Date: 2009-03-20
From: Amicalola Falls State Park

To: Stover Creek Shelter
Miles today: 11.6
Weather: clear sky

The Journey has begun... the numbers are in!   We spent the night before my start at the Hiker Hostel in Dahlonega, where we encountered a cast of characters that could have come straight out of the pages of Bill Bryson's "A Walk in the Woods." It was certainly a different type of hiker than I had expected, and I suddenly realized why so many people who had signed my guestbook had expressed their confidence in my ability to complete this thru-hike... I had wanted to add a little more to my journal that night, but the unpleasant sounds of "Pulp Fiction" on the television downstairs, along with the banter of the hikers watching it, sent me back up to my room, where I spent the last hours of the evening copying down some quotations into my journal. We turned off the lights at 11:30, and my nightmares about not being able to get to the trailhead in time to reach the summit of Springer Mountain began. I was thwarted by several people and many scenarios in this dream, which played itself out in real time. When my alarm went off at 6:30am in real life, it was 2:30pm in my dream, and I still hadn't set off on the trail!   We enjoyed a breakfast of blueberry waffles, eggs, oatmeal, and coffee with some section hikers and ailing potential thru-hikers who had gotten off the trail for some rest. We then packed up one last time and I realized that I had forgotten to pack my contacts that were meant for outdoors! I also realized that I forgot to bring along a couple of extra ziplock bags for my camera and phone. But it was time to start making adjustments on the fly.       It was a long drive to the trailhead, and aside from my stomach feeling a bit upset from the car ride, I felt extremely calm and content. Upon arriving at Amicolola, the feeling of excitement began. We jumped out of the car, used the toilets, and went into the visitor center to sign in and look at the exhibits of snakes and other animals living on the trail. Several thu-hikers had already signed in before me, and I started to feel anxious about having enough time to do the climb. As we got my pack out of the back of the car in order to weigh it for the log book, a nice man came down from a higher level parking lot to greet us. His name was 'Hopeful' and he could tell that we (or I) were intending to hike the entire trail. He had thru-hiked in 2003, himself. He was full of positive energy and offered me some advice, as well as inviting me to his birthday party/trail magic at Stecohoah Gap in April! He loves the trail and had come to hike the beginning with his friends Circuit Rider and Sherlock, both of whom had thru-hiked the trail last year, and who were heading out again this year. All three of them were full of bright smiles, great energy, and encouragement. After weighing my pack, which came in at 35 pounds (the lightest of the day until Circuit Rider signed in at 34 pounds), and me posing by the Approach sign (which took me by surprise, as I had only seen close-ups, and had not pictured it in its full context in front of the visitor's center), we all headed to the back of the building and posed for photos at the arch at the start of the Approach trail. It was so much fun and the perfect way to start my journey! The three friends took off, with the buffet at the lodge being their first destination. Erik and I said goodbye and he gave me a small plastic cylinder which he told me to open that night.   Anxious to get going, I did not even read the signs at the start of the trail, and simply headed straight up after waving goodbye to Erik. I was on my way, and I couldn't be happier. I was exactly where I wanted to be.   I had heard about the 600 steps up to the waterfall, and wondered when that was going to begin. I reached a gravel road and started walking uphill. I saw three people ahead and thought I would catch them, but they headed off to the lodge before that could happen (no doubt that it was Hopeful and his friends). I passed a sidetrail to a waterfall on my left, but bypassed it, thinking that I would come to one that was on the trail. I already had the thru-hiker mindset of not wanting to hike the extra miles of sidetrails... I headed toward the signs pointing to the Approach trail and thought this must be where the stairs and waterfall start, but none appeared. I had heard horror stories about the difficulty of this trail ("Don't do it! It's horrible! Just take a bus to the top!") and I passed signs warning of the strenuous level of the trail and the time estimate of 6 hours. "Six hours!.. Really?". I began to dissolve my hopes of doing a couple more miles after Springer. I passed three section hikers and came to a flat portion of the trail, followed by a downhill. "I must not be on the right trail!" I thought. I started to panic a little. I took out my guidebook pages and saw only increasing elevations. I felt so stupid! How could I already have gotten lost?! I put my pack back on and starting hightailing it back, aggravated that I had already lost time. I ran into the three section hikers. "You're going back!" they said. "Is this the Approach Trail?", I asked. "Yes.""I thought it was supposed to go up and up.""No, it goes down, and up, and down and up again."   Back I went, wondering where the difficult part of this trail was...Ahead of me, I saw three hikers ascending an uphill, and I stopped for a moment at a plaque dedicated to a man who had lost his life in an airplane accident in the area in 1968. They had only removed the wreckage in 1996, and that was when his family had erected the memorial. I took in the silence around me. It was so quiet, that I felt a ringing in my ears, and I turned around in a complete circle to take in the stillness. Not even a bird was chirping. I then headed up the hill, and passed the three hikers. I would pass several more people along the way, and suddenly I came to an area where several people were spread out, picknicking and enjoying the view. I had reached the summit of Springer mountain and it was only 2:20! (I started at 10:50). 'Many Sleeps', the caretaker, approached me and signed me in as thru-hiker number 338. He said I was the first woman thru-hiker of the day (10 men had started at Springer earlier in the day) and the first person to make it up the Approach Trail. I thought it was easy! I asked Many Sleeps about missing the stairs, and he told me that I had taken the Old Approach Trail. Worried that I might have taken a short cut, he assured me that I most certainly did not, and that the way I did it was in fact harder. I called Erik to let him know that I made it, and enjoyed the expansive view. Many Sleeps told me that he had not seen a better view from Springer in his four years of caretaking on the summit. He took my picture by the summit sign and then I ate a lunch of tuna on a tortilla with a little trail mix. At 3:40, I left the summit with the goal of walking 2.8 more miles to Stover Creek shelter for the night. A few minutes after I left, I realized that I had completely forgotten to pick up a pebble from the summit to carry to Katahdin! Oh well... I didn't need the extra weight anyway..        I made it to Stover Creek shelter at 4:45, just as two day hikers were leaving. I was expecting to see the thru-hiker that signed in at Springer after me, but no one was there. I dropped my pack and followed the path behind the shelter to collect water, but it was all dried up, so I put my pack back on and went back to the creek that I had crossed before I got to the shelter. The sunshine was pretty and I took in the peacefulness of this moment. Back at the shelter, my next task was to find two trees to tie my hammock to. I ended up finding two well-spaced ones several hundred yards to the right of the shelter. Starting to feel a bit lonely, I wondered if anyone else would be staying at the shelter. As I was setting up my tarp, '9 Iron' and his dog, Honey, came in. He wanted to make sure that he wasn't taking the spot I wanted in the shelter, which I thought was very nice of him. The shelter was a beautiful, new, two-storied one, with both a picnic table and several benches in front. As I started getting out my stove and dinner, 9 Iron asked if I wanted some boiling water as he had plenty left over, so I didn't even have to light my stove! 9 Iron was tickled pink to find himself actually on the trail, at his first shelter, on his first night of his AT adventure ("sitting with a girl named Wendy"). He had dreamed of this moment for so long. He asked me if I was the type of person who was determined to complete the goals they set for themselves. He said he was, too. Even though he had been on many two-week backpacking trips in the west, he still expressed worry at his ability to complete the long journey ahead. We laughed about the 10 pounds of gear he took out of his pack at Amicalola and gave to his wife to take home after discovering how much his pack weighed. He couldn't believe how light my pack was in comparison.    I opened up the cylinder that Erik had given to me, and found a little plastic mouse with a note reading "Carry me to Katahdin" tucked into his tail. He had also written me a letter.   Two other male hikers came in later that evening, but they were not interested in conversing with us. Tension arose between the two other hikers and the dog belonging to one of them, and I felt sorry for '9 Iron' that the happy mood we had found ourselves in was now dampened and mixed with an odd energy that we had not expected. I signed the trail registry and headed off to my hammock as night fell at 8:15. I heard two more hikers arriving and was glad that I had my own little quiet space."Birds flying high you know how I feelSun in the sky you know how I feelBreeze driftin' on by you know how I feelIt's a new dawnIt's a new dayIt's a new lifeFor meAnd I'm feeling goodFish in the sea you know how I feelRiver running free you know how I feelBlossom on the tree you know how I feelDragonfly out in the sun you know what I mean, don't you knowButterflies all havin' fun you know what I meanSleep in peace when day is doneThat's what I meanAnd this old world is a new worldAnd a bold worldFor meStars when you shine you know how I feelScent of the pine you know how I feelOh freedom is mineAnd I know how I feel"- Nina Simone