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Back to the AT?

Photo by: Tim Bindner Photography

As the Covid-19 pandemic continues and we remained in lockdown I am planning on a trip once the restraints are lifted.  I have also relieved so much of my anxiety with some recent news.

I had mentioned before that I had a trip planned for July of this year wherein I would be attempting my first cruise.  This trip was, in my case, fortunately, canceled.  I am however sad for my wife and son who were looking forward to this cruise.  My anxiety was building more and more each day as the trap was growing closer, but now that it is canceled I have so much relief.  There are talks amongst the family of trying another trip to the same area next June or July, but this time I will respectfully decline to go.

Throughout the process of editing, deleting, and organizing my pictures recently, I began reflecting on my recent trip to Tennessee and North Carolina.  This naturally led me to YouTube where I found some videos of one man’s adventure to hike the Appalachian Trail for the second time.  His 4-part video series (he had to leave the trail because of Covid-19) got my curiosity going and longing for a return to the Appalachian Trail (AT).

This year’s trip was fun but lacked the excitement I had last year.  This year I drove, so as Mark was saying “oh look at that” I couldn’t as I had to keep my eyes on the many twisty roads we traveled.  We also had the added dynamic of an additional person on the trip (last year it was just Mark and me), so that provided some awkwardness of not knowing the person and then there was the internal mental struggle I had about not being able to keep up with him on the trail hikes (he is a runner, I am an aging old fat fella).  I knew I was slowing Kory and Mark’s progress and hindering or prohibiting them from going places on this past trip.

After reviewing the four videos from Darwin (his trail name), I decided to reach out to Mark and jokingly told him we need to go shoot this tree at Bly Gap (seen at 6:00 minutes).  Within minutes of my text, I got a response saying “if you are serious here is the list of places we can go”.  He proceeded to list the following:

Amicalola Falls State Park (SP)

Tallulah Gorge SP

Brasstown Bald (Highest Point of GA on the AT)

Desoto Falls

Helton Creek Falls

Falls Creek Falls SP

Mountain Crossing (Neel Gap)

Blood Mountain Shelter

Not long after Mark’s response, I was part of a group text between Kory (Mark’s nephew who joined us this year) and Mark, with the plans for next year’s trip.  Kory was excited and agreed with the plan.  I guess the joke turned into a real thing.

While we are still possibly a year out from this trip it gives me some hope and something to look forward to.  I hope this time Mark or Kory can drive, so I again can take in the scenery, and I also hope this trip is in April instead of March as this year so we can view both winter and spring.  The logistics of the trip will be worked out in time.

Other than the locations listed I plan to contact the man that made the video and see if I can locate the exact ridge seen at 5:43 on this video.  The view looks amazing, it has some gnarly trees especially the one on his left, that I love, and that view!  If the hike is not too far and we can park close by I may make that journey up there.

If you have some time (and we all do now), please check out these four videos and hopefully you will see what draws me to the trail and why this time I want to visit the starting point in Georgia, and some of the locations above:

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

I often provide links to other sites and videos in my posts.  I am not sure if any or many of you click on those links.  I highly encourage you to do so as it adds to the story I am trying to portray.  I hope you are staying safe, and healthy.  I will leave you with a quote from Abraham Lincoln “I’m a slow walker, but I never walk back.”

Until next time,

Tim

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