Date: 2020-03-11
From: Springer Mountain

To: Stover Creek Shelter
Miles today: 2.7
Weather: broken clouds

Springer Mountain parking to Stover Creek ShelterMile 0 to 2.8Stayed last night before starting trail at Amicalola Falls SP campground. It had rained the night before and just stopped in the morning. Woke up around 8 am, made coffee and started organizing pack. Started looking like a nice day. Took everything out of car and double-checked to make sure I got everything I wanted to take on trail that was mixed in with all our other camping gear. Put a bunch of stuff in a soft cooler that Alyssa will bring to Charleston in early May and also included my fishing gear and laptop.Finally got everything packed around noon. Had a difficult time closing my pack as it was completely full. Then I realized I hadn't packed my coffee press and 10 oz of coffee. Jerry convinced me I really didn't need coffee as I won't have time to really relax and enjoy it on trail. He was right and it saved me about a pound of weight. We first drove to top of falls, parked and I got out walked down just 100 steps or so to get a few pictures then headed to Visitor Center. Weighed my pack outside with their scale and it weighed in at 34 pounds, no water, right at the max I wanted to carry. Got my tag with registration number 974. Took some pictures at the arch even though I wasn't doing the approach trail. Then we drove to the Springer Mountain parking lot from the west.In the parking lot we split the last Yeungling and split a mini bottle shot of Tennessee whiskey. Jerry forgot to hit the record button so the video he thought he was making didn't get preserved for posterity. He started another recording as we said our goodbyes and I headed up trail to Springer Mountain summit (arrived 3:09pm), the southern terminus of the AT. It was already 2:30 pm so I knew I wasn't going to make it to Hawk Mountain Shelter as planned and instead set sights on stopping short at Stover Creek Shelter.It was a partly cloudy day so I wore my sunglasses for the first day of hiking trail (writing this several days later in Neel Gap and haven't worn the them since). Signed the register in the rock, took a few requisite pictures and started on trail.It was a fairly easy 2.8 miles to Stover shelter arriving at 5 pm, set up camp and hung around the shelter while eating my first Mountain House. There was a nice group of about 15 there - not really overcrowded. Played "Scotland the Brave", "Amazing Grace" and "Piano Man" on my harmonica and got a few complements. It got dark a little after 8 and everyone was in their tents by 8:30. AT shelters are not the place for late night parties.Fell asleep shortly after I got in my tent but then woke up to a pretty good rain storm. Lots of rain pouring down, lightning and thunder that was only a couple seconds behind meaning bolts were hitting pretty close.Middle of night I realized I had a nice puddle in the tent. Hard to explain, but with my single-walled zPacks Duplex, if you push against the bottom bathtub wall it will extend outside the rain fly/roof and water will flow right into the tent. That's what happened. Mopped up the puddle with my camp towel and vowed to be extra vigilant about pushing against side of tent. With the early nap, then the storm and excitement of first night on trail, probable only got a few hours of good sleep.Fortitudine VincimusHarpo