[Derek] Arrival Logistics

As I write this, Matt and I are on our way to Amicalola Falls State Park, the starting point of our trip!

I arrived in Atlanta yesterday afternoon... The flight from Hartford was uneventful, and in fact arrived earlier than scheduled (I didn't know that happened anymore!). Matt met me at the airport and we did the touristy stuff for a while, walking around the Centennial Olympic Park and such.

We took the MARTA rail north out of the city. The MARTA seems to differ from the T in Boston in that the trains come much less frequently and have fewer stops, but are faster and go farther than the T. It reminded me of a cross between the Orange and Purple lines in Boston.

Then it was a bus to Roswell, where we found our super-sketchy hotel. It was cheap, but I guess you get what you pay for. No latch on the bathroom door, cop car watching the parking lot, etc. David and I stayed in sketches hostels in Europe, but not by much.

Amicalola Falls is some 60 miles north of the city, so it's not serviced by any public transit. We called 10 different shuttle services and Trail Angels before finding one that would take us to the trailhead. (Several said that they would only take us to a point 0.2 miles north of Springer, but we wanted to go to the Falls to do the Approach Trail.)

So, we're on our way to the Falls with Hank, ready to hit the trail. The Approach Trail goes for 8 miles, and we'll camp near Springer. SO EXCITED