Leland "Woodsy" Kolson began his Appalachian Trail thru hike on March 1st. Here's his quick update from the trail after 6 days of hiking.
I started my hike just above Amicolola Falls and had 7.5 miles to get to springer mountain. Within the first half mile I found one of those full size inflatable mattresses covered in mud and leaves. I rolled it up and strapped it to my pack. As I continued along I tried to stop at all the dispersed campsites to pick up any trash I could find. Ended up with a bunch of broken glass beer bottles, plastic water bottles, cigarette butts and even a full size crown royal bottle. By the time I reached springer mountain I had 12.4 lbs of trash. Luckily the ridge runner in the area allowed me to drop it all off in her truck at the first gap I came across.
Since there are not many folks on trail yet, I have not seen much trash past springer. Little bits and bobs that you would expect to see at the popular campsites and shelters, with a few weird things like a pencil sharpener, selfie stick, plastic hub cap and even a string of 5.56 bullet blanks that was probably dropped by the army rangers that train in the area.
I've made it about 60 miles, not including the approach trail, and have managed to round up 16.7 lbs of trash so far.
