Appalachian Trail (day 1) - Amicalola Fall's to Long Creek Fall's / mile 5

My cunning plan to get to Gainsville at midday and catch a hitchhike to the trailhead fell to pieces once I've arrived at the Amtrak train station in the morning and the employee informed me that 11:30 train does not leave the station until the evening. And that's what it said on the ticket "11:30 PM", guess I misread it, it took me completely by surprise especially as I used Amtrak before, absolute disaster. Now taking into consideration that I would arrive at Gainsville at half past midnight, and would have to sleep on the train station until morning, things were looking way less attractive. I decided to ditch my old plan completely and order a Lyft, which costed a small fortune of 130$, but being delayed much further wasn't an option, especially as it was supposed to be raining two following days on the trail.

Within 20 minutes, I got a ride with Pedro from Venezuela who couldn't speak any English as he only arrived in US two years ago and since my Spanish was quite on a basic side, our conversation was filled with lots of hand gestures and nodding. Once we left the highway the road became a single, winding strip along the small villages and forests with many abandoned cars and properties along the way, Trump supporter flags were hanging from many houses. The area was giving me (and Pedro) quite a spooky vibe and we both went silent.

After an hour and a half the ride was over and Pedro dropped me in front of Amicalola Fall's State Park, I went to the information centre to collect AT hangtag, but before I recieved it, I got treated with a short video about savoir vivre on the trail presented by a man dressed as a bear. I grabbed the green hangtag with a "1925 -2025, 100 years of Appalachian Trail" printed on it, had a picture taken at the entrance gate and began my 9 mile journey to.. the trail.


Yes, before the official Appalachian Trail has started there was a 9 mile long "approach trail", quite beautiful though with Amicalola Fall's being it's main highlight. I went past hundreds of tourists scaling steep wooden stairs back and forth, having their pictures taken with this spectacular falls.

After few miles the crowds vanished and  the trail became quite peaceful, I even managed to spot a huge hunting owl and a red crested woodpecker, which really hyped me up for the potential future animal encounters on the trail. After three hours I've reached the Springer Mountain, an official start of Appalachian Trail.

When I arrived at the (official) mile 5 of the trail I decided to call it a day as it was past 6pm and I still needed to work out the sunset/sunrise ratios. I camped near lovely Long Creek Fall's, lots of day hikers were passing near my campsite, one lady asked if I'm thru hiking and we started a conversation, it turned out she hiked AT two years ago in 2023, she was from Georgia and her trail name (as she was just finishing her 60th birthday that year) was Phoenix, I showed her my green AT hangtag (they have different colours each year) and she loved the fact that it had 100 year anniversary printed on it.

Overall a good day, I'm happy that I'm finally on the trail and can leave most of the logistics behind, it does feel (almost) like home. 

Ride on!

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