A Small Portion of the Appalachian Trail for #wednesdaywalk {Woody Gap to Preacher Rock}

Happy Wednesday everyone! A Happy Halloween for those who celebrate, as well. Besides making some zombie muffins, it's just a regular day in my part of the world. I have to say I do enjoy seeing some of the kiddos around here dressed up to go trick-or-treating, but it's been years since I have gone myself or even handed out treats. Candy is not something I generally keep in my whole food kitchen anyway. At least I'm not the type to hand out vegetables to kids from my door, haha! 😜

I realized I had not shared the other portion of our weekend in the North Georgia mountains yet (a month later), so why not take advantage and join in on @tattoodjay's #wednesdaywalk again? You can see his original post here or click on the tag to see where people are getting their steps in for the day!

As I said when I shared our visit to Amicalola Falls, there are quite a few parts of our lovely state that I had never seen before. Amicalola was one, and any part of the Appalachian Trail was another. If you have never heard about the Appalachian Trail (affectionately referred to by most hikers as the "A.T."), I highly suggest checking out the conservancy page to learn more about it. In short, it is an over 2,000 mile long hiking trail that spans much of the Eastern portion of the United States. The trail covers 14 states from my own state of Georgia all the way up to Maine.

There are many interesting bits of information about the A.T. For one, the exact distance tends to change depending upon which source you look at. Apparently some years portions occasionally have to get re-routed, so the total distance can fluctuate. Benton MacKaye was the person who originally had the idea for the trail in or around 1921, and it was finally finished in 1937. Though there are millions of people like us who just hop on to check out a small section at a time, there is a large family of thru-hikers that attempt to do the entire trail in one season. I actually only really became interested when a friend of ours geared up and trained to attempt to hike the entire trail from Georgia to Maine. Like a large portion of people (I think only about 1/4 make it all the way), she didn't make it but has no regrets about the experience. It was a whole lot tougher than she imagined, even with lots of training under her belt.

In a whole other level of thru-hikers are the record seekers. A number of attempts every year are made to see who can take on the trail the fastest. I followed Scott Jurek's journey as he took on the trail back in 2015. He broke the record that year (taking 46 days and change), only to have it fall to his friend Karl Meltzer the next year. I believe currently the record is held by Karel Sabbe who finished in under 42 days. These guys all had crews for support, so they were able to travel light. Though that was still no small feat as they had to cover basically 2 marathons a day for the duration. On rough terrain, no less. I highly recommend Jurek's book North as it was really interesting not only to get his portion of his hike, but also to hear his wife's perspective on being the lead part of his crew. I found it fascinating!

Anyway, our hike only took us about a mile away from where we parked. We were staying about an hour away from Woody Gap, so that is where we popped on the trail. The lead picture for my post was overlooking the opposite side from where we parked. You could head back in that direction and find the beginning of the A.T. at Springer Mountain. We opted to head in the direction of Blood Mountain as I had read that there was a great viewpoint called Preacher Rock in that direction.

Of course @dksart had is camera in hand for some photo ops. I believe he has already shared a few things he found like some neat little mushrooms and a cute caterpillar. The first part of the trail wasn't very technical so it was easy walking. Despite the parking lot being packed, that part of the trail was also pretty quiet so it was very enjoyable to have it to ourselves for a bit.

As we started getting towards the viewpoint it did get a good bit more steep and challenging. I think we were both breathing a little heavy by the time we made it past the top quarter of a mile or so.

Yet again, totally worth it for such a stunning view!!

I think I could have stayed up there for hours just enjoying the scenery and the feel of the sun on my skin.

We got lucky with some really great weather while we were hiking. Cool enough under the trees, but quite nice and warm in the sun.

After we made it back down the clouds came in for a little afternoon rain storm. Since we had such a nice morning of activity, I didn't mind hanging out on the covered porch of the cabin reading a book and relaxing. I even caught a rainbow to really top off the day!

If you ever get a chance to check out the A.T. I highly recommend it! Has anyone else out there hiked portions? If so, which state(s)?

Banners by @woman-onthe-wing, @dksart and @bearone for @steemusa