He's in Georgia... I think.

After a short debate as to whether it was better for him to walk away from me, or for me to drive away from him, Shawn headed off into the woods at around 10am on Monday morning.

He registered at the Amicolola State Park Visitors Center as a northbound thru-hiker in the morning. The sign in procedure is kind of fun – you walk in, and tell them you’d like to register for the Trail. The question is then, “Where are you going?” and when you answer, “Maine,” they smile, say, “That’s the right answer!” and let you sign in. We also weighed his pack, including food and water, and it came to 37 pounds, which I think he’s pretty happy with. We took a lot of photos (if you’d like to see more, let me know!), walked over and saw the beautiful waterfall, had some tears, and then he was off.

Interesting Trail Fact – Shawn was the 500^th northbound thru-hiker to register this year. According to the staff, that number is down a little from last year at this time, but they expect to pick up soon. There were three hikers who left earlier that morning, and we met one other who was expecting to start later on in the afternoon.

Interesting Trail Fact #2 – It is around 800 miles from Fishtown to the start of the trail… and a distance that took us 2 days to drive will take him about 3.5 months to walk. Kind of puts your commute into perspective. Of course, the other kicker is that once you set out from the Visitors Center, you're not actually on the trail yet... you're on the 8.5 mile "Approach Trail," which them takes you to the official start, on Springer Mountain. I'm guessing he arrived there, to the shelter, before dinner time last night.

We also think he’s settled on a potential trail name – “Keychain.” It comes from the two photo keychains I gave him as a going away present (Camille and my photos), which he has hanging on his pack. Those plus his small thermometer and whistle keychains make a nice little jingle as he walks. We also bought him a keychain from Georgia. He’s hoping to buy one in each state as he hikes through. We’ll see if it sticks or if the other hikers decide on something they’d rather call him!!

Thanks for everyone’s well-wishes… I expect to hear from him sometime on Thursday, and I’ll be sure and let everyone know when I do! (and if you look very closely at this photo, you can see Shawn, walking off onto the Trail...)