Day 1: From Springer to Sassafras Mountain, mile 11.5
My mom and I stayed the night before my first day on the trail in a motel in Dahlonega, Georgia. The morning of Sunday the 15th, we headed for Springer Mountain, dogs in tow. Getting to the parking lot was quite the trek--the road turned into a Forest Service road at some point and got pretty muddy and rocky very quickly. My Subaru was handling it pretty well, but we rounded a corner and saw a small BMW pulled off to the side. "Man, they must be having a tough time," I remarked. Not 5 seconds later, the people in the BMW started waving us down. I pulled off to the side and said hello to the pair, one male, one female, both in their mid-20s. They asked if we were headed to Springer, because the girl was beginning her thru-hike that day and he was supposed to be taking her there, but his car couldn't make it any further on that rough road. So, in got Kylie, and our trail alliance was instantly formed. Two 20-something solo female thru-hikers who just happened to stumble across each other? It seemed quite fortuitous, especially since my original start date was going to be the 16th, but I was so eager to get started that I pushed it up a day. We keep saying that it was meant to be, and it truly feels that way! (P.S. It was Kylie's 25th birthday on our start date--can you think of a better way to kick off your hike??)
We met a few different thru-hikers on day 1, and some trail magic was bestowed on us in the form of snacks about 8 miles in, thanks to a couple of ladies from Atlanta. Trail magic is a fairly common occurence through the southern states--a lot of the time it comes from former thru-hikers looking to give back, but sometimes it's just friendly people who want to help out!
Trail magic!
All in all, day 1 was very physically taxing and slightly so emotionally, as well. I was so thankful to have Kylie with me from the beginning, because I don't think I realized quite how isolated I could easily feel. I am very used to having my large group of friends near me at all times, so being so suddenly separated from that was a rough transition even before getting onto the trail. After getting on, I felt those effects even worse. So having a partner to hike and camp with truly is a blessing.
Day 2: From Sassafrass Mountain to Big Cedar Mountain, mile 21.8
Having gone to sleep before sundown the night before, Kylie and I slept for about 13 hours until 8:30 am on Monday. We began our hike down into a gap where there was MORE trail magic: fresh water and trash bags! We dumped our trash and filled up our waters before heading on our way. Day 2 was a great day for meeting people. We met Tom & James, two brothers who are hiking together for now until Tom goes back to work at the end of the week and James continues on with his thru-hike. Wookie, an Army vet (trail names are a common occurence on the AT--if you don't have one coming in, you'll have one before too long) came into the picture as well. We ran into even more trail magic along the way. Captain Kip and his crew had fresh water, snacks, and hotdogs for anyone coming through. Seriously, the people around here are angels and they are so supportive of all of our thru-hiking endeavors! It is such a nice feeling to be helped along by these strangers who have no reason to help us but for the goodness of their hearts.
We actually ran into Captain not too much later, as we got to the parking lot at Woody Gap, where our guidebooks had told us there would be a place to fill our waters. There wasn't. Tom and James were nearly out, and it was going to be a while before we came across any more. We were sitting in the parking lot, pondering what to do next, when Captain pulled in and offered us a ride to the Wal-Mart down the road (don't worry, Mom, he wasn't a stranger, we met him in the woods a few hours earlier). Kylie and I hopped in and rode to, funnily enough, Dahlonega. It was a bit of a buzzkill to think that this place that had taken me two days to walk from was only a 20 minute drive away. But we got our waters filled and had some snacks on the drive back, too. After returning to the parking lot where Tom and James were patiently waiting, we walked for about another mile with them before happening upon Wookie setting up camp for the night. We decided to join him, and we made a campfire and ate dinner and had a lovely (albeit very windy) night atop Big Cedar Mountain!
Our campsite
Day 3: To Neels Gap, mile 31.7
We were all dreading this day because we had heard many times over how tough Blood Mountain was going to be. We were all pretty concerned about how daunting this massive climb seemed to be. The first part of the day was easier: mostly ups and downs, but no straight ascensions yet. About 2 miles out from the summit, the straight uphill did start, but it wasn't nearly as bad as any of us were expecting. Don't get me wrong, it was still a tough climb, but I didn't feel like dying at the top like I had assumed I would. We decided it was better to have overestimated the climb and psyched ourselves up too much than the other way around, though. We ate lunch at the top of the summit with the most beautiful view...and the most disgusting food. Tom and James borrowed some of my Nutella in order to make peanut butter/jelly/Nutella/Snickers bar tortillas. They said it tasted delicious, but to quote James, they looked like "poop burritos."
But how about that view?!
After the summit of Blood Mountain, Neels Gap was just a 2 mile walk downhill. Now, downhill sounds nice at first, but it has been absolute hell on my knees. Every step downhill is agony at this point. I'm popping Aleve like candy and hoping that my leg muscles fill in enough to start supporting my knees better, otherwise I'm going to be in a boatload of trouble before too much longer. Kylie and I are planning on taking it a bit easier over these next couple of days in order to hopefully keep our bodies from hating us too much. But anyways, we made it to Neels Gap by 3:30 and weren't planning on going any further that day, so we had a whole afternoon/evening to kill. We decided that we should ease ourselves into our new lifestyle, so we went ahead and rented a couple of cabins for the night (at the thru-hiker rate, it was just $15 per person, so we figured it was worth it). Some other trail angel drove Wookie down the road to a gas station for a beer run, we got some frozen pizzas from the store at the cabins we were staying at, and we settled in for the night. These cabins were especially amazing because laundry was included with our stay. But this didn't mean that we had a washer and dryer in our units; no, the caretakers/owners DID THE LAUNDRY FOR US. Seriously, this was the best $15 I've ever spent.
This is the life.
So we ate our pizzas and drank our beer and had a grand old evening of relaxation before hitting the trail again for day 4! We'll see how far our legs carry us today!
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