First Pit Stop: Hiawasee, GA

Howdy there! I am writing this in the Hiaswasee Public Library in beautiful Georgia. The south seems to have been affected by an unseasonable warm streak. 84 degrees at the end of winter! I warmth makes for comfortable hiking. Although, since the leaves have not come in yet, the sun shines right through the tree. I caught myself a little sun burn on my lips and nose. It is my 5th day of hiking. I took a 5 mile nero (that is a near-zero; a zero day is when you do not hike at all) from Adiss Gap on the outskirts of the Tray Mountain Wilderness, up 1000ft in 1 mile, and down into Dicks Creek Gap. Then, hitchhiked 3.5 miles down the road to the Blueberry Patch Hiker Hostel-- a donation based hostel run by a christian husband and wife-- with showers, laundry, bunks, and a beautiful view into the country framed by the tall blueberry bushes, goats, and burros.
My hike started on Monday morning after a 12 hour Amtrak train ride from DC to Gainesville. I met my shuttle at 7 am in the morning outside the train station. His name was Eric and he hiked the AT in '04. He was a nomadic sort of guy, living out of his van. Every year around hiker season(mid-march to mid-april) he would come out to Georgia and give some hikers a lift. It was a 2 hour drive to Springer mountain. I started hiking at about 9. I made it up to the top of Springer and signed my name in the first trail log. Springer is the southern extreme of the AT, and for north-bound hikers such as myself, the beginning of the trail. It was cold and the morning fog had yet to be burned off by the sun. That first day I hiked 15 miles, staying at the Gouch Mtn Shelter. The shelter was crowed (of course) so I set up tent near-by. It started to rain in the middle of the night. I woke in the morning to find the bottom half of my sleeping bag wet. I had set up my tent in what had become in the middle of the night a puddle. So the water seeped through the bottom lining and soaked my sleeping bad and everything else on my bottom tarp. I now had an incentive of necessity to get to the Mountain Crossing at Walasi-Yi because they had a dryer. The reason for my rush is that if a down bag stays wet too long, it clumps together and looses all its insulating function. It had continued to rain all that night and well into the day. I was hiking faster than I normally would, robbed by all the vistas by the thick fog and rain. That day put me over Blood Mountain, an old site of a bloody battle said to have made the ground run red. But I made it to the dryers and just in time too, because that evening a church group was serving a free dinner. Lasagna, vegetables, and quite possibly the best pecan pie I will every have, seeing that it was made by a gentle, church-going southern mother.
Since the rain, the past 2 days have been warm and easy. Wednesday was 17 miles, and Thursday was 13 respectably, evening out to my 15 mile avg.
I have not seen any animals larger than a squirrel. I saw few field mice, chipmunks, warblers. It sounds sometimes like there are the nocturnal critters outside my tent, opossum and raccoon, but I do not trust my ears enough to discern them from the sounds of the wind against the leaves.
Believe it or not, I do not have a single blister. My choice to wear running shoes was the best choice I made. The views are beautiful. The fresh mountain air is making my lungs larger. My knees are a little sore, but nothing a few ibuprofen cannot handle. I will be in North Carolina tomorrow afternoon considering it is only 9 miles down the trail.