Awesome and what a great experience that you will never forget. I'm planning on doing the AT again in 5 years and taking my family. I really dig the colors, the fog, and those shots of the snow covered trees. When did you begin/end? What would you bring/do differently?
Great pictures and thanks for sharing!
I began april 1st and ended on the 24th or 25th I believe.
The only thing I wished I had was maybe a micro fleece during the first week, however having said that I didnt neccesarily need it but it wouldve made life more comfortable during the one crazy freeze we had. I was always able to get warm dry fed and hydrated and stay that way at the end of every day. Sometimes when your dialing in lightweight equipment it pays to go all the way to the "edge" then back up just a hair. Lol. Its easy to try to keep pack weight down on a long hike and wind up leaving something possibly important behind. Its a thin line between a heavy pack and underpreparedness. The closer it is to winter on either side the thinner that line becomes.
I also might wouldve experimented with an alcohol stove from the start as the fuel is more widely available. Generaly though I was pretty happy comfortable and safe with minimal gear.
Youre welcome! I glad folks seem to be enjoyig the pics! I hope you get to hike again in 5 years. It does get into ones blood doesnt it.
Was the snow there from the winter or a snow event that just happened? The pictures are nice and you put a lot of effort into the slide show. Thanks.
There was snow already on the ground around 4800 (ish) feet. Up at roan high knob shelter where I spent the night, just over 6000' I believe, it was like an ice chute getting up and down the mountain. Where people had pushed through the fresh snow for the previous several days had thawed/ frozen ...thawed / frozen ...repeat, until the trail was a treacherous smorgousboard of slick rock slick ice slick footprints and partial icy slushy frozen slickness. lol
The next day started with about 2 hours of pre freeze rain and sleet which got us about wetted out, then the temps dropped drastically and it was basically an ice/snow storm lasting into into the night. It got pretty hairy really. My Marmot jacket and pack cover were completely frozen in scaly sheets of ice. One of the young ladys at Overmountain shelter that evening had managed to save a roughly helmet shaped piece of ice from the hood of her jacket. If you were to hang a jacket in a meat freezer and then spend the next 6 hours misting water on it from a spray bottle, you would get similar results I think. It was pretty exciting to say the least. Thankfully because it was lots of mixed precip instead of just snow, accumulation was minimal and we were all able to hike out to the city of Roan Mountain the next day.
The Mantra became "Move or die" and the rules were Dont step on rocks.....any, rocks. Dont step on old footprints. Dont step on clearish looking snowy spots. Dont step on THE GROUND if you can help it.
Coming down into the valley several thousand feet later, the weather was clearing and the warm up into the low 40's felt like heaven. Things were beginning to bud, birds were singing, and the sun finally came out, compelling a few of us to chill out by a creek and soak up those wonderful rays.
I think thats part of the magic of being out there. The hard times and seperation from comfort makes simple things soooo much richer. When youve been freezing for 3-4 days and the sun finally comes out and you feel warm and alive again is definetely one of those times. Another one was the massive Bacon cheesburger I finally managed to get at the "Dairy King" in Damascus. Whens the last time any of us were elated about a cheesburger
