So, my gf and I are planning a hike for Labor Day Week/end. We were planning a 5 day hike starting at Amicalola and finishing at Neels Gap. We have decided to extend our hiking days to 9 days.
We will still start at Amicalola and are planning on hitting Black Gap Shelter or Springer Mtn Shelter on day 1, day 2 to Hawk Mtn Shelter, day 3 to Gooch Mtn Shelter, and day 4 to Wood Hole Shelter. On day 5 we will stop at Neels Gap and shower, wash up our hiking clothes, restock our food supplies and maybe pick up some more gear. We would like to take a minute to look around at some of the gear and talk with some people, grab something to eat and then get back on the trail and make it to Bull Gap and stay at the campground on the 5th night. Question about the campground (Bull Gap Campground), is this a campground where we would have to make reservations or pay? If so we were thinking about maybe stealth camping somewhere round abouts here. (Is that legal?)
From there were not sure. I would really love to make it to the GA/NC border but I dont think we want to push that much. I was wondering about this: day 6 to Low Gap Shelter, day 7 to Rocky MTN Campground (and if so is this another reservation/pay site, or how about the stealth camping?) and on day 8 to Deep Gap Shelter. On day 9 we would need to catch a ride back to Amicalola, so we were thinking about hitting Dicks Creek Gap to catch that ride on day 9. Of course this leg (from Neels Gap on) is not finalized, we are asking for some input on this part of the trail!
We were thinking we could set up a ride for our end destination while we were at Walasi-Yi on day 5. Would that be an ok time frame to try to set up a ride, or should we begin our search before this time?
Thanks for any info, we will gladly take all that is given!!
So heres a rough breakdown with daily mileages:
(Based on 2009 Thru Hikers Companion)
Day 1: Amicalola to Springer Mtn Shelter: 9 miles
Day 2: SMS to Hawk Mtn Shelter: 7.6 miles
Day 3: HMS to Gooch Mtn Shelter: 7.3 miles
Day 4: GMS to Woods Hole Shelter: 11.9 miles
Day 5: WHS to Bull Gap Campground: 4.8 miles
Day 6: BGC to Low Gap Shelter: 9.7 miles
Day 7: LGS to Rocky Mtn Campground: 10.7 miles
Day 8: RMC to Deep Gap Shelter: 11.8 miles
Day 9: DGS to Dicks Creek Gap: 3.5 miles
This is a total of 76.3 miles over 9 days. Also we are newbie hikers. This will be our first real hike, other than day hikes we have done around our hometown.
Any comments or suggestions on this would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!