This weekend a friend (Daniel) and I hiked some portions of the Appalachian Trail (AP) in North Western Georgia. We planned to hike a large 12.6 mile loop called the Coosa Backcountry Trail and take a small diversion (4mi round trip) to the top of Blood Mountain. Blood Mountain is the highest point on the AP in Georgia peaking at 4,458. After making it to the summit we would return back to the Coosa Trail, hike till the early evening, camp for the night, and then finish the loop the next day.
Well that was the plan anyway. After driving nearly 4hrs to Neels Gap from Augusta and getting a speeding ticket, we stopped at a historic hike shop along the AT called Mountain Crossings. We got there about 15min before they opened at 9am. We sat for a couple of minutes in Dan's Jeep waiting for the shop to open. I decided that I would run up to the door and make sure they were going to be open on Sunday. Knowing it would only take a second to zip up to the door, read the sign and zip back to the Jeep, I decided that putting on my jacket wouldn't be necessary. By the time I reached the door the wind had cut me down, and it wasn't even the right door. It read "Please use other door". I scurried down the walkway to the entrance door, scanned the jumble of stickers, flyers and other various scraps of paper, to find that there were no posted hours of operation. I darted back to the Jeep just before I froze solid. As I sat the the vehicle I then remembered that I'd spoken to a gal at the shop a couple of days prior asking some questions about the trails, and she told me that only closed on x-mas and new years (thanks brain). About 10 minutes later a medium sized dog ran around the front of the shop followed by a slender guy shuffling through a set of keys. We were only steps behind as he opened the front door; this time with my jacket and hat. Inside our eyes darted around the shop, as the lights began to flicker on, zeroing in on what we were going to look at first. The slender gentlemen emerged from the back room, looked at the two of us and said "do I have a deal for you". Actually he had a deal for Dan and not so much of a deal for me. You see Dan is a 6 foot 4 inch freak of nature and it seems selling the extra long sleeping is difficult. The bags were marked down 40% and after he found out that we were in the Army knocked off another 10%. So, Dan got a new top shelf 15 degree bag for an incredible price. I was simply there to look and review some of the items I had seen online. We rummaged through the shop some more, looked at a couple of maps and we were back on our way.
Vogel State Park was just a few miles down the road. The small lodge was at the head of a small lake that was beginning to freeze at its banks. As Daniel was getting his gear ready to go I went inside to get our trail passes and ask about parking. I asked the lady behind the desk if she knew the current temperature and she point just over my right shoulder. Turning I saw a small weather station in a glass cabinet across the room. I walked over looked inside and to my surprise it read nine degrees F. It was eleven in the morning and it was NINE DEGREES, should have said on the little LCD screen "Cold as Balls". I turned back to the counter and said "chilly this morning". As the lady prepare our pass I rummaged around the store, picking up some powdered hot chocolate and a cup that I later put back. Back outside we strapped on our packs and head towards the trail. There was a powdering of snow on the ground, but not enough to slow us down. We hiked our way up the paved road toward the trail head with our trekking poles stabbing loudly onto the blacktop. Wait, no...only my poles were clanking on the ground, Daniel was still trying to get his to extend. The plastic pieces inside his poles were to cold to expand and lock the poles in the extended position. Now this could have been an indicator on how cold it actually was, but hey we're men. After twenty minutes of fooling with the poles we finally get them locked and we were at the start of the trail.
As we ascended through the trees, slowly up the mountain side the snow began to get less like powder and more like a lot of snow. About Forty minutes in I was starting to sweat and needed to shed a layer. I had on a silk weight thermal shirt, t-shirt, fleece pull over, fleece coat liner and the coat. The fleece pull over had to go, I pulled off the fleece and it took off everything but the thermal with it. Steam rolled off me like I was on fire, but it felt quite the opposite.
Well that was the plan anyway. After driving nearly 4hrs to Neels Gap from Augusta and getting a speeding ticket, we stopped at a historic hike shop along the AT called Mountain Crossings. We got there about 15min before they opened at 9am. We sat for a couple of minutes in Dan's Jeep waiting for the shop to open. I decided that I would run up to the door and make sure they were going to be open on Sunday. Knowing it would only take a second to zip up to the door, read the sign and zip back to the Jeep, I decided that putting on my jacket wouldn't be necessary. By the time I reached the door the wind had cut me down, and it wasn't even the right door. It read "Please use other door". I scurried down the walkway to the entrance door, scanned the jumble of stickers, flyers and other various scraps of paper, to find that there were no posted hours of operation. I darted back to the Jeep just before I froze solid. As I sat the the vehicle I then remembered that I'd spoken to a gal at the shop a couple of days prior asking some questions about the trails, and she told me that only closed on x-mas and new years (thanks brain). About 10 minutes later a medium sized dog ran around the front of the shop followed by a slender guy shuffling through a set of keys. We were only steps behind as he opened the front door; this time with my jacket and hat. Inside our eyes darted around the shop, as the lights began to flicker on, zeroing in on what we were going to look at first. The slender gentlemen emerged from the back room, looked at the two of us and said "do I have a deal for you". Actually he had a deal for Dan and not so much of a deal for me. You see Dan is a 6 foot 4 inch freak of nature and it seems selling the extra long sleeping is difficult. The bags were marked down 40% and after he found out that we were in the Army knocked off another 10%. So, Dan got a new top shelf 15 degree bag for an incredible price. I was simply there to look and review some of the items I had seen online. We rummaged through the shop some more, looked at a couple of maps and we were back on our way.
Vogel State Park was just a few miles down the road. The small lodge was at the head of a small lake that was beginning to freeze at its banks. As Daniel was getting his gear ready to go I went inside to get our trail passes and ask about parking. I asked the lady behind the desk if she knew the current temperature and she point just over my right shoulder. Turning I saw a small weather station in a glass cabinet across the room. I walked over looked inside and to my surprise it read nine degrees F. It was eleven in the morning and it was NINE DEGREES, should have said on the little LCD screen "Cold as Balls". I turned back to the counter and said "chilly this morning". As the lady prepare our pass I rummaged around the store, picking up some powdered hot chocolate and a cup that I later put back. Back outside we strapped on our packs and head towards the trail. There was a powdering of snow on the ground, but not enough to slow us down. We hiked our way up the paved road toward the trail head with our trekking poles stabbing loudly onto the blacktop. Wait, no...only my poles were clanking on the ground, Daniel was still trying to get his to extend. The plastic pieces inside his poles were to cold to expand and lock the poles in the extended position. Now this could have been an indicator on how cold it actually was, but hey we're men. After twenty minutes of fooling with the poles we finally get them locked and we were at the start of the trail.
As we ascended through the trees, slowly up the mountain side the snow began to get less like powder and more like a lot of snow. About Forty minutes in I was starting to sweat and needed to shed a layer. I had on a silk weight thermal shirt, t-shirt, fleece pull over, fleece coat liner and the coat. The fleece pull over had to go, I pulled off the fleece and it took off everything but the thermal with it. Steam rolled off me like I was on fire, but it felt quite the opposite.
