Date: 2005-04-22
From: Sam's Gap

To: Sam's Gap
Miles today: 11.2

Sam's Gap11.2 miles (314.2 miles)Trail magic is always a fascinating phenomenon. It is refreshing to see strangers helping strangers. We appreciate it when someone we've never met hands us a cold drink to help us on our personal journey. But there are times when we find ourselves in more serious need, and someone comes along to help. They don't think much about what they are doing, but it really makes a difference to us. That is true magic.For the first time in over a week, it rained last night. I didn't hear it, as I was fast asleep on my wooden platform in the shelter. But as we got going this morning, the skies had mostly cleared. We only had one major climb over our first 9 miles to the next shelter. We were excited, as we finally saw our first orange salemander this morning. I think the rain brought him out. We got to our lunch shelter at about noon. We were planing on meeting JoAnne's sister tomorrow morning 2.5 miles away at Sam's Gap. We wondered if we should hike down to the gap and hitch into Erwin right away, or just stay the night at the shelter. We heard that the weather was changing, and we didn't know what exactly that meant. We thought it might be a long, cold night. And we were also afraid of sitting at the roadside tomorrow morning through whatever weather may be happening at the time. So, we decided to try our luck at getting into Erwin. We heard some thunder in the distance, as we had heard for the last hour. Since the rains seemed to be in the distance for so long, we thought we should go soon before it arrived on us.Of course, as soon as we got over our fist hill, the thunder erupted overhead. So we took off, recording what could be the fastest 2.5 miles in AT history. About a half hour later, we found ourselves at Sam's Gap in a light rain. The trail had been smartly rerouted under the highway here, so we didn't have to do the mad dash across 5 lanes of traffic like we did in '03. Instead we found ourselves at an underpass of US23, trying to figure out how to get a hitch on the road above.We hurried up the embankment to get to the highway. The rain started coming down harder. We finally made it up to the highway, and surveyed the situation. We were at a truck inspection station, which would be a hard place to get the attention of passing motorists. Thunder cracked directly overhead. I was suddenly completely soaked. The rain felt hard, as if it were turning to hail. JoAnne and I jumped the guardrail with our thumbs out. We saw several cars, but they were obstructed by big trucks coming into the inspection station. The rain was coming down very hard now. I looked over at JoAnne for what we should do. We could head back down the embankment to the underpass, but we'd surely be soaked and cold by then. Or we could stay here and hope for the best.I saw a few cars in the distance. I thought as soon as they passed I would get out my raincoat. We stuck out our thumbs, and the third car pulled over to the median between the truck station and the highway. JoAnne and I ran over and threw our packs inside. As we drove down into Tennessee, the rain hit even harder. Our driver put on her flashers and slowed down. She asked JoAnne to fiddle with the defroster. She kept wiping away the windshield to see. After about 15 minutes of slowly driving down the curvy road with little visibility, things cleared up. We all relaxed a little, and began to talk. Our driver was a rafting guide on the Nolicucky River. She had spent the mornig distributing brochures in North Carolina. We thanked her over and over for stopping for us in the horrible weather, but she didn't think much of it. She asked us where we wanted to go, then drove us directly to the Best Southern motel.We spent the afternoon relaxing and recovering in our motel room. Usually our first priority in town is to eat, but we were more interested in staying in our warm, dry room. Instead of the long walk down to Erwin Burrito in the drizzle, we ordered a pizza. We were left with a strange feeling of relief and disbelief of our getting a ride so easily from a stranger in a lightning storm.