Date: 2017-03-29
From: Amicalola Falls 

To: Long Creek Falls
Miles today: 5.2
Weather: clear sky

Day 1 on the Appalachian TrailMarch 29Total Miles: 14. 1 Miles from Springer: 5.2 (All posts after this will be based on miles from Springer) I woke up this morning ready to roll. I was out of bed a little after 5:30am and began getting everything ready to leave the hotel. After a short shower, I packed my bag one last time before heading out. Thinking it would be a good idea to eat some food before making our way to the trail, I tried to choke down some of the remaining chicken lo mein that I had leftover from the night before. I didn't have much success in my quest to take in some calories before starting my journey on the AT. As a result, I ended up taking a short break to eat some food about 4 miles in to the approach trail, but more on that later. Expecting our shuttle driver to be at the hotel by 7:30, my dad and I made sure we were out of the room, checked out, and waiting outside by quarter past. 7:30 rolled around and there had been no sign of our ride yet. No biggie, there was a beautiful Georgia sunrise coming up directly in front of where we were waiting outside and it was a perfect way to start the day. Antsy and a bit nervous, I used the sunrise to my advantage and focused on that until a few minutes past 8 when our shuttle driver arrived. My dad and I hopped in and we were off. On our way to Amicalola falls my dad and our driver chatted which mostly consisted of politics. Not my forte so I remained quiet in the backseat. 45 minutes later, I was hopping out of the car and making my way inside the visitor center at Amicalola Falls.I walked in, signed my name as wells as my dads in the registry and made my way out the back door towards the archway. Here, I met 3 other thru hikers who happened to be from Germany. I would leapfrog with them back and forth until the top of Springer. We each volunteered to take each other's pictures in front of the archway. After snapping some pics we were off. I don't tend to be much of a small talker so I allowed the 3 to get some distance ahead of me instead of walking with them. I ended up sitting at a picnic table not far from the start and gave my mom a call to let her know I was on the trail. She was beyond excited for me as she knew that I had a smile on my face spreading from ear to ear. She was right. I was ecstatic to finally be on my way. After talking for a few minutes we said our goodbyes and I continued on my way towards the dreaded stair case. That smile I had on my face, yeah that didn't last long. It was quickly replaced by a stern and determined look. I trudged my way up the steps and tried to make short work of them. No such luck. The staircase took me about an hour to complete due to taking short breaks after every few sections of steps. Although it was difficult, the views of the falls were stunning. The way the water crashed down off the initial drop and then tumbled down through the rocks was mesmerizing to watch. After the stairs it was on to a regular dirt trail. It was very much welcomed as I had had enough stairs for one day. To my surprise, the approach trail didn't get much easier from there. I pushed on for another mile and realized it was going to take me longer than expected to finish the approach. I sent out a quick text to my dad to let him know as he was waiting for me at the top of Springer. After that I continued on about another mile and a half. I stopped to have some food for a bit thinking it would help me push through this climb. I was right, and after having a poptart, a few slices of pepperoni, a granola bar, and some craisins, I was making quick work of the trail. Speeding along, I eventually hit another wall. My pace had dropped dramatically. I began playing some music off my phone and I used the power of classic rock to get back I the groove. Before long, I was cruising through the trail yet again. I even found myself whistling and singing along to some Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Doobie Bros, and Jerry Garcia. Pretty soon I was at the base of Springer and had a final 1.5 mile push up to the top. 40 minutes later I was there and arrived to cheering and clapping by a group of people who my dad had been chatting with at the top while he was waiting for me. I laughed, walked over, and sat down in the circle that everyone was in. We chatted for a while and then my dad and I were headed down Springer and to our first stop on the AT which would be along Creek Falls. My dad and I were going at a quick pace on the way down from the peak of Springer. He had fresh legs after waiting for me for so long and I was hopped up on adrenaline from summiting the southern terminus of the AT. I couldn't believe I was finally on the actual trail. As we cruised down the mountain I began to notice that my feet were extremely hot and I knew right then and there I was going to have blisters by the time we got to our stop. At that time, my feet didn't feel too bad so I continued on. We passed through some very cool rhododendron forests that were towering up on each side of the trail and branched over our heads towards each other to make what looked like a tunnel. It was neat and I've never seen anything like it. AT about 2.5 miles down from Springer I noticed that my I was getting some chaffing in between my legs. I have never had this issue before while hiking and I now know everyone's pain who has ever had chafing before. Let metell you, its not fun. I made the mistake of touching a chaffed area with my finger and it burned like a thousand hot needles all pricking me at the same time. Not expecting to have any issue, I didn't pack anything to take care of it. Thankfully my dad would let me use some of his gold bond once we got to camp. I'll be picking some up at our first stop. The last 2.6 miles before camp were an absolute grind even though it was all mostly flat or downhill. My feet were burning up and blistering, my groin area was on fire as well, and my shoulders and traps felt like they just spent an entire day at the gym doing shrugs for 7.5 hours. I began to slow my pace and it was crawling until we finally rolled in to Long Creek Falls. When we arrived, my dad scoped out a pretty slick camp spot across the creek where no one else would go. Turns out, we're the only ones at Long Creek tonight. There were some day hikers with kids here playing in the falls earlier but they left well before dark. We quickly set up camp, I opted for my tent so I could sprawl out and try to aid my chaffing. We each filtered some water and got right to cooking dinner. Due to my long day, I treated myself with a backpacker pantry meal made for 2. It was fettuccine with chicken and an alfredo sauce. Absolutely delicious. I had the entire thing gone within 15 minutes and felt full as ever. After dinner it was on to blister treatment. I currently have 4 blisters on my left foot and 1 on my right. I'll spare you the details on how I take care of them because it's kinda gross. By this time is was about to get dark so my dad hung out good bags on his bear line so I wouldn't have to take mine out and he started a very small fire. We sat around that for a while and then we were off to bed. Its currently 9:30pm and I'm feeling pretty beat up and wiped out. At the moment I'm actually contemplating sending home my hammock system to shed some weight. My packs seems to be a little on the heavy side and by getting rid of the hammock system I would lose about 5lbs. Depending on my chaffing situation, we may be hanging out here for the day tomorrow. Given that it's only been one day, I would really prefer that doesn't happen but it's better than making my chaffing worse and not being able to move at all. Once it goes away, I will be taking every precaution possible to avoid it occurring again. Despite the current physical pain, it's been a damn good day. I'm stoked to be on out on the trail. Spirits are high and it's going to take a helluva lot more than some blisters, sore shoulders and chaffing to take me off the trail.