jljmonky
08-08-2011, 13:14
New to the forum and the AT. Me and 3 friends are heading out Sunday to do Springer Mountain to Unicoi Gap. I am most concerned about water, heat and mosquitos.
Almost all the shelters supposedly have water along the way but there is an 18 (ish) mile section with unreliable water resources at the shelters. Are there other water sources in between?
Right now we are all planning to carry about 2 quarts of water (my purification tabs take about 4 hours to completely kill everything so one quart will be ready to drink while the other is purifying) and an empty 50 oz. bladder to fill just before hitting the long section.
How bad is the heat on these sections of the trail?
I have done summer in Georgia and worked my A$$ off while I was there, but I was at Ft. Benning at a much lower elevation and with little shade so I am expecting a week on the surface of the sun but will it really be that bad?
Are the bugs terrible at night? I have zero fear of bugs but I like to sleep. I am sacrificing some weight by taking a 2.5 lb tent instead of my tarp shelter (less than 1lb) in order to close out the biting little heathens, is that overkill?
I have gleaned a lot of information from this forum and am really looking forward to some responses to these specific questions.
Thanks
Almost all the shelters supposedly have water along the way but there is an 18 (ish) mile section with unreliable water resources at the shelters. Are there other water sources in between?
Right now we are all planning to carry about 2 quarts of water (my purification tabs take about 4 hours to completely kill everything so one quart will be ready to drink while the other is purifying) and an empty 50 oz. bladder to fill just before hitting the long section.
How bad is the heat on these sections of the trail?
I have done summer in Georgia and worked my A$$ off while I was there, but I was at Ft. Benning at a much lower elevation and with little shade so I am expecting a week on the surface of the sun but will it really be that bad?
Are the bugs terrible at night? I have zero fear of bugs but I like to sleep. I am sacrificing some weight by taking a 2.5 lb tent instead of my tarp shelter (less than 1lb) in order to close out the biting little heathens, is that overkill?
I have gleaned a lot of information from this forum and am really looking forward to some responses to these specific questions.
Thanks