3-25-2009 Wed - The Approach Trail

Start point: Amicalola Falls State Park
End point: Black Gap Shelter
miles hiked: 7.3

The Greyhound was lame getting here (21hrs) but not too bad. Only 1 baby cried and that was only for like 5 min. Got to Gainesville around 10am. I got picked up at the Gainesville, GA Greyhound station by Hawker. He lives in Gainesville, has lived in the area for a long time. He took me by a grocery store and I got food, too much food actually. I probably only needed food for 5 days, ended up with probably 10 days worth. Not a bad problem to have other than all the extra weight. After that we went to Amicalola Falls State Park where he dropped me off at the visitor center. You sign in as a thru hiker with your intended destination (Katahdin Mountain, Maine), weigh your pack on a hanging scale and then you are on your way. My pack weighed around 23lbs without food and water, after food and water: 40lbs! What the hell happened, I was trying to do this lightweight! Oh well, I can eat the food and drink the water, plus when it gets a little warmer I can get rid of all this cold weather clothes I have. Amicalola Falls were beautiful. They have a staircase that goes all the way up:

























I think its 604 steps, which is alot with a 40lb pack! By the way, it didn't look anything like this, it was very foggy and raining lightly. I guess I should mention the only thing that didn't make it into my pack was my camera, so I won't have any of my own pics till I get it mailed to me in a few weeks. Here is what the falls look like in good weather though:

So up the steps and then the start of the approach trail. There was light rain, lots of fog, I went through some spots where it seemed like a rain forest. Lots of muddy trails, that and a heavy pack makes for slow going. Think I brought way too much water, there are clear streams everywhere right now because its been raining so much lately, so its kinda silly to start hiking with anything more than 2 liters. I was planning on doing the whole approach trail and making it to the Springer Mountain Shelter, but instead I stopped and stayed the night at the Black Gap Shelter, which is actually 1.5 miles away from Springer Mountain. I met a dreadlocked hippy named Wrath, he was the only one there. Very interesting (weird) fellow who is on the trail to try and disconnect the power sources from him and find a dwarf that will open a portal so he can transport himself wherever he wants to go. Lots of mind over matter combined with dungeons and dragons type stuff. Anyway, ate crackers and salami with some good french cheese.