Appalachian Trail in GA – Tesnatee Gap to Neel Gap – 9/18/20 - 6 Miles
With cooler weather coming up, I turned my attention to closing my gap of the Georgia section of the Appalachian Trail. Just 3-4 days of hiking would get me to the southern terminus at Springer Mountain. It’s a long, long way from my home in Charlotte, NC, but I didn’t have enough days set aside to hike it in one go, so I divided the miles into two trips (yes, driving twice as much, but sometimes that’s just how it is.)
My hiking buddy Cathy, veteran of many adventures, had hiked this section long ago and was most recently working on completing the trail in the northern states. She’s always willing to help someone else, though, and joined me for two days in Georgia. We drove four hours to Neel Gap and poked our heads in at the Mountain Crossings store. I was disappointed to see that people there were definitely unconcerned about COVID – we were the only two people wearing masks, including employees and bikers and girlfriends. Didn’t stay long.
Since Cathy and I were traveling in one car, I arranged to meet a shuttle driver at 1:00 pm at Byron Reece trailhead to take us to Tesnatee Gap (no parking allowed at Mountain Crossings). The driver asked if we preferred that she wear a mask as we drove. Yes, thank you! So far there was one sensible person in Georgia.
From Tesnatee Gap we hiked 6 miles southbound back to Neel Gap. You’re thinking, “Well, dang, that’s a pretty short hike!” True, but we had planned around the four-hour drive and then setting up a campsite, so we didn’t want to stress about long miles.
I was mentally stoked to knock out these miles on the magical AT and we had a beautiful day of easy hiking. Take a look:
Wolf Laurel Top, campsites with a view
Cathy in the green tunnel
Reserving a campsite in the area was a challenge. The world had decided that outside was a good place to be during the pandemic (true) and October has always been a great time to be in the Georgia mountains. Vogel State Park was booked solid, but I scored a campsite at Lake Winfield Scott Campground. When we arrived at our site, though, a young couple with their dog were all set up there with a nice fire going. We said hello and politely explained that we had a reservation and my name was on the site tag. The poor guy guy had read the numbers wrong, but the good news was they did still have a site. We took a scenic drive around the campground area while they packed up. No hard feelings!
Cathy and I are pretty minimalist even when car camping, so the fire was a bonus for us. We’d brought Subway subs for lunch and dinner, so no fuss with cooking. We sat at our picnic table, drank ciders, and enjoyed the fire glow. When we went to the bathhouse, it was pretty darn dark!
I pitched my 3-man Fly Creek backpacking tent by Big Agnes, very comfy and roomy, first time using it. (Yes, 3-man, so Jim and I can backpack together in comfort.) Cathy had her identical 2-man version, the very one that Jim and I used at Cumberland Island that I fell out of and broke the tent pole…but that is another story.
Sweet dreams indeed.
"I cannot make my days longer
so I strive to make them better.”
~Henry David Thoreau
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