CAMPNPOST

We ended up getting something like two inches of rain on Friday and more through Saturday as spring continues to roll in. In spite of the tornado watches in effect it was time to hit the next leg of the A.T and it was a great weekend for backpacking. The rain did not hold back either did the fog which lent a kind of peaceful feel to Saturday’s one foot in front of the other down the trail from Three Forks to around Jacob’s knob on the Southern end of the Appalachian Trail.

It was decided that my plans to get another section of the trail in was going to have to be done alone. The wife and kids weren’t having it and my dog has been puking his way through some sort of unknown funk-virus of which the cause has not yet been determined.

Packing up my backpack for a quick weekend warrior trek, I realized how ready I was to unplug for a while and get back up to the mountains. As I have mentioned before, I use a Vortex 4500 internal frame for many of my trips especially the shorter ones. Over time I have weeded out so much that my lightweight backpacking approach pays off around the 14-15th mile and beyond.

Pack List:

• Sleeping pad
• Sleeping bag
• Lightweight rain-fly/tarp-doubles as a pack cover
• Camelbak bladder-purifier bottle for longer trips
• Knife
• Small nylon ties
• Headlamp
• No cook foods-powerbars,nuts, oatmeal pies etc.. or dehydrated assortments on longer trips
• Rain jacket
• Fleece
• Capilene
• Fleece hat/fleece gloves
• Map
• Lint and lighter
• Zip-lock bags
• Ibuprofen/Tums
• Digital camera and mp3 player

With this it comes to about 25 pounds or so.

It rained a bit earlier Saturday morning but quit about 10:30 or so and held off until about 3:30 or 4:00 and the rest of the day the visibility was horrible with the fog hovering over everything. A few times as I was trudging along the trail that had become more of a mudslide than anything else, a silent object would appear about 10-15 feet in front of me that seemed to move much like a human but was difficult to make out.

The one thing that I kept rolling over in my head as I hiked is how much more relaxed I am in the woods camping or on the trail and the unparalleled peace and quiet that comes with it. It also makes me wonder how there could be people that don’t like it. For me its pretty difficult to believe that God bothered to create all this and would rather we sit at home in our little spaces watching tv (perhaps a show about the outdoors) instead of getting out here in it first hand.

The Trail:

Where was I? Oh yeah, the trail. Essentially, you can expect a series of hill climbs and descents down the back sides to the respective gaps as you follow the trail from Three Forks. Initially, it leads up a wide trail along Long Creek and past the access trail to Long Creek Falls a couple miles in on your left and the another couple mile on to Hightower Gap past one of the A.T.’s shelters and a source for water.

Following an ascent up to Sassafras Mountain you soon come to a few rock outcroppings and overlooks then descending down and on towards Justus Mountain where the two first pictures in this blog are taken. This is one of the noteworthy spots where you may want to stop for a bit and take in the views if the day has decent visibility.

Once you reach Cooper Gap its about 4.7 miles on to Gooch Gap. If you end up camping in the clearing at Gooch Gap you can expect to wake up hearing the sound of cows off in the distance do to an apparent cow farm. I ended up hearing them as I was hiking through early morning after camping near Jacobs Knob. From Gooch Gap its a little over 3.5 miles to Woody Gap and the first main road you run into including the approach trail, Highway 60. Crossing over the road and moving on to eventually come to the Jacob’s Knob area where I ended up finding a spot to camp.

The rain finally started to wear me down so I deviated from my original plan to head down to Dockery Lake but I figured I got close enough where I ended up camping. It must have been around 6:30- 7:00 when I quick hiking and set up my tarp. I quickly dried off and put on some nice warm cloths and set in to relax for the night and hoped to fall asleep early and get up early. I wrote down a few things on a notepad, looked at my map as I often habitually do and listened to some music only to fall asleep earlier than I had even planned.

In the morning, I felt pretty good. The sun was not yet up so I took advantage of the fact that I would not likely get back to sleep, packed up quickly and got some breakfast around and headed headlamp first down to for a short visit. It was earlier than I had thought and the sun just would not come up so I headed back up and got on the trail south bound because I unfortunately had to work on Monday unlike quite a few I spoke with on the way back who apparently either do not have a job or are independently wealthy enough to take the time to thru-hike to Maine. How is that possible? When is it going to be my turn? Not for a while, I guess. My day will come. For now I will resort to these section hikes and love it anyway.

Sunday morning was the polar opposite of the day before with skies as clear as could be and when the sun finally did come up I was already back between Woody Gap and Gooch Gap and the sun was freakin’ sweet that morning.

Between Gooch Gap and Woody Gap

Another shot from the ridge before Woody Gap

Directions:

• From 515/5 at East Ellijay Go East on 52 towards Dahlonega for 4.8 miles
• Take a left on Big Creek Road and follow even as it turns into a gravel road approx. 14 miles or so and look for FS 58 on the right as the road forks left.
• Stay on FS 58 until you see signs for Three Forks and parking on left and right of the road

Tags: A.T., section hiking the A.T, southern hiking