I am Heading up to Neels Gap and hike over to Cow Rock Mtn its a fairly easy 6 mile hike n hang one nighter any one who wants to join come on.
I am Heading up to Neels Gap and hike over to Cow Rock Mtn its a fairly easy 6 mile hike n hang one nighter any one who wants to join come on.
I and a buddy did our first ever hang behind the hostel at Neal's gap we had road down there on on motorcycles . We had a bear come into camp twice that night in the morning when we went back down to our bikes the bear had tipped mine over forgot I had trail mix in my back luggage area . So make sure you hang all your food away from where you sleep I love that area.
Check the GA AT site. I think I recall a bear bag requirement at Neels Gap. We were planning a 2 nighter recently and I decided I didn't need that hassle. It may be south of there.
I think we've decided on the foothills trail at Chattooga/Burrells Ford.
Last I heard, there was a 5 mile stretch of the AT starting before Blood Mountain and extending to Neel's gap where "bear canisters" are required. Outside of that stretch of trail, make sure you hang your food well away from where you set up camp and it might be a good idea to eat on the trail 30 min before you get to your night time destination.
I would call before I headed up there to find out exactly where the container rule is in affect.
Beautiful area none the less and worth the aggravation.
"When you see something wobble, push it."
- Unknown
Bear canister requiremnt aside, it's still a good idea to take great care storing your food and any smellables. The were hikers as far north as Unicoi Gap having food stolen by bears when I was hiking there in March. Bears will take anything they think could possibly be food and not give a crap. Be careful!
"If you play a Nicleback song backwards, you'll hear messages from the devil. Even worse, if you play it forward, you'll hear Nickleback." - Dave Grohl
This thread is a couple weeks old, I just wanted to share my experience in that general area. This past weekend, a buddy and I went out for the evening to test out some new gear. We left from Neels Gap and stopped at Wolf Laurel Top for the night. We had a bear visit our camp twice that night, once around 20:00 and again around 23:30. Both times, I believe he was just passing through and only stopped to check us out before we encouraged him to move on, which he did (giving a big snort the first time and then immediately leaving the area). After his second visit of the night, he found his way to our food, destroyed the branches it was hanging from, managed to real it in and pluck off the bags. Admittedly, the tree was not ideal, but the food bags were high enough and far enough away from the tree, he just managed to figure out how to get them. So, I would say that bears are definitely a problem in that area.
Yes there is a Predator Problem in all of North Ga. I live in north gwinnett co. and have seen 2 different bears on multiple occasions over the past 2-3 years, wondering in the woods in my back yard and we have several coyotes all around us I caught a coyote not to long ago charging my Lab to make her dinner but the Coyote saw me and turned the other way. Folks just have to be predator smart and even that sometimes just isn't enough. I used to never carry Bear Spray with me in the North Ga mountains because the Bears didn't seem that prevelant, but now you really don't have to look anymore the dang critters will come right up to ya. So now a days i always have a can of Bear Spray on my Hip!
Probably this guy...
http://whiteblaze.net/forum/vbg/show...imageuser=8174
I had always heard that you just pulled out a camera and they ran away. That did not work with this big fella. He looked a little too big for mid-spring and I'm sure its because he was getting fat on camper food. He eventually ambled away, but he was SO big, it made me think twice about not having any bear spray, etc. Still thinking... and still hiking.
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