Sat, Oct 23 2010 - Hogpen Gap to Blood Mountain Hike on the AT (View Original Event Details) Trip Leader(s): papi Participants: Marshall, papi, Evan J. Hunter Sr., Pavan

Write Up:
We started at the carpool at 7:30 AM as planned. We reached Byron Herbert parking and left one car on the road side across the parking lot as it was full. Then we reached the Hogpen parking spot at 9:30.
We started our hike a little after 9:45 AM and were immediately greeted by bright fall colors. Our first stop was on the way to whitley shelter. The view was first of the many wonderful views we saw on this hike. We reached whitley to find red hot coals in the fire ring and we tried to put them out as best as we could. Another amazing view on wildcat mt on the way to Tesnatee gap. Then we stopped at the crowrock and levellland mt to admire the views and the fall colors.

We came across a number of hikers along the trail who were out there with their fancy cameras admiring the fall. The took brief lunch break on levellland and then continued to Neels gap and then on to the Blood mountain. The trail from byron Reece trail end to top of blood mountain was very crowded. We enjoyed the views from the top of the blood mountain and eventually turned back to reach Byron Herbert parking lot. We saw some of the cars parked in no parking zone with tickets and were lucky we did not get a ticket as we parked on the otherside of HW19 across the parking lot.

We finished the hike at about 4:15 pm and on our way back had a tasty mexcial dinner in Dahlonega.

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