Date: 2018-04-16
To: Stover Creek Shelter
Miles today: 2.8
Weather: overcast clouds

My overnight train from Philadelphia was massively delayed when it stopped dead for 4 hrs in Virginia due to severe thunderstorm, tornado, and flash floods warnings. It was a fitful night but I'd make up for it at the shelter tonight.Since the delay messed up my plan to grab breakfast in Gainesville I walked to the dining car. I was seated with a woman from Iran who moved to LA, went to school to be a flight attendant in 2001, and couldn't get a job with an airline after 9/11. She's now a set designer in Atlanta, which is apparently the "new Hollywood", where up to 90% of scenes are actually filmed.Bret "Suches" Eady was amazing to rearrange his shuttle schedule to pick me up once the train finally arrived in Gainesville at 11, four hours late. Bret thruhiked southbound last year. He used to be in shipping and moved recently to Suches, Georgia, just off the trail. Very nice guy and I highly recommend looking him up.As we drove the 38 miles to Amicalola State Park I watched spring fully bursting in North Georgia. Lots of color and all the trees are leafing out.We arrived at Amicalola around noon and I went into the visitor center to register my hike. I'm number 2277 this year, which is about 23% more than at this point last year. Since not all hikers register their hikes, the true number will probably exceed 4600 northbounders by end of May (compared with 3850 last year). Master Splinter, a 2012 thruhiker now with the ATC, gave a brief but excellent seminar on staying safe and following Leave No Trace on the trail. In a few weeks he's headed to work on the trail in Maine for the rest of the season. In my class were a man and a woman from LL Bean who were the first leg of a relay hike of the entire trail. They will pass off a stuffed moose to the next LL Bean team in 10 days.The Approach Trail to the AT trailhead on Springer Mountain is 8.8 miles and starts with 600 steps up Amicalola Falls. The falls are the tallest in the East and make for quite a show. Halfway up I spied a chrome bumper half-buried under the stairs, then the rest of the outline of an ancient Volkswagen, acting as a giant planter. Some example of Leave No Trace! Probably built the stairs before the car was revealed by erosion. But what a story it must be on how it got so far up here in the first place!It was quite cold and windy today. There were flurries and trace snow on the ground at elevation along with hoar frost covering all the branches on summits like Woody Knob.I saw only a few hikers on the trail. Passed Rob and Brandon, sixtyish guys moving very deliberately. Stopped in at Black Gap shelter and shot the breeze with ex-Army Johnny Boy and electrician Shane. Singin' Dave came in to repack his things. I eventually got my butt in gear and hiked up to Springer, where the trees were covered in hoar frost, and took some selfies with the bronze plaques for the record. Singin' Dave caught up with me and we hiked together to Stover Creek shelter three miles downhill. He's a medicinal chemist from Boston and is hiking to Fontana Dam, having done everything else but Maine over the last decade. Along the way we passed a couple of Georgia trail club volunteers headed south to Springer shelter. A big thank you to all the people who volunteer their time to make the trail safer and more enjoyable!Coming off Springer we ran into a lean energetic lady who had just finished the Pinhoti Trail from Alabama, several hundred miles. It connects to the AT and they are collectively known as the Appalachian Mountain Trail. She is doing an Alabama to Maine thruhike!At the shelter I cooked noodles and hot chocolate to wash down a cold spicy salmon wrap. Met Chris, hiking to Damascus, who was huddling in a polyester blanket. This is his second day. Didn't want to get out of his warm sleeping bag til 4 today so only went three miles. Medicine Man (a pharmacist) is making his second thruhike attempt after getting as far as New Jersey with his son a few years ago. Several others were tenting. A chill wind sent us all to our sleeping bags before dusk. I put on all my warm layers as the temperature will be below freezing.No AT&T signal here - though Medicine Man found a Verizon signal by walking a half mile uphill - so I'll post this tomorrow.Safe, dry, and warm (enough!) On the Appalachian Trail...