First Five
It has already been five days and roughly 60 miles of trail. Here I am sitting in a comfy hotel bed attempting to sift through pictures and process all the small moments between hours of hiking. The pictures capture one piece of the story but not all of them.
Pictures don't capture the dozens of great people I've encountered, or the weirdly jarring feeling of descending into a tourist trap after two days in the woods only to then quietly disappear almost without notice back into the woods. They also haven't caught the numerous barred owls that have visited my camps each night asking "who cooks for you??" or the lone owl who flew into camp and just sort of hung out for five minutes before carrying on with whatever it was it was doing.
The days have been almost overwhelming but quiet nights lying in a tent have allowed for reflection and collecting my thoughts.
Here is an attempt to sum up the first five days in pictures.
The 2,000ish mile hike begins with an optional 8 mile hike that doesn't actual "count" but is well worth it. Turning the corner and seeing the entire vertical extent of Amicalola Falls quickly wiped away any nervousness and replaced it with queasy legs. The falls are 729 feet high and you basically climb straight up the face of them on several hundred steps. It is a quick lesson in enjoying beauty while dealing with some discomfort, a theme I've quickly grown used to.
After the rough climb and a tough goodbye, I left my mom to climb back down (sorry!) and I headed north. The hike up Springer I realized would be the template for Georgia hiking: ups and downs through gaps of varying depths and a final push to the summit.
I enjoyed a longer, quieter moment on Springer. The only company was a few rather bold Towhees.
From Springer it was just a few extra miles to Stover Creek where I spent my first night.
The next day of hiking lacked any major views despite two back to back climbs over mountains and the gaps between. However, as I dropped into Three Forks early in the day I was reminded why early morning hiking is so great.
The day ended in Gooch Gap with a quiet solo campsite after finding the nearby shelter mobbed with people. The campsite perched on the edge of the gap offered a wonderful view down into the valley below.
Day three was short and unremarkable I hiked most of the day alone and settled into another quiet campsite early in the day.
Day four kicked off with a long steady climb up Blood Mountain. Blood was the biggest mountain yet, had the coolest shelter, and the best views.
Even more importantly this was a resupply day with a stop in Neel Gap at mountain crossings. On the way in trail angels gave me a Capri sun and Dr Pepper and I topped it off with a frozen pizza shared among hikers.
While this was all great the hordes of people and noisy traffic was a little much for my feeble woods brain. After a quick and disjointed resupply I made a run for the woods with enough food to get me the 20ish miles to Unicoi Gap and town.
Fueled on sugar, caffeine, and pizza the afternoon hummed by. These were some of my favorite miles yet.
As the days seem to, this one stretched longer than expected. Easy conversation with other tired hikers pulled us up and over Poor Mountain and into camp at Low Gap.
The long day left me with a morning push over Blue Mountain and into Unicoi Gap. At the gap a trail angel quickly offered me a ride into Helen, GA aka Alpine Helen. This small town decided their money maker would be to turn their town into a Bavarian village in the mountains. While it is weird, they weren't wrong and the place is mobbed with tourists. In a certain way this is just the welcome back to the real world that I needed. I enjoyed a shower and some beers along the Chattahoochee River along with a surprisingly on point Reuben.
Tomorrow is back to it and onward to my first state border.