Date: 2005-04-18
From: Campsites by concrete dam & pond, NC

To: Little Laurel Shelter, (NC/TN?)
Miles today: 14.7
Weather: few clouds

Day 36, in which Jess does not know whether to ring up John Edwards or Lamar Alexander, accidentally converts two hikers to Christianity, follows a sign on the side of the road advertising "free ice cream this way" and miraculously does not get an anvil dropped on her head by Wile E. Coyote, contemplates mortality while learning how to wipe her ass, uses "caterpillar" as a verb, and finally lies down: A red-letter day in the annals of GLGE: fourteen miles in thirteen hours. Surely not, I hear you gasp, but oh, it¢s true: we¢ve ascended to new echelons of easy-goingness.Hiked with the Gypsy Sisters, Pacman, Linux, CJ, and Serenity in the morning; went up to the Rich Mtn. firetower and stood up looking out over the hills, tracing the trajectory of the trail over the mountains. It¢s remarkable to look out and see where I have come from ¢ and at least a little bit of where I am going. We thought we heard Domino down below, heading in our direction, and we all yelled out, ¢Domino!¢ to no avail ¢ but coming down from the tower we found Freedom and Thatch who asked us if we¢d heard yelling earlier. They were sure they¢d heard voices from atop the firetower yelling ¢Come to Jesus!¢ Whoops.By late afternoon Gypsy, Pacman, Linux, Ranger (who we had somehow acquired during the day) and I were coming down to the Allen Gap road crossing when we stopped dead in our tracks: a sign tacked onto the post at the trailhead announced soup and banana splits and bread to be had at the house just up the road, on April 17th and 18th between sunrise and sunset. A brief conference confirmed that a) it was the 18th and b) the sun was, in fact, still up. We took off up the road and were greeted minutes later by Hercules and FAL, former thru-hikers turned trail angels, and they fed us heartily. Such kindness ¢ thanks, both of you!Walking on, the five of us passed by a cemetery not mentioned in any of our guidebooks, and we detoured off-trail for a few minutes to investigate. Thus a new term was coined: deadblazing: to take a side-trip off-trail to investigate cemeteries, memorials, or other tombs. Just down the road from the cemetery was an old cottage, crumbling and ivy-covered, with old newspapers featuring 1950s wedding announcements inside, and we walked around investigating, and the low light of the sun setting over all the flowers and the old cottage was something extraordinary, especially as set against the counterpoint of Lulu telling us the best technique for wiping when all you have left is a single square of toilet paper.Less than a mile later, we came to a gravel road where we were greeted with our second trail magic in a manner of hours: Nean and Hikin¢ Heidi, two other former thru-hikers now living right near the trail, had opened their house to hikers. CJ, Free, Andy, Serenity, and a handful of other people were all there, and we were showered with Snickers and Little Debbies, and rested a little while. Gypsy wanted to push on to the next shelter, though, to catch Touk, who¢d already gone ahead; I had plenty of energy left for three more miles, after the pace I¢d been going all day, and Ranger and Linux and Pacman wanted to keep going too, so we caterpillared up the trail, sticking close as it got darker. We arrived a little after nine and I did my customary cowboy sprawl on the ground by the shelter. I¢d say I can¢t remember the last time I had this much fun, but yesterday was pretty good.