RATtreks

AT Work Trip – 7-10-2013

I was late this year in getting around to cutting the annual growth of my section of the Appalachian Trail. The forecast was not good but I have to go when my friend Doug Corkhill goes as he is gracious enough to drive out of his way to pick me up at my trail head (Spivey Gap) and ride with him to the top of Big Bald where his section begins to enable me to walk downhill and work my entire section one way. When we arrived on Big Bald it was already sprinkling light rain. This is never a good sign and even worse for Doug who was hoping to use his lawn mower to cut across the bald towards the shelter. The growth was jungle like since it had rained so much already this year and us getting a late start in the year also did not help things. The best part was that I had ample amount of helpers on this trip as my old friend Sam Kilby came and brought his weed eater, along with my son Tyler and my daughters boyfriend Mitch who were both using swing blades like myself. I did not take many pictures as it was fogged in the entire time and after we started our descent of Little Bald the thunder and lightning and heavy rains started. It rained on us almost the entire time. It was the hardest rain I have ever hiked in and keep in mind that I hiked North from Springer Mountain Georgia in 1991 and it rained for 12 of the 14 days and I was wetter on this work trip than I was the entire time in Georgia ! We did not let the extremely heavy rain defy us as we came to cut weeds and that`s exactly what we did, but it was a long hard and very wet day. I can not thank Sam enough because his weed eater really made a huge difference in getting as far as we did. We cut all the way to High Rocks (about 4 miles of trail) in the non stop pouring down rain with loud thunder and violent lightning the whole time. The trail was like a creek and was white capping over my boots pouring right down into them. I have never seen so much water on a trail and I have hiked in rain for over 30 years ! I was glad when it was finally over and we were back to the car but even happier that the weeds and growth was cut and all I would have to do is come back to finish from High Rocks to Spivey Gap hopefully in the next week or two.

Our view from the TN side of Little Bald (looking towards Flattop Mtn.)

Looking towards Flattop Mtn from TN side of Little Bald summit

Looking back at the summit of Little Bald and mangled path we just cut through the shoulder high growth

Looking down at the guys from the summit of Little Bald. Just after this the sky fell and I was unable to take any more pics. Camera got wet even in my pack and took 2 days to dry out.