Behind on posting... again

I'm behind on posting about HFD again due to work... I've been on the road the past two weeks from Sunday to Friday, so it has definitely slowed me down.

Last week I was in Madison, WI for the final blast of winter weather. We got more than 6" of snow in a day, more snow than I have seen in many, many years. Thankfully, Madison doesn't just shut down when it snows.

I returned home to much warmer weather on Friday, just in time to hike at Amicalola Falls on Saturday. We were expecting severe thunderstorms, so it was decided that we'd do a short hike of 10 miles to the Len Foote Hike Inn and back. This is a pretty easy trail with no difficult climbs or descents, so we knocked out the 10 miles and a short break at the Hike Inn in about 3.5 hours. After sharing some homebrew with the team, we all headed back to town and took shelter from the storms which never materialized... Sure, it rained, but it wasn't the downpour that was expected.

This week I'm in Nashville, TN, home of bad bouffant hairdos and some really questionable "western" clothing. I feel like I've been transported back in time... I really can't wait to leave.

The next few weeks will be light on posting since I'm going to be traveling a lot. Sunday morning I'll be hiking on the Benton MacKaye Trail with the team before running back to ATL for a flight to Memphis. I'm going to be presenting a seminar on software security in Memphis and meet with some potential customers for a few days before returning home. The following week I'll be back to the cold, white north — hopefully a lot less cold and white this time — to teach a class and present at Cf.Objective(). This trip is going to involve a LOT of driving. I fly into Green Bay, WI on Sunday, drive to central WI that afternoon and spend the next 4 days teaching a software security class. Then I'm driving 200+ miles to Minneapolis to catch the first day of Cf.Objective() where I will be presenting a talk entitled Security and the SDLC: A Strategic Approach to Software Security. But I won't be spending a lot of time at the conference since I need to be in NYC that night. So I'll be making a mad dash to the airport after my talk to catch a flight.

Damn... its going to be a busy few weeks. Hopefully things will calm down as we get into May... but I doubt it. Work hard... play harder!

Unicoi Gap to Tray Mountain

Oh, I'm way behind on posting...

Nothing terribly exciting this week, just 10.5 miles on the AT from Unicoi Gap to Tray Mountain and back. The team was great, we kept up a fast pace and completed the hike in just over 5 hours including the time we spent relaxing on top of Tray Mountain for lunch.

This is fast becoming one of my favorite hikes in GA. Great scenery and a challenging trail make this a great way to spend a Saturday afternoon in the woods.

No hiking for me this weekend. I'll catch up with the team again next weekend at Amicalola Falls for the Len Foote Hike Inn trail to the AT Approach Trail.

Kennesaw. Yet Again.

*yawn* I am tired of looking at Kennesaw Mountain and the surrounding trails. We did the trail to Burnt Hickory and continued until it meets the east trail as you head out to Kolb Farm. ~7 miles of moderately paced hiking on the warmest day of the year.

Hoparazzi?

Today a friend of mine referred to me as part of the "hoparazzi" of Atlanta. That was a bit... different. Perhaps it has to do with one of my other domains, hoppyending.com?

Hiking the AT: Unicoi Gap to (almost) Tray Gap

Yesterday I drove to Unicoi State Park, just north of Helen, GA, for a hike on the Appalachian Trail (AT) from Unicoi Gap toward Tray Mountain.

That section of the AT doesn't go through the part of the park we were in. Oops.

A quick carpool 10 miles up the road we found the trail at Unicoi Gap. Up the trail we head. Its 6.2 miles (one way) to Tray Mountain, but we were not planning on going the entire distance. We broke up the team into 2 groups, those who wanted to hike 3 hours and those wanting to hike 4.5 hours. Each team left the same time and was instructed to turn around after half of their time had elapsed (i.e. 1.5 hours out).

I was sweeping — in the back of the pack to make sure everyone was OK — for the longer group, so I started up the trail at the back of the pack with Sandy and her dog Eva. The first climb was from Unicoi Gap to Rocky Mountain, an elevation change of over 1000' in 1.3 miles. This was an unrelenting climb all the way to the top! After stopping and grabbing some pictures I headed down again and met up with the 3 and 4.5 hour groups at Indian Grave Gap where everyone was having a bite to eat. The 4.5 hour group headed off about 10 minutes ahead of me, giving me some great time alone on the trail. It was a beautiful, but cold, day and I was enjoying a little solitary hiking.

And then it happened. Sandy had passed all the members on the shorter hike and decided she better catch up to the rest of us. I have no idea how she did it, but she ran right up behind me. I picked up the pace and we hiked out to just before the trail climbs to Tray Gap. The group had assembled there to take in the view of Tray Mountain and the surrounding area from a beautiful rock outcropping.
After some pictures, we turned back to Indian Grave Gap and started back up to the top of Rocky Mountain...

The legs were willing, the lungs were not. It was a long, hard hike for me and another hiker ,who was also having trouble breathing, as we came up to the ridge a few minutes behind the rest of the pack. Thankfully its downhill all the way back to the cars, I don't think I could have taken on another long, steep trail! By now the ice on the trail had melted, making the descent muddy, so I was happy to get back to the trail head, back to my car and out of my hiking boots.

Overall we hiked ~8.4 miles in a little more than 4 hours.

One question remains: Can someone explain how ice forms like this? I swear it looks like fiberglass fibers strewn on the ground.