Day one! – The walk

52°am

52nd pm

7.6 Non-AT Miles, 8.1 AT Miles, 8.1 Total AT Miles

Approach path

I woke up hoping to enjoy a full ‘Stephen Katz’ style breakfast, unfortunately the cook didn’t wake up this morning so he enjoyed an almond butter cookie. When I left Amicalola Falls Lodge at 0745, there was light fog and cool, cloudy weather. Walking down the road to meet the Approach Trail was quiet and slightly incline. As I joined the Approach Trail, I could hear crows and saw some red-headed woodpeckers and some scat that was probably a dog. I didn’t travel far and started meeting backpackers coming from the opposite direction and camping on Springer Mountain. My mind wandered all over the place as I walked, not seeing the white blazes, but the trail is broken down enough that that’s no problem. The grade was steep at times until I finally reached the southern end of the Appalachian Trail at Springer Mountain.

Springer Mountain

It was foggy and cold when I arrived at 1:00 p.m. A nice family coming from USFS Road about a mile north was enjoying the area. They left shortly after I arrived. Behind me came a group of hikers who were with the Chattanooga Hiking Club. I took a few photos and headed out quickly to make it to Hawk Shelter before sunset.

On the trail

As I left Springer Mountain, the slope of the trail became nice and fairly level. When I got to USFS 42, at about mile 1, I saw an older gentleman sitting in the parking lot. I later found out from many people that he is Gray Beard, a hiker who set the thru-hike record when he was around 80 years old, only to have his friend break the record at age 83. Gray Beard is hiking this year at age 90 in hopes of reclaiming the record. As I walked, the trail was nice and relatively smooth, but I was surprised that fatigue set in sooner than I expected. I found huge impacts from Hurricane Helene and the recent ice and wind storms, and was impressed by how much had been removed from the trail. The trail along Three Folks was very nice. I took a short side trail to see Long Creek Falls; well worth the extra walk.

Hawk Mountain Shelter

I arrived at Hawk Mountain Shelter at 5:30 PM, tired and fatigued. There were many people in the shelter. I had a Green Belly granola bar for dinner (dark chocolate and banana are not my favorites). About six or seven people were at the shelter, including a lady from Nebraska, Frosty (TN), and a guy from Maryland. I met Rod from VA later that night. Most people went tent camping (about 8 tent sites). I chose to sleep in the shelter instead of camping because it was forecast to rain later that night. Two others were with me at the shelter. During the night it rained a little and although I had no problems with the mice, the lady was bothered by them all night, they even threw acorns into her open backpack. I forgot how to close the bottom of my quilt and I didn’t want to wake others up using my light, so it was a little cool while I slept. I enjoyed my dream.

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