We’re doing what’s called “slack packing” all of Georgia. It’s where you hike with a lighter pack with just food and water and have someone pick you up and drop you off at the trail each day. We have a cabin In the north GA mountains within about an hours drive to every part of the trail throughout GA.
We said our good byes to cousin Pam and my brother and sister law Jodie, hopped in the truck with my dad and headed back to Springer Mntn. to get started. We walked up to the trailhead and saw two people kissing and hugging each other goodbye. As we got closer we noticed it was two women. That’s one thing I’ve read about the AT. All shapes and sizes, colors, races, men and women, ages, sexuality, everyone is welcome. There is no place for discrimination on the AT. I snapped some pics with my pops and Larry in front of the AT sign and walked out into the wilderness.
I didn’t check the weather before we left. Larry did though. He informed me it was supposed to rain. So I made sure I packed my rain gear. We hiked for a few miles before arriving at a the beautiful Long Creek Falls waterfall. I had seen this one a few times before. But with all of the rain we’ve had in GA it was really flowing. We took some pics and video as well.
It started raining a little but not too bad. We hiked on for a bit longer. We started to get wet so we stopped to pull out our rain gear. I put mine on and Larry fumbled around in his pack searching for his. He couldn’t find it. He forgot it! We hiked for a bit longer before he got pretty wet and cold. We stopped and he pulled out a trash bag to cover his jacket. We made it a few more miles but the temperature dropped quickly.
We ran into a ridge runner (someone who maintains the trails and helps hikers) named “Davey Crocket”. He thought Larry was an ultra light hiker who intentionally substituted rain gear with a trash bag. He asked if he could take his picture because there was a big debate about this on Reddit (forum used by hikers, etc). I opted to not be included in that photo ?
Davey convinced us to shorten our hike for day because we didn’t have the proper rain gear. So after 7 miles we jumped into a shelter to get out of the rain. We were fortunate to be slack packing and so close to home. We stayed in the shelter that was quickly filling up with other hikers soaked and shivering looking to get out the rain. We met a few of the hikers. Alex was a cool guy from Canada. He let Larry wear his jacket to warm up.
I called my pops to pick us up at a nearby dirt road. When he dropped us off earlier he went to the pick up location to make sure he could find us later. Cause that’s what dads do right? My dad anyway ❤️ He just got back to the cabin and had to turn around to come get us.
We went back to cabin and warmed up with big bowls of my moms homemade vegetable soup. We spent time visiting before hitting the sack to rest up for next day. We made it from Springer Mntn to Hightower Gap this day. Not a big mile day but nothing wrong with easing our way into this big adventure.
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