It’s tough being a through hiker
Our shuttle driver called us this morning saying that today was a no-go and even Friday might be iffy. With nothing else to do we started preparing ourselves for another day hanging out in the hotel and making Waffle House runs. Around noon though Dave called back saying the roads might be good enough and asking us if we wanted to risk it, (and by risk it, if it got dicey he would turn around and we’d pay for his gas). We said yes and then started a mad dash to get all our stuff collected from the various nooks and crannies it had migrated to in our hotel room. About an hour and a half later we found ourselves at the foot of the approach trail.

Just posing, we’ll hike it for real tomorrow
We both had Dave stamp our AT passports and found out we were the first through hikers he’d shuttled this year, so we made a bit of a ceremony about it. Unfortunately the visitors center was closed so Dave had the good idea of taking us up to the Amicalola Falls lodge where we could spend the night. The plan is in the morning leave our packs and hitch a ride down to the visitors center, register as AT through hikers, and then hike the approach trail back up here. Then we can grab our packs and move on to Springer mountain, the true start of the AT.

Wow was that a good idea. I can’t recommend this lodge enough. The view is spectacular, we had a great fried chicken dinner, and I’m writing this post by the fireplace. Before dinner both B and I hiked down to the falls which was really neat with all the ice melting. I’m sure before this week is over I’m going to run out of words to describe the view.

Between spending the ice storm at the La Quinta and this fancy place I certainly did not envision how this adventure would start out. I’m sure tomorrow will be a jolt back to reality once we start hiking for real.

Survivor Dave’s trail shuttle