Date: 2009-03-20
From: Dick's Creek Gap 

To: Bly Gap, NORTH CAROLINA!! 
Miles today: 8.9
Weather: clear sky

Cell GoodOG Notes: Last night was excellent for sleeping in a bed with our sleeping bags as covers. Clothes washed and our bodies showered. I slept great and was well rested. We were hosted by two beautiful people Gary and Lennie Poteat, they host hikers for a short time each hiking year. This is a mission to pass along the wonderful part of Gods love. Thank you Gary and Lennie.Gary dropped us off at the trailhead about 9:45 am and we started up the trail. Up we climbed for 3 miles 1100 feet, we probably go one mph uphill so we climbed 3 hours. Once we reached the top we started down the other side. We then reached the Plumorchard Shelter where we stopped for lunch, it was nice to sit at a picnic bench to eat. Today was fairly warm so we were able to eat without freezing. After we finished lunch we started heading for North Carolina. Yup we are now in North Carolina and Georgia is in our rear view mirror, okay we don't have mirrors on our heads, you know what I mean. Some of you are thinking South Carolina is between Georgia and North Carolina. That is true along the coast but SC doesn't go as far west as GA and NC. We're camped out just over the state line, we could walk back into Georgia as it is only 1 mile away but why would we do that we are heading north and not looking back. We will soon be walking the NC Tenn border. Our left foot will be in TN and our right in NC. We'll cross back and forth for a few weeks. It may be hard to follow. We'll try to say which state we're in as we write the journal.C6 Notes - What a glorious day. Gary and Lennie Poteat are so kind and generous with their hearts and souls. Their hostel is a ministry to hikers. They operate by donations given, and they give so much to those who stay at the Blueberry Patch Hostel. Breakfast this morning was delicious, so we started our day filled with their blessing, good food to sustain us, and warm hearts.The hostel was nearly full last night. We enjoyed seeing Sue again (a girl who was in a bunk in our room at The Hiker Hostel before we started our hike). We also met the two people she's hiking with - Jason (I think he said he doesn't have a trail name yet), and Michelle...aka "Lil' Cricket." Floater was there, too, and late in the evening William, Chad, and Clay arrived. We met William at Tray Mtn Shelter. He, Chad, and Clay are college students who are hiking the Georgia part of the AT while on Spring break this week. They hope to finish the rest of the AT this summer after school ends on May 1st. We hiked to the Plumorchard Shelter to check it out. (Three floors!!!!) When we got to the shelter sign, we were excited to see a note addressed to us (and about 4 other folks) inviting us down the hill to the shelter to visit Dan (now called "Stretch") and Brian (now called "Tin Man") whom we had met at The Hiker Hostel before we started our hike.It was fun to see a note with our names on it. We ate our lunch at the shelter while chatting with them. They had an easy day planned today, so decided to hang out at the shelter until the afternoon. We then moved on to where we are camped tonight. Not too long after we put up our tent, Dan and Brian came by and came over to where we were. They are terrific young men, and I look forward to hearing of their success with their thru hike. We have enjoyed talking about Philmont with them.Sue came by a couple minutes after Dan and Brian went on their way, and we enjoyed a few minutes with her, too. We were so surprised when Floater arrived at the campsite later this evening. We thought he probably would stay at the Plumorchard Shelter, but love the fact that he made it here. He's such fun to be with!We met some new folks here - "Gater 65," "Bison," and "Flying Scotsman" (we met Flying Scotsman briefly at Pirate's Hostel). Gater 65 retired from the Navy, and Bison retired from the Air Force, so Flying Scotsman heard a lot of military reminiscing this evening. It has been a fun evening (but so far nearly every evening has been fun!!). I'm hearing others come into the campsite as I type this, so it will be interesting to see who else is here when we get up tomorrow. (Especially to find out who is here with a dog - I hear dog tags jangling.) We've met 3 hikers with dogs so far.Supposed to be a cold night tonight...in the 20's. But dry. The past three days have been wonderful hiking weather - sunny and cool. Too cold to stand still without a jacket, but perfect to hike in. We are getting stonger. We beathe hard uphill, but go back to normal breathing very quickly as soon as we are on level ground or stop hiking. That's so nice. We are still slow going uphill, but pretty quick downhill and when it's flat. We are enjoying feeling physically stronger. We're not completely up to our top shape yet, but in such better shape than when we started!My pack weighs about 30 pounds. I think I'll be sending a few small things home when we take our first zero (no hiking) day in Franklin. I'd like to lighten my pack some if I can. Unfortunately, there are many things I'm not willing to do without until we are out of the possibility of cold nights.I remember the things OG sent home to lighten his pack. They seemed trivial and I laughed at some of the things he sent home because it didn't seem as if they would lighten his pack by much. Now I understand why he sent them home. Old Goat & Check Six