It turns out the journey to start the Appalachian trail, can be almost as dificult as the hike itself. 

I woke up in New York knowing that I still had to fly to Atlanta. Grab a MARTA train to REI. Buy my last few things. Wait for Ron, a man I met on Facebook, to come pick me up to drive me into the woods and hopefully not murder me. 

While thinking up titles of my potential true crime documentary (“It Was Over Before It Began”, “The Facebook Valet”, “Appalachian Fail”) I got ready to head to the airport. I slung the pack over my shoulders and immediately let out a groan that sounded much more like that of a 92 year old rather than that of a 32 year old. 

Until last night, my pack had weighed a paltry 23 lbs without water. But around 9pm, I had gotten nervous that I didn’t have enough food with me. 

The 6 packs of freeze dried dinners, the trail mix, the granola bars, the peanut butter, the tortillas, the tuna fish. That just wasn’t enough I decided to last me the 3 or 4 days I would need until I hit my first resupply point. I ran out to the grocery store and bought oatmeal for breakfast and some candy (possibly for breakfast as well). 

I then stopped at another grocery store on the way home from the first one and bought more peanut butter, more granola bars and a block of cheese. I was reaching for more candy when at last a light went on in my brain that I would have to carry whatever I bought. I put back the second bag of Swedish fish. 

With my new additions, my pack this morning weighed close to 30 lbs. I then added water bottles and felt the pack grow another 4lbs heavier. While not the heaviest I had heard of, it was far from the lightest. A friend of a friend told me that when he did his latest thru hike, he got his pack weight to less than 10 lbs. 

As I walked down the stairs, I wished mine was closer to 10 lbs.

But even with the extra pounds the trip down to Atlanta was easy. I checked my bag so I could fly with all my gear and even landed a bit early. I took Marta to REI, purchased two cans of cooking fuel and settled down in the shade with a snack to wait for Ron to come pick me up. Everything had gone so smoothly that I was an hour and a half early. But that’s ok. I had my kindle and a recently recovered ability to read. 

It wasn’t until Ron called that I realized something was wrong. “Jamie? I thought you said you were in front of REI, I don’t see you”

“I am in front of REI”

“The one at Perimeter Mall?”

“Umm…” a quick google maps search… “Shit”

I was 30 minutes away from him and he had another hiker to pick up. He recommended I call an uber to take me the 2 hours to the park. 

A minute later he called back and recommended I get a hotel room and he’d drive me in the morning. 

I froze, not entirely sure what to do. I wasn’t even on the trail yet and already I had messed up my navigation. Impressive work, Jamie. 

While I was still angrily looking up uber prices and hotel prices and trying to figure out what to do, Ron called back. “Get in an uber to North Springs Station,” he said. “If you make it there by 5, Bret will pick you up. I’m texting you his number. Just be there by 5”

Getting random numbers, commands and locations from a stranger had me feeling like a spy in a jack reacher novel. I complied and soon found myself in an uber – off to meet a stranger introduced to me by a stranger introduced to me by facebook. 

Bret picked me up and drove me the two hours north. Bret was a delightfully cheerful guy in his 50s who lived in the area and, after hiking the AT in 2017, wanted to give back in any way he could. So he drives hikers to the start of the trail. He also tells them all about his glory days as a high school football player. But even after the last story of his late game heroics concluded, I was still thrilled to be in his car and heading to camp. 

It was close to 7:30 by the time he dropped me off and showed me the lay of the land. He pointed out the shelter I could sleep in tonight and where I needed to register tomorrow. The sun is going down and I’m the only one set up in the shelter for now. Its looking like a quiet and early night before the real hiking begins tomorrow!