Day One – Leavetaking

It Begins with Tolkien

Before I start writing about my adventure I want to share a quote from the Hobbit that inspires me as I move forward. It is a reminder that naysayers will reject big ideas because it puts them out of their comfort zone. I don’t want to be like the people of the Shire comfortable in their routine. I want to be like Bilbo, ready for adventure. All credit to Tolkien:

Gandalf: I am looking for someone to share in an adventure that I am arranging, and it’s very difficult to find anyone.

Bilbo: I should think so in these parts! We are plain quiet folk and have no use for adventures. Nasty disturbing uncomfortable things! Make you late for dinner! I can’t think what anybody sees in them. . .

Gandalf: You’ll have a tale or two to tell when you come back

Bilbo: You can promise that I’ll come back?”

Gandalf: No. And if you do, you will not be the same

Springer Mountain to Hawk Mountain Shelter. Total miles for today – 8.2. 

I am fortunate to have family and friends who love and care about me. First and foremost there is my wife Jeanie and my daughters Isabella and Sofia who have been so supportive of this crazy idea to walk north for 2,200 miles. Jeanie accompanied me on the journey and chose to help me kick off the hike. My brother Mario and sister-in-law Lani also came as did my good buddy Alex. The five of us ventured to Georgia.

Day 1 started with breakfast with everyone at the lodge.

From there we drove in one car (a little cramped) up the forest service road to the Springer Mountain trailhead

Btw where does the trail start?

A quick aside from the story. The southern terminus of the AT is at Springer Mountain in northern Georgia about 76 miles north of Atlanta. There are two ways to get there. You can hike up 8.8 miles on the approach trail (not the AT) from Amicalola or you can drive the forest service road to a parking lot that intersects the AT about a mile north of the terminus. We chose the drive up for logistical reasons.

Time to get going

The drive to the Springer Mountain parking lot takes about an hour. The plan was for all 5 of us to hike south on the AT for the one mile to the terminus, turn around, and go back to the parking lot which we did. We took lots of pictures and everyone got to hike the first mile of the AT heading north with me.

That was very special to me.

On my own

After saying goodbye at 11am I headed out.

It was a quiet hike and about what I expected, not too difficult. On the way I ran into an Army Ranger named Terrell doing land navigation training. The AT has many side trails and I followed one to the beautiful Long Creek Falls.

I had lunch and realized I’m not a fan of foil packet tuna. No more! It was so gross, but I managed to choke it down. The spicy Fritos helped a bit.

It started raining around 1:30 PM and rained on and off all day. The temperatures plummeted down to the mid-30s.

I reached my destination at Hawk  Mountain Shelter around 3:15 PM. I met a couple of hikers, including Leprechaun from Vermont and a young gal from Belgium, who had just arrived but didn’t have a trail name. Hikers continued to roll in and by 6 PM there were at least 12 people. I set up my tent but the majority of the people chose to stay in the shelter.

Given the cold temps, everybody rolled up into their sleeping bags by 7pm as the rain turned into sleet and snow.

Temperatures continued to drop and  was down to the upper 20s by the time I went to sleep around 8. All in all it was a great day to start the trail, but definitely not the weather I had been expecting. I know that bad weather will be part of the whole experience and I’m OK with it.

I spent a restless night with the wind howling through the trees. At times a big wind gust would roll through with a sound wave and sounded like a train passing by. It was a strange thing to hear.

It was perfect day.