Day 13: Zero Day in Hiawassee, Pictures and Video

Hello again. I hadn’t planned on a zero day here in Hiawassee, but I needed it. I took today slowly and took care of laundry, retrieving my mail drop, unpacking, cleaning and repacking. I have a shuttle arranged to take my back to Dicks Creek Gap in the morning at 11:00am and should hit the trail by 11:30am. I have a 9 mile day planned which will result in my first state line crossing, assuming things go as planned.

So, here are the pictures and videos from Days 8 through 12 – and one from Day 13, today.

Day 8

This is the day I returned from Dahlonega to the trail at Neel Gap/Mountain Crossings. I hiked from there to Hogpen Gap.

Here are some picture taken from Neel Gap overlooking the valley.

And some views of the Mountain Crossings outfitter at Neel Gap.

You need to bring up the next one in full resolution. There are hiking shoes hung from the trees. According to the staff, when hikers abandon their first pair of shoes that don’t fit right, they toss them up into the trees to decorate them. I kinda have mixed feelings about that, but it is funny.

The gap through the building is literally the path of the A.T. It’s where I’m about to go. They guys at the table were section hiking from Unicoi Gap and are having some lunch.

By this point in the day, I’d caught up with Vegas – a guy who left Neel Gap shortly before I did. We hiked together for the rest of the day. We encountered this really bizarre stone with writing on it. I almost didn’t even take a photo of it, because it was so spooky.

And this is a context picture of where we saw the stone.

Just some random shot of a feature that looked cool at the time. I think I forgot to clean the camera lens.

No more photos for Day 8.

Day 9

This is the day I hiked from Hogpen Gap to the tentsite at mile 49.7, which I later learned was the site of the former Rocky Knob Shelter.

No photos in the morning before leaving. A few miles after leaving, I took some photos at my first break spot.

…and a video at the same spot.

And another video of a break and water gathering task.

A view down the trail.

 

 

A video while hiking through the above trees.

Arriving at Chattahoochee Gap to find crappy camp sites.

More views from Chattahoochee Gap.

The rest of the day was a grueling 1.5 mile further haul until I arrived at the former Rocky Knob shelter site.

No more photos or videos – apparently I was too pooped!

Day 10

This was the day I hiked from Rocky Knob Campsite to Indian Grave Gap and camped with Arizona, Bella (dog) and Voyageur.

In the morning after camp was broken down…

Video before I leave – predicting an arrival at Tray Gap. Wrong!

And a shot of me – ready to hike!

After a sharp decent off Blue Mountain, here’s the first sign of route GA 75 crossing the A.T. at Unicoi Gap.

Now in full view of the parking lot at Unicoi Gap. Is that a tent down there I see? Could it be a gathering of some sort? Might food be being cooked?

After Unicoi Gap, there was a long climb up Rocky Mountain. Here’s some views during the later part of the climb.

Here’s a video of the view on top of Rocky Mountain.

And some photos…

Finally, Arizona and his dog Bella – with whom I’d hiked with from Unicoi Gap decided to camp here at Indian Grave Gap. There was trail magic here and while we were stopped it started to rain cats and dogs. We both decided to stay put rather than push for Cheese Factory camp in the rain. Here’s camp, Voyageur is on the left. She arrived after Arizona and I had setup.

I retired to my tent at like 6:30pm just to get out of the rain and dry off. The temps started to drop too. Here are some photos from inside my home.

And that’s all folks!

Day 11

This was the day hiked from Indian Grave Gap to Sassafras Gap.

The morning started foggy while preparing to depart, so no pictures. Finally, the fog cleared into a beautiful cool sunny morning.

30 minutes after hiking and halfway up Tray Mountain, time for some photos.

 

And a few minutes later a video of the view…

The view then really opened up causing another pause for photos and video of Tray Mountain.

And video of that view:

Arrived at Tray Gap next, before the final ascent of Tray Mountain. Grits cooked up some hot dogs for everyone and had snacks, sodas and beer to offer.

Here we are at the top of Tray Mountain looking at the distant landscape.

Some nice folks came from behind. I took their photo and they took mine.

 

And then another video from the top of Tray Mountain. Those random specs are knats. They were annoying as hell!!!

About 1 mile before Sassafras Gap, two photos.

No more photos from today!

Day 12

The day I hiked from Sassafras Gap to Dicks Creek Gap and got a ride into Hiawassee, GA!!!

A bunch of us grabbed photos of the sunrise.

And then people taking pictures of people taking pictures of the sunrise!

 

Photos of my tent in the early sun. Look closely you can see my legs’ shadow on the tent.

A view inside my tent.

After packing up, just about ready to go.

 

A quick watering stop at Addis Gap. Sadly, this is where Voodoo was evacuated earlier this morning. I had no idea at the time I passed through.

And now at Deep Gap where I took my halfway break for the day.

Short video of trail walk, with a bit of mud hiking.

Finally Dicks Creek Gap comes into view.

 

Dicks Creek Gap now in the distance again, now that I’m speeding away on the tailgate of a pickup truck!

And, oh yes, a video was most definitely required. Not nearly as exciting as I thought it would be. The crisis was that the dog cage started sliping backwards as we drove up the hill.

After we dropped the two people at the Top of Georgia Hostel, I shot another video. This is actually awesome for the views, but you can’t hear a damn thing I’m saying. The wind completely obliterates the audio. I suggest turning down your speakers.

Here, I was just snapping pictures from the truck of the scenery. I have no idea what any of them are looking at.

This is just a silly video and should be resigned to the outtakes section. I was trying to take a picture of myself but hit the video button instead.

 

 

 

 

 

And now some random shots of buildings in Hiawassee.

 

And of course, the place I’d been waiting for.

And now in my room.

That’s all for Day 12!

Day 13

Most of today was spent doing laundry, grabbing my mail drop from the post office, and cleaning and reorganizing gear. I’m eliminating a couple items that will save about 4 ounces of weight. Not much, but every ounce counts.

While I was doing laundry, I grabbed this unceremonious photo:

And that’s all folks!

 

wandering on to the trail tomorrow…

Kelly