Arrive there and my first day

I have a confession: I was not quite ready for it. I really thought I was. I did so much hiking last year. But I was really not ready for all the literal heights and depths that the Appalachen in Georgia.

My first week was amazing between the icy weather, muscle cramps and mice. Seriously. But so much has happened that I will narrow this on my trip to the path and on my first night. I don't want to save bloody details.

Leave at home

The home front:

The biggest hurdle was actually departure. I spent a good, high quality time with my little Mr. Worf. My sweet boy. He is the best caught cat and I can see that he is doing well without me. However, I don't do the best without him. I made a few long cuddly cuddles with him, and when I went, he crunched on his meal.

Columbus, GA

On the way to the AN I didn't go straight to Amicalola. My wife and I spent a few days in Columbus, GA. I wanted to see the national infantry museum since she broke for her years ago. It is a fantastic museum. And there are exhibits there directly related to my time in the military, which is surreal. They have an exhibition that covers the war against terror and many of the things I was involved in. But it was not just full of exhibits that were about what I did – to my surprise there were actually “artifacts” with which I interacted directly.

The most remarkable is the “Adopt a Highway” sign that was on the Highway 1 near ad Dawr. It was a funny component – something that you would not expect in Iraq in a combat zone. But it was definitely not something that I would ever expect personally again – especially not in a museum. There was also the memorial wall in which I had taken the time to find the names of those I knew. But I also took a moment and mourned my friends, who died in a direct result of their experiences in the war, whose names are not enrolled on these records.

You can remove the boy from the war, but you can't take the war out of the boy, and many of us still suffer and still die.

Amicalola Falls Lodge:

Next came the Amicalola Falls Resort, which was wonderful. When my wife and I went through the doors for the first time, we jumped out the reception and instead went through the Lobby window. I am sure we are not the only ones who did it.

I didn't know that the big prospects just started. I just had to work a little harder to reach her.

On the day we arrived there, I registered for my hike, got a briefing from a trail ambassador named Fred, and I was ready to go on the way the next day. My brother and his wife came to me and he treated us to dinner in the resort. I saw reviews in which the food is overpriced – and I don't necessarily disagree. But on the other hand it was delicious and a great “last meal” before I was sent to the wilderness. (I had the blackened shrimp and the groats. The shrimp were not really “blackened” and it was ugly look Court, but it was absolutely delicious.)

The next day I planned to rip off in the late afternoon. I didn't want to wake up and go immediately. My wife had to go out that day, and my brother had my brother camping for me that night if something went wrong that first night.

I also waited for my Inreach Mini 2 end its activation. Yes, I know: I should have done it before the trip. But it was so expensive that I postponed it until the last possible moment. To kill some time, I decided to hike part of the approximation path with my brother.

Trail ambassador Fred from the briefing gave me a really great advice. He told me when my first simple recovery option (NEEL GAP) would be and explained the provisions of the bear can and the section of the path in which I could not camp without canister. One thing he made clear is that I shouldn't start from the bow in the welcome center. Another was that I shouldn't hike directly through the bear canist because I should keep my miles low first to prevent an injury. It is a bit embarrassing to tell me that I ignored these two very good council points. Much to my disadvantage.

For the uninitiated: the approach is difficult. But it is not only difficult, it also starts with a section that contains around 600 steps that go directly into a waterfall. Fred said he should skip these steps.

I assured Fred that I wasn't stupid enough to make the stairs. I lied. And Fred was right.

In fact, he was so right that I took several days in the early zero to recover from my first day.

So yes, my brother and I took these damn steps. Who would sleep and drive home. I who had to start going to Maine.

The day I started was the 100th anniversary of the Appalachian Trail. That was not planned, but I really felt that I was doing something special. Ignore the fact that I only reached mile 0 of the trail the next day. I started On the 100th anniversary, and I stick to it.

But I really thought I could make it good at Springer that first night. I didn't. I wasn't even close. I swirl my butt and drove up the first hills myself. And I realized on the hard tour that all these miles that I hiked in Flach in Illinois wouldn't help me as much as I thought here. Although I was wearing a 45-55 pound of pack at the time and my backpack is now only £ 30-35 with food and water. It doesn't matter. The gravity doesn't matter and my muscles screamed. They also narrowed later and hurt in such a way that I haven't felt since my younger one. Before I knew it, I started looking for logs and stones to sit a bit. To get your breath and think my life decisions up to this point.

When Dark started to climb, I knew that I had to get my tent down and give up for the night. I did it and made a few other mistakes. I was just half a liter of water, but I knew that I should eat a little dinner. I had never used a pocket rocket stove and had never cooked in my titanium cup. I knew the basics: water in the cup so that the metal does not deform. So I poured into my water, threw oatmeal and some milk and turned the baby up. And yes: I have damn my food. Since it contained the precious liquid that I would have to survive, I still ate it. Of course, I made sure that I cooked far away from my campsite and had my bear canister safely embedded in an empty tree trunk. Something from which I made it a habit after imagining a bear that rolled down a hill and tried to open it.

This first night was cold, but it wasn't that bad. I am equipped for colder weather and it was not colder than the coldest nights I spent last year while I was preparing for my hike. The next morning I broke the camp and just like me, a white beard ambassador greeted me. He helped me a bin. He not only gave me water, but also the rest of his gatorade, along with the bottle, about the promise that I would pack it with myself. I really wish I got his name because he would have saved my butt this morning. He told me that a storm would come that night, and I should try to make it into an animal shelter and let myself be known that the Springer Mountain Shelter is a double -decker, and I should try to make it there before the storm hit is.

It was also my first taste of Trail Magic and my discovery that people on the trail are some of the best and friendliest that I have ever met. I look forward to seeing what the miles will bring in front of us.

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