Day one on the Appalachian Trail

This past weekend, Michael and I enjoyed a two day backpacking trip on the Appalachian Trail.

We left our truck and met our “shuttle driver” at our destination (Dick’s Creek Gap) and were driven into southern North Carolina to Deep Gap.  We donned our backpacks at  9:40 and headed off for our adventure……

The first part was hard for me….first of all, I was worried about whether or not I would be able to make it thru the entire trip.  Also, the trail was fairly rocky and was covered in wet leaves, making it really slippery.   I was SO happy to realize that we had covered the first mile…that was truly a milestone for me!!!

I loved these leaves that were tucked away under a tree and were still covered with frost.  I really like how the veins are so well defined…..

We had to be careful to stay on the trail and not end up on a side trail, but fortunately most of those were pretty well marked……

The foliage varied through out the trip, including several Rhododendron tunnels….

We stopped for lunch at 12:05 at Muskrat Creek Shelter (about 4 miles into the hike) and decided to break out the stove and make some Cup-A-Soup.

We were interested in the table inside the shelter.  You could easily see where so many hikers had set up their stoves …..

The leaves were beautiful, however there were not a lot of good overlooks.  This was about the best one that we passed…..

We reached the North Carolina / Georgia border and had to take a photo of the famous “Twisted Tree”……

We stopped at our campsite about 3:30…..9.1 miles since we started this morning!!!   Michael started setting up our camp……

……first getting a rope into a tree to hold our food bag up away from any roving bears…..

Next was to re-fill our water bottles from the water source…..if that is what you would call this tiny trickle of water coming from a pipe……

Michael was able to use our filtration system to dip water out of the pool at the base of the drip.   It came out looking like this……

GROSSS!!!    But, after putting it thru the filter, it comes out looking like this…..

MUCH better!!!

Next was to get the tent set up…..

…..and inflate the sleeping pads.   Our friend, Lyn, had given us this wonderful invention to use to blow up the pad.   You simply blow into this tube a few times, attach it to the pad and roll up the bag to inflate the pad……

SO much easier than having to blow it up manually!!!!  

Michael got out the stove and cooked up a Rice, Brocolli and Cheese dinner for us……

By this time we were so tired that we simply hung the food in the tree, and crawled into bed…..it was 6:30!!!!

The night passed slowly, mainly because our tent was on a slight slant and we both kept sliding to the end of the tent.  It was fun to listen to the silence in the woods, with occasional interruptions from Owls, Hawks and other birds.  Fortunately, we were NOT visited by bears!!!!

Day two to come……