Date: 2016-02-25
From: Hawk Mountain Shelter

To: Hawk Mountain Shelter
Miles today: 9.2
Weather: light snow

I plan on transferring most of my daily journal entries to this blog in order to be more efficient with my time. These are the thoughts in my head at the end of each night. Please be aware that I write a lot each night so I will separate the longer passages into individual blog posts. Here is Day One.Day One - Springer Mtn to Hawk Mtn ShelterThis morning Ria and I were picked up by Ron Brown from The Lodge at Amicalola Falls. He has been shuttling thru-hikers for ten years and he makes his living from this job. We gave him $30 a piece. He picked us up in a muddy ForeRunner Toyota covered in AT bumper stickers. On the inside was a GPS that used the same voice as the guy that sings "The Monster Mash." The GPS's name was "Mr. Nightmare." Also inside was another thru-hiker named Maniac-Cole. He was a talker and a little rough around the edges. Also a smoker and very nice, he mentioned that he would like to quit smoking while on the trail. We drove on a dirt road out to the Springer trail-head, took about an hour. Ron gave us an immense amount of knowledge about the trail. Turns out he is an avid trail angel. Daily he leaves 6 gallons of water at Cooper Gap, which is in the middle of a 7 mile stretch with no water. He has never thru-hiked but is from NH so he has done a bit inter White Mtns and then of course he has also hiked a bit in GA and NC.Ron dropped myself and Ria off at the 0.9 mile mark of the AT so we hiked the 9 tenths we missed up to the start of Springer Mtn then turned around and officially began our hike from there (which meant re-hiking the 9 tenths down the Mtn). On top of Springer we met and older man named Sojo and his golden retriever, Theo. He was around 70 years old and told us that Theo is 10. We played cat and mouse with him until mile 4 and then our pace overpowered his. At the 1 mile mark we met our first true trail friend, Ultra. His trail name is Ultra because he runs ultra marathons (more than 26.2 miles). He told us that he played baseball in the Marlins organization for a while but now he is a special education teacher for elementary students. The school is in Lebanon, Indiana. He has a son who is a freshman in high school and a daughter who is a freshman at Franklin College. We stayed around him til around mile 5 when Ria and I stopped to have lunch. We took our shoes off and let our feet rest and air out. Had a couple hot spots but nothing serious. It seems that my little and big toes are the problem areas. I are pita bread with peanut butter, a snickers bar and I think that's it. From there Ria and I hit a small wall. My legs and hips were exhausted even though my feet felt much better. We passed by the first shelter where Maniac Cole was staying around 11am and moved on, it was too early to stop. For the next five miles the weather was favorable (although thunder in the distance), and the scenery was beautiful. Plenty of Mtn Laurel and Georgia Pines all with a strip of GA red clay as the trail. At mile 7.4 it started pouring...and hailing. We had less than a mile to Hawk Mtn shelter but I got drenched bc I was not wearing rain pants or my raincoat. Thanks to this horrible judgment call on my part my only sports bra, my buff, underwear, shirt, hat and legging are so wet I was able to wring water out of them. Also, Ria and I were so overwhelmed when we got to camp and it seemed like the shelter was full (seemed key word here) so we decided it was a good idea to immediately set our tents up...in the downpour. Therefore, the inside of our tents got wet in the pitching process. We should have waited for the rain to die down in the shelter and THEN pitch our tents. There are probably 20 ppl staying at this location which is way more than I expected.We ran into Ultra who had arrived an hour before us. He was shivering and not optimistic about the rain. He said he does not have a sleeping pad and his tent leaks so I am worried he won't get a good nights sleep. We sat around the campfire in the rain (which Ria faithfully tended to) til around 6pm then it became too dark and cold and was still raining steadily. I don't think I will be eating a big meal tonight or even brushing my teeth. I am in the tent for good until morning. Then we plan on taking all of our things to the shelter and taking our time to dry it all out and reorganize. Maybe have some warm tea. Oh! And my trail name is Jelly Ankles because I rolled my ankles so much this morning that Ria said they are like Jelly! Good day!