The following has been transcribed directly from the journal that I kept while hiking the Appalachian Trail (AT).

Saturday, September 30th, 2000
10:45 am, 68º. After a long drive from Fayetteville, a nice sleep at Susan and Daniels house in Asheville, and another drive to preposition a "get-away" vehicle, we are at the Trail just on the southern edge of Hot Springs, North Carolina. On the hike is Gordon (Scout), Todd (Livin' Life), Tim (unnamed).

Hot Springs is a small town with an outfitter store and some rafting companies. We stopped at Bluff Mountain Outfitters to pick up a sleeping mat and a hat for Tim.

We drove around for a bit searching for the trail and eventually found our start point which was at a bend in Highway 209. Daniel pulled his truck off the side of the road and we got our gear on and took a few pictures of the 3 of us.

To quote the trail book, "From north to south this section requires considerable exertion. The trail mostly ascends for the first 10.3 miles until you reach the summit of Bluff Mountain." Well, no lie for sure! Bluff Mtn. is 4,692 ft. That is 200 feet taller than Blood Mtn, Georgia which is the highest point on the AT in Georgia and consequently, the highest altitude that we have seen. I remember standing on Blood Mtn and for a moment the clouds cleared and I could see that nothing else was as high as us, but here, although extremely hard to climb, all of the mountains are equally as high (as Bluff Mtn).

Our hike into the woods outside of Hot Springs began with an immediate climb up Deer Park Mtn. It was a continual yet gradual climb but still very challenging.

The cool weather makes for a pleasant hike and after 3 miles we find a large campsite with many dead trees in it for seats. This is right at the side trail to Deer Park shelter.

We stop and have lunch on the logs and read about the 2000 ft. climb that we will face in 4 miles or so.

Lunch complete, we continue on our climb and slight descent to Garenflo Gap. At this point we will start a steady 2,000 ft. climb to the summit of Bluff Mtn. Through the trees we can see a huge mountain in the smoky background. It stands tall and really sticks out amongst the small hills around it (like the one we are on now). The view is awesome and we already know it is going to hurt to climb this thing!

We are all very tired and mentally spent - don't imagine that we will make Bluff Mtn today.

We finally get to some water at Big Rock Creek and this is no more than a puddle full of mud and leaves but it will have to do. This is our last water point for the day. It is all we have, so we get some water and push on up the hill. We are only half way up and still have 1.6 miles to climb. HELP!

At some point, we finally decide that we just can't go on. The climb is harder and longer than we have ever seen and, unfortunately, we are jumping right into it...with no time to prepare...just up, up, up! We agree that we will stop at the next area that looks suitable for a campsite and finish assaulting this mountain tomorrow, however, to our horror, the next campsite is full of a bunch of hikers who assure us that there is another place to camp not far ahead.

We continue on...eventually we can see the top of the mountain and it is still a ways up there. We finally reach the top and find a place to sleep. It is 5:45pm and we are all very tired.

We set up our tent and cook some dinner - Mac-n-cheese and some hot cocoa. Very nice. I am thinking a lot about candy and sweets. I finish my food and fall asleep while talking to Todd and Tim. They prod me to wake up and make a fire with them...so I clean my pot and climb in the sleeping bag...it is cold up here on this mountain!

We are thinking of a trail name for Tim...lot's of possibilities, but we are narrowing it down.

It's cold. Goodnight.

Today’s total: 10.5 miles (uphill)
Trip total: 10.5 miles

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