Shakedown hike

[stir crazy]

Looking for ideas for a 3 day/2 night shakedown hike on the GA section of the BMT. Live near Amicalola so we could start there but not a necessity. Any nice section of the trail would be fine. Looking to do this shakedown hike within next couple weeks. Taking Sgt. Rock's advice and doing Reliance to Davenport Gap in late April/May. Might as well knock off part of GA in the process:)

[SGT Rock]

Springer Mountain to Aska Road. You can probably park a car around one of the restaurants down there and hike to a meal for the end of your hike. I love the Riverside though it is a little pricey - it makes a good motivator to hike to a steak.

[Ox97GaMe]

I second Rocks choice. Also, from Aska Rd, there is a back way to get up to Springer via Double Gap?? and Three Forks. I accidently found that way out from Springer one time. If you have a county map, you should be able to find it.

[stir crazy]

I'm looking at your book. 43 miles to Rich Mtn. Trail. 2.5 mi. to Aska Rd. 7 or 8 mi. for the approach trail. Total around 53 miles. Is my math right? Might be a late dinner on the 3rd day if that's the case. We're game if you think that's doable. Based on that goal, where would you camp those 2 nights? We were thinking about camping somewhere around Long Creek the first night but I don't know if that gets us far enough down the trail on the first day.

[stir crazy]

Looks to me like Bryson Gap would be better the first night--and maybe skip the approach trail. Not sure how early we can hit the trail the first day.

[SGT Rock]

Well you can start at the FS42 parking area if you need to cut down some miles.

Not knowing how fast/far you hike I can't totally make a recommendation. I stayed at the unnamed gap @ 8.6 miles the first night. The water in the gap was dry (drought that year) so I had to walk back up the BMT about 0.2 to a seep - this year will probably be fine. The second night I stayed at the Gap between Wallalah Mtn and Licklog mountain, but I carried water up and I had also spent a few hours at Martin's visiting with a friend that came out to see me, I could have gone on further if I didn't carry water up and used the campsite with water between Rhodes and Licklog - I've never seen that water myself though. My third day I busted out and made it all the way to the Toccoa Riverside Restaurant for dinner, then stealth camped near there. Shhhh....:cool:

[stir crazy]

I didn't look close enough at the info. The Taccoa Riverside Rest. is at 36.7 Miles. I was originally looking at ending at Rich Mtn to access Aska Rd. at Deep Gap. That saves 10 miles right there. And since my wife works in Blue Ridge, she can drop us off at Amicalola on the way to work and 3 days later meet us for dinner at the Riverside Restaurant. We have a "best laid plan."
Last question, Rock. Do you remember any points on this section that a guy could screw up and go the wrong direction or is it clearly marked. I'll have a compass and map.

[SGT Rock]

Naw, that part of the trail is well marked.

[take-a-knee]

The Riverside Resturant has some crazy hours, open on the weekends (Atlanta money is in town for the weekend), closed the first of the week IIRC and they are only open for supper, I think. Best to call. I reccomend the chicken sandwich and fruit plate.

[SGT Rock]

The hours in the guide were correct as of November.

[Chaco Taco]

I am all for a prethru Shakedown. I did 3 days on an exodus to Fontana and then thrued the park with some buddies. Best thing I could have done. I went to Springer having dumped 13 pounds. Made the start so much more fun! Have fun whatever you do. Solitude would be nice on the BMT, to prepare.

[stir crazy]

We did the approach trail and camped at mile marker 2.2 on the BMT. Got up the next morning and hiked back. Next little trip will be to get someone to drop us off where FS 42 intersects the BMT. We will do 3 days/2 nights and end up at Aska Rd. which is around 36 miles. That little hike will be in the next couple weeks. Finally, in a month or so, we are going to do a section hike from Reliance to Davenport Gap.

Question: How does the approach trail compare difficulty-wise with the rest of the BMT? Trying to get an idea what kind of pace we will set. We did those 10 miles in 6 hours with an hour break at Springer.

[SGT Rock]

It is about the same as the first 30 something miles of the BMT. After that you run into some road walks which will make some sections faster to travel. Other sections of the BMT up around Reliance are also smooth walking. But I think it averages out. There is a section between Unicoi Gap and Sledrunner Gap that kicked my but. And the section between Highway 60 and Skeena Gap Road has some bad climbs, but I hear they re-routed some of that.