Hawk Mountain Shelter photo by cooper31525

A note from Jeff,

The hostel was great–wonderful people, no trouble getting here from

the airport, great big breakfast. There was a brief hiccup at the

Atlanta airport when both my bags were missing from the luggage

carousel, but it turned out they had come in on an earlier flight from

Charlotte. We’re about to get shuttled from Dahlonega to the Springer

Mountain parking lot, where I’ll hike south 1 mile to the summit of

Springer and then begin the hike north. I’m so excited! We all just

weighed our packs, and mine is one of the lightest at 29. A lot of

folks are carrying 30+ pound packs. Hope I don’t run out of food

before my first resupply on April 3. Got a good mantra from a former

thru-hiker called Swan last night, who thru-hiked in 07. Go slow, pack

light, and don’t hike too far. Words to live by, I suppose. I’ll give

a call tonight if I get service–I’m shooting for Hawk Mountain

shelter, about a 9 mile day. Seems to be a pretty average first day. I

guess about 20 or 30 people are starting every day, so I’m expecting

the trail (and shelters) to be very crowded for the first couple of

weeks until the ‘pack’ starts to spread out. Probably going to be tent

camping for the first few nights at least until the shelters are a

little less crowded.

Thanks for all your support and help as I prepared for this big

adventure! Now all  that is left is to do it.

Love Jeff