Springer Mtn, GA to Fontana Dam, NC

Day 1, Tuesday, May 23

Amicalola Falls State Park to Black Gap Shelter, 7.3 miles

Up at 6:30 AM, load up and leave at 7:30 AM. My wife is driving our old van as we head for Georgia. One of our daughters, Janet, is with us. Meghan, the oldest daughter, is at the beach with friends. We cross the GA state line at 10 AM and stop at the visitor's center to pick up a map. It's started to rain. I print directions to Dahlonega from the travel kiosk. It shows a torturous route that I discard and pick my own way from the map. While we're in the visitor center, the rain turns into a downpour. We run back to the van in the pouring rain. It rains all the way to Dahlonega.

We stop for gas and McDonald's for lunch in Dahlonega and reach Amicalola Falls State Park by 12:30 PM. Since it is raining, I've decided to go straight on to Amicalola instead of driving up near the top of Springer and hiking to the top for pictures. It's probably socked in by the weather. Plus, we've made better overall time that I had figured.

From here, things happen fast. The rain has stopped. I register at the park welcome center and ten minutes later I'm putting on my boots and posing for pictures that my daughter wants to take. "Last pictures of her father", comes to mind. There is one other hiker weighing his pack at the center. I weighed mine last night at 42 pounds without water. I'd don't want to check it again. I say my last good-byes and hike around the building and cross through the gateway to the trail. At 12:55 PM, I'm on the blue-blazed Approach Trail to Springer.

The trail is uphill and gets steeper the first fifteen minutes out of the visitor center. I reach the gravel road and look back downhill at the first mile that I've covered. The sun is out; warm, not hot. At 2:30 PM I cross an abandoned road and enter a dark patch of woods. It looks like rain with every step. I hope I can get up the mountain before it gets here. At 3:50 PM I cross the top of Frosty Mountain and see the remains of the old firetower foundation.

As I cross the road at 4:00 PM, the sun comes out. The trail heads back uphill. It figures. I begin my routine of stopping every hour to rest my shoulders and drink water. I might make the top of Springer today after all. Not bad considering I hadn't planned to hike at all today. As I hike up, I meet three Southbounders. One by himself, and two older men from Michigan. They started from Unicoi Gap last Tuesday and are two hours from finishing. Two others pass me going uphill. The guy who was weighing his pack, and another guy with him.

At three miles my left foot begins to hurt. At three-and-a-half miles I think I'm getting my first blister on my left heel. Thankfully, no. At 4:30 PM I cross Woody Knob, and five minutes later it begins to rain as I approach Nimblewill Gap. I've almost made six miles so far. The ground is covered with centipedes. I don't know if there are a lot of them out, or I'm just looking down all the time huffing and puffing so much.

I reach Black Gap Shelter at 7.3 miles at 5:20 PM and decide to rest there for a few minutes. Two guys, Billy Hopkins, and Aaron Touf are there. Both are from Dover, New Hampshire, 26 years old and planning to thru-hike. They're getting a late start, but going as far as they can before cold weather. They've been friends since junior high school, and have decided to hike together. Billy just quit his job at United Parcel Service, and Aaron works with his father in a landscaping business.

Overall it has turned out to be a beautiful day. Not too hot or too much rain, with a little breeze. I'd planned to stay overnight at the Amicalola Falls Shelter, but hiking today has put me almost a day ahead of schedule. One-and-a-half miles to go to the top of Springer.

I cook a cup of noodles and eat some gorp for supper. I get some water from the spring and clean up a bit. Wash my hair, etc., a cat bath. I pump some water for me and some for Billy and Aaron. They don't have a water filter and are planning to use a few drops of Clorox to disinfect. We'll be staying at the same shelters over the next couple of days, so we'll share my filter. I need to repack my pack and eat more food to lighten the load. I can already tell I need to be lighter. I hang my food bag off the front of the shelter. Make the mice work a bit anyway. I hope there are no bears. It looks like rain, and I don't want to get my food bag wet, hanging it in a tree.

We spend most of the evening talking. Billy and Aaron rented a car in New Hampshire and drove to Georgia over the last two days, camping overnight in northern Virginia. It rained, so they crawled under a school bus at the place they stopped and slept for the night. They spent last night with a friend of Billy's, Tina, who now lives in Atlanta. Tina is a stripper at a club in Atlanta. She's lived in Atlanta for four years, but has never been out of the city except for going home or on vacation. She and a stripper friend of hers drove them up to Amicalola this morning. I've heard a lot of stories about how people get to the trail, but I've never heard one about being dropped off by a couple of strippers.

To bed at 10 PM, ready for rest. Every few minutes, we hear the squeak and scurry of tiny feet in the darkness of the shelter. Gonna have to get used to this I guess. Mice are a problem at most of the trail shelters. People spill food or don't hang their food properly, and the mice feast at night. We swap mice stories until after 11 PM when I fall asleep. It's a beautifully cool breezy night at Black Gap. The wind is singing through the trees and it sounds just like being at the ocean. The fireflies are dancing in front of the shelter in spite of the breeze. They seem to be attracted by Billy and Aaron's photon lights. We hear an owl in the distance.

The mice are hell, though. They climb over us all night long. One climbs in my hair and one climbs down my neck. I swat them away during the night. The mice finally go to bed or maybe I just don't hear them any more. It is warm enough for me to sleep in just my bag liner for half of the night. I finally crawl into my sleeping bag around 3 AM.