Uncle Joe
09-08-2015, 18:31
Had a great weekend checking off my next section hike of the GA AT: Woody Gap to Hogpen Gap. Fell in behind a group of 5 and made new friends that I ended up camping with too! Despite 50% chance of rain each day all we got was thunder. Score!
Notables: Lots of climbing. I've been kicking myself for not getting my mileage up but the truth is the 7 or so miles we did from Woody to Woods Hole was pretty demanding,. Though I probably could have gone another 3mi, after climbing Blood Mountain the next day I know it was a good thing I stopped for the night. The group I was with were planning to break up the rest of the hike over a couple of days. I'd planned to go on to Hogpen but stayed with them instead. Again, climbs and descents made for better sense on my part.
Good weekend all around. We camped at Swaim Gap. The water source there was flowing but was very limited. An Amish-type family camped out just up trail from us and made their way by us in the morning. They reported a bear came into their camp around 6am. It got spooked by them and went up a tree, which I reckon is a good sign. We saw no bears.
I hammock camped, as did 3 others in the group. I bought an REI Flash air pad and used it under my sleeping bag hoping to mitigate a temperature issue I had at Gooch Gap. The temps only got into the low 50's or maybe high 40's, if that, but it made a big difference on the comfort. You could feel a substantial difference when off the pad. So it definitely provides some significant R-value. I wasn't concerned with going to the ground but until Winter I will be taking a pad along.
All in all a great weekend. Good group which included some younger, college-aged kids in the group. It was great meeting them. There's even talk of doing more hiking together.
Notables: Lots of climbing. I've been kicking myself for not getting my mileage up but the truth is the 7 or so miles we did from Woody to Woods Hole was pretty demanding,. Though I probably could have gone another 3mi, after climbing Blood Mountain the next day I know it was a good thing I stopped for the night. The group I was with were planning to break up the rest of the hike over a couple of days. I'd planned to go on to Hogpen but stayed with them instead. Again, climbs and descents made for better sense on my part.
Good weekend all around. We camped at Swaim Gap. The water source there was flowing but was very limited. An Amish-type family camped out just up trail from us and made their way by us in the morning. They reported a bear came into their camp around 6am. It got spooked by them and went up a tree, which I reckon is a good sign. We saw no bears.
I hammock camped, as did 3 others in the group. I bought an REI Flash air pad and used it under my sleeping bag hoping to mitigate a temperature issue I had at Gooch Gap. The temps only got into the low 50's or maybe high 40's, if that, but it made a big difference on the comfort. You could feel a substantial difference when off the pad. So it definitely provides some significant R-value. I wasn't concerned with going to the ground but until Winter I will be taking a pad along.
All in all a great weekend. Good group which included some younger, college-aged kids in the group. It was great meeting them. There's even talk of doing more hiking together.