Hiking on the Appalachian-Story 2

Well, it took me two and a half years to get back on the Appalachian Trail, but I did it. Where does the time go? This time, my daughter, Sarah, went with me. I was determined to camp on the trail. I wanted to have that experience at least once. Sarah was in full agreement. We hit the trail a few weeks ago, April 24-26, 2026.

I am a student of the Badass Backpacking program, where I am supposed to be learning how to be a confident backpacking gal. It’s a great program, and I have learned a lot, but I am still working on completing the program. After you read this story, you’ll understand that I still have a lot to learn. Practice makes perfect, right? Let’s hope so. I need a LOT of practice.

I thought I did my research pretty well. I subscribe to the Appalachian Trail newsletter, and I checked the resources they offer to make sure there were no trail closures where we were planning to hike, to check on the bear activity in the area, and any other information I could find. I have my Appalachian Trail guidebooks that I purchased a few years ago, so I had mapped out the portion of the trail we wanted to hike, and I found a place to camp.

Look at these books. I am a professional!

I researched the campground where we were planning to stay, checked on water sources, checked to make sure I had all the gear I needed, found a nearby hostel where we could stay the first night, made reservations, checked on shuttle service, and called Sarah multiple times, because… that’s what I do. I was ready. I was excited. I was trying hard to be brave. We were going to do this!

Sarah drove down to our house the night before so we could leave early the next morning. We actually got on the road at the time we had planned to leave, which is unusual for us. We drove the eight hours to Georgia, and, after a drive on a very winding road (Sarah only threatened to puke once), we found the hostel. It was called Above the Clouds Hostel. I drove up a narrow lane, decided there were no places to park, did a fifteen point turn, and went back down to the drive in front of the hostel. We were greeted by a man who told us “Bounce” was inside waiting on us. We went inside and we were greeted by a lady who called herself “Bounce.” Apparently, the staff uses their trail names, because we later found out that the man who had initially greeted us was called “Skully.” Bounce was very friendly while she showed us around the hostel. We had opted for a private room rather than staying in the bunk room. We were pretty relieved that we had made that choice. It turned out that we were the only women staying in the hostel that night. Not only would we have been a little uncomfortable staying in a room full of strange men, but I can’t imagine the amount of snoring, and other noises, that probably happened in that bunk room that night. The hostel had snacks, pizza, soda, etc. available for purchase, which was great. We really didn’t want to get back in the car and try to search on those winding roads for a restaurant to find some dinner. We cooked a pizza. I was starting to get nervous about camping on the trail the next night, but I was trying to be brave. Some other hikers arrived, and Bounce was showing them around the hostel. I waited until she was finished, and then I cornered her to ask her some questions. Some of the questions were about the trail, but really, what I wanted to know, is if she had availability at the hostel the next night, and if we could get a shuttle back to the hostel if we decided not to camp. She said she had some availability, but she really encouraged us to stay on the trail. She knew about Lance Creek Campground, and she said it would be a great experience, with the creek running below and the comradery we would have with other hikers. I wasn’t sure about the comradery, but the creek sounded nice. We went to the room and worked on repacking our backpacks. I was carrying a bear canister for the first time, and it was so heavy. And so bulky. And look at that scary bear on the label.

I stuffed everything I could into the canister, but it was still a lot to stuff in my backpack. I wasn’t sure how this was going to work. We watched a movie, and went to bed. We had a big day ahead of us the next day.

The next morning, we woke early to get ready to hike. Bounce made breakfast for everyone. Sarah and I were the only ones leaving on the earliest shuttle. We loaded up in Skully’s car, and he took us to Gooch Gap. Our plan was to hike eight miles to Lance Creek Campground and spend the night on the trail. Skully wished us a good day, and we were off! So exciting! That backpack you see on my back was heavier than anything I have carried on my back before. I thought I had prepared for this trip by running the bleachers in my weighted vest (while dodging the wasps that resent my presence on the bleachers) at our high school football field. My weighted vest is 16 pounds and lays flat on my back. This backpack probably weighed 30-40 pounds and was bulky, pulling on my shoulders. You do the math.

The day turned out to be a little warmer than we had expected. Sarah HATES the heat. She was a trooper, but it was hot and she didn’t like it.

There were some beautiful views though, and every now and then, there was a breeze to cool us off.

We saw this little guy. We’re not sure what it was.

Since we had started out so early, we arrived at Lance Creek Campground well before any other hikers. We were excited to be there. We could hear the creek running below, which was awesome. Now, I had done my research. I had googled Lance Creek Campground. Google said the campground had a privy. It didn’t. Google said there was potable water. There wasn’t. To reduce the weight in our backpacks, we had opted to skip filling the water bladders for our backpacks, and we just took our water bottles. That turned out to be a mistake. We needed to save the water in our water bottles to drink, so we did not have enough to cook our dinner.

OK. We were tough, badass backpackers. We could do this. There was a creek. Badass backpackers use the resources around them. Then we realized we had forgotten matches or a lighter. Oh no. Now what do we do? Call Bounce! We could chuck this whole camping thing and go back to the hostel. We had a plan B! We had to walk a little way up the trail to get a signal and we made the call. Bounce told us they would come pick us up, but again, she strongly encouraged us to stay. She assured us that other hikers would stop at the campground, and they would be happy to lend us a lighter or some matches. When we told her we were unsure about what to do, Bounce told us we would need to let her know by 5:30 if we wanted to be picked up, and we would need to be at the pickup spot, two miles down the trail, by 5:30. We agreed we would let her know what we decided to do.

We sat down on at the campsite and looked at each other for several minutes. Finally Sarah said, “Mom. You have been wanting to do this. Let’s stay.” About that time, a group of three men stopped at the campsite to have lunch. I asked them if they had a lighter we could borrow. They were happy to lend one to us. It had started to rain a little, so we put on our raincoats and made our way down to the creek with our food, backpacking stove, kettle, and the borrowed lighter.

I filled our kettle full of creek water and we heated it up to sterilize the water. The stove tipped over, making it necessary to go back to the creek and fill the kettle again. We tried heating it again, and this time we got it to boil. It stopped raining, the water boiled, we filled the dehydrated food bag, and we had a good meal while sitting by the creek. This was fun!

After we ate, we walked back to the campsite, set up our tents, and sent Bounce a text, telling her we had decided to stay. She responded with some very happy and excited emojis. About two minutes later, it began to rain. Not a light mist. Steady, pouring, rain. We retreated into our tents.

It rained all afternoon. I mean ALL afternoon. Sarah slept, and I read my book. After a few hours, the rain let up, and we emerged from our tents to do some housekeeping. We needed to hang the bear canister on the cable that was between two large trees. I had examined it earlier, and I had figured out how it worked. I was quite proud of myself. I told Sarah to eat something if she needed to, because all of the food had to go into the canister. Plus anything else that smelled-toothpaste, deodorant, food wrappers, etc. I had eaten a package of peanut butter crackers and I was frantically picking up any crumbs that were in or around my tent, and checking my pack for any other food or items that may have a smell that would attract bears.

I have a confession to make. I am terrified of bears. Maybe it’s an irrational fear. Maybe it’s a reasonable fear. Who knows? All I know is that bears are the one thing (well, actually not the only thing-I am also terrified of getting lost, which is a completely rational fear, since I am usually lost wherever I go) that really scares me about backpacking. Bears are really big, they have huge claws, they have a scary mouth, a terrifying growl, they can run fast, and they can climb trees. Why would they not be scary?

I have watched many instructional videos on bear safety. One training said you have to determine if the bear is predatory or defensive. Am I supposed to ask them? The instructors usually say to try to make yourself look big to the bears. How am I supposed to make myself look big enough to scare a bear? I am not even five feet tall! I don’t think I could make myself look scary to these guys.

I think if I stood up as tall as I could, started waving my arms and screaming, a bear would just laugh at me, swat me like a fly, and then he would eat me.

They say that bears are more scared of us than we are of them. I don’t think so. I have a hard time believing that a bear sits straight up out of a dead sleep in his cave because he is sure a human is walking nearby. I can’t see a bear hanging his bag of berries on a cable between trees so that a human does not steal his food. I don’t think a bear is frantically searching his sleeping area in the evening to make sure there are no crumbs, wrappers, deodorant, or toothpaste that might attract a human. I don’t hear bears singing in the woods to make sure humans hear them so they don’t surprise the human. I don’t see bears walking on the trail bending under the weight of a huge bear canister stuffed into their backpack so the humans don’t smell their food.

It was late in the afternoon and the sun was covered by the clouds, so we were starting to lose our light. We had cleared our area, hung the bear canister, and brushed our teeth. The last thing we needed to do before we retreated to our tents for the night was…well, we had to pee. I have mentioned in previous stories how I don’t like peeing in the woods. I definitely go into meerkat mode, jumping at every sound, staying on full alert, and worrying that someone may see me. Sarah didn’t seem to give it a second thought. Of course she used to try to pee on a tree like a boy when she was little, so this was no big deal for her.

A few groups of men had set up their tents at the campground, so I had to make sure none of them could see me. I walked further up the trail, thinking that there would be not be any more hikers, since it was starting to get dark. The thing is, none of the trees in that area are thick enough to provide full coverage. Stupid, skinny little trees. I finally decided on a tree a little way off the trail. Praying I wasn’t squatting in any poison ivy, I prepared to pee. I was looking around in all directions, like a true meerkat, when I spotted a man hiking on the trail. Unfortunately, he spotted me at the same time. With my pants down. To his credit, he immediately turned around to look the other way. I. WAS. MORTIFIED. I jumped up, pulled up my pants, and said, “Sorry. You can go ahead.” No eye contact. He had just seen my butt. Just a wave of my hand, with my head down. He turned around and started hiking toward me. Then he started to try to engage in conversation. Umm, that was not happening. He needed to move along. I think he quickly got the message and continued down the trail. I gave him several minutes, finished my business, and slunk back to my tent. I told Sarah what had happened. Her comment was, “Eh. Don’t worry about it. You’ll never see him again.” Wasn’t she concerned that this guy was probably going to be laughing with his friends about the old lady he caught peeing in the woods? Ugh.

Anyway, about that time it started to rain. Again. We got back into our tents and decided to try to go to sleep, since we were going to have to start out early in the morning. We had to meet Skully two miles down the trail by 9:30. I read my book for about another hour. I suddenly realized that when I had taken off my boots to get into my tent, I had not made sure they were under the cover of the tent. They weren’t. They were now filled with water. I dumped them out, placed them under cover, and hoped they would dry before morning. They did not.

It rained ALL night. I lightly dozed all night, frequently waking. Remember. I had to listen for a bear. Every time I woke, it was still raining. In the morning, I refused to get out of my tent until the rain stopped. It finally let up. We emerged from our tents and prepared to break camp. Neither one of us was hungry, so we passed on our dehydrated granola and opted to fish out a few granola bars from the bear canister and stuff them into the pockets of our backpacks. Well, I had to pee again. This time, other than peeing on my boot, the experience was uneventful. We packed up and started back on the trail. Everything was wet, but we saw some beautiful flowers and this very cool spider web.

We made it to the pick up spot at exactly 9:30. Skully was waiting, and we were happy to see him. He took us back to the hostel, and we went in to settle up our bill with Bounce-for the pizza, soda and shuttle. She greeted us enthusiastically, telling us how proud she was that we camped on the trail. We got in our car, and headed for home. This was a good first experience for camping on the trail!

Tips:

1. Above the Clouds Hostel is a great place to stay when hiking the Appalachian Trail near Suches, Georgia, around Gooch Gap to Woody Gap. They provide a free shuttle to and from Gooch Gap or Woody Gap, but they will pick you up and drop you off further away for a small fee. The hostel is very clean and has many amenities, including food, games, breakfast, TV, and some supplies such as shampoo, soap, and bandaids. More information can be found at abovethecloudshostel.com.
2. It takes some training to carry a backpack to camp on the trail. Bear canisters are heavy.
3. I strongly recommend bear training before hiking in an area that has bears. The training scared me to death, but at least I felt better prepared about how to minimize our chances of getting eaten by a bear.
4. Boots should be stored under the shelter of the tent. Otherwise, you have to hike in wet socks the next day.
5. Your daughter may express a little frustration if you continue to express anxiety about bears, while frantically looking for anything that has a smell that may attract bears.
6. The trees are skinny on some portions of the Appalachian trail. Maybe look for a big rock if you have to pee. It may save you some embarrassment. And watch out for snakes and poison ivy.
7. Camping by a creek can be very relaxing. However, it it rains all night, you can’t hear the creek. So try having this experience during dry weather.