Georgia Hills before Spring
My first full day on Trail. Heading north from the Springer Mountain Shelter. The skies never really fully cleared, so we had a high overcast grey in the mid 50s with only occasional sunshine. With the exception of the deeper valley floors, pretty much everything to be seen was grey or brown: the trees, the trail, the earth, the sky -- all of it.
I spent a lot of the day hopscotching with JettButt and Sherbear. As you walk the trail, conversations help pass the time (in between breaths). We shared backgrounds and talked a lot about gear and trail lore. They knew more about Trail history than I did, so it was fun listening to their revelations. And like me, they slept little tented. The night noises, revelling in the ascent yesterday from the park, and the anticipation/trepidation of the 2150+ miles pretty much shot any chance at a deep and satisfying sleep.
As the day wore on, the fatigue of that first climb and the remarkable wearing down of this day's (short) miles bore down on all of us. Add to that a thickening sky as a low pressure system pushed through -- this was a long day for so little mileage.