Date: 2003-03-21
From: Springer Mountain

To: as far as I can get
Miles today: 4.5

The sun sets on the first day of Spring- my first day of 2,176 miles on the AT. I am so exhausted, I cannot even tell you the name of this shelter. But I'm getting ahead of myself...My parents and sister got up at 4a.m. today to drive me to the trailhead - though I stayed up all night packing and sorting gear, they still had to wait around for two hours before I was finally ready to leave -with my 60lb pack that was supposed to be closer to 40. It took us 2 and a half hours to get to Atlanta, and then we headed north. I don't think that I will ever forget what it was like, the first time I saw the Southern A.T. We crested a rise, and I looked up... across a valley of Georgia pine, I see a long mass of jagged, foreboding rock. It was so immense. I felt like we had driven into Tibet. I had no idea the South had anything like this. My heart dropped into my gut, but I smiled from ear to ear and chuckled aloud. We wandered around Dahlonega (sp.?) GA (which we jokingly pronounced Dahli Lama) for about an hour before finally getting directions to the trailhead. We weaved and wound our way up a forest service road for about another hour. As my mom's car scraped bottom climbing out of a rut I said, "So THIS is why the ranger asked me what sorta car we were driving." My mother asks, "Do you know the number for 9-1-1?" and we laugh our way up to the parking area/ trail crossing. I was in the parking lot for a while, getting my pack situated on me. A hiker passed by with a tiny pack and walking sticks and we glanced at each other for a moment, and then he disappeared into the woods. The First person we spoke to was Gizmo, one of the ATC trail maintainers for this part of the trail. He was pleasant, and thoughtful, but too didactic in his preaching about no trace hiking. And he did me a real favor by telling me, right in front of my nervous mom, how active the bears are in this area! He actually went to a dumpster and shortly thereafter produced a can that had teeth marks through it. It seemed a bit contrived to me. My adventure began at about 1p.m. The parking lot is actually 1 mile into the Trail, so my sister, Anne, and I walked the mile to the summit on Springer Mountain, 3,782 ft. This took an hour as I had all kind of adjustments to make to my over burdensome gear. There was a small trail that led to a shelter and I heard voices. "Do you want to go see it?" My sister asked. "No, I had better get moving. But to be honest, I was feeling a bit intimidated. The view was amazing, but we didn't stay long. We returned to the car. Then I had the bizarre experience of walking away into the wilderness as my parents and sister stood and watched. I lost sight of them through some brush around a bend. I heard a final blast of the car horn, and suddenly I was alone in the wilderness - 6 days, at best, from civilization. During the whole time I felt anxiety only twice: once at 2a.m. the morning of my beginning the hike, and when we finally reached that parking lot and I thought "this is it". Wandering through the woods, my emotions vacillated between exhilaration at this moment in my life, and apathy about the act of hiking. But the feeling that was the strongest was that I was finally doing it. Now, back to the shelter...When I arrived at the shelter (Stover Creek), I was relieved to find 2 older guys there, a Brit named Tanglefoot and a northerner and experienced thru-hiker, named Red. Both good guys. I sit now on this rain-drenched log, in a clearing next to a small creek, though I enjoy the company of my fellow hikers, I cannot wait to begin my journal, and to read a letter from Natasha (the girl I left behind)and to write her of my first day. I close the day and hope to hike 13 miles tomorrow.