Appalachian Trail: First 10 Days

I left my home early on the morning of April 6th, and Marie and Clifford drove me to the bus station in Concord, NH. I took the bus to Boston, then flew down to Atlanta. It was surreal to soar (in a matter of hours) above the mountains that would take me months to traverse by foot. 

I was picked up in Atlanta by Marv and Beedee Soskin, who I met on a Viking Cruise last year. They took me up to their beautiful home in Blairsville, GA and we enjoyed dinner with their friends. 

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Day 1: April 7

Early the next morning, Marv and Beedee shuttled me to Amicalola Falls, where I’d begin my journey. After an orientation, I started on the 8.8mi Approach Trail to the Official Start of the AT: Springer Mountain.

I climbed 1,000′ in 45 minutes, all on stairs. It was no joke getting up the falls, what a trial by fire.

I summited Springer Mountain in about three hours: marking the official start of the tail. It was beautiful up on top, despite a hatching of pesky flies. I signed the register on top and perused the names of other hikers from within the past few days. The day before, someone named Kristin signed in by saying “The Answer to Everything is 42”: a reference to Douglas Adams’ “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”. I made a mental note that I really needed to meet this Kristin. 

I made it to the Hawk Mountain shelter, where all other hikers had set up tents–I think many hikers are afraid of the notorious mice in the shelters… I wasn’t, so I had the space all to myself!

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Day 2: April 8

I started the day with an espresso and my last home-made bran muffin. Ready to go!

I pushed hard and made it 20.8 miles to the summit of Blood Mountain: over 6,000′ elevation gain. I have set an ambitious goal to hike over twenty miles daily, on average. I know this is wildly ambitious, but it was encouraging to know I could handle it by day two.

As I cooked my dinner, I met past SoBo (Southbound) thru-hiker “Ahab” who walked up for sunset views. I had the shelter all to myself, again. Slept pretty well, but fitfully. Muscles sore.

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Day 3: April 9

Coffee was spectacular with gorgeous sunrise at the Summit of Blood Mountain–chilly but refreshing.

I hiked down to Mountain Crossings at Neels Gap, restocked and had my pack aligned. This was definitely a unique place: there’s a tree outside where dozens of hikers’ shoes are thrown over the branches: most signaling defeat. I hiked down to Tesnatee Gap, meeting Kim “Step Lightly” from CAMPTON, NH!! en route (hi, neighbor!). Down in the gap, some Christian guys were trail angels offering sandwiches, drinks and supplies–my first trail magic!

A young hiker saw me coming bounding down the log steps and said “you look fresh!” I said that my Mom used to call me fresh. I asked her name and she replied “Kristin”. Aha! “42!?” I asked? and alas I not only met Kristin from California, but, as I later told her “I think you just gave me my trail name: “Fresh”. 

The trail angels sent me off with a prayer. The hike up was grueling, but then it eased out. The overall quality of the trails down south is excellent. Despite most of the trees not having ‘leafed out’ yet, there are loads of beautiful wildflowers.

I didn’t hike too many miles this day, but enjoyed getting to know people at the Low Gap Shelter: Neil from Maine, “Old”, “Nana”, Kristin, “Step Lightly” et al. Only Neal and I slept in the shelter, everyone else tented. The mice were mostly merciful.

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Day 4: April 10

The day started with my usual pot of espresso. I even made extra to share with my new friends. Little did I know that I’d end up hiking several weeks with part of this crew. 

The hiking was easy at first, and the day glorious. I have been truly blessed with amazing weather so far. The mountains down here aren’t too dissimilar to those in New Hampshire, with a few exceptions: most notably, there’s Rhododendron all over the landscape. It’s unusual, but lovely. At times I walk through green tunnels of Rhododendron bushes. Second day in a row to score Trail Magic! Such a delightful treat to meet strangers handing out cold drinks and things typically needed by hikers!

The day ended with a very hot climb up Tray Mountain. At the shelter on said mountain, I enjoyed a fun communal dinner with many of the friends I had met the day before. 

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Day 5: April 11

Trail magic yet again! Three days in a row!

The big event of this day was shuttling into the town of Hiawassee, GA, where we would resupply our foodstuffs for the next few days. After a few days in the woods, civilization already seemed a bit of a shock.

After eating a supermarket lunch and lots of fresh fruit, we shuttled back to the trail and hiked another 5 miles to the Plumorchard Gap Shelter.

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Day 6: April 12

Lots of ups and downs.  More trail magic, this time with BEER! Now THAT’S what I’m talking about. This came just before climbing Standing Indian Mountain… the beer made the tough climb easier. 

Camped with Kristin, Sean from Florida and Devin from Gloucester, MA at beech Gap. This is becoming a Tramily. It’s interesting to note that most of the other we’re meeting are only doing 8 to 10 miles per day. I’m glad my group is comfortable with ~15 miles daily, but I’d like to push a little harder. I guess at this rate, I’ll shortly be going through ‘the bubble’. I’m happy to think that I can actually get ahead of it before Shenandoah. 

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Day 7: April 13

An earlier start this morning, getting going before 7:30 a.m. — beautiful! Fresh morning, pretty easy terrain at the beginning. Going to push for 19 mi, so we (the group is coalescing) can shuttle into Franklin, North Carolina and have dinner together.

It was easy going until the steep–but short– climb up Albert Mountain. There was a fun group on top: the usuals plus “Little Iron”, “Tater Tot” and Rooster. We all climbed the fire tower and celebrated hiking 100 miles of the Appalachian Trail. 

We shuttled into Franklin and managed to find accommodations at a Bed & Breakfast — a bit of a rundown old Victorian house with an eccentric proprietor, but I just loved it. I treated the crew out to dinner at JR’s chophouse, we all washed our clothes, and I smoked my 100-mile cigar out on a rickety swing. 

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Day 8: April 14

Well, it’s Tuesday again. That’s one week behind me. I feel pretty happy with the amount I’ve covered since last Tuesday. I’m also very pleased with the people I’ve met in that time and I’m supremely happy with the weather I’ve experienced. I woke from a sleep in a real bed, then went to get coffee, a donut AND a breakfast sandwich at a cute local bakery. “Hiker Hunger” setting in! I also got a fresh muffin for the next morning, which I was very excited about. Another shower this morning was just wonderful, and we didn’t leave town until noon. We got to reunite briefly with Neil before taking the shuttle back to Rock Gap. Another warm day and from Rock Gap it was an instant 600 ft incline and then gentle Trail over to winding stair Gap. We climbed quite a bit in the afternoon. A highlight was dropping our packs to walk up Siler Bald–first bald of the trip. It had a spectacular view.

Another long slog up to Wine Spring Camp. There, we met Lewis (from Australia). I had a really delicious dehydrated hiker meal: butternut lentil Dahl: definitely buy again. We were joined by Grizzly (real name Brahim Hakim) who loves to talk music. Come to find out he was roommates with Jonathan Santore (the chair of the music department at my Alma Mater, PSU) years ago! What a small world. He shared Tootsie rolls and his (delicious) homemade beef jerky with us.

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Day 9: April 15 

The day started mostly copacetic. I enjoyed my muffin from the day before at camp with delicious coffee. The others departed before me and I chatted with “Grizzly”. The early part of the day was fine, but our friend Kristin was down because the new sleeping pad she just bought in Franklin leaked from the get-go. The Outfitter in Franklin wouldn’t be open til 10am for her to try to engage them about it. Oh, and today was *almost* entirely downhill. Not her favorite. I felt bad for her.

We congregated on neighboring Wayah Bald for a fun moment of pictures and gazing at the spectacular view, then began our descent. It soon became apparent that some of us were suffering from aches and knee pain. I felt bad:  I was in part to blame for the longer days we had/have been doing.  

After a water break group meeting, I had the idea to push forward by myself and get to the NOC (Nantahala Outdoor Center) to buy Kristin a new sleeping pad to make her feel a little better. And indeed, I did push. I pushed hard. I covered 19 miles, with several thousand feet of descent to drop my things off at the shelter where we had arranged to stay for the night, then continued down to the Nantahala Outdoor Center (what a cool place, by the way!): where I managed to buy her replacement pad, eat a delicious dinner, buy a six pack of beers and then return up the one mile trail to meet my fellow hikers just as they came in to camp. It all worked perfectly. I had lugged up ice for Kristin’s aching knees, her (new) sleeping pad, beers for all, and it turned into a fun evening after all. “White Wolf” serenaded us on his guitar. It was warm. Hot, actually. I had the shelter all to myself so what the hell: I pitched my tent inside. 

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Day 10: April 16

Morning at the Rufus Morgan Shelter. We all descended to the NOC (together, this time!) where everything was closed. We waited until 9:00 until a donut truck opened and we had coffee and something to eat. We decided on staying in a hostel for the night but most were booked. I finally managed to secure a place at Creekside Paradise (more on that later!) This means we got a late (10am) start to the big hike up to Cheoah Bald… 9 miles of going up and up. 

We descended then to Stecoah Gap, where Cynthia from Creekside Paradise was waiting with her Volkswagen to take us to Robbinsville, where we’d buy Mexican food for dinner and resupply in the supermarket before going to their beautiful mountain home, where a large room on the upper floor had enough beds for all of us.  We enjoyed our Mexican food, a few beers and relaxed in their hot tub before retiring.

There’s a lot to unpack about Creekside Paradise, so I think those exciting details will have to wait for the NEXT blog post. Stay tuned for days 11-20, where I travel through the Smoky Mountains and get up to more hiking hijinx!

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