More from this series: Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Lessons Learned | Video
Saturday, December 14th, 2013 – Day 0:
My buddy and I drove from Orlando up to Amicalola Falls State Park in Northern Georgia for most of the day. We stopped at a Wal-Mart in Cumming, Georgia to pick up food and last-minute supplies. We arrived at the park around seven at night, after the sun had already set. We ripped open the food containers and I packed what I needed – four packs of beef jerky, five Pop-Tarts, two Granola Bars, a box of Cheeze-Its (or at least the plastic bag inside the box), and a bag of Cheetos.
I adjusted my pack to fit everything that I needed which included: me tent, tent poles, and stakes, my sleeping bag, my food bag, my clothes back with camping clothes, my three-liter Camelbak water bladder, and my work laptop since I was on-call for the weekend. In the front pouch of my bag I had smaller items such as my headlamp, which I took out to wear since it was already night, a trash bag to use as a pack cover in case of rain, a poncho for me in case I needed it, the support phone for work, some nylon string, extra carabiners, and my toiletry bag. On the side pockets I had bug spray, sunscreen, a lighter, an extra Gatorade bottle with Gatorade in it, and my water filter. I also had my phone and GoPro camera in my pocket and in the hip-belt pockets of my pack I kept my toilet paper, the extra backing to my GoPro (waterproof), and a GU gel packet that I had left over from my marathon. I also had my boots and two trekking poles to walk with, plus a sleeping pad attached to the outside of my pack.
For clothing, I had a pair of long-johns for hiking and another for camping, a pair of thin shell pants for hiking and another for camping if needed, a polyester tee-shirt for hiking and a long-sleeve polyester shirt for camping, a wool sweater for hiking and an acrylic sweater for camping, a fleece/shell jacket for hiking and a pull-over fleece for camping, a pair of dress socks and running socks for hiking, a pair of Smartwool skiing socks for camping, and a thin tuque for hiking and a thicker one for camping.
It took almost an hour to get everything ready, park the car in the right spot, sign into the register and begin the trip. We planned to night-hike up the A.T. Approach Trail and camp at Springer Mountain Shelter if we could get that far – nine miles. There were two other shelters along the trail, the first one, the Amicalola Falls State Park Shelter, just outside the visitor center, not even 0.1 miles up the trail and the second, Black Gap Shelter, was 7.3 miles up the trail.
ren3gade 