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First, You Have To Get There
Prepping For Departure
As stated earlier, our mission is to use the trail as a transition to our new adventures with our family in Australia. For that mission to be successful, we modified a few things to prepare for the journey – and when I say “we”, I mean Ma Wampus. She dehydrated meals to mail out to Post Offices along the trail to ensure we were not eating too much salt. She sewed a rain skirt, shirts with removable sleeves, a sweater with neck gater, and a stove holder – while booking our household goods on a trip to Australia.
Eating Right Takes Effort
Get to the Trail!
Obviously, there are several ways but we chose to hump our bags to an overnight Amtrak. We just sold our car, so that was out. Airlines are still a little peculiar with some of the gear we wanted to bring, so nope. We did contact a number of shuttle services but we learned a new term: The Bubble.
Proper use of term: Large groups of hiker descend on the trail in March creating a bubble of people. This bubble ensures that local resources, like shuttles, are unavailable for you. Plan ahead!
We ended up going with an Uber from Gainesville. Our driver was a lovely lady, over 70, who was finding it hard on her teacher pension. Retirement reality check!
Life Imitating Art at the Hirshhorn
Headed to Amtrak!
Last Preparations
On arrival at Amicalola Falls State Park, we were directed to the Visitor Center. Here we completed the GA Thru Hiker class. This consisted of a number of warnings about waste disposal, filtering your water, and bears. The bear thing was interesting, as it was clear they want you to use a bear canister. Very few hikers do so. Anyway, here we received our official thru Hiker tags. There is nothing stopping us now!
GA AT Volunteers Provide Free Class
We Are Official!
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Thank you very much. These posts provide a way for my wife and I to treasure this very challenging walk in the woods. We are happy you are enjoying the journey as well.