I think it was about a mile down from the top of springer mountain when it finally hit me that I was actually on the Appalachian trail headed for Maine. It was raining this morning when I awoke at the Hiker Hostel and enjoyed a marvelous breakfast of french toast, scrambled eggs and oatmeal. Josh from the hostel gave me, and 3 ladies a ride to the start of the trail, it took about 45 minutes, most of it up a switchback laden logging road. The temperature reading inside the SUV continued to drop from 49 degrees at the start of the drive to 42 at the parking lot. It was hard to believe this was actually the beginning, the weather was nasty, and it was basically like “Ok here you are at the AT, Springer is that way, Maine is that way, goodluck!” The other passengers from the Hiker Hostel headed straight north without going backwards to the official start, about one mile South along the AT. Of course, even though I wasn’t doing the approach trail I was going to start from the beginning so I headed South. The trail was rocky and wet. I saw a couple of people along the way but there was no one at the top when I arrived. I stayed a few minutes to take some pictures – about all that was visible thanks to the fog was the plaque on a rock marking the start of the trail. A misty rain was being blown sideways by the wind, and I was ready to turn around and head north.
The wind was blowing fiercely as well but I was enjoying it in the beginning. 15 miles of hiking later I feel quite different. I think id be alright with sunshine the rest of the way. The last 7 miles seemed quite long, and I was very happy to finally see the sign pointing to the shelter. Looks like the rain will continue tomorrow.