Day 6 [Georgia: Mile 53.3 - Mile 69.4] Unicoi Gap -> Dicks Creek Gap
Date: March 7, 2025 (Friday)
Total Distance: 16.1 miles
Mile 53.6 Rocky Mountain Tlrai
Woke up after a good night of sleep, we started cooking our breakfast. Burned the corn mix with milk powder on the stove, because I was cooking and cleaning up the tent at the same time. Tried oat meal again and same thing happened. Lessons learned not to multitask while cooking, and boil water first before mixing other ingredients. After packing up our bags and filling up our water bottles in the creek, we continued our climb of the Rocky Mountain. Crossed the blue-blaze marked Rocky Mt Trail quickly.
Mile 54.1 Rocky Mountain
The mountain top has a small flat area with fire pit that can be used for a few tents. This would not be too bad if we camped here last night, as long as it was not windy.
Mile 54.3 View
Mile 55.4 Indian Grave Gap/USFS-283
It is an open area sitting between two hills that has AT, Forest Service Road-283, and another blue-blazed trail crossing each other. Plenty of space to park the car here. When the trail picked up again from the Gap, we passed a dense rhododendron bush, imaging how beautiful the summer bloom could be.
Mile 56.1 Tray Mountain Road/USFS-79
Passing the unpaved forest service road, we continued our climb of Tra
Mile 56.4 Cheese Factory Site
Used to be the site for a 19th century diary farm. I kept calling it “Cheese Cake Factory” - the mall restaurant chain, lol. It is spacious, flat, and good for at least 8-10 tent sites.
Mile 56.9 View of Tray Mountain
Stepping on this flat rock top on the side of the trail, you can see from the tree top the Tray Mountain in near distance. The snow caps from yesterday are all gone by now.
Mile 57.1 Tray Gap
We came cross our second trail magic on AT. The first one was Hopping Frog Cafe ran by Fresh Grou at Gooch Gap. This one was ran by the owners of Boots Off Hostel & Campground Rentals in Tennessee. They have been camping and stationing here for several days to treat hikers with breakfast burritos, hot drinks, fruits, snacks, and their hospitality. We also left out big trash bag here as there really no place to dump them on the trail even in the most of the major gaps with main road crossing. With the Leave No Trace principle, we need to plan not only light weigh of our pack, but also how to reduce our garbage to carry, especially for planning our meals and snacks.
We also exchanged information with other hikers there and learned the possibilities of staying in a hostel tonight. The whole experiences warmed our bodies and our hearts.
Mile 57.9 Tray Mountain
Mile 58.1 Tentsite
Mile 58.4 Tray Mountain Shelter
The shelter is 0.2 miles northeast from the trail.
Mile 60.1 Steeltrap Gap
Blue Blaze points to a side trail to a spring in 0.1 miles distance.
Mile 62.0 Swag of the Blue Ridge
The gap between the Tray Mountain and Dismal Mount, and serves as a decent tent site.
Mile 63.1 Sassafras Gap
This name keeps showing up in many times along the NC/TN section.
Mile 64.0 Addis Gap
A short hike to a spring and multiple tent space. The gap itself also has several nice tent spots.
Mile 65.0 Kelly Knob
Like what our shuttle driver Ron said, do not let the “knob” in the name fool you, it is a steep climb up and down in short distance.
Mile 65.8 Deep Gap Shelter
It is a 0.3 mile side trail hike to the shelter.
Mile 69.4 Dicks Creek Gap /US-76
We passed the sign pointing to a 0.1 mile side trail to Powell Mountain Vista, but were too exhausted to check it out. The Vista supposedly has a nice view on a sub-peak of Powell Mountain, and a few tent sites as well. We also passed McClure Gap, Moreland Gap, and didn’t realize it.
I called Around the Bend Hostel earlier of the day when we were at the trail magic. Typically hostels do not take reservations over the phone, only through internet bookings. This AT asection has been great to have cell signals almost the whole time but not strong enough to open websites. However, somehow the hostel was not busy that day and we were told to just show up. By the time we got Dicks Creek Gap a little over 6pm, we decided to hike 0.5 miles to the hostel instead of calling them to pick up. We were extremely lucky that day as the AT through hike season already started and most of the hostels in GA have been fully occupied every night. But for some reason that night the hostel was not busy at all.
Our experience with this hostel was extremely pleasant. It also has a small outfitter store so we also resupplied. We cooked a pizza and stake dinner. The hostel took our laundry bag and returned a clean pack in less than 30 minutes. After shower, we had a great sleep in the soft bed. By 7am in the morning, a warm, big breakfast was waiting for us in the main dinning hall. You can also relax in the chairs in the backyard, and enjoy the sunset or sunrise with the mountains in the backdrop.
If possible, we will try to stay in their Glasgow location in VA as well in the future hike. Website of the hostel: https://www.stanimals328.com, and phone (706) 389-9668
