Day 1: Hiker 99
(Approach Trail to Black Gap Shelter):
We woke up in the morning to the smell of pancakes and eggs,
as cooked by the Hostel owners. Everyone
downstairs was already buzzing with anticipation. “GI Jayne”, “Two Isles”, and “Gung-ho and
Tagalong” from Cincinnati, Las Vegas and Michigan respectively were on their way
up to Springer to begin the AT that day.
Azalon and I, on the other hand, decided to walk the infamous steps at
Amicalola Falls State Park. At 729 feet,
Amicalola Falls is the tallest cascade in the southeast, according to the
Georgia State Parks website (http://www.gastateparks.org/AmicalolaFalls). Along with the 500+ steps up the falls, the
Approach Trail adds 8.8 miles to the front of the AT. As these miles are not technically considered
part of the AT, many thru-hikers choose to skip this section.
At the Amicalola Falls visitors center, there is a scale for
backpacks and a sign-in for AT thru-hikers.
Amazingly, Azalon’s pack only showed 38lbs on the scale (though I’m sure
he had no water). My pack weighed 39lbs
(w/ 6.6lbs of water and 8.5lbs food… I immediately noted that I was carrying
too much food). With this information,
we walked inside to sign the thru-hiker register. The page was open to the 90’s, ending in
100. Azalon signed in as hiker #91. But, always having to make trouble, I
half-jokingly asked the young ranger at the counter if I could sign in as hiker
#99. Without hesitation he said, “Go
right ahead.” I stopped and asked, “Are
you sure?” Again, he responded, “Sure. It’s no problem.” “Cool!” I said loudly as I signed in next to
#99. But, not two seconds after I
finished signing in, a much older ranger came into the room and raised his
voice, “You can’t do that! He’s supposed
to sign in at the bottom. Now it’s all
screwed up!” It seemed like a good time
to take a look at the famous “Arch”, so we quickly slipped out the door to take
some photos and begin our hike.
On our way up the Falls, we ran into a 71 year old man from
Grants, New Mexico, named Eli Jahanovich, who was toting an external frame pack
up the stairs. He said he was going to
go as far as he could go on the AT, but wasn’t planning on going the whole way (no
one else seems to have run into him since that day). Further down the Trail, we ran into “Momma
and Papa Bear” taking a break on the side of the trail. This couple is from Wisconsin and in their
early 40’s and 50’s respectively. I don’t
want to sound disrespectful in any way, but Momma Bear is quite overweight (and
I would later find out that she is a breast cancer survivor). Both she and Pappa Bear looked very tired
already, but both were in fantastic spirits and very friendly towards Azalon
and me. I was very happy to begin making
some trail friends. As Azalon and I
walked on, he said to me, “Man, dat takes some balls.” I agreed that it was amazing
and inspiring.
After a day of hiking in beautiful 55-65 degree weather, we
finally arrived at Black Gap Shelter for the night. A little while later, another 30-something
hiker named Erik wandered into the shelter.
It turns out that we had met each other in the “Hiker Trash 2012” group
on Facebook just before I left for Asheville.
He is originally from Clearwater, FL (near Tampa) and currently living
in Franklin, NC. A little before dark, a
final couple walked into camp. Simone
and Boas were both in their early 30’s and all the way from Switzerland. As they were only issued a 6 month visa, they
have a fixed time table to complete the AT, so they planned on making serious
miles right away. After dinner, they
offered everyone about 2 dozen heart-shaped swiss chocolates wrapped in red
foil, which disappeared quickly. Just
around dark, there was a headlamp just outside camp but they never came by to
say hi. We could hear him chopping at
trees with a hatchet or something. We
joked that it was a sasquatch banging on trees.
Since we never found out who it was, we decided to dub him the “headlamp
sasquatch”. It was a little warm that
night for my down sleeping bag, which remained unzipped the whole night.
