April 21st, 2016

Today was the final day of our 11 day hike on the Appalachian Trail. The plan was to wake up relatively and hike an easy 4.5 miles to Bly Gap by noon, where our dads would be waiting at a service road. We got moving and our "easy" 4.5 mile walk became less and less easy as we progressed. The terrain up to Bly Gap from Plum Orchard is a steady raise in elevation of about 800 feet with a lot of small mountains and hills, making it hard to read on the map which mountain we were on. And so, it seemed like every time we thought we would be done with our hike, another small mountain appeared. And also because it was a steady increase, there was no long downhill hiking for the whole 4.5 miles. We finally made it the Bly Gap after taking a picture at the GA/NC border sign and met two four nice hikers who were eating lunch there. Back when we were in Dicks Creek, we asked Sir Packs-alot where would be a good place for us to leave the trail around Bly Gap. We told us of a blue blaze trail next to the Gnarled Oak Tree at Bly that would take us down the mountain about 2 miles to a service road where we could be picked up. When we got to Bly we found the trail, but decided to call our dads first to tell them where to pick us up. Our phones and all of our portable charges were both finally dead so we asked the four hikers eating lunch there to use their phones. They kindly lent us a phone, but when overhearing our conversation with our dads, interrupted to let us know that the service road we were talking about didn't exist. They claimed that they had hiked here last year and their guide specifically said that there is no way out of Bly Gap unless you continue or back track on the trail. After a lot of debating and map studying, Ford and I decided to risk it and trust our Triple Crown hiker frined Sir Packs-alot and go down the blue blaze trail. We gave our dads final directions and started down the trail. The 2 miles the Sir Packs-alot told us was a huge under exaggeration because we hiked for a solid 3-4 miles downhill, worriedly looking for this service road. Finally, we came across the road which lead into a beautiful mountain neighborhood. We were heading up the stairs to a house to ask to borrow a telephone when we saw Ford's dads Jeep kicking up dust on the horizon. We embraced our fathers and started sharing stories as we drove 2 hours back to Atlanta. My 11 day trip on the Appalachian Trail with one of my best friends, Ford Coleman, was an amazing experience and I plan on continuing on the trail when I get older. Ford and I even talked about maybe coming back every year to conquer another state until we reach Katahdin in Maine. Who knows, I may be the next Sir Packs-alot.

Ford and I at the Georgia/North Carolina state line.

Ford and I on the Gnarled Tree at Bly Gap, one of the most photographed spots on the Appalachian Trail. 

April 20th, 2016

We woke up at Bull Gap pretty late and made oatmeal, poptarts and coffee. Because we had hiked so far ahead of schedule, we only had 6.5 miles left to the Georgia North Carolina line at Bly Gap, and 2 days to hike there. We decided that we would reward ourselves with an easy 2 mile hike to Plum Orchard shelter. We walked at a nice leisurely pace and took long breaks to finish off our food on our last day in the woods. We met a nice trio of hikers while we ate lunch a mile from Plum Orchard and also an interesting older man named Squarepeg. He was a ragged looking man with a scruffy orange beard and thigh shorts. He told us that he had already hiked the AT once last year and was coming back to do it again this year. Squarepeg is also the one who finally gave us good trail names. We had been given other trail names by other people we met, like The Burger Boys and Shelterhalf, but we thought that they were pretty bad names. Squarepeg told me that I looked like Rambo with my bandana on my head and Ford looked like Indiana Jones with his bandana around his neck, and so he settled on the trail names of Dr. Jones and Rambo. We continued on to Plum Orchard and got to camp early. Over the 10 days we spent on the trail, Ford and I developed a routine for setting up camp that by today was perfectly mastered and efficient. When we get to camp, we set down our stuff, drink some water and then both set out to gather firewood. We try to get enough to last us the night so that we don't need to get more later. Next, Ford begins to make the fire using his own method in which I have noticed to be him setting a little stick teepee on fire using a lighter and dry leaves, while I will get the stove and begin making dinner. Most of the time making dinner consist of me boiling water for some sort of meal like ramen or Mountain House, but almost every meal there is some special thing I do to the dish to make it pop. For example, in the ramen tonight I threw in some cheese and sausage to spice it up a little bit. Also, tonight we ran out of propane again, so I had to use oven mits to hold the pan over the fire to boil the water. After dinner we set up our Eno's, tent, or both and prepare our packs for the next day so that we can get ready quickly. We brush our teeth and then get in our sleeping bags and write our blog for the day. Tonight we set up the Enos but a hole in my Eno ripped open and I fell through my split hammock onto Ford in his Eno below me. Upset about the loss of my Eno, which I got for Christmas, I decided to spend my last night in the woods on the ground in my sleeping bag.

April 19th, 2016

Today we woke up at camp next to Dicks Creek with the goal being to catch an early shuttle to the Top of Georgia hostel to resupply food. When we came out of the woods to Dicks Creek, there was a family set up at a table with free food and drinks for hikers. This was our second big encounter with Trail Magic and we decided to grab a drink but leave everything else for other hikers since we were about to get more food anyway. The family giving out the food was doing it to honor the dad in their family who was a thru-hiker who had passed away last year. The daughter of the family told me that every year her father would come out to Dicks Creek to give out food to weary hikers and so this year they decided to carry on his tradition to honor him. After talking to the family of Trail Angels, we started to hitch hike for a ride to the shuttle. It took us a while but eventually an emergency construction truck let us ride in the truck bed down the road to the hostel. There, we took off our shoes and walked inside to what looked like an ordinary house where two women where waiting inside. We saw signs to frozen food and beverages and so we decided to indulge ourselves with a DiGiorno meat pizza and some soda while I started to charge my phone and portable chargers. We told the women there about our project and they suggested that we interview the owner of the Hostel, "Sir Packs-alot" who is a triple crown hiker. This means that throughout his lifetime, he has thru-hiked the entire Appalachian Trail, Pacific Crest Trail and the Continental Divide Trail. We pounced on the opportunity and got a great interview out of an avid outdoorsman and hiker. My favorite thing that he talked about was how trail names allow for people to create a new identity for themselves and become almost a new person on the trail. He said this freedom to be yourself in an environment without any of the worries of your life in society is why he got addicted to hiking and now spends his life on the AT helping hikers with the hospitality of his hostel. After our pizza we went into their resupply room where we looked at a limited amount of food and supplies. The only food that we ended up buying there were two Mountain House spagetti meals and Poptarts. We decided that we would be able to get better found if we hitchhiked a ride farther down the road into the mountain town of Hiawassee, where we had heard from Sir Packs-alot and other hikers there was an Ingles grocery store. We left the hostel and started hitchhiking and this time got lucky and were picked up by a nice man named Jose who owned a restaurant in town. Jose drove us 10 miles from the Top of Georgia hostel into Hiawassee and kindly dropped us off at the grocery store. We weren't really sure how we would get back to Dicks Creek but decided we could use Uber if we couldn't find a ride. We spent the next hour or so buying enough food for our last few days on the trail. We ended up buying burger meat and buns for dinner tonight because we remembered we saw a grill top that we could put over a fire back at Dicks Creek. I decided to charge my phone again at Ingles in the dining area and an older lady and her husband saw our packs and asked if we needed a ride any where. We graciously excepted and hauled our packs and groceries into their Jeep. They told us that they lived just outside of Hiawassee, and tried to help out hikers any time they had the chance. When they dropped us off at Dicks Creek we thanked them greatly and ate ham sandwiches at the picnic area there. We then set out to hike an easy 2.5 miles to Bull Gap since we had already spent a lot of time buying food, our packs were a lot heavier, and because we were already way ahead of schedule. At camp we met a young guy named Alex who was passing by who saw that we were grilling burgers and came to talk to us. We found out that he had just graduated from Georgia and was thru-hiking the AT. We had a really nice and natural conversation with him and eventually offered him a burger. We hung out a little more and talked a lot about college and what we should expect. That night Alex slept at camp with us in his own tent after we stayed up late grilling and hanging out.

Inside the hostel Top of Georgia a 1/2 a mile down the road from Dicks Creek. On the wall are Sir Packs-alot's 10 Golden Rules to successfully thru-hike the Appalachian Trail.

April 18th, 2016

This morning we got up early around 7:15 to get a jump start on our 9 mile hike. We decided that today would be a good day to have the last of the coffee and so we drank warm Starbucks along with our oatmeal. After we finished packing up a middle-aged man cam down to get water at the creek and we started to talk to him for a while. It turned out that he was an ex-Navy Seal and was trying to hike 800 miles to Virginia in 40 days, which is a staggering 20 miles a day. We told him of our project and he excitingly gave us a great interview by the creek. He then left and we followed closely after. Our decision to camp 1/2 a mile down the mountain from the trail turned out to be a terrible idea because we were both already panting by the time we got back up from the creek. We had a lot of ground to cover today so we decided to hike hard for 30 minutes at a time with 5 minute water and snack breaks in between. We made it to Deep Gap shelter for lunch at noon which was a little over half of the way to Dicks Creek. Unfortunately we needed water to make Mac and Cheese for lunch and once again the water was about 1/2 a mile down the mountain and off the trail. This elongated lunch made us have to speed up our already rapid hiking pace in order to reach the Dicks Creek hostel before it closed on us like the store at Neels Gap did. We wanted to get there around 3 to be safe because we didn't really know what the store at Dicks Creek would be like or when it would close. We finally got to the road at Dicks Creek at 3:30 pm and were excited to resupply and get more food. We found out from other hikers there that the store/hostel was 1/2 a mile down the road and that the shuttles weren't picking up hikers today. Usually shuttles will come from the Top of Georgia Hostel to Dicks Creek to pickup weary hikers for a shower, food and somewhere to stay the night. We decided that we had enough food for the night and so instead of walking farther down the road to a store we didn't know would be open, we decided to just camp at a spot by Dicks Creek and try to catch a shuttle tomorrow morning.

April 17th, 2016

We woke up this morning around 7:30 am and decided to make a fire in order to heat water for oatmeal. The reason we used a fire instead of the burner is because before resupplying at Neels Gap, we burned through both of our propane canisters. We were told that one of them would last our entire 11 day trip but we burned through both our primary and backup canisters in 4 days. We decided that we should conserve the propane that we bought at Neels Gap and spent extra time this morning building a fire to heat our breakfast. We packed up and walked about 2 miles to Unicoi Gap where there was a road and restrooms. We made it to Unicoi without a single rest, which gave us a lot of time to hike up and down 2 huge mountains later on. Rocky Mountain and Tray Mountain are both over 4000 feet in elevation and to get from one to the other you have to go straight down 800 feet from Rocky and then 1000 feet back up to the summit of Tray. We decided to have 2 half lunches on top of each mountain where we enjoyed the views of the Chattahoochee National Forrest. The discouraging part about hiking a trail as mountainous as the AT is that you spend about an hour dragging your way up a huge mountain, wanting to stop every inch of the way, only to quickly go down the other side in about 15 minutes and then have to do the exact same thing again at the next mountain. After summiting Tray Mountain today both Ford and I were exhausted. We made our final decent down into Steel Trap Gap where we had planned on camping. However we were out of water and so we hike to hike another 1/2 a mile down a water trail to refill our bottles and water bag. Neither Ford nor I wanted to hike anymore after reaching water and so we decided to set up our Enos by the little creek where we got water even though there was no campsite there. We interviewed a few people who came down to get water and then started getting ready for bed. We tied up our hammocks between two trees next to the water and have decided to go bed early. Tomorrow we have to hike farther than originally planned because we have eaten to much of our food and will need to resupply at the hostel at Dicks Creek, which is 9 miles away.

View from on top of Tray Mountain. 

Sign of the Chattahoochee National Forest.

April 16th, 2016

Today we woke up rather late because we were so tired from yesterdays trek. Today we only had a 9 mile hike because we hiked an extra 3.5 yesterday in order to lighten our load today. We only had one coffee packet left so we decided to save it for another day. Our morning hike consisted of a 5 mile walk on very high but flat plateau, making the hike before lunch pretty easy. I have found that flat terrain is by far the most desirable to walk on rather than downhill and obviously uphill. Going downhill in my New Balance tennis shoes doesn't feel so great on my ankles and so a nice long flat terrain was heaven for me. I had planned to bring my hiking boots along with me but I left them in the car when we got dropped off at Springer Mountain. At first I didn't think much of it because I usually hike in my tennis shoes, but now I am starting to realize that New Balances are not made to endure a long hiking trip on the Appalachian Trail. The bottom of both my left and right shoe have started to come off of the shoes and holes are appearing in various places. We ate lunch at the bottom of Blue Mountain, and finished a so far easy day by hiking a brutal 800 feet upwards in elevation to the shelter at the top of the mountain. For some reason, it seemed like all of the hikers that we had been leapfrogging with throughout our trip all got backed up at the Blue Mountain shelter because all of the surrounding campgrounds were taken. Exhausted and annoyed that we had to keep going, we trudged another 1/2 a mile to a campsite halfway up the other side of Blue Mountain. After a rather large dinner, we noticed that we have been eating really well since resupplying and decided we might need to slow down a bit if we are to have food for the last few days of our trip.

Im definitely going to need new tennis shoes after this trip. 

April 15th, 2016

Today we finally got to resupply food after a long and tiresome first 4 days. We quickly packed up our campsite and walked over to the Neels Gap store and hostel around 9 am. The first thing we did was pay 5 dollars each for a nice hot shower. Because we had to pay for them, we spent about 30 minutes soaking under the hot water. It was honestly one of the highlights of the trip. After my shower I changed clothes for the first time on the trip and we headed into the food store to resupply. When buying food we tried to be frugal in order to have the lightest packs that we could. We ended up buying about 100 dollars worth of food to last us the remaining 6 days along with a t-shirt each and some candy and sodas. We interviewed one of the workers at the store who had thru hiked the trail a few years ago and then started our simple 5 mile hike to Testnatee Gap. Yesterday my pack was pretty light because we had almost no food left and I am now the designated food carrier because Ford carries the mammoth tent. But today, the new food items added a lot of weight to my pack and our simple 5 mile hike was a little harder than I expected. We finished our hike around 2:30 with plenty of daylight left. We decided together that instead of stopping we would move on in order to cut down on our 12 mile hike tomorrow. By the end of the day we ended up hiking 8.5 miles, 3.5 more than we had planned and finally threw down our packs at a campsite at Sheep Rock Top. The wind on top of the mountain was pretty strong so we set up the tent and made dinner with our new food supply. A few minutes ago, Ford and I sat inside our tent and watched one of the most beautiful sunsets I have ever seen recede over the mountains. Today was tough but we will definitely thank ourselves tomorrow.

Ford Tebowing next to the Sasquatch at Neels Gap with freshly resupplied pack. 

April 14th, 2016

Today we woke up around 8 after another good nights sleep. We used the propane and burner to heat up some water for our precious Starbucks Instant Coffee, and packed up the tent really quickly. We were both excited because today we got to climb the highest mountain on the trail in Georgia and then resupply food at the bottom at Neels Gap. In the morning the sky was very overcast as we hiked the 2 miles we were supposed to hike yesterday to Woods Hole. We got to the bottom of Blood Mountain, a towering 4600 ft tall, around 11 am. We trudged up Blood Mountain after snacks at a hefty pace, almost crawling on our knees when we reached the top. The views on top of Blood Mountain were so beautiful that they looked like paintings. The graceful Georgia Mountains were colored with varying shades of green and far away the now minuscule skyscrapers of Atlanta shimmer 2 hours away. We met an older man named Tim at the bald on top of Blood and interviewed him about why he was hiking the trail. Unfortunately the Go-Pro that we had been using to film hiking and views, turned out to have a full memory. This is probably the only thing besides the tent that we didn't prepare well for because now we will have to use our phones to film. We figured we might see Tim again and hopefully get another interview. We left the top of Blood Mountain after a lot of staring at the beautiful view and got to Neels Gap around 6. However, 6 happens to be the exact time that the food store at Neels Gap closes. Ford and I didn't know what we would do for food because we had expected to resupply for dinner tonight. Thankfully, we got extremely lucky because Cleveland Baptist Church was catering free lasagna and salad at the hostel at Neels Gap. This was our first real encounter of what people on the trail cal Trail Magic. Trail Magic is performed by Trail Angels whom are people that have already thru hiked the Appalachian Trial and periodically give out free food and water to hikers on the trail. Tonight Ford and I experienced Trail Magic at the most perfect time and ate our fill at the hostel before walking a few hundred feet to a nearby campsite. Tonight we have decided to use the tent as a ground tarp and sleep on top of it in our sleeping bags because it is warm down in the valley under Blood Mountain.

                            Ford and I at the Blood Mountain sign at the base of the mountain.

One of the many great views on top of Blood Mountain.

Our large plates of food given to us for free as Trail Magic by Cleveland Baptist Church.

April 13, 2016

Today we woke up early around 7:45 despite a rough nights sleep. We managed to pack our stuff and eat breakfast pretty quickly to get an early start on our 12.3 mile hike. It was much easier to get ready without having to take the time to takedown and pack our huge 30 pound tent. So far I had carried the mammoth tent, which was probably why Ford stayed a solid 15 feet ahead of me throughout our first days. The story of mammoth tent is that we simply didn't want to spend hundreds of dollars on tents that weight less than a pound, and mammoth was the tent in our house. It can easily sleep a family of 5 or 6 and the whole trip slept only me and Ford. At this point I definitely see the tent becoming irksome later on. Today Ford offered to carry the tent instead of the food and I gladly accepted his trade. We set out from Blackwell Creek at 9:00 am for Woods Hole, 12.3 miles away. After about 1/2 of a mile into our day we passed a wide creek that we then used our map determine was actually Blackwell Creek, meaning that we had even farther to go on an already long day ahead. We hiked up and down big Gooch Mountain and then down into Justus Creek. Around this time I had started to notice a trend in the elevation of the trail we were hiking. For miles and miles we scaled mountains, then trudged straight down the other side into their valleys or "gaps". This happened over and over again for miles and by day 3 was physically and mentally exhausting. Today we did it for 4 hours before stopping at Big Cedar Mountain for lunch, and then another four hours to Jarrard Gap. We choose to camp here, 2 miles short of our goal because other hikers told us that in order to camp at Woods Hole, we needed to have bear resistant canisters. We were already so tired by mile 10 that we were quietly relieved we couldn't camp there because it meant we didn't have to walk any farther. I made dinner with our last dinner for the first 4 day food supply and had my best nights sleep so far.

April 12, 2016

We woke up late at 10:00 in the tent. It rained hard last night and we woke up a little wet because our rain cover wasn't 100 percent effective. My first night of sleep was less than desirable and it took us a really long time to pack up, eat breakfast and get on our way around 11:45. Todays planned hike was a 8 mile hike from Hawk Mountain to to Blackwell Creek. We set out to climb Hawk Mountain to start the day and after a pretty hard hike to start the morning we snacked and enjoyed the views on top of the mountain. We hiked on past Horse Gap and Sassafras Mountain and finally took another break on top of Justice Mountain after just hiking 5 miles. The second day was an easier hike than the first just because we were smarter in how we took breaks. We decided that a good pace for us was 15 minutes of hard hiking uphill until we took a water break, and about 30 minutes at a time if we were going downhill. We made it to Blackwell Creek in good time and started to set up camp and prepare dinner. After a good meal we decided that it would be a good idea to put up our bear bag because we cooked close to where we had set up our Eno hammocks. A bear bag is a bag that you hang in a tree using a rope and carabiner to move the sent of food away from your campsite so that bears, whom are nocturnal, don't ransack your food in the middle of the night. We tried to go to bed early because of our long 12 mile hike tomorrow but once again I struggled to fall asleep comfortably and didn't get much rest.

Ford, Muir and I at our first white blaze

Ford, Muir and I on top of Springer Mountain, the beginning of the Appalachian Trail 

April 11, 2016

Today was the first day of our hike. This morning we got breakfast with our dads at the lodge we stayed at next to Springer Mountain. We payed the kind lady who worked there named Cathy to drive us to the base of Springer Mountain because it is a hard road to pass unless you are experienced as she was. A man who introduced himself to us as Muir was also in our shuttle to Springer and would turn out to be our hiking buddy for the day. The Appalachian Trail starts at Springer Mountain but the service road we used to get to Springer puts you on the trail .9 miles ahead of Springer. Therefore to start off our trip we started going backwards until we got to the top of Springer Mountain with Muir. After that we started our hike up the trail, planning to camp at Hawk Mountain 8 miles away. It was only 2 miles down the trail when our friend Muir screeched at the top of his lungs in agony behind me and Ford. He had stepped on a root wrong and according to him, he has low cartilage in his knees so it buckled and he fell over in pain. Muir assured us that he would be OK and so we pressed on. However, after a mile or two of Muir struggling far behind us, he decided the pain was to much to continue and he decided to call a taxi at the next service road. After only being on the trail for a few hours and having already lost a man, Ford and I were starting to get worried about what could happen to us in the 10 days to come. Sad about the loss of our friend, we trudged on for about 5 more miles to Hawk Mountain where we ended up camping a half a mile from the first shelter.

Here is a video of a map of the entire Appalachian Trail at the lodge by Springer Mountain.

This pic was sent to Mrs. Morgan on April 13.

Friday April, 8th

Today we left school after lunch to get a head start on a long day of preparation for our project. We started off by taking advantage of the beautiful weather and hiked Indian Trails on the Chattahoochee River. It was a 4 mile hike to the river and back and we spent 30 minutes setting up and relaxing in our hammocks by the river. After our hike we started to work on our list of questions for people that we are going to interview on the trail. We made a list of general questions and a list of specific questions for people such a trail rangers and shelter workers. A question for a ranger for example is “What about the Appalachian Trail made you want to spend your time protecting it?” Finally, before going to cheer on our lacrosse team play Westminster we went to High Country Outfitters to meet with the staff and go over our gear and equipment.

Thursday April, 7th

Today we accomplish a lot of work on our senior project. First from 8-10 we worked and messed around with the GoPro, just to get more accustomed to it. We planned what we will eat everyday for breakfast, snack, lunch, and dinner. We will try to follow what we have planned to eat everyday but we believe we may eat more or less on some days. We merely just made an outline for our daily meals. Also, we resupply at Day 5, so after then we will eat whatever we buy at the store at Neils Gap. The store may not carry some things we have put on our list so we are going to have to make some adjustments mid trip. We sense that we may have to go into town around Day 9 to possible resupply again if we run out, the plan is to not have to go into town unless we don't have enough interviews or need food. We also hiked the trails at Whitewater Creek for two hours to prepare ourselves for the real deal next week.

A typical day consist of -

Breakfast - Oatmeal/Bagels and Coffee
Snacks - Trail mix, Granola bars and coffee
Lunch - Sandwich (pbj or meat sandwich)
Dinner - Mac n Cheese
*Dinner will always be a different meal; however breakfast, snacks, and lunch will typically be the same

Wednesday April, 6th

Today we used the Appalachian Trail Map that we bought at High Country Outfitters to map out and plan where we would sleep every night so that we had a plan for when we actually got out on the trail.

Day 1 - Start at Springer Mountain, sleep at Hawk Mountain (8 miles)
Day 2 - Guch Mountain (7.5 miles)
Day 3 - Woods Hole (12) miles
Day 4 - Blood Mountain (1 mile), Neils Gap (2.4 miles)
Day 5 - Tesnatee (6 miles)
Day 6 - Blue Mountain (12 miles)
Day 7 - Tray Mountain (8 miles)
Day 8 - Deep Gap (7 miles)
Day 9 - Dicks Creek (3 miles)
Day 10 - Plum Orchard (4.5 miles)
Day 11 - Finish Hike at Bly Gap (4.5 miles)

Tuesday April, 5th

Today we went to High Country Outfitters on Roswell rd where we spoke with employees who had hiked the Appalachian Trail. We spoke about what we should expect on the trip for example how crowded the trail would be right now because this is the time of year that people usually start their thru-hikes. We went over food and necessities for our trip and set up a meeting to go over our gear and pack with them on Friday.