Neels Gap & Helton Creek Falls

   On our first full day in the North GA mountains last week for Emma's first vacation, after we hiked with Sasha at Hogs Pen Gap, we walked down the road from the cabin to where the map said Helton Creek Falls was. We could hear the waterfall from the porch, hence that cabin being called Waterfall Serenade, but when we got a couple minutes down the road, we were met by an area that seemed to need a foot bridge. I suppose the map was for driving and not walking since the water was too deep and wide to cross easily. If we didn't need the ventilator we probably would have been fine. We even went into the woods, trying to find a better way across, Michael calling, "Am I clear?" after ducking under big branches to make sure nothing would hit the ventilator. Michael even suggested taking his shoes off to cross over the rocks, but I didn't want to do that. We found out later that there were two deep areas to cross before reaching the waterfall, obviously requiring a vehicle in those areas. Anyway, I took pictures while attempting to cross at the beginning.

 ^^ In the main driveway of our cabin before starting our walk.

   Watching a Jeep pass through the water very easily. We thought about holding our thumbs out!

  The second day that Michael's mom was with us (Monday, March 25th), the weather said rain and thunderstorms all day ~ a huge letdown for me as I was unrealistically planning on us hiking every day. Luckily, by the morning, it said it would just be cloudy until 2pm, so I was kind of rushing everyone to get ready so we could hike up to Raven Cliff (or Ravenclaw Falls as we call it) like we did two years ago when I was six months pregnant with Emma. However, when we got there just before Noon, it was already raining too much to have the ventilator out. I got a picture of Emma in the parking lot, then Michael's mom and I just took a picture by the sign before we went to the Neels Gap store.

   Neels Gap is the first stop people usually make when hiking the Appalachian Trail, starting from Amicalola Falls. Other people just start from Neels Gap, but when we hike it (one day in the far future), I'd want to start from the Appalachian Trail approach sign with the stone arch. Michael says Neels Gap is where people usually realize that the shoes they got are not good enough and get "real" hiking boots from Neels Gap instead. They sign their old shoes, tie the strings together and throw them up into the tree outside. They have places to sleep for those who already don't want to be using their tents (I just read that it's 40 miles from Amicalola Falls to Neels Gap, an average of four days), food or dried meals to buy, and of course, souvenir stuff. Michael's mom bought all of us T-shirts!
   In this first photo, if you look carefully, you can see the trail going up just to the right of that little green "hikers crossing" sign directly in the middle of the photo.

Emma admiring the dirty boot tree behind us!

 ^^ Pictures of people who finished the whole 2,200 mile trail, ending in Mount Katahdin, Maine!

   A few pictures from when we were at Neels Gap in April 2017, here.

Since the weather was changing, and at 1pm it was not raining, we took Michael's mom to Helton Creek Falls from the other direction, which is how we got there last time we visited. We showed his mom where we stayed two years prior in a different cabin, that has now been renamed, but owned by the same company we rented from this time, Blood Mountain Cabins.

Being careful and watching his step with all that precious cargo! :)

Multi-tasking at its very finest! (He was taking a photo for another couple with their camera.)

^^ Driving through one of the river crossings to get back to our cabin. It was about a 5 minute drive going through the water, and would have been about a 25 minute drive staying on the main roads.
   When we got back from Hog Pen Gap with Michael's mom the following day (this post is all out of order since I blogged about that first - it was my favorite part!), I put on the ventilator backpack since Michael told me many times that it would be too heavy for me and that I wouldn't be able to handle it. I am pretty weak, but that comment just made me more determined to prove him wrong. He helped me get everything clipped in and told me to walk up the main road that the cabin was on.

   You can't tell from the photo, but that is a 45 degree incline! My calves were definitely taking up the "pain" part of my body, so I wasn't focused much on how heavy the ventilator backpack was (30 pounds, by the way). I made it to the top. It wasn't far, but I was doing my exhaustion laugh because of how proud I was with my body and showing that I was able to push myself and do something that he said I couldn't. I only had it on for maybe five minutes. Next time I'll have to wear it a lot longer! I was totally going to take a picture of Emma and I at the top, but forgot I had my phone in my pocket.