Next Time We'll Wear Orange

A friend, that I have not seen in a few months, and I decided to take a trip into the woods last weekend.  We have frequented a local...well, a fairly local wildlife management area.  Labeled as a "Dog Training Area," after numerous trips to explore we have discovered nothing more than an old logging forest.  There is a main "road" that slowly branches into smaller "roads" and continues into smaller and smaller trails.  To the best of our guesses, and xylologists we are not, this particular area of the forest has not been logged in the last 5 to 10 years.  Therefore, the "roads" and trails are quite overgrown and only the largest are still discernible.  Stray from the trails and you can hike through the bush, off-trail, knowing that there are "roads" within two or three miles in any direction.

In the nine months that we have been exploring this area, once or twice a month at best, we have never seen anybody.  Besides a few bugs and squirrel or two, the wildlife has even been minimal.  A deer, a turkey vulture, and a turkey, all on different trips.  Needless to say, life has been sparse in this area of the forest.

We like to travel early, to get out into nature and perhaps see the sunrise,  but make it home before noon and still be able to get some things done.  The morning was a brisk 29 degrees with snow flurries on the way there and a relentless 15 to 20 mile per hour "breeze".  Many wonder why we do it.  Cold weather trips with snow and ice or warm weather trips with bugs and snakes and the answer is simple.  To enjoy nature, at any expense, even comfort.  We hiked for about an hour, making our way out and then starting back in when stopped to eat a snack and grab some water.

While resting I explained a survival fire technique that I had read about.  We decided to try it out on a smaller scale to see how easy it would be to build, and based on the details of the survival guide, how well it could be concealed when finished.  It involves a little bit of digging, so while I was preparing the fire starting portion of the project, my friend had fashioned a small shovel out of a small rock, a stick, and some paracord and began digging.  I was just about finished with the wood when he finished digging.  POW POW!  Two quick shots fired in the distance.  We froze.

"How far do you think?" he said.
"I don't know, what kind of gun do you think..."  POW POW
"Shotgun, double barrel," he said.
"Half-mile, maybe less."

We proceed to quickly pack our things back into our bags and headed for the truck.  I tied my red bandanna around my head and gave him my bright neon green camp seat and we set off.  20 yards into the hike...POW POW!  I had my survival kit with me which has a whistle, and we thought it would be a good idea to let someone know we where there.  One long blast and we started moving again.

Turns out that some hunters were there to train their dogs.  This section of forest allows you to release farm raised quail into the forest so your bird-dogs can learn how to get them flying and you can get some target practice.  I suppose it was naive to assume it was a place to bring your dog and teach him how to sit, or play dead.  But, perhaps it would be a good idea for the government owned property to be labeled as hunting grounds?

The two older gentlemen were very nice and chatted with us for a good 15 minutes.  We asked if people hunt here often and if he'd seen people hiking before.  He said people only hunt right there where we were parked and they aren't really hunting but training their dogs.  He was surprised to see hikers but always wondered why more people don't use the land.  WMA's are designated for hunting, camping, and hiking after all.  He did say that its used for hunting more in deer season.

We thanked him, wished him luck, and headed for home.  Future trips will include an orange hat or bandanna.  And we'll definitely go back soon.  After all, there is a hole in the ground and all the fixin's for a nice little fire just sitting out in the forest waiting.

Mud Tunnel

My wife and I, in an effort to save a little money, set out yesterday to attempt to take some pictures for our Christmas cards this year.  I'm no professional photographer, even though I would really love to be one, so my style and technique is certainly not anything to write home about.  Using a tripod really stifles the creativity that one can create when taking portraits.  Anyway, I'll save those for later in case we decide to actually use one of them for our cards, but I did take some pretty good shots of the wife while getting some lighting and other settings finalized.  I feel that they are decent enough to add to my "portfolio" for the day that I do decide to give photography a shot ;)

My friend Cooper, who seems to be able to find all the cool places to explore, had taken me to what he calls Mud Tunnel.  Its an old railroad tunnel that hasn't been used since the early 1970's, according the historical word of mouth explained to Coop.

As noted, this blog hasn't been updated in almost a year!  I'm hoping that will change.  I really enjoy writing and am always thinking of things that would be fun to write about, but then never pull the trigger.  Here's to an attempt and keeping it going this time.

AT + December = COLD!

This past weekend, the guys and I made a long overdue trip into the blustery North Georgia Mountains to, well, attempt (more on this later) to finish the first leg of the Appalachian Trail that we have not yet completed. Our "regular" crew is myself, Daniel, George, Cooper, and Jarrott. Jarrott couldn't make this trip due to an injured knee, so we brought Daniel's brother Michael and cousin Zach with us. With two weekend trips, one in April of 2007, the other in April of 2008, we have managed to traverse the AT in Georgia from Cooper Gap (#6 on the map) to Unicoi Gap (#20 on the map). Due to too many uncooperative schedules, we sadly were not able to organize our annual April trip in 2009. We finally made it happen the first week in December, hence the "long overdue" description above.

The biggest challenge to planning these trips is figuring out how, when, and where we can park our trucks. Unless you want to hike half the distance that can be covered in a weekend due to turning around and hiking back to our vehicles, these trips have to included the dreaded "Drop". Driving two trucks to the start of the hike, dropping everybody and their gear here to wait while the two drivers drive one truck to the end of the hike, drop it off, and then drive back. When the hike is over, the two drivers take the truck that was left at the end, and go back to retrieve the truck that was left at the start. I know, how many miles can one hike in a weekend, and how can that be such a huge problem when dropping and retrieving vehicles? Well, the mileage isn't the problem. To find almost all AT trailheads involves driving very slowly on minimally maintained forest service roads. So 20 miles one way turns into an hour or more of driving, that is, if there is an easy route to get from one end to the other. So this leaves the droppees sitting for at least two hours while the drop is made, then again when the droppers make the retrieval. Both situations, droppee and dropper, are no fun at all when you are excited and ready to be on the trail or exhausted and ready to be home.

Anyway, we decided to make a mini-drop this time, only 30 minutes of total wait time, starting at Cooper Gap (#6 again), this time heading southward to Springer Mountain (the little x between #2 and #3) then back to Hightower Gap (#5) to complete the section we have not done. This however did not happen. Due to a very late start on Friday night Saturday morning, we finally hit the trail at 12:30 am, and of course, we didn't get as far as we had planned for our night hike. Due to another late start on Saturday morning afternoon, we again didn't cover nearly as much distance as we had planned. Beyond the late starts, hiking up and down mountains in the cold is a much slower process than normal anyway. You have to move at a slower pace so that you won't sweat. Sweat and cold do not mix well at all.

Despite the fact that we didn't finish this leg of the trail, a great time was had by all. Here are some pictures from the adventure. I've been messing around with photoshop for years creating graphics and such, but finally decided to start teaching myself how to actually edit some photos. So some of the pictures have been edited, and some have not. All of the photos were taking using my phone, so the quality isn't superb.

Setting up camp during the late night/early morning hours while it was snowing was quite an experience. Before I went to bed my thermometer said it was 34 degrees. The view from the tent in the morning was awesome.




Hiking through the fog clouds on top of Sassafras Mountain Saturday afternoon.






We have passed many, eaten lunch in some, but this trip marked the first time we ever stayed the night in a trail shelter. This was the Hawk Mountain Shelter.


The temperature never made it above 36 on Saturday, and when I went to bed on Saturday night, my thermometer read 26 from inside the shelter. It was supposed to get into the low 20's that night, so with the 20-30 mph wind gusts, I would say it felt like it was about 10 outside. That meant the snow would still be there on the hike out Sunday morning, and low and behold, it was.

Hiking down Hawk Mountain