Total 11.6 miles
Approach Trail 8.8 miles
AT 2.8 miles
We're Off!!!
Leigh dropped us off at Amicalola Falls State Park visitor centre at 10am. We weighed our packs - Nigel's 35lb and mine 33lb. Slightly heavier than we would have liked, we were aiming for 30lb max, our food weighed heavier than we thought! We may be carrying too much food? It'll be trial and error for the first couple of weeks how much we need to be carrying.
Next we signed in as thru hikers at the visitor centre, we are hikers number 75 & 76 for the 2014 season, then it was out the back door to the stone Archway which marks the start of the AT Approach Trail. As far as we know there were just us plus 3 other thru hikers starting today, David who stayed at the Hiker Hostel last night too, plus Mathew & Karl.
The trail took us past Amicalola Falls, a beautiful waterfall with 600 steps to climb to the top of the falls, then gradually meandered uphill through woods. The trail was easy going and nice and dry underfoot. We didn't find the steps or trail too tough, our two weeks of uphill walking training in the Lake District definitely paid off.
We passed a few section hikers coming in the opposite direction. Most of them assumed we were section hikers too because our packs were smaller than most thru hikers starting out (and maybe because we weren't walking with walking poles). That made us feel better about the weight of our packs! We had a nice chat with Icy and Early Riser, two women who had been hiking the AT in sections over 12 years and had finally finished it all last year.
We made it to Springer Mountain (southern terminus of the AT) for 3pm and duly took photos of the 2 metal plaques marking the trail start and our first 'white blaze' and Nigel signed the trail register. (2x6 inch painted 'white blazes' act as way markers along the whole of the AT).
From Springer Mountain we walked the first 2.8 miles of the actual Appalachian Trail downhill to Stover Creek Shelter where we had planned on staying our first night. A really lovely wooden two storey shelter that sleeps 16 with a covered over seating/cooking area out front. There was just us plus Mathew & Karl here tonight.
It has a nice privy too! Plus bear cables to hang our food bags up high to stop bears stealing our food during the night.
We were lucky with the weather, a cloudy but mild day, quite humid, we were walking in t-shirts. A bit hazy so not such good views and it did turn a little misty on top of Springer Mountain briefly. The sun came out for a short while whilst we were cooking dinner at the shelter (mashed potato, chicken & gravy) but by 7.30pm it had started raining.
We had already planned to sleep in the shelter tonight rather than our tent because a big storm had been forecast to come through overnight. I was paranoid about mice! I'd read lots of horror stories about mice in shelters. I thought I could hear them but couldn't see any when I switched my torch on. I think we got away mice attack free, no mice damage to any of our gear anyway! We had some light showers of rain and some strong gusts of wind throughout the night and then at 4am the storm hit us, heavy rain, thunder and lightning, glad we were in the shelter and not our tent!
We thoroughly enjoyed our first day out on the trail!
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