Three Days on the Appalachian Trail – What to Change for Next Time

More from this series: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Video

There were a few problems I had while hiking for three days on the Appalachian Trail and many of them can be easily remedied.  I’ll list here things that were good, things that were bad, and how to improve for next time.

Water Filter

The water filter I brought was slow to pump from until the second night where it froze and cracked. Frozen, it was completely useless and wouldn’t let water pass through it. Once unfrozen, the cracks allowed water to flow through quicker than before, which probably means it isn’t filtering as well anymore.

I’m thinking it may be time to ditch the filter and get tablets or drops.

Pack Space

I seem to have taken up a lot of pack space between my tent, which I didn’t use on this trip, my sleeping bag, my food bag, and my clothing bag. When it comes to food, I seemed to have brought too much of some stuff (beef jerky) and not enough of others (healthy alternatives?). For clothing, I seem to have had just enough to get through the cold nights, though my legs and face got cold. I also had to carry my Thermarest on the outside as there was no room on the inside.

I’m thinking with the removal of my water filter, I can use one of my side pouches and straps to hold my tent and possibly the poles for it as well. That will open up some space on the inside where I may be able to get my Thermarest.

Clothing

As mentioned above, my legs and face got cold in the night. My neck also got cold a few times with no protection. My hands got cold, though the gloves I had didn’t allow me much movement due to the rubber grip. My hiking socks were too thin and caused some blistering. On the plus side, a tee shirt and sweater were enough for hiking and a tee shirt, sweater, and fleece were mostly enough for sleeping. On the coldest night, I added my shell jacket that I had for hiking, but rarely used except for lunch and night-time breaks where I wasn’t moving as much.

I’m thinking an added scarf for my neck and face should suffice and possibly one more layer of pants for sleeping in – or a thicker layer. Perhaps a pair of wool gloves for sleeping in will help. Another pair of thicker wool socks may help with hiking and shouldn’t feel too warm, as I’ve used them when skiing before. I may want a fleece or shell with a hood. Probably the shell, since I didn’t have to deal with rain at all on this trip other than a misty first night.

Food

Pop Tarts are great for energy boosts and a quick breakfast. Beef Jerky is alright in small amounts. Junk food can help with short-term energy boosts, but the space and weight of the food probably doesn’t match up well with a healthier alternative.

I may need to bring a stove and heatable food for dinners.

Three Days on the Appalachian Trail – Part 4

More from this series: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Lessons Learned | Video

Tuesday, December 17^th, 2013 – Day 3:

I woke up around seven and tried to quietly make my way out of the shelter and pull down the bear-bag, which was difficult since the cabling squeaked and it was just feet from the shelter. I got my bag down and walked away from the shelter to open it, as to not wake anybody who was sleeping. I dug to the bottom to get one of the last packs of Pop-Tarts out and ate it for breakfast. I also took the last granola bar and stuffed it in my pocket to eat on the trail while walking.

My buddy got up and ate the last pack of Pop-Tarts and we watched the sun rise over the mountains on another beautiful, clear, winter morning. The plan was to head back South today and see how far we could get – Springer Mountain Shelter, Black Gap Shelter, Amicalola Falls State Park Shelter, or to the car. We both had been craving Chicken Parmesan from Olive Garden for a couple days, so the thought of that certainly played into the equation at some point.

Our three comrades from the shelter awoke one by one while I was packing up my gear and my buddy was refilling our water bottles. I changed back into my hiking clothes, at least what I wasn’t still wearing of them, and got my bag fully packed. We wished our new friends farewell and hit the trail at 8:30 heading Southbound, which was really north to begin with. We were hiking at a fast pace this morning, especially on the flatter terrain. We quickly passed the logging road and made it to a creek where we stopped to refill our water bottles.

While we refilled, the older AT Club gentleman passed us, but he stopped a few hundred yards up the trail at a bridge. We passed him and then a little while later, I stopped to take a pee and he caught up again. We all hiked together for a bit, but my buddy and I outpaced the older gentleman until we stopped to take a break and he passed us. We followed him for a bit until we came to an area with some blown-down trees and lots of branches in the way. I tried to remember this area from the day before, but it didn’t seem familiar – I had remembered us having to climb over a single tree at some point, but here we had to climb over two trees and the branches of other trees seemed awfully close.

Eventually we came to a river with logs going across it, which we were a hundred percent sure we hadn’t crossed the day before. We doubled back and I climbed a hill to see if the path laid beyond some trees that were blocking what looked like a path, but that wasn’t the way either. The older gentleman went on and said he would signal us if he found the trail. My buddy and I waited and discussed our options until we heard the man yell that he had found the trail. We hesitantly headed in his direction, crossing over the logs in the river and making our way up a hill to reach a very faded white blaze on a tree. This area was definitely a part of the Appalachian Trail at some point, though we were thinking it was an old section of the trail that had been rerouted elsewhere.

Three Days on the Appalachian Trail – Part 3

More from this series: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 4 | Lessons Learned | Video

Monday, December 16^th, 2013 – Day 2:

The sun finally rose around seven and I quickly got up to greet the day after a long cold night of mediocre sleep. I quickly got up to meet the day and cure myself of cabin fever – or sleeping bag fever. I walked outside to retrieve my bear-bag from the line where I had left it and rummaged through it to find breakfast – Cheeze-Its! I wanted the Cheetos pretty bad and I had told myself to finish off the Cheeze-Its first so I didn’t have too many open bags.

I watched the sun rise over the mountains while eating breakfast, thoroughly enjoying this experience. The sky turned from a faded blue to a bright red and slowly all the colors blended in the sky like a rainbow, except with a muted green. I saw some of the other hikers slowly emerging from the shelter to take on the day as well. I put the Cheeze-Its away and pulled out a Pop-Tart to take in the copious amounts of carbohydrates that would help fuel my hiking this morning.

I walked back to the shelter with my food bag in one hand and my open Pop-Tart package in my pocket and climbed the ladder into the loft. I finished my breakfast and began packing my gear up while my buddy arose from his slumber and did the same. I took some time to review the guidebook and make cliff-notes in my journal for later. Looking at the guidebook, I found that the next three shelters were Stover Creek Shelter 2.6 miles away, Hawk Mountain Shelter 7.6 miles away, and Gooch Mountain Shelter 14.9 miles away. Considering it took us all day to hike nine miles the day before, I figured Hawk Mountain would be our final destination, though it we made it there quickly, we could always adjust.

We headed down to the creek to fill our water bottles and my Camelbak bladder. I tried to use my filter, but it refused to pump, then I realized it had frozen in the night and there was still ice inside it somewhere. The freezing had also cracked the filter, making it potentially useless. I tried to clear it, but nothing I did would make a difference, so we filled up our containers and used a few drops of peroxide to hopefully kill anything that was in the water – though I hadn’t seen or heard any wildlife in the area since we arrived and it was pretty cold out. We headed back to the loft to finish packing.

Three Days on the Appalachian Trail – Part 1

More from this series: Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Lessons Learned | Video

Saturday, December 14^th, 2013 – Day 0:

My buddy and I drove from Orlando up to Amicalola Falls State Park in Northern Georgia for most of the day. We stopped at a Wal-Mart in Cumming, Georgia to pick up food and last-minute supplies. We arrived at the park around seven at night, after the sun had already set. We ripped open the food containers and I packed what I needed – four packs of beef jerky, five Pop-Tarts, two Granola Bars, a box of Cheeze-Its (or at least the plastic bag inside the box), and a bag of Cheetos.

I adjusted my pack to fit everything that I needed which included: me tent, tent poles, and stakes, my sleeping bag, my food bag, my clothes back with camping clothes, my three-liter Camelbak water bladder, and my work laptop since I was on-call for the weekend. In the front pouch of my bag I had smaller items such as my headlamp, which I took out to wear since it was already night, a trash bag to use as a pack cover in case of rain, a poncho for me in case I needed it, the support phone for work, some nylon string, extra carabiners, and my toiletry bag. On the side pockets I had bug spray, sunscreen, a lighter, an extra Gatorade bottle with Gatorade in it, and my water filter. I also had my phone and GoPro camera in my pocket and in the hip-belt pockets of my pack I kept my toilet paper, the extra backing to my GoPro (waterproof), and a GU gel packet that I had left over from my marathon. I also had my boots and two trekking poles to walk with, plus a sleeping pad attached to the outside of my pack.

For clothing, I had a pair of long-johns for hiking and another for camping, a pair of thin shell pants for hiking and another for camping if needed, a polyester tee-shirt for hiking and a long-sleeve polyester shirt for camping, a wool sweater for hiking and an acrylic sweater for camping, a fleece/shell jacket for hiking and a pull-over fleece for camping, a pair of dress socks and running socks for hiking, a pair of Smartwool skiing socks for camping, and a thin tuque for hiking and a thicker one for camping.

It took almost an hour to get everything ready, park the car in the right spot, sign into the register and begin the trip. We planned to night-hike up the A.T. Approach Trail and camp at Springer Mountain Shelter if we could get that far – nine miles. There were two other shelters along the trail, the first one, the Amicalola Falls State Park Shelter, just outside the visitor center, not even 0.1 miles up the trail and the second, Black Gap Shelter, was 7.3 miles up the trail.