We camped from 3:45 to 9:00, the morning of the 24th, aprox one hour from Amicalola Falls State Park in the parking lot of a town nearby. While I was airing out Tom Tom's sleeping bag, he slept outside the car on the pavement, two police cruiser came by to see what we were doing there. They had recieved a call that some homeless people were staked out in parking lot. I showed them Jonathan's newpaper article that explained our trip to the mountains and since there wasn't any truck stops on the road we stopped to rest. They wished us good luck and wanted to know how to follow Jonathan's trip... Sorry it took so long, if you guys are following. Internet trouble and no human phone number for the quick fix....
We stopped at a Walmart to stock up on food and more supplies.
We checked in with the visitor center to register Tom Tom in the thru-hiker book and me in the sectional-hiker book. Parking was $5.00 and an AT card to hang off the mirror, with the green information sheet left on the dash. Tom Tom weighed his 40 pound pack on the outside scale with no time to weigh mine. (Aprox the same weight by lifting both.) We posed for the traditional Archway photograph before starting the 8.8 mile approach to the Appalachian Trail (AT) that starts on top of Springer Mountain.
About half a mile into the hike. Tom Tom was so excited that there was no way he could hike as slow as me. And there was no way I was going to blow out my knee and possibly have a heart attack trying to keep up with him. I told him to go on ahead. I would see him at the top. I missed the turn at the Stairstep not seeing a sign or a blue blaze (similar to the white blaze for th AT 11/2 by 6 inch vertical stripe usually at eye level). That mistake cost me about an hour....
Tom Tom was at the top about 3 hours before me and met a bunch of hikers. He started a fire on the smooth boulders near the AT plaque and the first offical white blaze going northbound (NB) on th AT. He signed the log book inside the stainless steel box built into the rock displaying the whole AT on a map of the USA. He was half dozing off when I showed up. He thought that I was trying to scare him pretending to be a bear.
We ate together using his fire to heat up some noodles. We slept cowboy style next tot he fire out underneat the stars. It was cold as neither of us brought a sleeping bag or pads to lay on. The rock quickly absorbed the heat out of our bodies and the cold gusty winds kept us awake most of the night.
I am cold just thinking about it.
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