A shuttle from The Hiker Hostel in Dahlonega, GA (where I stayed Wednesday night) dropped me off at Amicalola Falls State Park on Thursday (23 April 2009) morning. This state park is where the 'approach trail' to the start of the AT - and to the summit of Springer Mt - begins. The summit of Springer Mt. (3782 ft) is the official start of the Appalachian Trail and from what I gather, roughly 60% of potential thru-hikers actually get dropped off at the summit of Springer Mt as there is a dirt road going nearly to the top. For me, getting dropped off at the top of a mountain didn't seem like the 'right way' to start a thru-hike. So I opted to hike up the approach trail which was just under 9 miles and close to 3000 vertical feet with the ups and downs. Nevertheless I made it to the top in just over 3 hours. I probably went faster than I should have as I was a bit excited.
I can't possibly go through each day of my hike, so (mainly for my own records) I think I'm going to list my campsites/destinations and mileage for each day.
Day 1, 23 April: Amicalola Falls State Park - Springer Mt. summit - Stover Creek Shelter, 11.6 mi
Day 2, 24 April: Stover Creek - Gooch Mt. Shelter, 12.3 mi
Day 3, 25 April: Gooch Mt. - Neels Gap/Walasi-Yi Center, 15.6 mi (stayed at hostel here)
Day 4, 26 April: Neels Gap - Low Gap Shelter, 10.8 mi
Day 5, 27 April: Low Gap - Cheese Factory Campsite, 13.0 mi
Day 6, 28 April: Cheese Factory - Dicks Creek Gap/Hiawassee, 13.0 mi (stayed at Blueberry Patch Hostel here)
So over 6 days I've hiked 76.3 miles, which is probably a little more aggressive than I should be hiking starting out, especially with my sore knees.
Although I've been hiking more or less shelter-to-shelter I've been in my tent every night because of snorers but mainly mice in the shelters. I like the social gatherings at the shelters each night too. I've kind of fell into a group of about 5 or 6 really good folks and we've been staying at the same shelters or campsites each night. We are all hiking about the same milage right now, so although we don't necessarily hike together during the day we usually stay at the same place each night. A few people have fallen behind however.
The past 6 days of hiking have been a little more difficult than I was expecting for a couple of reasons.
One thing I wasn't expecting is how much up and down there is on this trail. You are constantly going up and down small mountains (which is quite different from the hiking I do in WA where you usually go constantly uphill for a long time before going constantly downhill). Its probably an average of 2-3000 feet of elevation gain each day with the miles I've been hiking. My knees - which were already sore from the season of hard skiing - have not been 100%. That is really my only real issue so far is my sore knees. I can't squat very well or generally bend my knees all that much without pain so the down hills are a little slow and painful. Hopefully the ole knees will get use to the miles, but just in case I'm going to start popping some Ibuprofen daily. I don't want to do any long term damage to my knees so I'm being really careful.
My only other fear is 'the evil vine'; poison ivy. I see it every where and its scary. Although its been pretty hot the entire week I've been here - with highs in the upper 70's to low 80's - I've been hiking in pants every day as I'm so paranoid about getting it. Its mental torture! But so far so good.
It has yet to rain here since I've been in GA but I hear there might be some rain on the horizon. On some of those hot days though I would have given anything for some rain. My first day out I got sun burned on my arms as the leaves have not filled in the canopies yet. I'm praying for some cooler temperatures.....
After the hike yesterday (Tuesday, 28 April) to Dicks Creek Gap a few of us hitched into Hiawassee to stay at the Blueberry Patch Hostel. What a great, friendly place and a fantastic country style breakfast this morning! Went out to eat last night and to re-supply at the grocery store in town. This morning I had to come back into town to use the internet at the library but we're about to hitch back to the trail to get some miles in today. So that's about all for now. Next town stop is Franklin, NC in 40 miles or ~3 days. Here I'll have to do some real shopping and get some food drops sent ahead.
PS - I'm still waiting for a trail name to find me. A couple have come up but nothing has stuck yet.
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
"The Dirty Dog" Experience
I finally made it to the 'Hiker Hostel' in Dahlonega, GA completing 28+ hours of travel from when Dad and I left the house [Austin, TX] at 6 AM Tuesday (21 April) morning to when I arrived at the hostel at 10:30 AM this morning (Wednesday). My first Greyhound (aka, 'the dirty dog') experience was just that, an experience. I'll say right off the bat that I believe the long distance Greyhound thing isn't for eveyone. It started out with actually not taking a Greyhound bus at all from Austin, but rather an 'Americano' line bus to Dallas - complete with a stop in Dallas's 'little mexico' before finally arriving at the Dallas Greyhound station on time. Not sure exactly how that happened as the bus left from Austin about 15 minutes early and we were hurried onto the bus because it was 'late'. I didn't realize until the stop in Temple that it was not a greyhound bus! It was the general consenus among the few other confused passengers that we would eventually make it to Dallas. The driver spoke very little english, but from what I gathered, quite good spanish. At this stop in 'Little Mexico' most of the passengers got off and a few got on. One guy I noticed board the bus was acting rather odd. First he was staring at this woman and her child as if he knew them and then he sort of approached another woman and her child before deciding to return to his seat. strange behavior.
So at the Dallas Greyhound terminal I had two plus hours to kill. I walked around downtown Dallas for 45 minutes or so before returning to the terminal. Not much to look at in downtown dallas I gathered, although I did see the site and read the history of the very first Neiman-Marcus store. At the station, as I sat there I saw two cops approach this guy who was sitting 15 feet from me, ask him to stand up, and then arrested him. It was the same guy from my bus that was acting strange. Off you go!
Then it was time to board the long bus to Atlanta. I got suckered into paying an extra $5 so I could board first and pick my seat, but it was totally unnecessary. Somewhere near the Louisana-Missippi boarder is where the fun began again. From the back of the bus I had been hearing a young sounding, very obnoxious girl talking loudly, laughing, and generally making strange noises with - I thought - a friend. As people were trying to sleep, some other riders finally started telling her to be quiet. But she just got beligerant and started yelling at people. The driver had to pull over and ask her to come to the front as there was nearly a scuffle about to break out. So at the front of the bus it became apparent that this 20-22 year old girl was by herself, drunk and high on something. She started hitting and spitting on the bus driver and demanding to be left off the bus (young, drunk girl being let off the bus in the middle of nowhere at night? hello lawsuit.) So the driver did the right thing and just contained her while another rider called 911. It took about 30 minutes for the police to arrive all the while this girl is cusing, throwing out racial slurs, repeatedly spitting on the driver and the door, and be very aggressive and hitting the driver. The driver did the right thing and only defended himself. Finally people where getting really anxious as everyone had better places to be. So the suggestion came up several times to "hog-tie 'er, gag 'er, and put 'er down below with the luggage." I'm sure nothing would have pleased everyone more, but instead one big, fellow passenger helped to restrain the girl and tie her hands together with a belt until the police arrived. Off you go! "go sell crazy somewhere else, we're all stocked up here!"
The last stop before Atlanta was Birmingham, AL where at 3:30 AM everyone had to unload the bus (just like a few other major stops) and hang out in the Birmingham bus station for 30 minutes in the middle of the night. Fun times.
Finally we arrive into Atlanta about 35 minutes late and my 1 hour layover suddenly turns into a 20 minute frantic layover with me trying to get my pack tagged and in line before the next bus left without me. No need to hurry after all, as I made that connection too. A person from the hostel arrived at the Gainesville's bus station about 5 minutes after I arrived to give me a lift (~30 minutes) to the hostel ($40! yikes)
As I said before, long distance on The Dirty Dog is not for everyone and I'm certainly going to try to stick to trains where ever I can. Not to say I won't ride the Dog again, I'll just consider my options more carefully and with this experience in mind.
The Hiker Hostel in Dahlonega is awesome, although I think I'm the only one here right now. Its out in the country on this little wooded hill, the owner keeps their own bees and chickens, a garden is being started, its in the owners home and it feels like a home (a nice, big, new home, 5 years old), the weather is cool, the view is nice, big porch on the back with a BBQ pit, fire pit, and swinging chair, hot tub (not sure if it works), and its quite.
I'll get a ride to Amicolola State Park tomorrow morning - after the home-cooked breakfast - and start hiking...
So at the Dallas Greyhound terminal I had two plus hours to kill. I walked around downtown Dallas for 45 minutes or so before returning to the terminal. Not much to look at in downtown dallas I gathered, although I did see the site and read the history of the very first Neiman-Marcus store. At the station, as I sat there I saw two cops approach this guy who was sitting 15 feet from me, ask him to stand up, and then arrested him. It was the same guy from my bus that was acting strange. Off you go!
Then it was time to board the long bus to Atlanta. I got suckered into paying an extra $5 so I could board first and pick my seat, but it was totally unnecessary. Somewhere near the Louisana-Missippi boarder is where the fun began again. From the back of the bus I had been hearing a young sounding, very obnoxious girl talking loudly, laughing, and generally making strange noises with - I thought - a friend. As people were trying to sleep, some other riders finally started telling her to be quiet. But she just got beligerant and started yelling at people. The driver had to pull over and ask her to come to the front as there was nearly a scuffle about to break out. So at the front of the bus it became apparent that this 20-22 year old girl was by herself, drunk and high on something. She started hitting and spitting on the bus driver and demanding to be left off the bus (young, drunk girl being let off the bus in the middle of nowhere at night? hello lawsuit.) So the driver did the right thing and just contained her while another rider called 911. It took about 30 minutes for the police to arrive all the while this girl is cusing, throwing out racial slurs, repeatedly spitting on the driver and the door, and be very aggressive and hitting the driver. The driver did the right thing and only defended himself. Finally people where getting really anxious as everyone had better places to be. So the suggestion came up several times to "hog-tie 'er, gag 'er, and put 'er down below with the luggage." I'm sure nothing would have pleased everyone more, but instead one big, fellow passenger helped to restrain the girl and tie her hands together with a belt until the police arrived. Off you go! "go sell crazy somewhere else, we're all stocked up here!"
The last stop before Atlanta was Birmingham, AL where at 3:30 AM everyone had to unload the bus (just like a few other major stops) and hang out in the Birmingham bus station for 30 minutes in the middle of the night. Fun times.
Finally we arrive into Atlanta about 35 minutes late and my 1 hour layover suddenly turns into a 20 minute frantic layover with me trying to get my pack tagged and in line before the next bus left without me. No need to hurry after all, as I made that connection too. A person from the hostel arrived at the Gainesville's bus station about 5 minutes after I arrived to give me a lift (~30 minutes) to the hostel ($40! yikes)
As I said before, long distance on The Dirty Dog is not for everyone and I'm certainly going to try to stick to trains where ever I can. Not to say I won't ride the Dog again, I'll just consider my options more carefully and with this experience in mind.
The Hiker Hostel in Dahlonega is awesome, although I think I'm the only one here right now. Its out in the country on this little wooded hill, the owner keeps their own bees and chickens, a garden is being started, its in the owners home and it feels like a home (a nice, big, new home, 5 years old), the weather is cool, the view is nice, big porch on the back with a BBQ pit, fire pit, and swinging chair, hot tub (not sure if it works), and its quite.
I'll get a ride to Amicolola State Park tomorrow morning - after the home-cooked breakfast - and start hiking...
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