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leprechaun
09-11-2008, 23:21
i had a reminder in the 2009 thru hike section and was just wonder if anyone else had seen army rangers/ military school cadets training in the GA section. I was a cadet in the school in Dahlonega, and we trained all around near the AT, roughly between (maybe) hogs gap and gooch. when me and a fellow cadet did a GA section hike we saw a few and when we did field excersises as cadets there were encounters with civilians camping (only a drunk idiot sneaking into our patrol base was harmed/sobered by a dunking in a cold creek :D). anyone have an experience?:banana

shoe
09-11-2008, 23:23
i see them all the time up at Hawk Mountain Shelter

KG4FAM
09-12-2008, 05:58
A Ranger Command Sargent Major came up to the Hawk Mountain Shelter and chatted for a few minutes when I was up there in April.

rafe
09-12-2008, 07:33
Had a helicopter swoop over me, really low, on that same stretch of trail. Spooked me for a moment.

NICKTHEGREEK
09-12-2008, 09:30
Had a helicopter swoop over me, really low, on that same stretch of trail. Spooked me for a moment.
That's why an SA-7 launcher is part of my 10 essentials. The MD ANG flies A-10 Warthogs. The "sticks" would get some strafing practice rolling in on traffic heading to Ocean City.

max patch
09-12-2008, 09:40
On my thru I slept at Whitley Gap Shelter and woke up in the middle of war games. I had the shelter to myself; when I woke up a ranger was in the shelter and put his his finger up to his lips in the universal "keep quiet" language. Pretty cool experience.

I've heard the war games (but not seen the rangers) on other ocassions.

wakapak
09-12-2008, 10:22
In both '99 and '02 i had encounters with the rangers on the trail....

in '99 while hiking the trail around that area, i saw the rangers off the side of it in the woods, it was a pretty cool experience cause for awhile i felt like 'something' was watching me, then i saw a few get up and move to a different location, it was cool to see them moving the woods so quietly and stealthily!

in '02, while a big group of us were at Hawk Mt Shelter, a few rangers came running the edge of the shelter area, then that evening and the next morning the helicopter was flying all around that area of the trail, and you could sometimes hear them off in the woods. one of the rangers that came running thru, looked at us all sitting there and gave a us little wave before disappearing.

i always love to see people's faces when they are unaware of the rangers being in that area, the look of surprise and confusion is priceless!

bloodmountainman
09-12-2008, 10:55
Had a helicopter Buzz over me and hang for a few seconds.... looked like they were checking me out. This was between Hawk Mt. and Gooch Gap.
Have founds blank ammo rounds on this section of trail.

Lone Wolf
09-12-2008, 10:58
Had a helicopter Buzz over me and hang for a few seconds.... looked like they were checking me out. This was between Hawk Mt. and Gooch Gap.
Have founds blank ammo rounds on this section of trail.

the Army don't teach 'em LNT. their crap is all over the GA AT.

buff_jeff
09-12-2008, 11:01
I was hoping to see a few. A 2nd LT I knew was in Ranger School while I was rolling through this summer. I don't know if he was in Mountain Phase, though, so he might not have even been at Camp Merrill.

Grumpy
09-12-2008, 11:07
Yeah it is a shame those guys training to protect America (with a wonderful network of trails) can't take more time to focus on LNT than on protecting us...

Roots
09-12-2008, 11:09
I saw 100 march through the shelter area at Hawk in April. Then ran into several on the trail while in GA. Pretty much a given to see them everywhere in GA, from what I've heard.

buff_jeff
09-12-2008, 11:21
Yeah it is a shame those guys training to protect America (with a wonderful network of trails) can't take more time to focus on LNT than on protecting us...

He was joking, boss.

buff_jeff
09-12-2008, 11:24
Fort Indiantown Gap is another cool place. When I went by there in '07 they were flying over with the A-10's blowing the hell out of something. It was pretty sweet.

wakapak
09-12-2008, 11:51
Fort Indiantown Gap is another cool place. When I went by there in '07 they were flying over with the A-10's blowing the hell out of something. It was pretty sweet.


thats the one in PA right?? this year when a bunch of us were camped near Rausch gap Shelter, quite a few other hikers remarked how the 'thunder' they had been hearing in the distance all afternoon seemed to never be getting any closer. i mention it wasnt thunder, that it was artillery or something from there. a few of them thought i was making it up until i had one of them pull out the map and look at it!!

NICKTHEGREEK
09-12-2008, 11:58
the Army don't teach 'em LNT. their crap is all over the GA AT.
Those craters are tough to fill in

Blissful
09-12-2008, 12:00
I wrote about that in the 2009 thread - we saw helicopters going in and out just north of Hawk Mtn SHelter and guys jumping out. Also felt like we were being watch on the trail as well, esp after Stover Creek.

Blissful
09-12-2008, 12:01
Fort Indiantown Gap is another cool place. When I went by there in '07 they were flying over with the A-10's blowing the hell out of something. It was pretty sweet.


Yeah the artillery banged away when we hiked through that section of PA last year. Also heard artillery coming from West Point while in NY.

buff_jeff
09-12-2008, 12:08
thats the one in PA right?? this year when a bunch of us were camped near Rausch gap Shelter, quite a few other hikers remarked how the 'thunder' they had been hearing in the distance all afternoon seemed to never be getting any closer. i mention it wasnt thunder, that it was artillery or something from there. a few of them thought i was making it up until i had one of them pull out the map and look at it!!

Yep, that's it. I was on that base last October and there were a bunch of Strykers there. The word was that it was going to be the largest base for Strykers in the country. I don't know if there's any veracity to that, though. I also heard, while i was on the trail, that they wanted to purchase more land that would bring the base closer to the trail. :(

THEmapMAKER
09-12-2008, 12:37
Last fall I baskpacked all of the AT in GA. I heard the soldier shooting machine guns when I was at the springer mountian shelter. I was talking to other people statying the shelter and one guy said he used to be one of the cadets that trained in GA. He told me he was in charge of a mission thier objective was to attack the camp at a some lake near Hawk Mountian shelter. He said he saw a campfire and tents at the lake so him and his crew went and attacked it. Kicked over the tents, shot off banks from their guns etc. It turns out they attacked a boy scout troop camping there and scared the crap out of the kids. Thier target was on the other side of the lake.

OldStormcrow
09-12-2008, 14:21
Years ago when I started at Springer Mountain there was some sort of full scale war game going on. Choppers blazing back and forth overhead all day, foxholes dug on either side of the trail, 7.62 brass all the way to Neels Gap (fired blanks AND live blanks!), MRE wrappers all over the place, old map tubes, etc. At Hawk Mountain Shelter I was camping solo and had 3 different platoons of soldiers come crashing in at different hours of the night. At one point in the middle of the night one of the platoons that had just invaded the shelter ran into an ambush from another platoon right down the trail behind the shelter. The nois from the M-16s didn't bother me nearly as much as when the M-60 machine gun they had dug in the middle of the trail cut loose. Talk about a mess the next morning! I kept worrying that I would step on one of the live rounds scattered among the rocks on the trail and blow a hole in the bottom of my boot with an otherwise fairly "harmless" blank round.

CBSSTony
09-12-2008, 15:35
I have found and packed out so much stuff and trash that I can't recall all the stuff. Full cases of blanks, blanks in boxes, ditched equipment, etc. Had a chopper swoop in and land in the field I was checking out, the instinct was to hide, so I did, if they seen me, they didn't act like it. Two whole platoons of them came off Hawk mountain to the shelter while I was taking a smoke break. I think they were there for a pit stop at the privy. They talked and showed me their gear. Another time I was coming up to Hightower gap and a Hummer was blocking the way and they let me park by them and listen to the radio chatter, something about we have to wait for some hikers to clear the area. Then one of them said any minute now, just about that time all hell broke loose.

DapperD
09-12-2008, 15:40
Had a helicopter swoop over me, really low, on that same stretch of trail. Spooked me for a moment.Reminds me of Lynne Wheldens "Five Million Steps" video:D

leprechaun
09-12-2008, 18:31
Last fall I baskpacked all of the AT in GA. I heard the soldier shooting machine guns when I was at the springer mountian shelter. I was talking to other people statying the shelter and one guy said he used to be one of the cadets that trained in GA. He told me he was in charge of a mission thier objective was to attack the camp at a some lake near Hawk Mountian shelter. He said he saw a campfire and tents at the lake so him and his crew went and attacked it. Kicked over the tents, shot off banks from their guns etc. It turns out they attacked a boy scout troop camping there and scared the crap out of the kids. Thier target was on the other side of the lake.



I've had a few experiences like that :D we were affectionatly called "cadidiots" by most of the ranger instructers that helped us out. unfortunately, 99% of the cadets can not read a map to save their own skins, and the instructions given to them are so vague, we usually just pounced on anything that moved.

cadets and rangers could really take a step back and look into some LNT, there is absolutly no policy towards packing out trash, the people in charge (at least at NGCSU) never so much as mentioned it to any of us

DapperD
09-12-2008, 18:34
i had a reminder in the 2009 thru hike section and was just wonder if anyone else had seen army rangers/ military school cadets training in the GA section. I was a cadet in the school in Dahlonega, and we trained all around near the AT, roughly between (maybe) hogs gap and gooch. when me and a fellow cadet did a GA section hike we saw a few and when we did field excersises as cadets there were encounters with civilians camping (only a drunk idiot sneaking into our patrol base was harmed/sobered by a dunking in a cold creek :D). anyone have an experience?:bananaIn his well written book "White Blaze Fever" detailing his 2000 thru-hike, William Schuette states that while beginning his thru-hike on the Amicalola approach trail, he is passed by four Army Rangers. He says he was told to be prepared for Ranger activities beforehand and that they train also at night.

flair4040
09-13-2008, 16:49
Two choppers landed in a field right beside the trial. We say several rangers hurry out of the woods and climb on the choppers. They never even looked at us.

http://img356.imageshack.us/img356/3162/dsc02116kn4.jpg (http://imageshack.us)