Total trail mileage: 79.3
Starting location: Hiawassee
Ending location: Muskrat Creek Shelter
Weather: clear all day, 75 during the day
I am at
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=35.020680,+-83.581608
Last night I had problems finding a place to hang the bear bag in the
hotel room. Good thing no bears came during the night.
Today was a fantastic day.
I woke up and was a little concerned about hitchhiking back to the
trail. I imagined it would be a little harder to find someone headed
to the trail than it was to find someone heading into town. So, I
went downstairs to the hotel breakfast where I saw someone who looked
like a hiker and asked him how he was getting back. He was going to
ask me the same thing and had a number for someone who shuttles
locally. It turns out Mark (the other hiker) also grew up in NJ and
also went to RPI (graduated two years behind me). Crazy small world.
Anyway we got shuttled for $15 for both of us and started hiking by
10:30. I was making good progress, the weather was good (not too hot,
not too cold with a slight breeze), and the snow is all melted at
lower elevations.
I COMPLETED MY FIRST STATE!
Yep, I crossed the GA/NC state line and have now finished all of the
AT in GA. 13 more states to go. My quick impressions of GA:
rhodendren tunnels, rolling mountains, lots of high gaps, and quality
signage along the trail.
I then started to hit snow and ice again which slowed me up, but it
wasn't as bad as yesterday and the day before. The trail went up a
neat, steep peak through more rhodendren tunnels with pretty good,
although obscured, views. Unfortunately there weren't any clear
vistas so the pictures probably won't come out great. There are a lot
of thruhikers near the shelter tonight including Mark, Jerry, 12
Percent, etc.
Quite a bit of rain is in the forecast.
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