Footprints and Ripples

Woo-hoo! I escaped the heat and humidity (and Hurricane Ian) of South Florida early Friday morning, and I arrived at Above the Clouds Hostel in Suches, Georgia, early in the afternoon. My flight took me to Atlanta where I jumped on the MARTA train to North Springs. Here, Lucky, owner of Above the Clouds, picked me up. We stopped in the beautiful and quaint town, Dahlonega, for a quick lunch at Spirits Tavern before finishing the very winding, elevated trip to the hostel in Suches.

Who doesn’t have hiking the Appalachian Trail on their bucket list? It’s been on mine for years—although I did finally agree with myself that rather than attempting to conquer all 2,190 miles, I would complete at least one section hike in each of the fourteen states. I have hiked parts of New Hampshire and Georgia in past years.

However, with retirement in my very near future (November 30—yikes!), I needed to make a dent in my bucket list, and I was thrilled to discover slackpacking—thank you Facebook! When I first heard the term slackpacking, I thought, slacker, but after experiencing five days on the AT, I do not believe that slackpacking is for slackers at all.

I stayed at the hostel for six nights with five days of hiking planned. My slackpacking group was small and intimate with only one other person, Robyn. Robyn is a nurse, a runner, and a wee bit (20 years) younger than I. However, this trip and my newfound trail sister were among the best experiences of my life.

We planned five days of hiking a total of 38.2 miles, but after Lucky hiked with us the first day, he felt confident we could increase our hikes for the remaining four days. In the end, we hiked 52.5 miles.