DonnyBlair.com

Appalachian Trail - 06/04/12 through 06/06/12

I have been hiking for months on flat ground in Florida preparing for an 11 day, 112 mile journey on the Appalachian Trail. I knew that hiking in Florida on mostly flat ground was not going to be the same as hiking in the mountains but at least I was toning my muscles to build up endurance. Everyone has seen my posts, hiking at almost every day. On the days I worked I would hike 5 miles and on my days off I would hike 10 miles. I started preparing 6 months ahead of the trip to make sure I wasn’t found dead somewhere on mountain.
At least I thought I was prepared. After the first day I felt like my training could have been sitting on the couch eating a box of Twinkies everyday and it would have had the same impact. On day 2 I realized even though my muscles were tired, they were not sore so my training did build endurance. That was a small let down because I was looking forward to sitting on the couch eating Twinkies before my next trip to continue the Appalachian Trail where we left off.
The biggest thing that this trip taught me about myself was how much more I have in me when I think I am done. At the point I felt I couldn’t make it any farther I still went on and climbed another mountain and then another. I am much, much stronger than I thought I was. It took me until the third day to realize this when it started to get a little easier and I learned how to manage my breathing as I climbed up mountains.
Day 1
Approach Trail to the Appalachian Trail – 8.5 miles to Springer Mountain (the beginning of the Appalachian Trail)
Today started with a climb to the top of Amicalola Falls at the state park in GA. When we first started it was an uphill walk that was a little difficult. In Florida there are not many hills so I didn’t really have a way to prepare for the exhaustion that was ahead of me. When we got to the bottom of the falls there was a sign that “175 steps”. I thought to myself, that’s not that bad, I can do 175 steps. We started the climb and took several breaks on the landings as we went up. The falls were beautiful. They started with some small drops over the rocks but once we got to the stairs they were a powerful force roaring over a 729 foot drop off. After the 175 steps there was a bridge that crossed over to the other side of the falls. The view of the falls from the bridge was unbelievable. Definitely worth climbing 175 steps even if I thought it was going to kill me. If you look at the photo gallery link then click on the link for “2012-06 Appalachian Trail” link you will see a picture of me standing on the bridge. This picture will give you a good perspective on the size and power of the Amicalola Falls.
Once we crossed the bridge there was another sign about the wonderful steps that we have been climbing. We were fooled into thinking 175 steps to the top of the falls. This sign read something like 425 steps to the top of the falls. Not 425 total but 425 more. There were total 600 steps. Give or take a torture chamber.
When I got to the top of the falls and finally the last step in the staircase I took a minute to think about whether I was going to be able to make it. It had been a light rain all morning and I spent most of the stair climb looking down to make sure I had my footing on the wet steps. To be honest a little bit of that time was spent looking down and praying that I was going to make it to the top of the stairs. I felt like a wet towel that just lost a towel whipping contest. I was exhausted! To top off how I felt at this point the steps ended at a parking lot. We could have actually parked at the top of the steps instead of climbing them. I was starting to think I may have made a mistake. I felt as though there was no way I was going to make it through 11 days of this and we were only on the first few hours of our trip. I was worried about letting myself down and letting John down. I took a few minutes to contemplate what I should do. Do I continue or throw in the towel before it’s too late. After taking a minute to catch my breath I decided to continue with some encouragement from John to help.
About 2 miles into day 1 we came across 3 guys that were surveying some trail maintance that needed to be completed. They were very friendly as everyone was that came across on the trail. We talked about how we felt and we were surprised at the difficulty of the trail. They told us what to expect and where to expect it. We also found out that GA doesn’t really believe in switchbacks on their trails. As you drive into the Smokey Mountains look in front of you. Find the biggest mountain you can see then picture walking straight up the mountain to the top. No easy path going back and forth but straight up. That is what the Appalachian Trail was. We were told that GA has some of the most difficult sections of the Appalachian Trail because the trails go straight up. I said to them that I felt I made a mistake and they said that we have to get through day 4. After day 4 we will have our “hiking legs” making the remainder of the trip easier after that.
Our goal for the day was to make it to Springer Mountain Shelter but when we got to Black Gap shelter we decided to call it a night. It was a good decision to stop for the night. It was time for a cup of coffee and dinner.
When we got the shelter there was one person there. His trail name was Beaker (real name Bob). He was an interesting person to talk to with a lot of experience on the trail. He had completed 1200 miles of the Appalachian Trail. I think he was able to see the distress in our faces because he was very encouraging. He let us know some of what to expect ahead of us. At this point I was still debating whether I bit off more than I could chew. I was still thinking about going home and eating Twinkies. Beaker told us, just like the other 3 guys we ran into, we have to at least complete day 4. After day 4 we would have our “hiking legs”. Everything will get easier after that. I think at that point I decided I was at least going to make it to day 4 and then decide what to do but I wanted to sleep on it before making a final decision.
I made my coffee, ate my dinner and hung my food. At night you have to hang your food from the trees so Yogi doesn’t come and steal your food. At the shelters there are cable and pulley systems to hang your food out of reach of the bears. When you’re camping you have to use rope and hang it from the trees.
Another thing I didn’t expect was all the bees. They were everywhere we went. I am so lucky I don’t have any fear of the bees and know to just leave them alone and they will leave you alone. What I learned is that bees need sunlight to navigate. When I first laid down the sun was still up and the bees were so bad and the buzzing so loud that I couldn’t sleep. Once the sun went down and the buzzing quit it was ok.
Day 2
This morning I felt a little better than the end of day 1. One thing I realized was even though my muscles were tired they were not sore.
The day started with 1.25 miles climb up Springer Mountain. Even though this climb was difficult and just as steep as the climbs the previous day it was a little easier. It was still raining so everything was getting wet. It wasn’t a down pour but it was enough to make everything wet including us. I was starting to learn that if my breathing was getting too labored or my head started pounding to stop for a couple minutes. Then just continue. Throughout the remainder of our journey I practiced this, learned when to stop just for a minute or to take a longer break.
We got to the top of Springer Mountain and the beginning of the Appalachian Trail around 10:30 am. We went to the shelter to take a break. It couldn’t have been better timing. As soon as we got the shelter the rain picked up. We took off our packs and took about a 30 minute break. There was a guy at this shelter. He seemed kind of quiet and kept to himself at first. He was supposed to going all the way to PA on the trail and was expecting it to take 170 days. We were going north so I offered for him to tag along with us if he wanted to. He never really answered but he sure did change at that point. He became an unstoppable chatter box. Talk, talk, talk and talk some more. He was starting to drive me crazy. I started watching the sky for a break in the rain so we could leave. After a few minutes I said to John let’s take a chance and head out. We were both freezing from being wet for the second day. We either needed to start hiking or we needed to unpack and warm up. I didn’t want to be stuck in the shelter with our new friend so we headed out. As we were putting our packs on the person we met at the shelter went to get water. We left as quickly as possible so he didn’t tag along with us.
From here until around 2:00 pm we were in the rain and we were climbing up and down mountains all day. By now the climbs up were slow but going down wasn’t bad and when it would level off it wasn’t bad.
Around 2:00 pm we came across the Stover Creek Shelter. This was the nicest shelter we came across on our trip. It had beds like the other shelters but also had a loft to be able to sleep more people than the shelter we slept at the night before. It was time to refuel with coffee and lunch and dry out. Shortly after we got to the shelter the sun finally came out. It was definitely welcome. It is the first sun we had seen in 2 days. We hung some of the wet stuff up to dry out and took a long break. Our plan was to go another 4 miles for the day so we needed re-energized. I was still trying to determine if this was a mistake or a challenge. I had decided I was going to make through day 4 and see how it was from there.
Once we dried out, re-fueled our bodies and refilled our water supply we were off. The next 3.5 miles were mostly level or downhill. After about 1 mile we ran into 3 women and 4 teenage boys that were lost. They were out for a daytrip looking for Long Creek Falls. They were about 1.5 miles from their car and walking the wrong direction. We looked at the trail leading to the falls in the GPS and they turned around. We walked with them for about 1.5 miles until we were back to where they parked. I guess we were a little slow for hem because from this point to the falls they walked ahead of us. It was a slight uphill climb from here until about .5 miles from the falls and then we started another climb up the next mountain. Eventually we made it to Long Creek Falls. It was worth the hike (take a look at the pictures in the photo gallery). The last climb had me exhausted for the day so we camped about 100 yards from the falls. I couldn’t wait to cook dinner, eat and go to bed. I don’t think I had an ounce of energy left but once again pushed myself way past the point I thought I would go. This was slowly becoming a challenge that I was going to come out of being triumphed.
Day 3
I was finally feeling better about my challenge. I no longer felt this was a mistake. My muscles were still tired but I had learned how to control my climbs, breathing and breaks. It was finally getting easier. I finally realized I wasn’t going to be found dead on a mountain side somewhere in the Smokey’s. This, just like the first 2 days, was climbing a mountain, go down a mountain. Going down was easy but I knew that when we were done going down we were going to start going up again. The climbs were brutal but I finally knew I was going to make it. From Long Creek Falls to our next break was 2 miles at the Hawk Mountain Shelter. We got to the shelter for a break and I decided to have a snack and take a little longer break. The shelter had a ton of bees flying around but there was one bee that was he. It was about the size of a half dollar. It was huge. We later found out it wasn’t a bee. It was a yellow hornet. That explained why it seemed a little aggressive towards us.
After we left the shelter we had about 1 mile, all downhill. At the bottom of the mountain there were 2 gravel forest roads that intersected and a small parking lot. We paused for just a couple minutes and then started up the next mountain. There was a climb, and then it leveled off a little before the next climb. At the top of the first climb the person I was with stopped and said his chest was bothering him and he was having some difficulty breathing. He said he was done. I said let’s take a short break to give him time to think about it.
After a few minutes he decided he was done and we turned around and went back to the bottom where the small parking lot was. We texted Ron who was originally picking us up on the 06/14/12 to ask if he could come get us. We waited for him to finish his work day and he came and rescued us.
This is not the end of my challenge, not the end of my journey. It is just a break from the challenge to be continued. Now, knowing what to expect I can better prepare for the return for a new start to an old challenge. I have ideas on how to train better and how to pack lighter. I am ready to discover new things about myself and to see how far I can push myself.