NC Appalachian Trail - Section 10 - Deep Gap to Bly Gap

Date	Distance	Time	Elevation Gain	Average Moving Time	Year to Date Miles
11/10/2019	11 miles	6 hours 30 minutes	1,139'		482.4

Map: Appalachian Trail Conservancy North Carolina
Parking: Shuttle owner's house & Deep Gap
Directions: Hike from Deep Gap to Bly Gap

Glen and I met up with a group of hikers organized by my friend Tara. We stayed at a hotel in Franklin, and used 4 cars each day - 2 at our ending location, 2 at our starting location. Many of us had already hiked Georgia, so we were working on hiking north of the Georgia/North Carolina border. We couldn't park at Bly Gap (in Georgia), so two of our group left cars at the shuttle driver's house the night before. In the morning, we just had to drive to Deep Gap and start hiking. The drive to Deep Gap includes a long, narrow logging road - it was challenging whenever cars came from the other direction.

There still is some leaf color in Georgia, though its well past its peak. Other than slippery leaves, the terrain wasn't bad. I did fall twice, but that's expected. We got to Bly Gap by 2 pm & hung out until 3 pm waiting for our shuttle drivers. While we waited, multiple cars stopped to offer us rides. How's that for southern hospitality?

At the end of the day, we met in the hotel lobby for a group dinner. There was good camaraderie amongst the group. We were in bed by 8 pm, so we could wake up at 5 am. Unfortunately, Glen and I ended up staying in a different hotel than the rest of the group, because we needed to be near an EV charger.

There were a lot of rhododendron tunnels on this trip. Literally, the "green tunnel".

Carol, Dee, Tara, Dian, Susan, Luann