Day 1 - Springer Mnt to Hawk Mnt Shelter

Weather- 60s during the day, mid 40s overnight. Dry and Sunny
Ibuprofen Taken: 0

First day of our section hike...the ride to the mountain was more of an adventure than the hike itself.

Our Uber driver arrived quickly in Atlanta to pick us up. She had never been to our destination,  but that's ok...the Uber app tells her where to go. I zoned out, listening to an audio book and sleeping during our long ride. As we got closer, the roads changed to dirt/gravel, and we were winding, steep forest service roads. Her Nissan Versa could handle it, but I'm not sure if she had ever driven on those kinds of roads. Heck, I'm not sure if she had ever been out of the city...and our Uber fare took her up the side of a remote mountain.

     30+ miles from civilization..on a dirt forest service road..she asks: Is there a gas station near here? She is on empty. A very long walk from anything.  It was too late to turn back, there was no way she would make it to a gas station. However....she just might have enough to get us to the AT before running out. I offered that we could walk the rest of the way...but she was committed to completing the fare.

    So...that's what she chose. We drove the last 7 miles with a range of zero miles left.  She also said "i have AAA...they will bring me gas." We thanked her, gave her a nice tip, and started our hike, one mile south back to the start of the AT. On the way back through, her car was still there...but she was gone.

This is the closest spot...USFS 42 parking lot 1 mile north of Springer. We hiked down to the start of the trail ...and then hiked right back to this sign.

The first white blaze.

Long Creek falls is 150 steps off the AT and made a great place to have a snack.

Peanut Butter, Nutella, peanut m&m's,  and cashews wrapped in a tortilla. Trail food.

All of our previous hikes have paid off..we have the hammocks dialed in and comfy. I slept from 830 pm till 7 am. 

So for our first day, we hiked from 12 20 pm to about 5:30 pm. 8.1 AT miles..plus one extra to get to springer.