[at-l] 12/30/03 Spur hikes to Springer for New Years--Justus Mtn

[spurhiker at pocketmail.com (spurhiker@pocketmail.com)]

Rain pours down hard till past midnight. Amazingly, the air grows warmer, reaching almost 50 degrees, and I have to shed my long pants which I was wearing inside my sleeping bag. By 1 AM the rain stops completely, but now it begins to grow cold again.

The other 4 guys in the shelter wake up sporadically during the night and carry on spirited conversations with one another. As dawn approaches, everyone seems afflicted by the cold, which has dipped into the high 20s. By now I have on both sweaters plus a fleece vest over my T-shirt. I'm warm enough, but barely.

Around 5 AM, Charlie leaves his tent and enters the shelter's cooking porch and fires up his stove. He must've gotten cold inside the tent.

When I wake up a little after 7 AM, I motivate to get up and start packing. The others begin stirring also. When I take my foodbag down from the bear cable, I find it's covered in ice.

I mix up my liquid breakfast while Russell lights their stove. Austin struggles to get a campfire started, but the wind is blowing so hard he can't keep a match burning long enough to light anything. He finally gives up in despair.

Around 8 AM, while Charlie's striking
his tent, I set out through the cold. I stop at the spring and fill a bottle of water to have with lunch. It's a great spring, water spilling right out of a boulder on the side of a steep mtn.

The wind is blowing ferociously, as it did most of the night after the rain ended. Clouds overhead are rushing south as if in a huge hurry to get some place warmer.

I hustle along trying to warm up. Eventually a nice little climb up Gaddis Mtn does the trick. After a sharp descent into Jarrard Gap, there's another warming climb up Burnett Field Mtn.

When I reach the lee side of the mtn, which also happens to be the sunny side, things really begin to feel warmer and I start shedding excess clothing.

By the time I reach Deacon Rock near the summit of Big Cedar Mtn, I'm down to a single sweater and shorts, plus my gloves and a headband for my ears. It's past 11 now and the wind has died completely, so I decide to sit and eat lunch here, one of my favorite spots on the southern AT.

The huge slab of exposed granite on which I'm sitting affords a splendid view of the Blue Ridge Mtns looking southward. The cold front plus the morning's high winds have chased away all the haze which usually plagues the view here, and I can see countless ridges and peaks leading to the distant horizon.

It's a nice time to relax and just enjoy the stillness and silence, especially after the night's relentless storm. It was great fortune to make it to the shelter last night before the storm hit, and even better that it passed before it was time to resume hiking today.

Around noon I pack up and head down the mtn to cover the final mile to Woody Gap, where the trail crosses US 60. This is the very spot I first camped on the AT as a Boy Scout back around 1960, after hiking here from Neels Gap with my Scout troop. There was no paved parking lot here then, and we camped right next to the highway.

Two guys are sitting with their packs at one of the picnic tables, waiting for a ride back to civilization after their 28-mile hike from Amicalola Falls. They rode out the storm last night in the Gooch Mtn Shelter.

Around 1 PM I cross the road and meander along pleasant sidecut trail, with a brief climb up Ramrock Mtn, then a couple miles further to the forest service road at Gooch Gap.

I'm determined to detect where the new trail relocation departs from the old trail near here on its way to the new Gooch Mtn Shelter. I intend to take the old route and cross Blackwell Creek near a campsite I remember from past hikes through here.

Somehow the hidden junction escapes me though, and I find myself winding along more nice newly-cut trail past the new shelter. I step across Blackwell Creek at its new crossing, and will have to wait for another time to search for the old route. They've done a nice job blending the new trail with the old.

I meet several small groups of young hikers obviously on their way to the Gooch Mtn Shelter. I plan to collect water at Justus Creek, then hike till about 5 PM, or as far as my legs will carry me. It's just past 4 PM when I reach the water source, so I'm on track now for about a 14-mile day.

The next mile is an arduous 900-foot climb over Phyliss Spur and up Justus Mtn. I've consumed all of today's snack allocation, and my energy is starting to run on empty. I'm glad when I finally reach the Justus summit, where I wander around bushwhacking looking for a good tentsite.

There's very little level ground here, and most of it is right on the AT, which follows the ridgecrest. Finally I choose a spot just as the sun is sinking below the horizon, which grows first orange, then pink as I pitch the tent and start supper. The pleasant 45 degree temperature in which I've been hiking drops quickly to 30 degrees.

I cook sitting under the vestibule, the tent behind me blocking the wind. A half moon lights up the forest, while coyotes howl in the distance.

2003 ends tomorrow. What better place to be than roaming the ridges, headed for that special place, Springer Mtn?
--Spur 
http://www.artofthetrail.com


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