Our First Zero Day - Appalachian Trail

This adventure has been even more than that! Starting from the approach trail at Amicolola Falls on February 28, 2013 till today, Tuesday, March 5th, it's been ALL adventure! We've experienced unprecedented cold weather, wind and SNOW! We anticipated and planned for some of this, but not 5 straight days of bone chilling wind, snow and cold. 

STARTING THE APPROACH TRAIL AT AMICALOLA FALLS

We're enjoying our first zero day near Neel's Gap, near Blairsville, GA, in the warmth of a well appropriated mountain cabin as we catch up on communication, do laundry and enjoy food from civilization. 

Our climb to the summit of Springer Mountain, and the southern terminus of the Appalachian Trail was pretty physically challenging for this pair of oldsters. The 604 steps to the top of the falls almost finished me, but we pressed on! How could we quit before we officially started?? We were rewarded with a magical, fairyland of glistening frost covering everything.... And then, sitting there very unpretentiously was the bronze plaque announcing the arrival at the official START of the Appalachian Trail. Both of us crying at both the successful trek up the approach trail AND the realization of the actual beginning of this adventure, we stopped to snap a few photos and we were off, clicking off the first white blaze!

 REALIZING THE DREAM, THE SUMMIT OF SPRINGER MOUNTAIN

It's been rough hiking, this first section being some of the toughest on trail, especially considering the weather, but we've managed to enjoy some time meeting some hiker friends at the shelters, taking lots of pictures and video and being physically challenged like never before. Some of the shelters are full of hikers and most times look like a gear store exploded inside them. 

We generally stay in our little tent to keep warmer and avoid the chaos of the shelter life. I'm sure things will get less chaotic and full as the crowd thins out onward down the trail. But for now, the shelters are happening places where hikers catch up on trail gossip, eat, regroup and get some much needed sleep.

ALL THE FOOD BAGS HANGING FROM THE BEAR CABLES

All the preparation hiking we did was at Rose Lake and was FLAT. This has posed quite a different challenge a pond we're using muscles that haven't been stressed in a long time. Charlie is even being stretched and now spends any available down time sleeping. 

We'd heard horror stories about the climb up Blood Mountain and were dreading this last day of this stretch, but we never considered the hike DOWN Blood Mountain. We climbed for what seemed like hours up a nicely graded, albeit snow covered trail to summit the mountain, thinking to ourselves, "that wasn't that bad at all." 

 AT THE SUMMIT OF BLOOD MOUNTAIN

BUT, the real hike came in coming DOWN the mountain.... Good Lord, talk about a killer downhill. (we later heard that the day before it was ice covered and several hikers crashed down it, badly injuring themselves). Here, I'd like to send a shout out to Dr. Jason Cochran who injected my knee days before we left, so that these downhills would be a little less painful!

                   NEEL'S GAP AND MOUNTAIN CROSSING OUTFITTERS

Soaking up some rest on our zero day, now near Neel's Gap, still anxious to get back out tomorrow, even though we've been through the ringer the past couple days....we've got to keep heading north!