Monday, March 2, 2009 AKA Day 2

It was a most excellent first full day on the Appalachian Trail. We "woke up" around 7 am after not really getting much sleep due to the chilly weather. We packed up our gear, ate some hot delicious oatmeal, went to a nearby creek to filter some water to drink for the day and headed out on the trail around 8:45 am. It was still very cold and snow was still covering the ground and trees, but it was a gorgeous, sunny day and the sky was nothing but blue. The Georgia mountains were beautiful. We hiked 12.3 miles up Hawk Mountain to Sassafras. It was tiring, but we made great time (especially since it was our first big day). We got to Gooch Mountain Shelter around 3:45 pm. We had to set up our tents at a campsite because the shelter here is a lot smaller than the one last night, but we got a nice site nearby. We set up camp, cooked dinner, drank some hot chocolate, hung up our food on the tall trees (so bears or other critters can't get to it). Then we filled up our water bottles and headed to bed. It was an awesome day.