Date: 2017-05-02
From: Amicalola Falls Lodge

To: Hawk Mountain Tentsites
Miles today: 7.5
Weather: scattered clouds

Day 1Tuesday, May 2, 2017Amicalola Falls Lodge to Hawk Mountain Tentsites (Milepost 7.5)Miles: 7.5-Approach Trail/7.5-AT miles¢15 miles total in 9 hours with four breaks2017 AT miles: 7.5Total AT miles to date: 1301.6Weather: Clear skies, cool breeze in the morning, but warm, sunny¢high in the upper 60sWildlife: Interesting songbirds (I think some warblers and finches), Barred Owl heard while setting up campDinner: Pepper Fish and PastaHikers: Lots of day hikers, a few sectional hikers, several thru-hikers and a couple of knuckleheadsAs my steadfast reader already knows, we last saw me leave the trail on August 23, after making it to Katahdin, in pain. Mentally finished. Emotionally crippled. Defeated. Whoops¢I got carried away. Scratch those last two points. I was emotional, but not crippled and the pain turned out to be temporary. Like childbirth. How quickly we forget. And then we do it all over again. Before heading out, I first tortured myself one last time by watching the TV morning news where I learned that the architect behind the mass relocation and extermination of America¢s indigenous peoples in the mid-19th century ¢had a really big heart.¢ Yeah, I¢m definitely not going to miss my seemingly daily dose of 140 character Orwellian revisionist history lessons. Forced down a breakfast of hotel room coffee, an apple I hadn't eaten yesterday and a bun and chocolate chip cookie nabbed from last night's all-you-can-eat buffet and was on the trail at 7 a.m. Well, the Approach Trail, that is. From the lodge it's a 7.5 mile hike to Springer Mountain where the AT actually begins. You can drive Forest Service roads to reach Springer as well, but for those thru-hikers, you then need to hike one mile from the parking lot to the terminus, then turn around and hike back exactly the way you just came picking up the trail from the opposite side of the parking lot. As I'm a person who detests backtracking, hiking in one direction, even though it added ¢warm-up¢miles, suited me just fine.Whenever I've seen photos of the Springer Mountain plaques atop the southern terminus, they have been surrounded by lots of people. When I arrived just before 11 a.m. no one was there. I took pictures, then, because my breakfast had lacked a certain heartiness, I sat down to eat an early lunch. People did arrive while I was there, but nothing I would describe as crowds. So that was nice. Throughout the day I leapfrogged with a couple from Florida and another older man. But like last year, there was a village of ripstop nylon numbering at least ten parties at the designated tentsites. So there is still are plenty of hikers.Today's hike was nothing short of epic. The weather was perfect. Today's trails were nice¢pines, rhododendrons, mixed softwoods. And it was easy enough that I exceeded my original 8-10 mile plan. There was water literally springing up from the ground, clear creeks and a blue blazed side trail, that I was happy I decided to visit. While I don't condone craving, I was sort of glad someone scratched in ¢only 150 steps.¢ Long Falls came toward the end of the day around mile 12 and at that point, I debated about seeing it. The Florida couple bypassed it and missed probably the best thing on the trail today, not counting the Springer Mountain terminus. Water cascaded over vertical bedrock. It wasn't particularly high, but it had a lot of rocky texture. I took my shoes off and let my feet soak for a long time. Arrived at camp at 4:15. The Florida couple and I had run into some trail maintainers who advised us to stop at the newer campground prior to reaching the Hawk Mountain Shelter, which was old and filling up. This 30-site area was established last year to handle the increasing number of hikers who start out from Springer. One of the better amenities was a bear box, a reinforced locked metal cabinet about the size of an oversized coffee table¢and much better than hanging food from a branch, and a newer composting toilet. Composting toilets are commodes that are built up on a platform but are open air beneath. The user space is quite private but the ¢deposit¢ area is somewhat exposed. Generally they are situated out of site, on a path behind a shelter. In this campground, however, the privy was trailside and ascent to site #9.The camping was pretty fine except for the yahoos camped next to the privy, burning plastic and lighting off fire crackers. Besides their questionable choice of location, they had camp chairs and a big can of insect repellent with which one of the fine gents was dosing himself. For my part, I haven't noticed any bugs.What I almost did neglect to notice was the sun. Last night I looked at my arms and thought--that's weird, they looked sunburned. And yes, indeed. Just one late afternoon hour spent climbing stairs yesterday tinged my winter washed skin pink. So to recap. Gorgeous day. Good miles. Little pain. No bugs.