Date: 2007-03-15
From: Woody Gap

To: Stream past Dockery Lake Trail
Miles today: 3.1

March 15, Angels, Frogs and Fog Well, today started around 8:30 a.m. when Michele and I heard Sailor getting after the day in our Super 8 room. That was pretty early for going to bed at 3 a.m. Sailor was up and at 'em offering to take our clothes to the laundromat - that's an offer I decided could not be refused so, bam, one town chore done!Next up, food. I had two bowls of Cheerios and some OJ at the hotel - bam! Then I took another shower - bam bam bam! We all went around and around about what our plan for the day would be and how we would get back to the trail that was now 12 miles away (fully knowing it was supposed to storm at any moment). So, in the tradition of the great thru-hikers before us....we lounged and ate. Basically, we stopped at the gas station to resupply a meal or two and then met Kay and Chris at the laundromat. We sat ouside there for quite a while and were definitely a sight for sore eyes. Michele and I were both typing away on our PocketMails, Sailor was pulling off his clothes to sew buttons back on and Kay was writing in her journal. It wasn't hard to tell we weren't in a hurry. After our leisure time at the laundromat, we headed to Moe's, a local semi-Mexican food restaurant, for lunch outside on their patio. After we had all eaten, Sailor went back inside to buy some cookies. Turns out he was telling some guy in there about what happened and how we were all just trying to figure out how to get back to the trail. This guy dipped his hand in the tip jar and handed Sailor a wad of change (mind you, we don't think he worked there). Sailor said he felt like a thief taking the 80 cents! Anyway, the guy came out a minute later and asked us if he could give us a ride back to the trail. He said he could do it in shifts or he could go home and get his pickup truck and take us all back in that. We opted for the second option since Chris and Kay still had some town chores to do. One hour later, our first trail angel, Greg, was back to pick us up. As we loaded our gear and ourselves in the back of his truck, it started to pour...I mean pour! So, here are five hikers as colorful as Skittles with all of our rain gear, piled in the back of a pickup truck in the pouring rain going 50 MPH down a curvy back road...we pretty much laughed the whole way there. Sailor was definitely making us laugh talking about how his wife says he's crazy and how, yeah, "I guess if you look at me right now, it does look like I make some pretty bad decisions". He is a riot - so simple with such a simple sense of humor. I definitely appreciate that he is out here and is able to laugh with all of us in these crazy situations! So...we're in the rain and Greg drops us off at Woody Gap and only asks that we send him an email when we reach Katahdin - maybe with one photo. Now this was one nice guy! We all took photos with him and then ran into Geek and Co. and told them about all of the action. After that, we were off. We hiked three easy miles to camp today and we'll try to get right outside of Neels Gap tomorrow. We joke that we are on the seven day plan to get there, even though it takes the average hiker four. Ah well, the mileage monster hasn't gotten us yet.This was our first day hiking in the rain but it wasn't bad. Mostly we were all just glad to be back on the trail since we weren't ready to be in town yet anyway. We also lucked out and got to set up camp before the rain picked back up. I can slowly but surely feel myself geting stronger. Michele and I have worked out a nice pace where she leads on the downhills and I lead on the uphills. I think it's been working pretty well so far. We have also decided that going up fatigues your muscles, going down fatigues your joints and being flat just kills your feet. Good times!Hahaha...I am in my tent right now and there's this little frog that is bouncing around the outside walls of my tent. He's hanging off of everything!I better turn in for the night. It's 55 degrees right now and I will go be toasty (hi Ann) in my bag.-Sounds of rain pattering on my tent.Post Trail Thoughts:Looking back, I can't believe I was in such a good mood after we got poured on on the way back to the trail. That would never happen later on! The ride was hilarous though and, to this day, I still wish I'd pulled out my camera to take a picture. It was such an eerie day out there.In typical Certain fashion, she was certain she had found a bear print in the mud when we arrived at our campsite that afternoon. It looked like a blob of nothingness to me but Certain's tall tales cleared room for doubts.