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October 19, 2001
The birth of an oddessy
After spending a less than
restful night at the Super 8 in Dalonegha my hiking cohort Claire and
I got an early jump towards the trailhead. I had decided we would start
at Amicalola Falls State Park and take the approach trail as opposed to
trying to find the Forest Service road that takes you straight up to Springer
Mountain (My first mistake). My parents were picking us up at the other
end of what was supposed to be a three day hike and I didn't know if Pop's
caravan would be able to do the FS road so I thought I was playing it
safe.
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Day 1
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Well, that was a
mistake. The approach trail to Springer Mountain from Amicalola Falls is
8.6 miles and a lot of uphill. Claire and I came to realize as the day went
on it wasn't going to be easy for us to make it to our pickup point. We
chugged merrily along though seeing how far we could get. We kept passing
people coming down the mountain that looked far too refreshed and clean
to have slept in the woods the night before. We weren't sure where they
were coming from. We finaly realized they were coming from the Hike Inn.
One group of very excitable ladies had been up there on a "girls night
out." They stood there beaming with questions about how much our packs
weighed, how far were we going etc. They were really cute. |
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It seemed like we hiked forever
before got to Springer Mountain, the actual beginning (or end) of the
AT. IT was there we talked to someone who had driven up and parked at
the parking lot off of the FS road I had decided against taking. Ironicly
he was in a Caravan.
It was invigorationg to have
crossed over from the approach trail to the actual AT but it was also
almost 4:00. We were way behind schedule. We pushed on down to our first
campsite and rolled in a little before dark. We were soon joined by about
25 youth groupers from several churches. Not a bad group of kids really, we figured they'd be making noise all night but they were pretty quiet.
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| I woke up like a hundred times during the course of the night. Par for the course for me especially when I am sleeping outdoors. Even though I have done it probably a thousand times and have no fear of the woods every little thing still sends my heart to racing with my overwrought "fight or flight" reaction. Knowing how far behind schedule we were I entertained the idea of getting us up even before dawn and taking off, or at least getting packed. But we had had a hard day on day 1 so I decided just to let Claire sleep. She told me later she had thought about waking me up about that same time. None-the-less we got on the trail about 8ish started out towards Gooch Gap. |
Day 2
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Hiking is always hardest the second day. You're sore from the first day and still getting used to being without creature comforts. It's much worse for me now that I have a desk job too. We trudged on up the trail crossing FS roads often and seeing more people than I care to see in the woods. As we hiked on Claire's leg began to give her more and more trouble. It was becoming hard for her to hike going down hills. I felt the back of her knee and felt tendons in places I have never felt tendons before. I knew she was really tight and hurting. When we got to the intersection of the trail and the forest service road at the foot of Sassafrass Mountain we decided it was best to get her out of there. I really hated it but I really blamed myself for it too. I had pushed too hard. Claire had been a real trooper keeping up with me that first day. I am almost a foot taller than her and have a much easier time covering ground. Anyhoo, I flagged down some people who were driving by on the FS road and got them to give us a lift back to my truck.
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