AT Springer Mt. to NC border in Sept, Oct?

[Poppa Yeti]

Dear Friends:

I am planning to hike the AT from the southern terminus to the North Carolina border (Blue Ridge Gap or Deep Gap) in late September or October... I have hiked about 450 miles on the Florida Trail, but none in the mountains. Does anyone have any advice? Are there places along the trail where one may charge a cell phone? How IS the cellular reception, anyway? What is the temperature and rain like?

ANY advice will be much appreciated!

Hike On,

Keith

[FlyPaper]

Dear Friends:

I am planning to hike the AT from the southern terminus to the North Carolina border (Blue Ridge Gap or Deep Gap) in late September or October... I have hiked about 450 miles on the Florida Trail, but none in the mountains. Does anyone have any advice? Are there places along the trail where one may charge a cell phone? How IS the cellular reception, anyway? What is the temperature and rain like?

ANY advice will be much appreciated!

Hike On,

Keith

Deep Gap, NC is the first place to get off the trail after crossing into NC. It is about 7 miles past the border.

(See http://www.atdist.com/atdist?k1=AA&k2=AV&h=e3da988d&year=2012)

I can't tell you where you can charge your phone. Probably there aren't many places. But in general, we had pretty good coverage when using the Verizon network. Other carriers generally won't work.

(If you don't have verizon, you can get a prepaid phone from TracFone that uses the Verizon network. JUST MAKE SURE the phone is CDMA. Dealers mostly push the GSM variants of Tracfone, which have poor coverage). You probably would need to go to the tracfone website to get a CDMA phone since all the retailers try to sell the inferior GSM phones.

Although not an easy section of trail, it is not the hardest section either. The trail is maintained very well in Georgia, and the footing is very good. I would think October/November would be ideal for Georgia as far as weather goes, as a matter of fact, I'll be there in early October. Also, the shelters have enough camping space to handle the glut of through hikers that come through every spring. But in the fall, there are a lot fewer hikers and thus the space to camp is ample.

[bloodmountainman]

Dear Friends:

I am planning to hike the AT from the southern terminus to the North Carolina border (Blue Ridge Gap or Deep Gap) in late September or October... I have hiked about 450 miles on the Florida Trail, but none in the mountains. Does anyone have any advice? Are there places along the trail where one may charge a cell phone? How IS the cellular reception, anyway? What is the temperature and rain like?

ANY advice will be much appreciated!

Hike On,

Keith
Allow seven to nine days. Get water when you come up on it. Charge cell phone @ Neel Gap...aka Mountain Crossing store. Cell phones work sometimes on the high ridges ( don't know how well because I've never used one). Temps will be in the 40's or 30's at night. Day time highs between 65 to 80. Always a chance for rain in the hills.

[mmorgan]

I will be heading to that area from South Florida in October. No dates yet, but it will be in the middle of the month most likely. I did the Falls to Neels last year in Oct. and it was great. Going from Neels to NC this year. Water was a little sparse but could be found. The temps were warm the first few days but the day after I got off they had snow flurries just north of Neels. The trail is not crowded. I called home from Springer and again from Neels, don't know about reception between there because I never turned the phone on. I sleep cold so I bring a 20 degree bag, but that was overkill except for the last night which was rainy and cold. I can't wait for October!

[Praha4]

I live in NW Florida and hike the Fla Trail sections around here often. My advice is try to do some kind of hill training before you go, incline treadmills, staircases, anything to strengthen your legs for hills. The AT is much, much more difficult than the FT. Be patient the first few days, it will take some time to acclimate to the hills. You'll see 30s-40s at night, 50s to 80s daytime. And a very, very good possibility of some storm fronts during that time period, with lots of wind and rain. As Andrew Skurka wrote in his book, the worst weather for hikers is 35 degrees and rain. Shelters should be readily available. And peak color changes in north GA are the last 2 weeks October to 1st week of Nov. It should be great for hiking that time of year. I hiked that section in Oct-Nov 2009, and it felt like hiking on a blanket of leaves, the rocks/roots were hidden by the leaves much of the trail, so watch your footing.

Verizon and AT&T have good reception in north GA, but don't use TMobile, they are bad up there.

have a great hike!

[MkBibble]

I did that hike two years ago in the first week of October; it stormed every day and got progressively colder, but it was still a GREAT trip! I certainly had the trail to myself and (lack of) water was NOT a problem. :)

[jwalton]

Just to be safe, wear some orange hunter's gear. I don't know the exact dates of hunting season, nor the locations (WMA's). Just be safe.