I started up Springer approach trail at 7:30 am. It didn’t take long before my zip-off pants came off and I was sweating profusely. Even early in the morning the temperature was close to seventy. I only passed a couple of day hikers on the way and met one young thru-hiker while I was resting at a shelter. <\/p>\n
I’ve heard of hikers throwing away gear on the mountain, but never thought it was true. About two-thirds of the way up, I came to a campsite with gear scattered by the trail. At first I thought someone was camped there but no one was about and I realized it was discarded from someone’s pack. There was hi-tech clothes, assorted camping items, and eight expensive Mountain House dinners. I wanted to pack the food out but I had all I could carry as it was.<\/p>\n
When I reached Springer and the start of the AT, it was still early so I decided to move ahead to the next shelter. And besides, it looked like a storm was moving in, prompting me to get to lower ground for the night. <\/p>\n
The walk down the mountain was exciting. Lighting crashed all around, hail prattled my head, and the rain came in torrents. I was full of adrenaline, propelling me faster than I should have walked on slippery rocks, until eventually the sun came out again. By the time I reached Stover Creek shelter, I was almost dry.<\/p>\n
I visited with a couple hikers and enjoyed good conversation until darkness and bugs drove us to our tents. I slept well but woke early in the morning. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I started up Springer approach trail at 7:30 am. It didn’t take long before my zip-off pants came off and I was sweating profusely. Even early in the morning the temperature was close to seventy. I only passed a couple of day hikers on the way and met one young thru-hiker while I was resting […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-403","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adventure","category-appalachian-trail"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dalelafferty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dalelafferty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dalelafferty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dalelafferty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dalelafferty.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=403"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/dalelafferty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1044,"href":"https:\/\/dalelafferty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403\/revisions\/1044"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dalelafferty.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dalelafferty.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dalelafferty.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}