Date: 2003-03-15
To: Three Forks USFS 58
Miles today: 4.1

Wow! The start date has finally arrived. So much has happened in the last 24 hours it's hard to know where to begin. Last night Lizzie (who I will now start calling by her trail name "Noid"), Kay, and Erin flew into Atlanta. We all spent the night at Becca's sister's house. Amy and Lane are the BEST!! They got up early on a Saturday morning to drive us to Springer Mountain. They were kind enough to feed us pizza for dinner on Friday night and drive us on a long, crazy forest service road to Springer, since we didn't want to do the approach trail.The weather was perfect. It was overcast and about 52 degrees. No rain! So we were all happy about that. And it was nice hiking in cool weather because you work up a sweat easily.We got to Springer at noon. Walked the 0.9 miles to the beginning of the trail, which is South, and then we had to retrace our steps back North. Noid was waiting for Abby (Goober). We finally found her. Yeah! As we were waiting for Goober in the parking lot I acquired my trail name. It took less than an hour. I was sitting on some small rocks resting and after sitting for about 15 minutes I got up and wiped the seat of my pants and said "I feel like I got dimples on my butt from sitting on these rocks." Noid quickly said "Dimple Butt, what a great trail name." Everyone yelled "Yes, Dimple Butt." I started protesting, so for short they call me Dimples. I can live with that name. Becca's trailname might be "Wrong Way Brown" because she kept on making wrong turns on the trail--she was the leader.So as I write this, I'm nestled in my tent with the comforting sound of water rushing down a stream right outside my door. What a soothing noise to fall asleep to. Life is great!It's 7:30pm, time to go to bed.Well, now it's 10:45pm. Apparently 7:30 is just too early for me to turn in for the night. Becca and I just had a fun experience going to the bathroom at night. I've been debating for the last two hours whether to go or wait until morning. At long last I heard Noid's zipper on her tent. She had just went, so I was like if she can do it I can too. I asked Becca if she needed to go and she admitted she did, but she was scared. So I got my shoes on and got out. She was half way out of the tent when I said "Watch out for this tent stake." She all the sudden gets back in the tent frantically and I bend down and ask her what's wrong. She said she thought I said, "Back up! Back up!" She cautiously gets back out and whispers "I'm scared, I'm scared." So we finally go and get back in the tent laughing uncontrollably. I guess it's just like when you move into a new house--takes awhile to get used to the new sounds.Tomorrow we're going to stay at a shelter so we can meet some more hikers. We got a late start today and we could've made it to a shelter, but we'd be pushing daylight. We had a great dinner of Lipton noodles. And we actually hung our food bag, so bears or any other critters wouldn't get them. Goober tied our rope in this cool knot. I'll have to learn how to do that.Oh yes, I had my first drink of spring water and Yogi, you're right, it does taste GOOD! It feels good to have the first day done. All the anticipation, worry, fear, etc...finally starting to subside. I'm here. It's happening and it couldn't feel more perfect."These are days you'll remember. Never before and never since I promise, will the whole world be warm as this. And as you feel it, you'll know it's true that you are blessed and lucky. It's true that you are touched by something that will grow and bloom in you." These are Days, 10,000 Maniacs.