Date: 2004-12-31
From: Springer Mountain, GA

To: Springer Mountain, GA
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: overcast clouds

Zero miles todayTrailhead parking on Springer Mountain, Ga. Ok, I haven't drank any whiskey in a long time and I had 5 drinks last night. I have 20 miles to walk today with a heavy pack on my back. It's heavier than usual because of the extra food we are taking up to Springer with us for New Years Eve. I had my coffee, then I had more coffee because it was so good and as long as I was there drinking coffee, I wasn't walking. Finally Hippie and I couldn't put off this 20 mile hike into Springer any longer. We left Woody Gap just 15 hours after we planned. I knew my backpack was going to be heavy, but this is rediculous!! We got about a half a mile in on the trail and for some reason I asked Hippie if she had the hot chocolate for the Bailey's tonight. I was so glad when she said that she thought I had it. I gave her the keys to the truck and told her I would wait here until she got back. I sat down on a log. She was back way before I was ready, but I got up and continued down the trail...after all, I only had 19.5 miles to go and I had almost 12 hours before midnight. We hiked on and when we got to Gooch Gap, I dropped my pack...I needed food and a nice place to sit. While we were eating, I mentioned that we were doing real good. We hiked 3.5 miles and that means we only have 16.5 miles to go. Let's see, 3.5 miles in 2 hours...hey Hippie, how long does that mean it will take us to walk to Springer??? We both sat there thinking and came to the decision at the same time to walk the 3.5 miles back to the truck and drive to Springer!! We were moving so good that it only took 1 1/2 hours to get back to the truck. Hippie checked out the map and saw that we could take an old Forest Service road all the way to Springer. We drove back down to Suches and bought more ice since we used all the ice last night. We picked up the old back road out of Suches. It was nice because we were the only ones on it. We went about 10 to 15 mph around all the curves and over all the ruts. We didn't realize it was over 20 miles by this back road. About 3/4 of the way there I looked over at Hippie and she looked really tired. I mentioned something about how good a nap would feel. When I saw her think about it and smile I didn't waist any time finding a pull off and parking. We crawled into the back of the truck at 2pm and the next thing I knew, it was 4:30pm. Hippie was still snoring, so I just layed there and watched the birds in the trees. She finally woke up at 5pm...guess she just can't handle her liquor!! It was dinner time and we figured that if we ate now, we wouldn't have to carry that food the .8 miles up to Springer from the parking area. We ate dinner and Hippie said that if we had a hot chocolate with some Bailey's, we would probably feel better...It worked!!! We got to Springer after dark and was in the parking area trying to get our stuff ready to go up to the top for New Years Eve when a truck pulled in. I couldn't see it too well, but I thought I saw some familiar bumper stickers, so I walked over to see. It was Navigator and Ol'Man. It was great seeing them again. They were alot more organized than we were. They were ready to walk up by the time we got ready, so we walked to the top of the mountain catching up on everything that's been going on. We took the side trail to the shelter and I ran into a guy by the name of Joe. He said there were alot of hikers at the shelter, so we finished that .8 mile hike. The first guy I recognized was SloeToe. I said; "Hey, is that you SloeToe??" He said; "Yeh, who's that??" That's the exact exchange of words we had near Blue Mountain in Maine earlier this year when I saw his twin boys rock hop across a stream and I realized who they were. SloeToe was behind them, as usual, trying to keep up with the 10 year olds when I yelled across the stream; "Is that you SloeToe??" Well, we were saying hello to each other when I spotted Pog sitting at the picnic table. She was getting up to give me a hug. Ed Spear was there and then I started meeting everyone. It was hard to recognize anyone in the fire light, but Lone Wolf saw me and came over. It's always good to see him. He said Gypsy couldn't make it tonight. Fubar came over and we talked a while. We met last year somewhere down south, but niether of us could remember where. Torch introduced himself. He was the only one on the mountain that night that just finished a thru hike. He had walked in earlier finishing his sobo hike. Hippie was keeping the Jack Daniels flowing and about 10pm we emptied the bottle. Dang, we shoulda bought the bigger bottle!! Poor SloeToe had to go pee, so I walked out about 10 yards away from him like I had to pee. He kept looking to see what I was up to when the flash went off from my camera...Thanks Sloetoe, I got a great shot for the photo section on my journal!! For $10.00 I'll delete the negative. Ha!!! Hippie sent me after some water from the spring so she could make some hot chocolate and Bailey's. I realized that when I fell down on the way that I had enough to drink!! At least it was dark and no one saw me. Uh oh, I just remembered that my mother reads this...Hi Mom!! Hippie made me do it. Oops, I think Hippie's Mom reads this journal too. The party was sizzling out, so we stumbled...I mean hiked back down to the parking area and went to sleep in the back of the truck. The four inch mattress sounded better than sleeping on the ground.Another great day on the A.T.