Quick trip report March 15th Springer to Neels

[Gambit McCrae]

Wanted to share my experience for the first AT trip of the year.
Where: Springer nobo to Neels (Total 33.3 miles for the trip)
When: March 15th to March 17th (Friday night to Sunday)
Who:Gambit and his good hiking buddy
Why: To see what the hussle and bussle is all about in the Middle of March in Georgia

Conclusion: I used Ron Brown for my shuttle from Byron Reece Trailhead to Springer. Pickup time was 8:30pm. Ron has no cutoff on shuttle times, and no shortage of breath when it comes to talking. The man talked for an hour and half straight mostly about how his transmission was giving out on him. Ron has logged over a million miles shuttling hikers and says hese gunna take every shuttle he can until he physically cant do it any longer. Ron had lots of opinions about us getting on the trail as follows:
Need to carry extra water bc there was a water shortage in that section: False, Water was flowing out of every crack and cranny the entire way. I carried 1 liter for the entirety of the trip other then 2 liters for dry camping.
Did you bring a bear canister? Gotta have one for this stretch: False, Only need it for the last 7 miles of the trip, in which we were not wanting to camp on.

Anyways, I digress, I guess in conclusion to the shuttle: Ron will get ya from point a to b with good communication prior to shuttle and at a reasonable price

We arrived at springer mountain trailhead at about 10:30pm...BRRR. Mad dash up to the summit, take picture, back down we go and on our way to Stover creek camp site(Just before shelter). Get there and have some good conversation over a couple BL's and off to bed at midnight.

Up at 8:30! late sleepers we are. On trail at 9. Stover Creek Shelter was full the night before and full of tents. Expecting this we stopped at the creek .1 before the shelter, it was empty - no problem finding a tent spot as soon as we wanted it Friday night.

Saturday - Made it to Gooch Gap Shelter at about 3pm. Prior to Gooch Gap Shelter we had experienced trail magic at Hightower gap that consisted of bottled water and colas. And then again at Horse Gap that was a full spread: Campfire, sandwiches, colas, cookies etc. I had a bottle of water that first, and a sandwich and lots of other goodies at Horse gap. I was starving and appreciated the food fuel up. At Gooch Shelter we caught wind of a St patties day party at Gooch Gap, and with 4 hours of daylight left we were both ready to push on. We arrived to gooch gap shelter to the sound of music and laughter. We were offered a cold busch light and some cookies. Miss Janet was pulling up just as we were heading out, I had never seen her so that was fun. After partaking in beverages and cookies we were off again. Made it up to MM 18.6 Saturday night and camped at an outstanding tent site with a great view along with 4 other hikers. 2 of those hikers were hammock hanging on their first night of a week long trip. The next morning they both reported it was the coldest night of their life and they had to make a change and neel gap.

Sunday we hiked on to woody gap where we experienced trail magic #4 of the trip. Hot fire and breakfast hot dogs. After a hot dog we were back on our way. I would say the toughest part of this stretch was from Woody to Neels. Just IMO.

We probably saw, and passed 150+ thru hikers. Never did I feel there were too many people out on the trail, never did I feel that there wasn't space for everyone but yes the trail was busy. And yes the shelter sights most definitely attracted all the hikers. Gooch Gap Shelter was like a magnet Saturday night. So if you choose to camp away from the shelters, you wouldn't even know it was thru hiker season in the area.

In all actuality the climb up Blood mountain NOBO was 10 fold easier than when I did this trip sobo. I was to the top in 10-15 minutes from slaughter creek with minimal huffing and puffing. That being said, I definitely felt the winter fat this this trip and for all the climbs except blood, I huffed and puffed. The whole time thinking, I better be in better shape before the whites or that trip is not going to go well. That happens every year though, first trip is a huffer puffer and every trip after gets a little easier and easier.

If others who are new to hiking were planning to do this trip I would suggest 2.5 days instead of the 1.5 that I did it in.

[illabelle]

Brings back memories....

[beefsmack]

Great trip report. Thanks for sharing.

[peakbagger]

I always get a kick about the "arduous killer climb up Blood Mountain" pretty much just a blip compared to the local trails in my backyard in northern NH

Sound like you had fun.

Generally shuttle drivers don't have PHDs, nor do they need them. If they are reliable, sober, insured with a reliable vehicle everything else is superfluous. Many of them I have met have never really hiked they just found a need that they can make a buck on and supply it where others are not and therefore any trail commentary needs to be filtered realizing its a non hiker relaying older information.

[Gambit McCrae]

I always get a kick about the "arduous killer climb up Blood Mountain" pretty much just a blip compared to the local trails in my backyard in northern NH

Sound like you had fun.

Generally shuttle drivers don't have PHDs, nor do they need them. If they are reliable, sober, insured with a reliable vehicle everything else is superfluous. Many of them I have met have never really hiked they just found a need that they can make a buck on and supply it where others are not and therefore any trail commentary needs to be filtered realizing its a non hiker relaying older information.

After the last 1 week trip being the rocky Pa and the 2 week trip before that being northern Mass and all of VT it baffled me how smooth and calm the trail was down there. I had forgotten when smooth trail looked like lol

[LittleRock]

Sunday we hiked on to woody gap where we experienced trail magic #4 of the trip.
We probably saw, and passed 150+ thru hikers.

The # of hikers wouldn't bother me, but 4 trail magic events in 20-ish miles, seriously?!?

I saw a total of 2 thru-hikers (SOBO, obviously) on that section in early Oct. No trail magic.

[trailmercury]

The # of hikers wouldn't bother me, but 4 trail magic events in 20-ish miles, seriously?!?

I saw a total of 2 thru-hikers (SOBO, obviously) on that section in early Oct. No trail magic.

Those are a crucial 20 miles if the desire is to thrust magic on as many aspiring thrus as possible, because a good chunk will quit a Neels anyway

[Slo-go'en]

Nice trip Gambit. 2.5 days is a lot easier. Wait. You got to the FS42 parking lot at 10:30 PM, tagged Springer and went to Stover creek and there were people still up to talk to? Yikes. Must have been close to midnight by the time you got there. Well, I guess it is mostly down hill...

Justus Mountain is the one most people curse at, after having just done Sassafras and it being their second day out. Or maybe 3d.

So, out of those 150 + people you saw, how many do you think will get very far?

[LittleRock]

After re-reading Gambit's post this morning I think it would be fun to try night hiking with the bubble in March.

Leave camp around 7 PM, hike all night, stop at breakfast time. Sleep during the warmest part of the day, and have the trail mostly to yourself. Might even see some wildlife.

[Gambit McCrae]

Nice trip Gambit. 2.5 days is a lot easier. Wait. You got to the FS42 parking lot at 10:30 PM, tagged Springer and went to Stover creek and there were people still up to talk to? Yikes. Must have been close to midnight by the time you got there. Well, I guess it is mostly down hill...

Justus Mountain is the one most people curse at, after having just done Sassafras and it being their second day out. Or maybe 3d.

So, out of those 150 + people you saw, how many do you think will get very far?

We did get to FS42 at 10:30 tagged sign and turned around and headed to the creek just before Stover creek shelter, about .1 south of the shelter. Only person I talk to that night was my hiking buddy. I anticipated the shelter and area around it would be full and we learned the next morning that it indeed was full. The tent site .1 from it had no one in it.

This trip taught me how the word perspective fits into the hiking world. To someone just starting out on the AT, springer to neels could be considered hard. Now with having done 80% of the trail, my perspective is that if I was not fat from being lazy all winter this trip would have been a breeze. My buddy, much more fit then I and only weighing 140lbs (Im 212lbs), didn't have to take a single break on the trip. I had to take a couple standing breathers along the way, about 1 per climb and none on Blood (I think my breathing was getting used to it by then). But it was noticeable in most that the trip had already been more then they had bargained for.

How many will get very far....I saw a pretty good spread of hikers where the if we we could look at it from a couple perspectives.

The Crawfords really broke some barriers last year. I saw 2 families with more then 2 kids thru hiking. 1 of those families looked promising, the other....Well IMO they wont make it out of GA. At horse gap they were already a "SS".

Body: From very skinny to one ol boy that was probably pushing 400 with a pack to match. Coming up out of horse gap I took a break at the top and he would walk about 3 steps and take a 1 min break, repeat.

Age: I saw a boy as young 2-3 and I saw 3 hikers that were 70+(only 1 of which I can confirm was thru hiking and HE had more promise of success then 99% of the people I saw).

Gear: Lots of cheap stuff. No name gear, huge, huge packs that made my back hurt. Lots of blue tarps. Lots of brand new, leather, cheap looking boots. I saw 1-2 other zpacks duplex's and 1 HMG backpack, and 1 ULA. Other then that it was Osprey, Gregory or some probably amazon knockoff. HYOH but it is a factual statement that I saw a lot of people making it very difficult on themselves. At the same time, if you don't think your gunna make it then why dump 2.5k on gear just to quit in GA?

Trash: Trail was actually still very clean. Saw maybe 3-4 small items of trash that looks to be older then the last couple weeks.

The hikers that I asked what thru hiker # they were from the 880 to 980 range.

Pace: I know of 2 hikers that started last Wednesday and 1 had made it to Horse Gap(the 400 lbs guy) and the other I met at slaughter creek on Sunday. 4 & 5 days on trail when I spoke to them.

[Slo-go'en]

Quite the eye opener, eh Gambit? A thousand people already on the trail. How do those "trail angles" afford to feed them all as they go by?

Having started my hiking carrier in the White mountains, when I finally went south I was amazed at how easy the trail was. When I did the climb out of NOC, everyone was like "that was really hard". I was like, you thought that was hard?

Yep, the first hike of the season takes a bit of extra effort. I got about 3 weeks left to get ready for mine. The trails around here are getting real icy and real slushy, so it might mean just walking up and down the road.

[JC13]

Nice trip Gambit. 2.5 days is a lot easier. Wait. You got to the FS42 parking lot at 10:30 PM, tagged Springer and went to Stover creek and there were people still up to talk to? Yikes. Must have been close to midnight by the time you got there. Well, I guess it is mostly down hill...

Justus Mountain is the one most people curse at, after having just done Sassafras and it being their second day out. Or maybe 3d.

So, out of those 150 + people you saw, how many do you think will get very far?

The trail is still re-routed around Justus to allow the trail to heal. I remember it being a beast with a 50 lb pack and a 90 degree day.

[cneill13]

Nice trip report. It will be even more crowded over the next two weeks in that section. As much as everyone talks about Blood Mountain, I actually think Sassafras is harder heading north. And then you have to hump over Justice. A combo-double punch.

While never a thru-hiker so I am a bit biased, I think the "Trail Magic" is getting a bit over the top. I camped on top of Tray Mountain last weekend coming in from Unicoi Gap. There was a complete spread with grills at Unicoi, another similar spread 3 miles north at Indian Grave Gap. And finally another table (sans the grill) at Tray Mountain gap.

I have been hiking the Georgia AT for many years and I have never seen it like this.

[stephanD]

Nice trip report. It will be even more crowded over the next two weeks in that section. As much as everyone talks about Blood Mountain, I actually think Sassafras is harder heading north. And then you have to hump over Justice. A combo-double punch.

While never a thru-hiker so I am a bit biased, I think the "Trail Magic" is getting a bit over the top. I camped on top of Tray Mountain last weekend coming in from Unicoi Gap. There was a complete spread with grills at Unicoi, another similar spread 3 miles north at Indian Grave Gap. And finally another table (sans the grill) at Tray Mountain gap.

I have been hiking the Georgia AT for many years and I have never seen it like this.

This's no trail magic, this is hiker feed. two different things.

[Gambit McCrae]

The # of hikers wouldn't bother me, but 4 trail magic events in 20-ish miles, seriously?!?

I saw a total of 2 thru-hikers (SOBO, obviously) on that section in early Oct. No trail magic.

You got a bunch of unrelated groups all choosing to go out and help hikers, the number of occurrences wasn't strategic, just coincidence due to the season.

This's no trail magic, this is hiker feed. two different things.

Tomato tomahto isn't it? It was everyone having a good time, and not a single hiker walked by without saying something positive and partaking. There were ample trash bags for trash, they even were asking to take hikers trash which as an end result kept trash off the trail. Hikers would stop, partake, and move on. I saw no negatives in the trail magic, if you didn't care to partake, it took no more energy from you to keep on moving.

[ldsailor]

In all actuality the climb up Blood mountain NOBO was 10 fold easier than when I did this trip sobo.

I did a LASH in 2016 from Springer in the bubble and remember vividly how everyone was obsessing about Blood Mountain. I thought Sassafras was much more difficult. Last year, I did a LASH from PA to and through the White Mountains and now laugh at what I thought was a difficult part of the trail in the south.

[QuietStorm]

Brings back memories of last November. Ron drove me then as well--not the most punctual shuttle driver but certainly entertaining. My last weekend south was November 10-11 from Hogpen Gap to Springer Mountain, and then back down to the parking lot for the 12+ hour drive home to Baltimore. The adrenaline of finishing the southern AT got me as far as about Winchester, VA and then after that it was one Red Bull after another.

[evyck da fleet]

I hiked from Neels to Woody Saturday morning and saw more dayhikers on the trail then thru hikers until I finished. There was a hiker feed at Woody Gap and there were a ton of thrus around a camp fire behind the two feed tents. It’s amazing how much of the bubble you can miss by avoiding blue blazes to shelters.

Camp near but not at Stover on your first night and you can avoid an entire day of shelter bound thru hikers.

[Slo-go'en]

Sounds like these hiker feeds are seriously slowing down peoples progress and create mini bubbles when everyone suddenly realizes they had best get moving.

[Gambit McCrae]

I hiked from Neels to Woody Saturday morning and saw more dayhikers on the trail then thru hikers until I finished. There was a hiker feed at Woody Gap and there were a ton of thrus around a camp fire behind the two feed tents. It’s amazing how much of the bubble you can miss by avoiding blue blazes to shelters.

Camp near but not at Stover on your first night and you can avoid an entire day of shelter bound thru hikers.

We probably passed eachother

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