The Hike Inn

This past weekend, my sister, niece and I made the five-mile trek to The Hike Inn, a backcountry lodge in the foothills of North Georgia. It was my fourth visit, the third with my sister and the first with my niece. If you’re considering this experience, I recommend choosing your companions wisely. Even if you stay just one night, as we did, you’ll share about 36 hours of mostly uninterrupted time.

I chose well. My sister and niece feel like home. They appreciate the little discoveries along the way like I do – the centipede crawling across the trail, colorful mushrooms lining the trail, the too-many-to-count Joro spiders, and the inchworm dangling midair over our lunch on a moss-covered log in the middle of the woods.

My niece is in college at Pratt in Brooklyn, studying architecture with a minor in sustainability, and the Len Foote Hike Inn is a living classroom for this subject. It’s LEED Certified at the Platinum level, and sustainability practices include solar energy, vermiculture, composting toilets, rainwater collection and a commitment to Leave No Trace principles. I loved watching her soak it all in – she’d learned a lot about this stuff, but hadn’t seen a place put so many of these eco-practices into full use before. 

On the trail, hikers are friendly and encourage each other. We met other folks heading to the inn and dayhikers passing through with their dogs. (If you have a dog, we always stop to talk.) At the inn, no one is a stranger, and by the time we sit down for a family-style dinner, we’re all “trail friends.” The shared appreciation briefly unites us.

The Hike Inn trail connects to the AT Approach Trail and then to Springer Mountain, the beginning of the AT. Saturday’s after-dinner program was led by Richard Trudy, a Hike Inn board member who shared about his experience hiking the Appalachian Trail twice. His whole family was with him, and his son and daughter later followed in his footsteps by also hiking the AT. It was beautiful to witness the bonds they’d built around hiking. 

I’ve romanticized hiking the AT since I was in college, but my legs are sore after two days of backpacking, so I’m wondering if my window to do an AT thru-hike has closed. Yet the inn offers a glimpse of what it’s like to step away from the noise of the world and enjoy the simplicity of the trail while living within new parameters, even if it’s just for a night. With hot showers, two cooked meals and a comfortable bed. I may stick to the 10-mile version of this adventure instead of the 2,198-mile version. We’ll see, though. I’m not done yet.

This weekend was a reset and a reminder that I have choices in how I spend my time, where I place my energy and how I listen. The noise of the world lessens while the Flow feels a lot clearer. To confirm the magic of it all, a rainbow stretched across the mountains not long after we arrived.

So I return to my work week feeling renewed and more willing to notice the miracles within and beyond. What a gift this is – to walk in the woods with people you love to sacred spaces.