Day 0 – We spent Friday night driving south landing in Durham, NC at the hotel. We made it to Amicalola in the early afternoon on Saturday. The lodge sits on a ridge overlooking the valley and mountains in the distance. After getting settled in we located the bar and set about enjoying our last day in comfort for a while. We eventually got to talking with a fellow that was heading south for vacation and had stopped at Amicalola for the night. We had a lot in common and as we told them about our endeavoring trip ahead they offered to follow us down to the long term parking in the morning and carry us back up to the lodge so that we wouldn’t have to take the ridge trail around the falls. At the time of our departure the stairs were closed due to damage after a storm. We, of course, leapt at the opportunity. Our first bit of trail magic and we hadn’t even got on trail yet.