April 11, 2016

Today was the first day of our hike. This morning we got breakfast with our dads at the lodge we stayed at next to Springer Mountain. We payed the kind lady who worked there named Cathy to drive us to the base of Springer Mountain because it is a hard road to pass unless you are experienced as she was. A man who introduced himself to us as Muir was also in our shuttle to Springer and would turn out to be our hiking buddy for the day. The Appalachian Trail starts at Springer Mountain but the service road we used to get to Springer puts you on the trail .9 miles ahead of Springer. Therefore to start off our trip we started going backwards until we got to the top of Springer Mountain with Muir. After that we started our hike up the trail, planning to camp at Hawk Mountain 8 miles away. It was only 2 miles down the trail when our friend Muir screeched at the top of his lungs in agony behind me and Ford. He had stepped on a root wrong and according to him, he has low cartilage in his knees so it buckled and he fell over in pain. Muir assured us that he would be OK and so we pressed on. However, after a mile or two of Muir struggling far behind us, he decided the pain was to much to continue and he decided to call a taxi at the next service road. After only being on the trail for a few hours and having already lost a man, Ford and I were starting to get worried about what could happen to us in the 10 days to come. Sad about the loss of our friend, we trudged on for about 5 more miles to Hawk Mountain where we ended up camping a half a mile from the first shelter.

Here is a video of a map of the entire Appalachian Trail at the lodge by Springer Mountain.