Fri, Oct 24 2008 - Duncan Ridge Trail Adventure (View Original Event Details) Trip Leader(s): Matt Tichenor, Kelly Harris, Rob Garner Participants: Rob Garner, Kelly Harris, Matt Tichenor, Lee Harris, Andy Altman, Pavan, Logan Ballesteros

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Write Up:
We survived the DRT Adventure! The 7 of us agreed the trail lived up to its reputation. We started the trip leaving Atlanta running a bit behind schedule, dropped 2 cars at Lake Winfield Scott, and shuttled to Three Forks arriving around 3:30 ready to hike... in the pouring down rain of course. We quickly hiked a mile and checked out the scenic Long Creek Falls which was flowing quite nicely due to the steady rain. After another 4.5 miles of briskly hiking in the rain we arrived at our first campsite in Bryson Gap... soaked from head to toe. We set up up camp and hoped for a break in the rain. We cooked and ate in our tents and hoped for a break in the rain that again never came, so we all went to bed in the last of our dry clothes. When we awoke at 7:00 am Saturday morning - still @#$%^&* raining!!! Luckily it finally stopped around 8:00, and we hit the trail a bit after 9:00. What we thought was going to be a difficult 14.5 or 15 mile day turned into a monster 18.2 mile day with 5500 vertical. Lee let Matt know his planning skills needed a few tweaks, and Lee was reminded that this was indeed an adventure. It is also very true the DRT has very few convenient places to get water as even our water stop was a decent hike down a steep hill to a mud puddle. We joked this was a D6 water stop. The weather was improved however and just about perfect for backpacking on Saturday. After a very long, very exausting day we arrived in Mulky Gap to a dry camp site with plenty od dry wood, so Lee built a super hot fire. Matt, Kelly, Lee, Pawann, and Rob gathered around while Andy and Logan camped next to a secluded creek and built their own fire (things that make you go hmmm - just kidding - they found a better camp site after we had already set up.). After some excellent tasting grub, a bit of wine, sherry, and good tunes, we hit the sack knowing we had another big day coming up tomorrow. We woke up at 7:45, tore down camp, refilled our water and were on the trail by 9:00. Again we were treated to a nice cool, sunny day. The first 25 miles of the trip we did not see a single hiker; just 4 or 5 hunters and a few fisherman. We finally started to see hikers near the Coosa Backcountry Trail, which shares the DRT from Coosa Bald to near Vogel State Park. We passed a few more vistas on Sunday, and the ascents were fewer but longer and just as steep. After another over tough 11 miles on Sunday, we arrived at the DRT eastern terminus, which is about 300 vertical below the summit of Blood Mountain intersecting with the AT. We tooks some pics and felt relieved we were done with the official trail. We then hiked 3.1 miles back to our cars on the AT and Slaughter Creek Trail to make it 14.3 miles for the day at 4:30pm. We also saw Bob Bunner and his boys as they completed their day hike. Since we were all STARVING after getting the cars, we decided to stop in Dalonega at a mexican resturant for a few brews and to eat as much as possible. Andy's Accolades: I was most impressed with Kelly, she's one of the toughest chicks I've ever met to kick butt on that trail, 'toughest chick award'..and Pawann ('PK') gets 'rookie of the year' for toughing it out..he definetly would have made the whole trail if we weren't pressed for time..Lee gets 'grinder of the year' for busting out the last day with a bum ankle..Matt gets "most likely to give us wrong mileage" and "fastest forest service road driver winner"..Rob gets "toughest Grandpa I've ever seen"..Logan won "heaviest pack, super fireman stud award" and Andy gets of course "most likely to hit on the 18 year old waitress at end of trip award".. Matt''s Stats: Total milage: 38.3 (5.8; 18.2; 14.3) Time spent on the trail: 19:37 (Overall avg = 2.0 mph) Time spent moving on the trail: 15:54 (Moving avg = 2.4 mph) Vertical Ascent (GPS) - 11,300 Vertical Ascent (Topofusion): 11,967 Actual DRT Trail length from the 2 official endpoints: 32.7 Our additions were: Friday: Three Forks to Long Creek Falls/Western Terminus: 1.1 Saturday: Water stop/hike to camp: 0.6 Sunday: From camp to camp/water/back to trail: 0.8; Easter Terminus to Lake Winfield Scott: 3.1 For comparison: Both the 100 mile AT trip I took in April and the 100 August Sierra trip (including 2 Yosemite valley to rim hikes) had 250 vertical/mile on average. This 38.3 mile hike had 315 vertical/mile on average.

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