April 1

Run for the border

We woke up early, as the breakfast bell rang around 8am.  We went into Gary and Lennie's home and all sat around a big dining room table to a full breakfast of eggs, sausage, hashbrowns, cheese biscuits with homemade sawmill gravy, blueberry pancakes with homemade blueberry syrup, and coffee!  There's no fee for the shuttle rides, the stay, the use of the facilities, or the meal.  Just a donation envelope at my breakfast seat, in which I placed my donation.  There's really no price you could put on what you get there though.  Gary drove us up in shifts back up the mountain and we pushed on with the NC border within our sights just 8.9 miles up the trail.  I stopped to take a picture at the wooden sign nailed to a tree that said "NC/GA".  What a feeling!  Georgia was conquered.  One state down, 13 to go.  Just past the border was Bly Gap.  Everyone from our group took a break at the campsite, but pushed on to the next shelter since there was so much daylight left.  My knee still hurt a bit, and I didn't want to risk injury so I decided to stay back and set up my tent, even though it was only about 3pm.  It felt weird to have everyone leaving me behind, but I ended up meeting some other hikers:  Turtle, Incline, Y's Guy all tented near me by the campfire.  As it turned out, it was a great decision to stay.  Incline taught me the PCT method of hanging a bear bag.  The bears in the area have learned how to snap the ropes from traditional bear bag lines, but with this PCT method it is virtually bear proof.  Until bears grow thumbs, and learn how to pull a rope, untie a knot, and work a carabiner, your food is safe, haha.  Georgia was nice though.  Many ups and downs.  Nice views, especially since the trees haven't leafed out yet.  Spring is just starting to creep up the mountains though.  The terrain and flora reminded me a lot of Virginia actually.  Everyone talks about how hard Georgia is.  It was tough in many ways, but I think that is mostly due to it being where you first start out.  Looking back, in the first few days on the trail, we dreaded some of the climbs of 400, 600, even 800 feet.  But that's just a warm up for whats ahead.  So far, I feel strong in my legs and back, but I need to take care of my feet, and be careful with my knee.  Other than that, I'm thankful for the great weather.

Good bye Georgia, Hello North Carolina!