Appalachian Trail - Day 001 - Springer Mt Carpark to Justus Creek

Day: 001

Date: Tuesday, 25 2023

Start:  Springer Mountain Carpark

Finish:  Justus Creek (AT Mile 14.3)

Daily Kilometres:  25.4

GPX Track:  Click here for Julie’s Strava & Photos

Total Kilometres:  25.4

Weather:  Cool to mild and mostly sunny

Accommodation:  Tent

Nutrition:

  Breakfast:  Muffins and chocolate milk

  Lunch:  Chicken & bacon sub

  Dinner:  Chicken noodle soup & Spaghetti Bolognaise/Macaroni Cheese

Aches:  Dave’s whole body aches and, particularly, his left Ilio-tibial band (ITB).  Julie – nothing to report.

Highlight:  For Dave, as a “planner” starting our hike on the Appalachian Trail almost to the minute as planned months ago, after a whistlestop road-trip across the US from Los Angeles to Georgia, taking in some of the famous sights and managing to squeeze in a few running races along the way – one for Dave and two for Julie.

Lowlight:  Just the aches and pains associated with beginning a hike with full packs and four days of food

Pictures: Click here

Map and Position: Click here for Google Map

Journal:

Our Uber driver arrived at our motel in Gainesville, Georgia, on time at 6:30am and we set off on the 90-minute drive to the Springer Mt carpark from where we planned to start hiking.  I think the Uber driver assumed, without checking the destination, that we were going to Amicolola Falls (sealed road the whole way) from where many thru-hikers begin.  However, we chose a starting point just a mile from the official start of the AT, the summit on Springer Mt, to save some time and “unnecessary” miles.  Our driver was unimpressed when he realised he had 11 miles of unsealed forestry road to negotiate, but knew he had committed and soldiered on, slowly, talking all the way, as he had done since leaving Gainesville.

 We began hiking around 8:45am in beautiful cool sunny conditions and first hiked the mile to the official AT starting point before returning through the carpark where we had been dropped off.  We did consider hiding our packs somewhere while we did the mile out-and-back, but decided against.

Our packs felt heavy right from the start, but the fresh spring foliage, glimpsed views, and occasional wildflowers more than compensated.

 Our day continued in much the same way on trail that was occasionally quite rocky, but generally not too bad.  As we (Dave) fatigued, some of the later and steeper ascents and descents took their toll.  We took a break every ninety minutes and didn’t try to go too fast.

We saw a reasonable number of other hikers, some out for the day, some for a few days, and a couple setting out for Maine like us.  During the morning, one of the hikers asked whether we had seen a female hiker – light-skinned African-American – because she had apparently been reported missing on this part of the trail and the Fire & Rescue were out looking for her.  Sure enough, not much later we encountered one of the searchers who showed us a picture of the missing hiker, who we hadn’t seen.  If we did see her, then we were to get her to call 911!

During the afternoon, we came across a hiker engrossed in her phone with her back to us and, noticing that some of her gear was falling off, we stopped and helped tie it on from behind.  When she turned around, we realised she was the missing hiker!  She assured us that she was fine and had managed to get a phone signal and contact the authorities so we continued on.

During the afternoon, Dave got even more fatigued while Julie sauntered ahead, occasionally crouching down, with full pack on to photograph a wildflower, Kindly, every five minutes or so, she would wait for Dave to catch up.  Near the end of our day we passed a hiker camped by the trail.

Hiker:  “You should try and keep up with her”

Dave:  “No chance.  She’s an elite ultra-runner.”

Hiker:  “She doesn’t look to be struggling much.”  [i.e., Dave did look like he was struggling.]

Fortunately, the last few miles to our planned campsite were a bit easier and we arrived around 6pm and are camped close to a rushing stream.  As always, when starting a hike, we were quite inefficient setting up camp and cooking dinner, but we will improve.