Amicalola to Springer Mountain (2015)

  I was very happy to quickly find these photos yesterday after finishing the last post. They were a few folders deep on my laptop ~ from our trip in November 2015 with Michael's family. These are my current 47 favorites that I did not put in the original Amicalola Falls post.
   The first part is when we explored the huge waterfall and the very many (175 according to the sign) steps leading down to the bottom where the very beginning of the Appalachian Trail is. We explored around and went inside the gift shop, then, of course, had to make it back up all that way again. Our leg muscles were burning!! It felt like so many more than 175 stairs, but I don't know if anyone was counting. Actually acording to Michael's Instagram page, I commented that there were 1,208 stairs, but that sounds like too many. Guess we'll have to go back and count them again! ;)

This is where it all starts! (Or ends, if you start in Maine, but I think it's more common to start here.)

Not sure why they have a shelter right at the very beginning..
Maybe for people who drive all day to get to Amicalola Falls and don't arrive until the evening?

Going back up! Notice our lack of layers in the photo below.. Getting our sweat on! 

   We also went to the Lodge to look around in the other gift shop, and it was also where we ate dinner twice. One of the nights they had a really yummy buffet! The Lodge is more like a hotel to stay in- and about $300 per night, yikes!! I really liked the cabin we stayed in. Our bathroom even had a big cricket in it one day, haha. 

   We made s'mores one night in the fireplace that were really good, but I guess Michael's mom probably took those pictures and I don't have them. I'm sure you can imagine what that looked like. I learned recently that Michael doesn't like s'mores! He says the combination of marshmallow, chocolate and graham cracker don't taste good to him. I thought he had some while we were there, but that was 3 1/2 years ago now, so I could be remembering it wrong. Oh well, more for us! 

   Michael brought his Eno hammock and enjoyed some quiet time outside. He asked me to join him outside, but it was too cold for me. We also hiked around the Lodge each day. There were some paved areas and a few trail loops, including one that connects Amicalola Falls to the Approach trail, the main trail beginning up the mountain. 

   In the last post I wrote that we "also took a handful of pictures of Michael wearing his wolf Spirithood, but I don't have those posted here". Some of this blog is mainly for myself, especially all of my recent healthy eating/ workout posts. I like going back and reading about our life, remembering everything we've done with the details that I add, and seeing all the pictures. So when I read that part, I was thinking, "Well dang, now I really want to see those Spirithood pictures!" Here you go, Rachel:

   The second part, done on a different day during that trip, is us hiking from our cabin, which was right by the Approach Trail, up to Springer Mountain. It was an eight mile hike, 16 miles roundtrip, that we made in about eight hours. We left just after 8am, per Michael's request, and were back before 4:30pm. We knew we needed to be back by then since it was winter, during the "bad" Daylight Savings where it starts getting dark by 5:30pm!

    Michael and I hiked faster than his parents and younger brother, Parker. His dad didn't mind that, but kept telling Michael to stay with me and not leave me alone in the middle. Sometimes I fell back and would join in their family conversations or talk to Parker. Other times I'd run ahead to be with Michael and then when we got to a resting spot, like a little camp site area with rocks to sit on, we would wait for his family to catch up. Once they were behind us again we would start walking, but then his parents said, "Hey, now we need a break!" Whoops. :)

   Michael is just now telling me as I'm writing this, that the reason these markers were blue instead of white are, "Because it's for the Approach Trail. The Appalachian Trail doesn't really start until you get to Springer Mountain. So we didn't really hike the Appalachian Trail that time." Oh my goodness!!

   Almost at the top! There were some points that I thought we were going to have to turn around. There was one mountain (not even the last one) that just kept going up and up and up. It was so steep, and I kept thinking, "Okay, after this tree, it will level off." But it didn't! Michael and I were so proud of his family for making it the whole way too. Woohoo!

    Bear warnings. Lunch/ break for about 30 minutes. Then heading back!

   I do wish I had more pictures from the top. The folder I got these pictures from even say that the rest of the pictures are in my email, so I'll have to look for those after this. It is one thing that I love to brag about, along with working on "a real movie that was at Redbox" ~ Blood Widow after we graduated from Full Sail. I was so happy with my friend, Alex, from work watched the whole thing around Halloween last year. Now we reference the character Kenneth whenever we run someone with that name in Teletype.

We made it!!!!!!!

   When we got back, went to the bathroom (since none of us had gone in 8 hours!), took showers, but didn't have time for a nap before we had to get to dinner at the Lodge. Although, I probably napped for 20 minutes while Michael was getting his shower after me. I think we all assumed that the buffet was there again, but it wasn't, or it had just ended as we got there, so we ordered regular meals.
   Mrs. Patty even mentioned on our recent trip about how hungry all of us were in this 2015 trip and how we devoured our green beans within seconds! We did bring snacks and Mrs. Patty made sandwiches kept in aluminum foil for us that we ate at the top of Springer Mountain. And right before we left Michael's dad was passing out two Advil for everyone because he knew we would all be very sore after the long hike and wanted to prevent any pain. :)