I arrived at the hostel a little after 8, two hours sooner than expected. It’s quite nice. I have a room to myself with a bathroom and everything. The room sleeps four, but the only other people here are an Australian cycling team in the basement room and a Canadian couple across the hall. I talked to the couple a bit. They had hiked four days already and were up to Woody Gap (no relation). Woody Gap is where I want to be after day two so that was not encouraging. But it turns out that they started their hike at Amacalola Falls, which adds an extra day, so it was more like they got to Woody Gap after three days, which is less discouraging. They were taking a break here and trying to reduce the weight of their packs, which were around 50 pounds. Mine is under 40 fully loaded so that’s good. I actually have about 2 pounds more than I need because I like to record things. Plus I have the solar panel, which I will ditch if it doesn’t work.
Breakfast is at 8:30 then Josh (hostel owner) will take me to Springer Mt.
