I ran/hiked southbound on the 75 mile Georgia Appalachian trail, starting at Bly Gap. The first segment, in North Carolina, started from a locked forest service gate on Eagle Fork Road just outside of Shooting Creek, NC. I had to hike 3 miles up a blue-blaze trail to Bly Gap and then the 100 yards or so to the NC/GA border, where the run started at 19:30 on March 6, 2019. I hit Tesnatee Gap around sunrise, Woody Gap around 1:20, Three Forks at sunset, and finally summited Springer Mountain at 21:04 on March 7, 2019, for a total elapsed time of 25 hours, 34 minutes. I carried 17 pounds on my back, much of which was food, half of which I didn't end up eating. I had a Sawyer filter in line with my Osprey hydration bladder for quick stream fill-ups. Weather was in the high 30s to low teens - depending on windchill - warming up to high- to mid-40s after midmorning. Clear and sunny until the evening, when it became overcast. See my blog at runorthocascadia.wordpress.com for the full trip report.
Due to intermittent GPS tracking inaccuracies (2.5 minutes on SPOT and UltraTrac on Garmin), the total distance logged is 66.86 on my Garmin watch, and 63.5 on my SPOT. The SPOT data includes the 3 mile ascent from the car drop point to Bly Gap. I started my Garmin watch at the NC/GA border at 19:29. I ended my SPOT tracking a few minutes later, after my videos and a little celebration.