Tesnatee Gap

Labor Day weekend AnnaLee and I decided to finally head up to the Appalachain Trail to a spot where I have wanted to camp for a while now. I have been on this section of the trail many times before and there is some great scenery.

We had discussed what to do with Jolie and Pierre (her 2 toy poodles) and decided to take them along. I know what your thinking, bringing 2 toy poodles is the dumbest thing I have ever heard. Well, I have seen these dogs on the farm that they were practically raised on; they do not act like toy poodles. Jolie and Pierre run through the woods, play in the mud and dirt, and are not scared of much. They are great with people and other animals (including Vita, the huge German Shepherd who they love playing with). Also, I tested them by taking them to the park and walked on the trails with them without a leash. They walked right in front of me and stayed on the trail the whole time, they were ready.

We departed for the trail early Sunday morning. We hiked south from Tesnatee Gap .8 miles to a large rock outcrop that gives an amazing panoramic view of the surrounding mountains. After a brief stop and some pictures we continued on to our camp site another 1.3 miles down the trail. This site is a much sought after campsite because of it's beautiful view and it's flat, open, shady, grassy area for tents. I made it a point to arrive somewhat early on in the day in order to claim the site myself. I was worried that someone was going to already be at this site but we were lucky and nobody was there yet. We setup camp around 2 o'clock, packed a small daypack and continued on a short trek.

Just before our campsite on the trail is a small outcropping of rocks with an excellent view. We both sat there for a while and the dogs wandered and sniffed around like normal. Now, I had a feeling we were very close to our camp site but I did not want to say anything. About 15 minutes earlier I thought we were close as well so I did not want AnnaLee to make fun of me AGAIN for thinking we were close and being wrong, haha. This small outcropping of rocks was probably 20 yards from our site. Now, the reason I am telling you this part is because a couple hours later a guy came up to our campsite. He was geocaching and looking for certain item. He mentioned that he was just down at this small outcropping and saw a large snake under the rocks!!! We had just been there sitting on those rocks AND 2 dogs whos combined weight equal 10 pounds were sitting right in that very spot... That could have been bad news.

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I did not want AnnaLee to carry much as it was her first trip and quite frankly I am able to carry everything for the both of us without a problem. I let her carry my small CamelBack daypack on the way in so she could have the hydration system and carry just a few of her belongings. My pack was surprisingly not too heavy considering all the luxury items I brought along. If I had to guess it was probably 35 pounds.

We hiked another 1.7 miles to another rock outcropping (which in the fall and winter has excellent views, but not so much during the summer) and decided to rest and turn around to head back to camp. On the way there we passed 3 other couples, all had dogs with them, and all were very shocked to see toy poodles hiking on the AT. They were very well behaved while walking by people and other dogs. During this hike one couple asked us how much further the grassy campsite with the great overlook is. I immediately got worried that our campsite was compromised. But, on the way back we passed the same couple and I was a little more settled.

We got back to camp, rested for a bit and began to search for firewood. Unfortunately this area we were in was pretty picked over. I walked a good way down the trail before I came across some small dead hardwoods. I had to go through some pretty thick underbrush including briars and poison ivy but I pushed down 3 trees that would be enough wood for an entire night. I dragged them back up the trail and started a fire shortly after. Luckily AnnaLee had found all the kindling we would need to get the fire started.

I recently discovered Mountain House dinners so I brought a bag of chicken and rice and another bag of macaroni and cheese. While boiling the water the stove just decided it did not want to work anymore so I opted to boil the water over the fire. This turned out to be a good decision considering it took 2 minutes for the water to come to a rolling boil. Of course, in my hurried packing job at the trail head, I forgot to pack a second spoon... I grabbed my toothpaste container, folded it long ways to form a v, and used it as a spoon. It was perfect!

There is a lot of sodium in these Mountain House meals (which AnnaLee noticed before we even ate) which makes you very thirsty. Our 5 quarts of water and 1 quart of Gatorade was down to about 1.5 quarts of water and we were still very thirsty AND had to hike 2.1 miles in the morning. We could have lived with what we had but I decided to make a trip to the spring we had passed on our earlier trip to get more water. AnnaLee was going to stay at camp and watch the fire and the dogs while I went on the .6 mile journey to water. She held Jolie and Pierre so they did not chase after me down the trail. She waited a while till I was gone and down the trail and set Pierre down... he took off in a dead sprint. I heard AnnaLee yell something and stopped, she was telling me that Pierre was chasing after me. I turned around to see him hauling down the trail after me. I happily let him tag along on my trail run to get more water. I was reminded of the movie "My Dog Skip" by having Pierre running right behind me the whole way.

I returned back to camp and boiled the water (since another thing, in my hurried packing, that I forgot was my iodine tablets) in order to give it time to cool. The dogs were passed out in the tent by abou8 since they walked so much and would not stop playing when we got to camp. There was a strong breeze blowing though our site which made it refreshing to me but a bit chilly for AnnaLee. She wore my jacket and stayed close to the hot fire. The wind caused the fire to roar which was helpful since I had 3 trees laying across the top in order to cut them in half. In no time the trees were cut in half and I began the process again. It was time to cook our smores shortly after dark. They were money, although I really wished I had brought some milk... That would have topped it off!

At about 9:30 we were exhausted so we decided to hit the hay. The wind was blowing harder than ever and with each gust it felt as though someone was shaking the tent violently. This made it very hard to sleep. We were exhausted but could not get a good nights rest with all the noise. I woke up several times throughout the night. At about 6 am the wind suddenly went from probably 30 mph to 0 in a heartbeat. Finally we got some good solid sleep!

We woke up at about 8:30, restarted the fire, and ate some breakfast bars. AnnaLee is a huge pyro so she played with the fire as I packed. We hiked the 2.1 miles in about 45 minutes, threw our bags in the car and headed to Dukes Creek Falls.

Dukes Creek Falls trail is a short 1.1 mile trail down to a viewing area. It is a well taken care of, wide trail and there were many other people on the trail as well. But, I will say, it is much less populated than Amicalola falls I would say we saw about 30 people total. We originally had Jolie and Pierre on a leash but decided they did so well on the trail that we should just let them run free. We spent a couple hours hiking this trail and viewing the falls. It is a pretty cool place to visit, the trail was not hard at all and the falls are pretty.

After we hiked the falls we headed to our favorite fast food restaurant - Chick-fil-A. They had a promotion going on if you have a sports team's logo you receive a free Chick-fil-A sandwich... money! After lunch, we headed to see my parents at their cabin on Lake Lanier.

The dogs were very dirty and since we were at the lake we decided it would be a good idea to let them swim to rinse off some of the dirt. We were down on the dock and AnnaLee decided to give them some water with the hose that was laying out. She pulled the trigger a little too hard and sprayed Pierre. The little guy jumped back and straight into the water. I have to say, it was pretty funny seeing him swim but he was a pretty good swimmer. Since he was already wet and had a chance to swim we dropped Jolie in as well. AnnaLee decided to be a little nicer to her and let her in gently. Jolie swam straight for shore. We put them back in for some short swims to shore which is pretty hysterical considering they are so small. I wish I took pictures...

Overall we hiked 5.5 miles on Sunday, 2.1 miles hiking out on Monday and another 2.2 miles hiking down and out at Dukes Creek Falls. It was a good weekend. I'm glad AnnaLee got to come along with me; it was nice to share this experience with her. I am also glad that we decided to bring Jolie and Pierre, they were great entertainment.

Good weekend!