Thirty-four days. I keep refreshing the weather forecast for northern Georgia like that's a productive use of my time. It is not. What has been productive: an embarrassing number of hours on the stairmaster, a gear spreadsheet that has taken on a life of its own, and a postal scale that now lives permanently on my kitchen counter.
The spreadsheet situation
I'll be honest — the planning spreadsheet started as a simple gear list and turned into something I'm genuinely a little proud of. Every shelter and campsite from Springer to well past the Smokies. Three pace scenarios (fast, medium, slow). Resupply towns flagged. Visitor windows mapped out. At some point I started tracking estimated arrival dates at every state border, which is either thorough preparation or a sign I need to go outside more. Possibly both.
The gear tab is where things got obsessive. Every single item weighed. The base weight sits at 16.4 lbs right now — everything in the pack except worn clothing and consumables. That sounds reasonable until you remember that food and water will add another 10 lbs on a full resupply. I've been staring at that number long enough that I started researching whether I actually need a pot cozy. (I do. 0.9 oz is 0.9 oz.)
The stairmaster
My training plan has been: stairmaster, stairmaster, long walk, stairmaster. The AT's first week out of Springer involves somewhere around 15,000 feet of climbing, so I've been treating the gym stairmaster like a very boring preview of Georgia. I put on a podcast, load up a day pack with whatever's heaviest in my apartment, and go. My neighbors think I'm moving out. I am, technically, in 34 days.
The best training for hiking is hiking. The second best is apparently standing on an escalator that hates you for 45 minutes.
Pack is mostly set. Resupply boxes half-planned. Flights to Atlanta booked. The countdown is real now in a way it wasn't when April felt abstract. Four weeks and change to Springer Mountain. Let's go.
Next up: shaking down the full kit on an overnight before departure.