Hiked: 7.3 miles from Amicalola Falls visitor center to Black Gap shelter.
Weather: 60s/40s, clear and breezy
I slept well and in the morning Mom, Dad, Uncle Bobby and Aunt Cindy walked down to The Waffle House for one last big meal. Then it was off to Amicalola Falls, about a 1.5 hr drive from Atlanta. We had no problem getting there and began looking around the visitor center while we waited for Kim and Nita to arrive. I weighed my pack (33 lbs with 4 days of food and 2 liters of water), signed the thru-hiker register, and got my first stamp in my AT passport. Took a few photos out back under the famous archway.
Kim and Nita were lost on remote mountain back roads, so they arrived about 20 minutes later. In the meantime, some shuttle driver began telling my family about a female hiker who had been raped and decapitated. I politely told him my mom probably didn't want to hear those kinds of stories. Then he moved on to the story about the guy that drove into the hikers during Trail Days last year (this after I told him my parents plan to meet me in Damascus). That's when I excused us from the conversation and said we needed to look for our friends.
Kim, Nita, and Nita's husband, Daniel, arrived in a mud-covered car looking frazzled. Somehow their GPS had routed them through some rough dirt roads and they had a hard time finding the visitor center. I introduced them to my family, then showed them where to check in and weigh their packs. Nita told me when she woke up she almost decided to give Kim a ride to Amicalola then just head home. Not a good sign. We took some pictures under the arch, said our goodbyes (not as tearful as I had expected from my mom), and were off!
We hiked up 600+ stairs to the beautiful Amicalola Falls. All I have to say is THANK GOD I've been training for the past few months. The stairs weren't that bad, though Nita struggled. It was humid and we were sweaty, but the views were beautiful. Oliver didn't like the open metal grate on the stairs, but he did well.
We ate lunch at the top of the falls, then hiked a few more hours to Black Gap Shelter. The hiking was much easier than I expected. Nita was in high spirits, but she began to struggle on the uphills and eventually told us to go on ahead. I worried that being alone would crush her morale, but we went on anyway. We arrived at the shelter and went down to the creek to get water. I ignored the little critters living at the bottom of the pool. After some Aqua Mira drops, the water didn't taste bad at all! I'm quickly learning to ignore bits of dirt and debris floating in my water bottle.
Nita arrived at camp and we met some fellow thru hikers from Germany. They are both 19 and hiking with their dogs. They are hiking with a kid who goes by Blacksmith. There are so many young hikers out here! Don't think I've met anyone in their 30s yet, but I didn't really expect to. I sent an OK signal to my dad from my SPOT GPS. It texts and emails him my GPS coordinates and lets him know everything is okay. I try to do it when we get to camp each day.
I showed Nita how to use her stove. She said she wondered what her husband was doing right then. I was getting more and more certain she wanted to head home. Hung our food bags from the bear cables next to the shelter and got in our tents. That's when Nita said she wanted to go home. Kim and I tried to convince her to sleep on it and at least hike to Neel Gap to give her time to work out her jitters. She's young, has never been away from her husband, and has never been backpacking. So many new experiences at once. I don't think she'll end up staying with us much longer.
Best Thing That Happened Today: Beautiful weather and being seen off by my family.
What I'm Looking Forward to Tomorrow: Officially reaching Springer Mt, the southern terminus of the AT.
You posted that early in the morning. Looking forward to reading Day 2. Love you. :)
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