Date: 2004-05-02
To: Bound for Amicalola
Miles today: 0.0

Graham Dowie would be picking me up at 4am. Going to sleep now, at 3am, was out of the question. My first day on the trail would start with an all-nighter. Perfect. I shut down & closed up the house and waited for Graham. He arrived a bit early. That¢s amazing for a college student but typical for Graham. He drove me to the bus station in Concord to catch the 5am bus to Logan Airport in Boston. It¢s good to have a hiking partner see you off on an adventure like this.The flight from Logan left at 7:45am and arrived in Atlanta, Georgia at 10am. There, I was met by Scott Dowling at baggage claim. Scott has thru-hiked the trail and shuttles folks to the trail for a donation. I found him on the Appalachian Trail Conference (now Conservancy) website www.appalachiantrail.org along with several others offering shuttle services. I had emailed about four of them two weeks ago. He was the first to respond. Besides, with the name Scott, it just made sense. He recognized me by the well worn yellow pack and showed me to his truck. It was raining. He had Coleman fuel in the back, so I filled my fuel bottle, all 11 ounces, in the airport parking garage. For a moment there was fear that this might be misconstrued as a terrorist act, but no one noticed, thankfully. Scott provided a lot more than just a ride to the trail. He gave me lots of beta info on the trail in this area and further up the road. He also shared stories of his adventures on the AT and other trails. It helped set me at ease. You would think that with all my backpacking experience this would be no big deal but it was a big deal. ¢I was nervous, happy, scared, excited. You name it. I was it.¢ (So, where¢s that quote from? Go ahead. Send me your guess.)The trip to Amicalola Falls State Park took around an hour. Scott offered to stop for any supplies I might need, but the Coleman fuel he had provided completed my pack. As we got closer to Amicalola, the rain intensified. It¢s always hard to get out of a dry vehicle to start a hike in the rain, much less a downpour. The question, ¢what are you doing?¢ rolled around in my head. Surely there would be plenty of other wet days. Can¢t let this one get in the way. As we approached the Visitors Center, Scott asked if he should drop me off there, at the start of the approach trail, or if I wanted to be dropped further up the approach trail where it crossed some road or other parking lot. This shows how much prep work I had done. I didn¢t know there were alternate starts to the approach trail.The AT actually begins on the summit of Springer Mountain. The Amicalola Falls Approach Trail starts 8.8 miles away at the State Park Visitors Center. On its way it crosses the Amicalola Lodge Road at 1.2 miles, the High Shoals Road at 3.2 miles and 2 dirt forest service roads at 5.1 and 6 miles. Some folks even start at a road crossing 0.9 miles north of Springer. They hike south to the summit and turn around and start their hike north. I, having not really thought about this, figured what¢s another 8.8 miles next to 2,174.1 miles to Maine? I mean, get real.Scott parked at the Visitors Center as the rain miraculously stopped. The sky was still plenty scary looking but there was no complaining. Inside I signed the trail register. Scott ushered me out the back door to the arch that provides the gateway to the approach to the southern terminus of the Appalachian National Scenic Trail. After the obligatory photo session, we said good bye, and the hike began. I wish I had checked to see that the photo he had taken of me had worked, because it didn't, and that I had taken a photo of him. The camera too was new to me, and I had not yet learned its idiosyncrasies. It is easy to think it took the shot, when it hadn¢t. Oh well.