid supplies, and even dog treats for his canine passengers. Tigger, of course, is the poster child for "stranger danger" and doesn't accept treats from strangers without attempting to take their hands off, but he certainly appreciated the treat that Ron passed to Ben and let Ben feed to Tigger. Anyway, if you're looking for an AT shuttle anywhere from Springer to Fontana, look up Ron's Appalachian Trail Shuttle on Facebook. We will be using him again for sure!
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| Tig getting some window time in the shuttle. |
If you're an SEC football fan (and an Auburn or Texas A&M fan in particular), you might be saying, "Wait, the Auburn/TAMU game started at 3:30. How in the world did you, a die-hard Auburn football devotee, come off the trail at 3:30 and still manage to catch your game?" Well...let's just say I may have finally found something that rivals my love for Auburn football. I'm not going to say my obsession over AT hiking trumps my Auburn football obsession. Let's be real; I'd never miss an Auburn home game to go hiking. But I do love AT hiking enough to make accommodations when both Auburn and Tennessee have either an away game or an open date and I have the opportunity to hike in the fall, which is the best time of year for hiking. So of course Ben and I both DVR'd our respective football games. As soon as I found an internet signal on our way home, I checked in on the score of my game. After that, I "watched" the game on ESPN's gamecast using what were woefully intermittent internet signals until we got back to Tellico Plains (about halfway through the 4th quarter), when the signal (and the play-by-play) became pretty steady.
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| Not the best way to keep up with a football game, but it'll do in a pinch. |
I then watched the DVR of my game this morning in a leisurely manner, knowing I would be pleased with the outcome no matter how many 11-15 yard passes Kellen Mond completed in the 4th quarter.
I met two other people in Auburn shirts at Long Creek Falls on the trail, and we exchanged "War Eagle"s. It's kind of nice having my two obsessions collide. I give the weekend an enthusiastic two thumbs up.
110.6 down; ~2079.4 to go.
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