Berserker
10-26-2016, 12:49
I appreciate everyone's responses on my other threads asking about water availability, and I hope that information is useful to others. I was going to do part of GSMNP last weekend and flirted with the idea of doing part of PA instead. However, I ended up in Slickrock Creek Wilderness, and I'm glad it worked out that way. So what's the point of this thread you might say, well it's just to say that I now remember what I developed a love for hiking/camping. Let me explain a little further.
A good buddy of mine and I have been section hiking the AT since the end of '07, and we are about 3/4 of the way done. So since that point in time the hikes have been almost exclusively AT sections where we have had to meet a predetermined schedule if we wanted to finish the section in the allotted amount of time (i.e. we both have families and work so we can't just take extra days off on a whim). Before that this same buddy and I used to just hike in the NC National Forests and Wilderness areas doing shorter routes and a lot of hanging out and relaxing.
So back to this past weekend. My buddy and I met up at a hotel in Waynesville, NC to get staged for hitting the trail the next day having already canned the idea of doing anything in PA because my buddy had a non-refundable room that was pretty pricey (due to it being leafer season I presume). I got to the hotel having already talked myself into doing GSMNP and having to carry a ton of water to the first shelter we had reserved (Mollies Ridge) since reports were that it was dry as I assumed my buddy was all in on that. I had already attempted to plant a seed with my buddy that we could do something else and mentioned Slickrock Creek (which we have hiked multiple times, but it's been at least 10 years). So I roll into the room thinking he's gonna be gungho on GSMNP, and to my surprise he's wanting to do Slickrock Creek.
We decided to go in a Big Fat Gap trail head with a bunch of extra crap (since we weren't gonna be backpacking all over the place), and setup camp down at the Gap next to Slickrock Creek. We then settled into 3 days of sitting around camp and day hiking. The main day hike was a loop going up the Slickrock Creek trail to the Haoe Lead trail out onto Hangover, and then back down to Big Fat Gap via the Big Fat Gap trail. The Slickrock Creek trail is pretty nasty for the last couple of miles up to the Haoe Lead trail, and actually reminded my of stuff in the Whites I saw back in July. The other day hike was a nice easy trip out to Wildcat Falls.
The trip was super relaxing...no schedule to meet...no high mileage days...no dealing with crap I wasn't in the mood for because I had to meet a schedule...it was awesome. So yeah, I now remember why I first developed a love for hiking and camping. I'm still gonna try to finish the AT and I love hiking the AT too, but from now on I think there's gonna be some other trips mixed in there to balance things out.
A good buddy of mine and I have been section hiking the AT since the end of '07, and we are about 3/4 of the way done. So since that point in time the hikes have been almost exclusively AT sections where we have had to meet a predetermined schedule if we wanted to finish the section in the allotted amount of time (i.e. we both have families and work so we can't just take extra days off on a whim). Before that this same buddy and I used to just hike in the NC National Forests and Wilderness areas doing shorter routes and a lot of hanging out and relaxing.
So back to this past weekend. My buddy and I met up at a hotel in Waynesville, NC to get staged for hitting the trail the next day having already canned the idea of doing anything in PA because my buddy had a non-refundable room that was pretty pricey (due to it being leafer season I presume). I got to the hotel having already talked myself into doing GSMNP and having to carry a ton of water to the first shelter we had reserved (Mollies Ridge) since reports were that it was dry as I assumed my buddy was all in on that. I had already attempted to plant a seed with my buddy that we could do something else and mentioned Slickrock Creek (which we have hiked multiple times, but it's been at least 10 years). So I roll into the room thinking he's gonna be gungho on GSMNP, and to my surprise he's wanting to do Slickrock Creek.
We decided to go in a Big Fat Gap trail head with a bunch of extra crap (since we weren't gonna be backpacking all over the place), and setup camp down at the Gap next to Slickrock Creek. We then settled into 3 days of sitting around camp and day hiking. The main day hike was a loop going up the Slickrock Creek trail to the Haoe Lead trail out onto Hangover, and then back down to Big Fat Gap via the Big Fat Gap trail. The Slickrock Creek trail is pretty nasty for the last couple of miles up to the Haoe Lead trail, and actually reminded my of stuff in the Whites I saw back in July. The other day hike was a nice easy trip out to Wildcat Falls.
The trip was super relaxing...no schedule to meet...no high mileage days...no dealing with crap I wasn't in the mood for because I had to meet a schedule...it was awesome. So yeah, I now remember why I first developed a love for hiking and camping. I'm still gonna try to finish the AT and I love hiking the AT too, but from now on I think there's gonna be some other trips mixed in there to balance things out.