Official day 1 AT

As the sky began to break in the East we prepared breakfast. Oatmeal with snickers snack size bars and a cup of pour through coffee. Pack the backpack and let the day begin. Here is a video link to show some of the trail in Georgia. The first ten minutes are a highlight of our 32 mile hike from Springer Mtn. to Neels Gap. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_iZd07QuvYw

A short walk and you arrive at Three Forks the  joining of Stover and Chester creeks forming the Noontoola creek.

Looking south along the Noontoola creek the area is lush with ferns and Rhododendrons.

Crossing the Noontoola creek.

Here you cross the forest service road 58 and begin a long uphill section paralleling the Long Creek. Off to the left is the Long Creek falls we saw glimpses and heard the roar of the water. The creek is home to a trout stream. Here we made a minor mistake that resulted in a half mile back track. The AT is intermingled with the Benton MacKaye trail. (BMT) in https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benton_MacKaye_Trail

We saw a white diamond slash mark but no white rectangle slash mark panicked and retraced our steps only to discover our error and a return up the hill to continue our journey. Shortly the BMT heads out on it's own way.

After a few miles we came to the abandoned community of Hickory Flats there is an old graveyard and a plaque indicating the location of the old school.

We hiked onward through some rocky and root strewn sections past the hawk mountain shelter at the 8 mile mark. Shortly thereafter the trail became easier and here we met "carpenter" from New Hampshire. We chatted for several minutes discovering that he was about to finish his SOBO tomorrow. We departed and headed for the Devil's Kitchen and Justus Creek. It was here that I got my feet wet for the first and only time of our two day trip. Evan was able to jump at a relatively narrow spot, thinking of the consequences of my age and ability to jump I choose to just ford the creek and avoid a serious situation if I was to fall in. A little embarrassment is the better part of getting soaked in 40 degree weather. We continued on our way and finished our day at Gooch Mountain Shelter. Settling in Evan refilled our water containers we climbed up to the second level decide that we should stay at the shelter instead of pushing on for a few more hours and promptly fell asleep only to be woken up by voices approaching the shelter. Four guys from Chattanooga, Tennessee. A little after dark was setting in three other young guys from Ohio joined us. We cooked supper and readied for the day ahead of us. Evan and myself planned an early start for the next day. Around 7:30 the sky's opened up and rain began in earnest it continued through the night and was very heavy at times. We awoke very glad to had stayed at the shelter. We awoke at 4 am packed up and began our final day in the dark and facing a day that was to get colder as the day wore on.

To be continued...