Appalachian Trail 2020, Day 16: Sassafras Gap Shelter to Cody Gap

Day two of our three day section hike started slow with a late breakfast at Sassafras Gap Shelter and ended twelve hard miles later after a steep, sweaty grind up Jacob's Ladder. In between was one of the prettiest stretches of trail we'd hiked yet - the wildflower-covered summit of Cheoah Bald. Watch the video below, then read on for the full story.

A Slow Start After a Crowded Camp

We were up at 7:30, but between sorting gear, warming water for oatmeal, and Christy brewing her coffee, we didn't actually hit the trail until nine o'clock. Sassafras Gap Shelter had been busier than we expected the night before - a family of three, a solo hiker, and the two of us, so three or four tents worth of people breaking camp around the same time. It made for a relaxed, quiet morning before the work of the day began.

Up and Over Cheoah Bald

About a half mile in, the trail settled onto a quiet ridge walk, and 1.2 miles into the day we topped out on Cheoah Bald. It was, hands down, one of the best views of the trip - layer after layer of mountains fading into the distance, with the summit itself covered in wildflowers. Purples and whites, patches of what looked like early raspberry bushes, and clusters of orange and red blooms lined the open bald. We even found a side trail near the top that opened up a bonus view, one our shuttle driver Nancy had told us about on a previous trip - a spot where you can actually look back and see Cheoah Bald itself from a distance.

Ridge Walking to Stecoah Gap

The trail stayed up on the ridge for a while after that, with views peeking through the trees on both sides and wildflowers scattered along the path the whole way. We passed Locust Cove Gap looking for water and a possible lunch spot, then continued down toward Stecoah Gap. There's a big rock right at the gap worth a stop, and - maybe more practically - a trash can, which meant we could finally offload a bit of extra weight we'd been carrying. Stecoah Gap sits at 3,165 feet, and from there the trail turned uphill again with no trail marker to warn us what was coming.

Jacob's Ladder

What came next was Jacob's Ladder, and it earns its name. It's a steep, relentless climb, and on a hot July afternoon it turned into flat-out hard work - heads down, focused on the ten or twenty feet directly ahead, just trying to keep moving. There's not much to say about a climb like that except that you put your head down and get through it.

Deciding to Push Past Brown Fork Gap

We rolled into Brown Fork Gap Shelter expecting it might be our stop for the night, but it had an older, kind of creepier feel to it - Christy's words, and I agreed. We'd already scoped out a spot to camp there, but decided we actually had three more miles left in us and set our sights on a gap campsite instead. After the climb we'd just done, calling ourselves crazy for pushing on felt about right, but we kept going anyway.

Rolling into Cody Gap

Near the end of the day we caught one more great view - a lake visible far below, possibly connected to Fontana - and a reminder of just how much mountain terrain we'd covered since the morning. We finally rolled into camp around 7 p.m., tired but happy, having covered twelve miles that included Cheoah Bald, Stecoah Gap, and the beating we took on Jacob's Ladder. One more day of hiking to Fontana Dam still lay ahead.