Date: 2018-03-22
From: Muskrat 

To: Deep Gap
Miles today: 4.0
Weather: clear sky

I Started the day with full intent of making it to Winding Stair Gap (25 miles) in two days, even if it killed me.  The snow from the previous day clung to the tree branches as thick ice crystals that made the scene look like a Christmas fairytale. The natural beauty of it all literally took my breath away as clear blue skies welcomed the day.The only food I had was the kind that has to be cooked (dry noodles and rice), and my stove is missing. I'm not the type to make accusations, but yes, it was stolen at the hostel. There's no other way it could have come up missing unless someone "accidentally" reached up to the top bunk and "mistakenly" placed it into their pack while I was out of the room. It was fitted tightly into a bright orange nylon stuff sack with my phone number and a flying WV symbol written on it with permanent marker. The sack also contained a titanium spoon and a dark green collapsable coffee cup. So, If anyone in my hiking bubble sees a nice Jetboil stove out there with a rare green forest print cozy, tell them I surely appreciate their kindness in taking care of it for me, and if so inclined, they can text me at the number marked, and I will give them an address to which they can return the item to me when they are finished with it...no reprimands and no questions asked whatsoever. Complete forgiveness.The morning was very beautiful and the hiking pleasant. I passed a Ranger who asked me how I was doing. I told him I was here, but had a rough night. His reply, "Well, you know what they say; If you made it through Georgia, you can make it to Maine."  I followed a black Santa with a red stocking cap using a decorated holiday staff for a hiking stick, down into Deep Gap, at the terminus of a dirt forest service road. I dropped my pack to take a rest by a huge tree across from where Black Sants and his partner sat. After a pause, I looked up the steep incline of the onward trail. The climb would be to Standing Indian Mountain at nearly 5,500 feet in elevation. My mind entered calculating mode and I had several concerns.  First, I have two or three days hiking ahead before civilization, much of it above 5000 feet. Second, The forecast is for more rain, snow, ice, wind, and bad weather in general.  Third, I have no way to cook the dehydrated food I have. Fourth, even if I wanted to exit the trail here, there is no cell phone service to contact a ride. How am I going to pull this off? So, as Black Santa set out into a nearby wooded area, cat-hole trowel and toilet paper in hand, I decided to filter some water at a nearby stream, eat my last dry tortilla (I mistakenly brought the kind that supposed to be cooked) with my last few pepperoni slices, and sat under the tree to mull things over.Within a few moments a van showed up. It was driven by a trail club volunteer who was offering free rides into the town of Franklin. I seized the opportunity, and on the long road out of the hollow, the driver picked up two hikers recently graduated from high-school.  A little further on, an attractive middle aged woman hiking alone got into the van.On the drive into town, the woman hiker told all about her Swedish made hiking skirt, the scholarly endeavors of herself and her Italian professor husband, about her hiking journeys through the Alps, and about her pending move to Tuscany. It was all quite interesting and I thought how nice it must be to live suckling on the sweet teet of elite academia.The driver dropped me and the worldly lady off at a cheap hotel. After I offered the driver a donation, the default gentleman in me offered to take the lady¢s pack out of the back of the van for her, a gesture she seemed most ungrateful for. At the front desk, the woman made it absolutely, abundantly clear to the clerk that ¢He and I are not together in any way.¢   My jaw dropped realizing that she thought, since I lifted her pack out of the van for her, that this smelly old unshaven hiker from West-By-God Virginia wearing a cheap silver wedding band from Walmart Mart, must have the intention hitting on her.  It seemed her perception was that I was weakened by the temptation of her international charm.  Indeed she thought that I must certainly be contemplating sharing a room.  I confirmed to both her and the clerk that we certainly were not together, that she was far too old for my taste, and that I would be lodging alone.And with that, Thru-Hiker #846 turned into a Section-Hiker.