Approach trail to Unicom gap section hike questions.

[smoovoperator]

Hello everyone, we are planning on a sectuon hike from the approach trail, to unicoi gap on April 25-29, and i had a few questions. We are planning on staying in Helen ga, on Monday night, and driving up to unicoi gap where we will leave our car, and take a shuttle to the approach trail. Any recommendations on where to stay in Helen, and a reliable shuttle service to use. So far, on my previous section hikes, I have had great luck with shuttles.

We are going later in April, to try to avoid the immediate large crowd of thru hikers. Also, so we aren't taking up shelter space for those thru hiking.

One more thing, does anyone have any feed back, experience camping at bull gap, or any sites between blood mointain shelter, and bull gap? We really do not want to stay at blood mountain shelter. There may be 4 of us on the trip. All tent campers, may be a hammock camper. How about camping at poplar stamp gap?

Thanks in advance! This site, and the people on here, have been a tremendous help over the years.

[JC13]

Ron Brown for shuttle.
706-636-2825 (home)
706-669-0919 (cell)
[email protected]

[glenlawson]

Lots of options. There are the Blood Mtn tent sites, south of Blood, not far from Slaughter Gap. I think intended to take pressure away from Slaughter Gap. But, after Jarrard Gap, all the way to Neels, you need a bear resistant container. So, you could stop a little early at Miller Gap or go all the way to Bull Gap.

At Jarrard Gap, there is a side trail that leads about a mile down to Lake Winfield Scott. They have restrooms, hot showers and mid-week they are pretty wide open. A few sites are reservable. You can either come back up at Jarrard Gap or take the other trail up which takes you to Slaughter Gap.

If you are going towards Poplar Stamp Gap, Low Gap shelter a mile before that has options. There is also some bear activity in this area maybe due to a private campground just east of Chattahoochee gap. No restrictions that I know of.

There is a lot of water and good spaces in this section. I know you said you want to stay away from shelters, but Whitley Gap shelter is a nice one. It is a mile off the trail, all uphill back to the trail, but a beautiful spot.

The bear regulations between Jarrard and Neels may have a greater impact on your choices.

[Christoph]

Here's a quick video of this exact hike my brother and I did last year. We stayed at the Hampton Inn in Helen and it wasn't too crowded, but I would assume the rooms will be quite full around that time, so get what you can early. As for camping, there are a crazy amount of really great spots to set up camp. Too many to list, so I'd just go until you find a great spot and you're going to love this section. Neel gap can camp for free or they have some really nice rentables. Great place to spend a little time at. Blood mnt shelter requires a bear canister I believe, but everywhere else is god to go. You'll want to make make sure to set some time for Blood mnt shelter if it's nice out, Springer, and the Falls. Lots of great stuff to see! Then there's Helen. It's a crazy little German theme town but has a lot to do, make sure to tube down the river!

[Christoph]

Oops... here's a link to my vid.... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7moc750__aI

[smoovoperator]

Thanks! Once again, everyone has provided some great info. Yeah, I just noticed the bear canister requirement. Bummer! We might just hike through that section, and camp around neels gap. I like hearing there are a lot of random campsites. That offers us some flexability. Thanks for the heads up about rooms in Helen. I will book one now. I will give that video a look when I get home. I am pretty excited about this section.