I woke up at Amicalola Lodge after a very long night of packing my bag (for the first time ever) and talking with Drew. I was feeling really nervous and unsure of myself. I’d only set up my tent a few times and never used any of my other gear. I’d never even hiked more than 4 miles or done an overnight. I was reassured that all of those feelings would disappear and I knew in my heart that they would, but was still unable to shake them. As expected, I didn’t get out of my room until about noon because I’m a procrastinator and I wanted to take things at my own pace. There was no need to rush and it felt good.

On my way down the stairs I discovered I couldn’t even walk straight with my pack because it was so heavy. Lovely. I had lunch and managed to get a ride from the very nice lady at the front desk from the lodge down to the Visitors Center. Bruce helped me with my first and much needed shakedown and my pack went from 40 lbs to 31 lbs. What a relief that was. He showed me to the shelter just a few feet from the Visitors Center and I stayed there for the night rather than hiking, it was already 4:00. I immediately put a rip in my quilt but luckily I had repair tape, no biggie! I made my first dinner and talked with Jeff who was attempting a thru-hike as well. He talked a lot but I enjoyed the company.

I woke up and got packed up pretty quickly as there was a kind of strange man starting a fire. He had almost no gear but he did have 8 lbs of instant coffee. I made my way to the stairs and it was a really surreal moment. Almost as surreal as seeing the arch for the first time. I’ve never been so determined to do anything as I was to attempt to thru hike the AT. I took a break on each platform during the steps with no shame. I was so proud of myself for being there at all. I could see the excitement when people saw me with my giant pack and they realized what I was doing. It felt so good. I felt on top of the world when I made it to the top of the stairs. I met Brian and his wife Sandy. He’s a Texas Ranger and would be starting not long after me. He saw me struggling and offered to carry my pack to the start of the trail. I let him. First slack pack ✅ I didn’t care.

I finally was on trail and started heading to Springer. I can still feel that jittery excitement from something so foreign but so anticipated a year later. It’s indescribable. It was really foggy and rainy but I didn’t mind. I enjoy the gloomy weather and pretty much nothing could bring me down on this day. I met Fletcher from Australia who was already discussing going home in case the airports shut down due to covid. I felt bad for him. I hiked by myself for the rest of the time unti I made it to Black Gap shelter, making it a 7.3 mile day. I planned on going to Springer but it was raining and once I started to dry off a bit I called it a night. Doug (the kind of strange man from the morning) showed up without Jeff. Apparently his knees were hurting, I never saw him again. Doug told everyone about his 8 lbs of instant coffee. August helped me stake my tent. I went to sleep to the sound of coyotes in the distance.