We TRULY start.

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Day 1

Weather: mostly sunny, windy

Distance covered: 8.2 miles

Campsite: Hawk Mountain shelter

I am not sure how best to describe today. Interesting comes to mind, but that is kind of insufficient. We started the day with another visit to the local fire. A pretty good breakfast was has by all, with the exception of Maytag being attacked by a giant centipede.

Then we rushed to get the bags ready so we could join our Sherpa, only to find the Sherpa had a flat tire. So we met him at the registration center, where we registered and got our first passport stamp. Since I was the 711th registration, Seven Eleven was suggested as my trail name.

We drove up to our starting spot, getting quite a few useful tips on the process. Technically this spot is about a mile down the trail, so to truly start at Springer Mountain you to the summit, then come back. It must have been a grand site as we marched purposefully to our true starting point, (sans backpacks since the girls decided to stay with the vehicle) only to march back just as purposely 2 minutes later since we missed the trail completely.

A half an hour later, pictures taken and final goodbyes to Nucking Futs family (he decided to change his trail name at the summit), we were truly on our way.

We immediately started encountering fellow travellers, many also intent on going as far as they can. It quickly became apparent what a wonderful community we entered, almost a family. We moved along, enjoying the scenery, sometimes hiking alone, sometimes with others.

Around 5 miles or so, Jeff was starting to feel things, and I, due to poor water management and carrying 15 pounds more than I should because of my insistence on quality pictures, was cramping a little. I don’t know if I ever mentioned it, but Jeff is in the third stage of Lime Disease, so chose to do the hike for the same reasons as Mark. About 6 miles in, he also had the same epiphany as Mark ( not to mention a few disturbing physical symptoms), that he simply was not PHYSICALLY capable of doing this dream. So he very reluctantly called it quits. He got in touch with our earlier shuttle driver, arranged a pick up place, and said a painful good bye and good luck to me.

At this point, every muscle below my waist was doing its very best to seize, but I was NOT going to let turning into a human cramp stop me. So despite the fact that I had no more water, and the next source was near the next shelter, roughly 3 miles along, I continued to painfully crawl forward.
That section of trail took me almost twice as long as the first part.

I finally made it to water, where I had to do battle with the stream guardian (basically an extremely drunk Bible thumping local). I managed to get enough water to lubricate the bod again, and FINALLY got to my destination (several hours after everyone else I had met on the trail). I set up my tent, recharged myself and my various electronics a little bit, met a few new friends, and after writing this did my best to fall into a coma. While the local Guard did training in helicopters overhead.

A few possible trail names came out of all this though. Mark suggested Cramp King. One of the new people greeted me with “You must be The Photographer.” And I thought of Giant or Gadget. I seem to have a few good choices. Feedback is welcome!