Tray Mountain Shelter from Unicoi Gap via the AT (Towns County, Georgia)

As I've mentioned in many previous posts, I'm training for some tougher hikes in the coming months and have been actively seeking out some of the tougher trails in the area. I also recently noted that I have summitted the first, second, and sixth highest mountains in Georgia. I figured it was a good time to knock out the seventh, Tray Mountain. I posted this a few weeks ago as a Meetup event, but set very clear expectations around pace, distance and elevation gain in the description with a warning that it was not a trail for beginners.

I decided to do a pre-hike hike, which was documented in my previous post and so, I was already warmed up by the time the participants began arriving. It's a busy time here at Unicoi Gap, with the Appalachian Trail through-hikers just a few days into their 2,200 mile odyssey to Maine and we encounter dozens of them here at the trailhead and throughout the afternoon on the trail. I really hope to be one of them in the next few years, but we'll see. For today, I'll have to settle for leading these ten adventurous souls along just a small section of the long trail.

We do our customary round of introductions and very shortly thereafter, hit the trail. One of the hikers had forgotten her hiking shoes and is going to attempt this challenging hike in something akin to boat-deck shoes. I warn her that we will not be slowing the pace for her, but she acknowledges her mistake and suggests she'll just go as far as she can and then turn back.

The trail starts with a butt-kicking ascent up the side of Rocky Mountain. It's a pretty steep one, but a great way to quickly assess who is going to have issues today. Most of the group is able to keep up with me and the other folks at the front, but two ladies in particular seem to be falling behind. Another one of the Meetup organizers who had joined us today, volunteers to hang back with the slower hikers, which I'm fine with, but I have no intention of slow the group down.

As we near the top of the first peak, strange ice formations have formed on the edges of the trail. They almost look like the bristles of a brush sticking out horizontally from the ridge of dirt that separates the trail from the non-trail. If there weren't so many of them and if they hadn't been gone on our return trip several hours later, I wouldn't have believed them to have been ice.

After a mile or so, I stop the group and give them a moment to drop layers. I think all of us are sweating at least a bit from that steep climb. I removed my coat at the bottom before we started, but some didn't. That's fine, this is a necessary stop.

From the top of Rocky Mountain, we drop back down into a wide valley before starting the climb up Tray Mountain. We pass several AT hikers along the way. We're probably traveling a little faster than most, who are still finding their trail legs and are carrying far more weight on their backs than we are. I chat with some of them as we pass and wish them luck on their journey. At this elevation and in these early days of spring, the vegetation is only just coming in and we are afforded some terrific views as we climb to the summit.

Finally reaching the rocky outcropping of jagged limestone, we look for the standard Geologic Survey cap, but never find it. Still, we are all confident that the area was the summit of Tray Mountain as it was the highest point. However, our goal lies a little beyond along the AT. The Tray Mountain Shelter is nothing more than a three-walled structure with a sturdy roof. Like other AT shelters, it's intended to provide some protection from through-hikers in inclement weather. For us, it's a nice spot to take a short snack break once we reach it.

After a short break at the shelter and a few more shots of the expansive Northern Georgia mountains spanning out in front of us to the horizon, we start making our way back. The return trip proves to be pretty challenging, especially the renascent of Rocky Mountain. A couple of us find ourselves needing to take a short break on this part, as it seems steeper coming up this side. 

We do eventually reach the top though and then make our way back down to the trailhead, where I notice the Appalachian Trail Plaque that I somehow overlooked earlier. I wait around for the last hiker with the front group to make it to the parking lot. This happens to be the person who forgot her hiking shoes, but she has completed the hike in good time and arrives only a couple of minutes after the rest of us. I admit though, my legs are pretty tired. We have just hiked 11.4 miles along the AT with 3,440 feet of elevation gain and loss. Combined with my previous hikes in the last 24-hours, I'm pushing 19 miles and nearly 6,000 feet of elevation. I think my legs have a right to be tired a this point.