Day 3 Slaughter Creek Campsite Mileage: 12.4 miles (27.5 Total) Woke up this morning at 0645. Setting up and breaking down the hammock is getting faster, but I'd be hard pressed to do it in the dark and rain. Speaking of which, the weather has been fantastic. I've noticed that my pants fit a little loose in the waist already. Anyway, after another "purpose built" breakfast, I was off on the trail towards Gooch Gap at 0830. Redbull, Diesel and Van ca...

AT Mileage: 12.4 miles (15 Total) at Gooch Gap Shelter Okay, so I'm not sure where I want to take this journal, so its really not going to have any sort of format. Today was good. I hiked mostly by myself, but I ran into about twenty or so people on the trail. Lets just say that its busy on the GA AT! Breakfast consisted of oatmeal with Peanut Butter. Very Tasty (and fulfilling), I got underway at 0835 (did I just say this?) I made the Hawk Mt. Shelter for lun...

AT Mileage: 2.6 miles + 8.8 miles on the Approach Trail (11.4 total) What a gorgeous first day! I honestly still cannot believe that I'm doing this. It's truly euphoric. We started on Amicalola Falls State Park for the "Approach Trail" to Springer Mt. which is the official start of the AT. To quote a friend, this trail was "aggressive". Starting with about 700 steps, Peepers, Van, Zephyr, and I climbed up to the top of the Falls. The Ap...

So I'm finally here! For all the years of planning and dreaming (mostly dreaming) everything has come to pass with minimal hangups. My flight into Atlanta was pretty uneventful. ATL was the zoo it normally is, but this time, I was going there, not flying out. Strangely enough, I walked the half mile from my terminal to the baggage claim area. I passed by someone looking at a sign saying "Baggage claim 3000 ft ->" she scoffed and waited for the tram ...