Monday, May 23rd

Approach Trail to Springer Mountain (8.8 miles)

Springer Mountain (0.0 mi) to Gooch Mountain Shelter (15.7 mi)

Hiking Miles: 15.7 on trail (24.5 overall)

Total Ascent: 2,789 ft

Total Descent: 3,780.5

Total Grade: 415.4 ft/mi

Steps: 58,151

First order of business – we changed our trail names to Gator (Rich) and Croc (Stevie) to give props to the South. Now these names have two meanings. One the obvious, and two – I always crave Gatorade on trail and Stevie wears his croc’s off-trail. We had discussed that for each section of the Flip-Flop hike that we would change our trail names, hence we’ll sport three each. Strong candidates for the New York to Maine stretch were “Jules” and “Dola” to rep Julian Edelman and Danny Amendola as we cruise through New England. But only a thought at this point. But present day, we were Gator & Croc.

We had a good night’s sleep in the Amicalola Falls Lodge, and we ate a hearty buffet breakfast in their restaurant. We packed (sneaked) out a waffle, egg and bacon sandwich that we eventually split between us for dinner, and two mini muffins (bran & blueberry). 

Standing in the cathedral ceilinged lobby, we stared at the giant map of the Appalachian Trail on the wall that basically went from floor to ceiling. It was insane to think that we were going to walk the entire way up the east coast to Mount Katahdin, Maine. Even with already covering 573.5 miles, it didn’t make the task any less daunting. 

We started the last 7.8 miles of the Approach Trail at 9 am, and it was still pouring! We actually saw the heavy rainfall the minute we woke up so it was seriously wet out there; the view of the mountainous landscape from our hotel room window was beautiful, but the skies were strewn with cloud cover. Regardless, we were excited to start this leg of the journey, and I was ready with my new pair of OBOZ.

On our way up the mountain, we passed a heavy-set hiker who had stayed at the lodge as well. He was wearing a large blue circular shaped pillow over his upper torso (I’m not sure what its purpose was), and when I asked him how he was doing, he replied “I’ve had better days”. He looked winded and tired.

The approach trail was somewhat uneventful. It continued raining off and on, mostly on, all morning and we were focused on reaching the top of Springer Mountain to “officially” begin our southern section. Around noon, it was raining so hard the we decided to stop and put away our phones in plastic baggies to protect them. However, literally ten feet later (maybe three steps) we reached the top of Springer Mountain! It wasn’t obvious but what tipped it off right away was when Stevie pointed out the first white blaze on a rock - the first official white blaze of the AT for NOBO’s. So we took out our phones to take a few pics and record a video.

We chatted a few moments with other hikers, then started from Mile Marker 0. Today’s hike was nice actually, despite the wetness, and the terrain was a steady up and down. It continued to rain heavily all day from that point and we didn’t stop for breaks except for a late day water refill. We only drank 2 liters all day, but we felt hydrated somehow due to the rain.

We finished at 15.7 miles (23.5 overall) arriving at the Gooch Gap Shelter just before sundown at 7:30 pm. There were two hikers there when we arrived, their names were “Cheesehead” (trail name) and Yues (not a trail name). Cheesehead was chatty. He was headed southbound and planned to finish in a few days – he was only doing a short section. Yues (he was French) was heading north to Harpers Ferry. A woman hiker showed up shortly thereafter; she was only hiking the Georgia section of the AT.

Stevie and I changed into dry clothes, ate our food, set up our mattresses and quilts, and rested the remainder of the evening. Unfortunately, we had no cell service so I could not text or call Teresa. The shelter was pretty cool – it was two stories, and had a covered picnic table (thank goodness) with a chess/checker board built into it.