Adventures on the Appalachian Trail (the AT)

My brother Craig and his wife, Jenette came to visit for Christmas.  On New Year's Eve we hiked the BH Reece trail (shown in blue in the image below) from the memorial at the parking lot to Flat Rock Gap, where it crosses the AT (shown in white).  From there we followed the AT Maine-bound to Neels Gap.  The original plan was to summit Blood Mountain, but the ice and snow on the rocky trail put a dampener on that idea.

This is the view from Flat Rock Gap, where the Freeman Trail crosses the Appalachian Trail.  The Freeman trail goes around Blood Mountain.  The AT goes over the top.

We're all smiles after pausing for a while at Flat Rock Gap.  Matt pulled ahead everytime we started hiking, even though his Puma shoes had the most slick bottoms.  Clarissa is learning the workings of the new camera.

Here are the brothers at what we called 2-Point rock.  The huge boulder is balanced on two points.

Jenette took this picture.  Bruce H. has commented on the contrast between the snow and the deciduous plants.  The greenery is Mountain Laurels and Rhododendrons.

This is the approach to Neels Gap on the AT.

There are 2 designations for hikers on the Appalachian Trail: THROUGH HIKERS are those who plan on completing the trail in one year.  SECTION HIKERS take it a piece at a time (like me).  Here are Craig & Jenette as the complete their first section of the AT from Flat Rock Gap to Neels Gap.  Only 2,174 more miles to go!

More adventures with Craig & Jenette will be posted later.

Christmas in Suwanee

Greetings from Suwanee and best wishes for a Merry Christmas from the Whettens.

Here are a few family photos with links to more details if you're interested.

Matt's preparing for a pipe and drum corp presentation.

He shows no enthusiasm for being photographed.

Darcy is in South Korea

(see link on the right, to http://darcystravels.blogspot.com//).

Clarissa and her husband Joshua Haycock

(see link on the right: http://jchaycock.blogspot.com//)

Indigo Blue

Driving to work a couple of weeks ago, I passed these glories in the morning.  I pulled over, parked the car and walked back to capture these images.  The contrast between the white and the dark is so intense, in the image above, that the lack of detail leaves us with the impression that the center is a void or a light source.  The image below shows what me miss in the image above.

Go ahead and click on this image to see it full screen.

She made it!

Darcy wrote from Korea: 
"I made it...all is well. The school is really great. The girl that picked me up last night took me to a grocery store for some milk, cereal and juice. My apartment is really cute, I love it! They got me dishes and bedding and even soap/shampoo so I was very comfortable. I have only minor shopping to do. The school, the apartment, and a little grocery store are all on the same street within 5 minutes of each other. I'll write later about the town. Needless to say, I feel very welcome and comfortable here. Will send pictures soon. Also, they gave me a really cool cell phone last night, all set up and ready to go."

I'm certainly relieved, Michelle is too, and Clarissa too.  As for Matt?  He probably is too, but he's cool enough that the rest of us will never know.  (Renae, does it come with the name or did your Matt come with more than 2 emotions: happy and angry.)

Darcy's gone...

...we last saw her through the crowd going through security at the airport. We stretched on our toes to see one last bob of the blond head as she wrestled a bassoon case and over-loaded backpack away from the scanners and towards the escalators that lead down to the trains. There was one last wave and then she was gone.
Where to? We don't know. Well, not for sure for sure. But we think she'll end up in South Korea. At least that's what her airplane ticket said. We have not heard from her yet, and she was supposed to arrive about six hours ago. In a way, this is like sending a missionary off. No, this is worse than sending a missionary off. We don't have any idea about the people she will be working with - she's the only one who has communicated with them. Missionaries have a tremendous support system: companions, district leaders, zone leaders, assistants to the President, Mission Mother and Mission President, Doctors, etc.
What I'm missing most at the moment is that email from the mission office saying "your son/daughter has arrived safely".
Darcy, are you there.... ?

Blue Mountain Adventure

If you open up Google Earth, and look up Helen, GA, and then follow 75 north to Unicoi Gap, you'll see where the AT crosses 75. Darcy and I parked the car there Friday evening and hiked south on the AT to the ridge top where we spent the night. (See post dated Feb. 20th) The next day we went the other direction to this spot, the summit of Blue Mountain.

There are a few more pictures at: http://picasaweb.google.com/cwhetten5/BlueMountainHike##

On a Sunday afternoon walk

We came across a tree with blossoms we had not noticed before. Any ideas as to what it is?

You can check out the exact location using Google Earth. In the upper left corner of Google Earth, select SEARCH, and in the FLY TO field paste these coordinates:
34.017569N 84.019227W