Day 1 / Feb 28, 2021

In the beginning... Genesis 1

As part of this process, I will be reading from and listening to the Bible from Genesis to Revelation while I’m hiking and after dinner in camp.  I have a couple of audio Bibles (NLT and NIV), and digital versions as well. 

That said, I started listening to Genesis today.  How appropriate that our first official day on the AT (our beginning) was undergirded by the beginning of Gods Word.  What stood out to me was how the beauty of the trail, was reflected in the story of all creation. How anyone could see the vast scope of God’s work and still deny His presence is beyond me.

We started out from our campsite at 8:00 am, aiming to hike the 6.5 miles to Springer Mountain, the official start of the AT.  We made it there by noon, and had lunch there, signing in at the official log.  We both had PBJs on tortillas.  While there, we met another retired cop (from Durham, NC).  He was starting the thru hike with his grown son.  Likely we will run into them again.

We started out from Springer after lunch, now on the official trail, white blaze and all.  Some intermittent rain, but not too bad. Originally we planned to hike another 4 or 5 miles, before camping for the night.  The day was nice, and hiking was relatively easy, so we decided to push on to Hawk Mountain shelter.  With the change, we would cover 8.2 miles on the AT for the day, although our total miles since we left our campsite this morning ended up at 15.5 miles. This included a couple of side trips to filter water and see the beautiful Long Creek falls. Future days (including tomorrow ) and by mutual consent, we will not be doing another 15 miles for a while. The last few miles were tough, especially the PUDs (pointless ups and downs).  By the time we reached the shelter, my “dogs were barking”.  I had a couple of slips in the mud today twice landing in my derrière, but no harm done except to my ego.

As we pulled into the Hawk Mountain Shelter, the 50 or so other thru hikers who had started out from Springer that morning had already completely filled the shelter and taken the 30 best tent sites.  Rick (now Texas Strider) and I found a spot off of the main camp area.  We set up, filtered water and cooked our dinners.  I had Mexican rice, and a tortilla / tuna rolled sandwich.  I wasn’t extremely hungry, so saved about half of the rice for tomorrow’s dinner.

After dinner, I set up my sleep gear and called it a night.  It’s now 7:30 pm and bedtime. No cell coverage, so likely this won’t post until tomorrow.  

For those of you who have pledged to support Family Promise through a penny per mile pledge, your current total  is 8 cents.

Until next time...