Field Report: New Tent Pads on the Slaughter Gap Relaction.

[DeoreDX]

I had a chance to try out the new tent pad area this past weekend. They did an excellent job grading the area and making it look at un-obtrusive as possible. In fact, without the plaque marking the spot I would have walked right past it. The location gives you a great, albeit obstructed view of the countryside (no doubt the view will be covered once the leaves start to appear). The wind on that side of the mountain was wipping up furiously the night we were there. While the tent pads were well graded and very level, the soil in the three pads we used was not very cooperative. The soil was very sticky and clumpy and loose. What this would do is that you tent stakes would just pull out of the ground, taking a large chunk of mud with it. I set up a tarp and when I pulled my trekking pole out of the ground it pulled up a cone shaped peice of mud about 2.5" in diameter as deep at the tip of my trekking pole. It had rained the night before, so I do not know how well the soil will perform when dry. You can see in this picture of my tarptent on a tent pad that I had to place some extra stones laying around on the ground to keep some of the stakes in place. If the soil was more cooperative this would be an awsome place to camp. You are not too far away from water... if you are northbound be sure to grab some water before you make the short trip up the mountainside.

http://www.mindspring.com/~deoredx/AT2004/slaughter_tent.jpg

[Dances with Mice]

I'm going to be hiking the Duncan Ridge Trail a few weeks from now, starting from Amicalola Falls then using the Approach Trail & the AT as one really, really long approach trail to the east end of the DRT. The DRT & the AT used to intersect in Slaughter Gap. A lot of trails used to intersect there: the AT, DRT, Bear Hair Trail from Unicoi State Park, and the trail to Winfield Scott Park.

Now that the AT's been relo'd around the Gap, how has access to those other trails been handled? In other words, how do I get to the east end of the DRT?

[One Leg]

What's a tent like that cost?

[max patch]

I'm going to be hiking the Duncan Ridge Trail a few weeks from now, starting from Amicalola Falls then using the Approach Trail & the AT as one really, really long approach trail to the east end of the DRT. The DRT & the AT used to intersect in Slaughter Gap. A lot of trails used to intersect there: the AT, DRT, Bear Hair Trail from Unicoi State Park, and the trail to Winfield Scott Park.

Now that the AT's been relo'd around the Gap, how has access to those other trails been handled? In other words, how do I get to the east end of the DRT?

Yes, the AT bypasses Slaughter Gap.

However, the old AT is now a blue blaze from Slaughter Gap to where it intersects the current AT so no problem getting to Slaughter.

Here is a map which is much clearer than my written explanation:

http://www.home.earthlink.net/~stewartholt/AT/Slaughter%20Gap%20Relocation%20Map.jpg

[DeoreDX]

What's a tent like that cost?
$205 w/o the floor. $235 with. Plus shipping. Mine weighs exactly 37.4oz in the stuff sack with sewn in floor and seam sealed with everything you need to set it up. I cannot recommend the tent enough. I'm sure if you do a search for Tarptent around the forums you will see a large ammount of satisfied customers. It literally sets up in under two minutes. Put the hoop in the back, put the hoop in the front, one stake in the back... three in the front. You're done!

http://www.tarptent.com/

http://www.mindspring.com/~deoredx/AT2004/at2004_21.jpg