Good places to camp on the Appalachian Trail (around the Georgia Area)?
by admin on Saturday, August 6th, 2011 | 2 Comments
I am trying to plan a backpacking trip, for a party of 2 or 3, and although I do have some backpacking experience, I never had to plan a trip before. I was just wondering if anyone could recommend a good place to go backpacking? Also I live in Georgia so it would be best if it was within a 5 hour driving distance at most.
There is info about the Appalachian Trail at the National Park Service website. I’m sure you could also get info by doing a search on the AT.
There may be some locations with cabins, but for a lot of the trail, you’d have to stay overnight in lean-tos, unless you left the trail to stay at a hotel.
there’ll be no places with cabins along the Trail. you’ll get three-sided shelters and open tenting places.
it can depend on how long you’ll be out for. Siler Bald is a nice area that’s just north into Carolina. and Blood Mountain in Georgia is a great hike, too.
look up the folks that run the Hiker Hostel in Dahlonega. it’s a great place to stay before beginning the trip, and they also offer some slackpacking opportunities and the ability to pick you up after two or three days if you needed (i don’t work with/for them).
what i like to do when planning a trip is not to think of doing too many miles per day so that you’ll have some time to goof around, and also have a road crossing somewhere between your projected start and end just in case you go slow or someone needs to get off. there are plenty of turnoffs in Georgia, though.
if it’s not too far north for you, another great place to start is in Wesser, NC, at the Nantahala Outdoor Center. you could do a rafting trip while you’re there. also, the 32 miles north of there up to Fontana dam is (my opinion) the hardest stretch of Trail of the first 500 miles. it’d be an easy hitch out if you ended at Newfound Gap in the middle of the Smokies.