I woke up naturally around 7am. Josh and Lee, the owners of the Hostel, told me that breakfast would be at 8:30 then they’d take the Canadian couple and me to our respective starting points. Breakfast was over-the-top. Waffles, oatmeal, eggs, juice, some other stuff. (I didn’t eat the eggs of course, the Canadian guy took mine.) Woody Gap, where the couple started, was about 30 minutes’ drive from the hostel. From there, it was another hour to my starting point, Springer Mountain. It’s only about 10 miles, but the road is curvy and dirt. On the way, we talked a little politics (he’s libertarian), economics, and personal finance, agreeing that too much debt is a bad thing. We passed a few wild turkeys and Josh commented that they seem to know that hunting season ended yesterday. He stopped the car next to a truck where a wildlife manager sat. They chatted a bit. Due to budget cuts, they’ve lost one of their wildlife managers, who managed something like 40,000 acres.

We got to the parking lot for Springer Mountain, I got my pack out of the back of the Suburban, put the rain cover on, and Josh pointed me to the trailhead. I would have to hike 0.9 miles to the top of Springer where the beginning of the AT is, turn around and walk back. Psychologically it sucks to backtrack, but better than walking the 8.5 mile approach trail if you want to save a day. At the top, he said, I’d probably run into the guy who stays up at the trailhead. I put on my pack and started up the trail. After 100 feet or so, I said out loud “I didn’t know that was going to hurt” regarding the pain in my hip muscles.

I was alone at the top for about five minutes when two other people arrived. Roger is the man who stays on top of the mountain for ten days at a time, taking four days off in between stints. Roger has a long gray beard and we chatted. He told me about his trip to Alaska, where he was voted “Best Beard in Gnome.” I had shaven cleanly for the start of the hike, so I felt inadequate. I asked if I could take his picture, which he was happy to give, and he told me about when he was in Alaska and a foreign man asked if he could take his picture. The man took his picture and said, “I can’t wait to show the people back home what a real Alaskan looks like.” Roger is from North Carolina.

The other guy who showed up on top was Bird with his self-made hiking poles. He had hiked up the approach trail and camped the previous night on the other side of the peak. We both signed the book that sits in a cutout in the rock with the Springer Mountain AT plaque. He took some photos, put the cover on his pack, and headed down the way I’d come up. I put on my rain jacket, said so-long to Roger, and headed down too.

At the parking lot where I was dropped off, Bird was checking out the postings about bears. We decided to hike together. The rain was light and steady.