Nth GA AT Trip

Well a buddy if mine and I had a segment trip planned for the 2 days after the XMAS weekend, ****'s Creek to Bly Gap and back. Everyone in ATL was excited about the white Xmas we recieved:D. It was a nice 2-3 inches for everyone. Once we got on the Hwy coming west out of Clayton we realized we had not prepared enough for the acumulation of snow in the Nth GA mnts:(. Hitting the trail we could see that at least two other crazies were headed to NC from the ****'s creek parking lot. Couple miles in we ran into the other two guys on the way back out. They made it to the Plumb Orchard Shelter in the dark the night before and **** near froze. They said they were headed 80 miles to TN and were to under geared to go any further. Well we made it to the shelter and saw one reason they stopped, waist deep snow in GA (E-Yuck) on the trail passed the turn off for the shelter.

First really cold hang I have attempted since getting back into backpacking. Had a ENO double nest and since I have not purchased a 0 or 10 degree bag, I took my 15% down bag and my 25% lightweight mummy along with a green coleman eggcrate pad. The temp got to 18% at 10pm and we decieded to move into the shelter in case the wind kicked up. The shelter is one of the better ones here in GA and the Slap Strap Pros game in handy to tie off to the framing timbers. My buddy is still using a net style hammock and the cords were to short to tie off to anything, so he ended up on the deck. I carry a sheet of building wrap(Tyvek) with me me for rain, and it worked well as a VBL and I definitally had a warm sleep. Glad we used the shelter, might be ready to try it outside next time.

Sorry no pictures, I dropped my camera(caribiner flipped open) on the way in. Really nice guy named Peter found it and carried it to me at the shelter. Said it was laying there on the side of the trail. Cannot believe I got it back. Trail folk are the best:D.

Congrats on a successful trip. Trips like that will be remembered forever.

Welcome! Sounds like a memorable trip for sure!
Crazy how there was waist deep snow there

Good deal on the camera getting returned :)

Our comment on the deep snow was "what is that" Both of us have been in deep snow but I could not believe I was lookinig at it in GA. I was thankful that the 2 guys had broke the trail for us. Following the AT in deep snow would have added a extra challenge to the trip. I am sure that it would have been real interesting up at Winding Stair for them. Hopefully I can find a set of used gaiters at REIs "2nds sale"

Just glad the camera dropped off on the trail and not into a snowbank.

Thanks for the welocome, I like this site and will enjoy all the stories and DIY stuff.

A note about getting lost cameras back. My grandson lost his camera in April just before Damascus on his attempted thru. A nice lady (HokieHikerGirl) found it and had been trying to track down the owner since mid April. I ran across her post about it on whiteblaze a few weeks ago and it indeed was my grandson's. She sent it to him with all of his photos from Fontana to Erwin. Trail folk are the best indeed.

Very interesting trip thanks for sharing.