Date: 2008-06-28
From: Unicoi Gap

To: Hogpen Gap
Miles today: 14.0
Weather: scattered clouds

The trail today was mostly unremarkable, except maybe for the poison ivy. If Georgia could find a way to make poison ivy a cash crop they would have it made. I think the best part of the day were the conversations, but that is true of many days.Our first interaction was a little odd. We were hiking along and heard a very strange sound. It really upset Roo and she went into full alert/hunter mode. Immediately after I heard voices. There appeared to be hikers ahead of us. Moving forward a little we met an older gentleman and two young adults. I thought they were twenty-somethings, Owl thought they were teenagers... something like that anyway. The older guy had jingle bells, often used as 'bear bells' to alert a bear of your approach, on his pack. We tried to have a conversation with them but Roo was still so upset it just wasn't possible. She's met many hikers on the trail but never any that made noises like that and she wasn't sure she liked it. All I got out of our interaction was that they were making noises to scare off the bears. I hadn't seen any sign of bears yet this morning, but I was pretty sure they were going to scare off any hikers they met.After that we met a nice gentleman who was section hiking to Springer. Then two young men who I ran into again in the afternoon at the Outfitter¢s in Neel's Gap. We came face to face in an isle and stopped for a second to register and at the same time said 'hey, I saw you in the woods today!' Only on the trail.Next, I'm walking along thinking how strange it is that I'm not seeing any day hikers. It is a beautiful Saturday. But then I thought, it's not a very interesting part of the trail, no picturesque sights. Just as I thought that (no kidding!) I look up and see this young man standing in the trail ahead of me holding this huge camera. He's about college age, well dressed though in cotton clothes.He says to me "Do you know where the Appalachian Trail begins?"I was a little stumped. Is this a trick question? He was actually standing right next to a tree with a white blaze on it. Was he kidding? Was this a test? Was I on candid camera?"Well...it begins at Springer mountain. But if you are looking for it here...you're on it. See the white blaze. How did you get here?""mummble mummble mummble campground"Granted, he might have been a little embarrassed at this point.He turned and walked up the trail in front of us into a clearing. When we entered the clearing I saw a blue blazed trail. Feeling a little responsible for his safety, I asked if that is where he came from. He said yes.I pointed at a third trail leaving the clearing and said "That is the AT heading north to Maine, and that is going south to Springer."He then asked if the north trail lead to Unicoi Gap, I told him yes, about three miles away.At this point I thought it was time for us to move on. Enough of that conversation.Walking along a little baffled by that conversation I came upon a couple, two guys. Turned out to be a father and son team, Meat Hook and Rusty Rat from Nova Scotia. They had been hiking south from Connecticut and had heard about the four ladies and a dog hiking in front of them for months. They are making amazing time and will definitely finish before us. Nice guys. Hopefully we will see them again on their northern flip.And finally, making our way up our final mountain, I think it was Blue Mountain, we came upon a family hiking together, Mom, Dad and their young son. I stopped and chatted with the Mom for awhile, then moved up the trail. As I was passing the Dad I saw he was wearing a UK hat. Turns out they live in Tennessee at Cumberland Gap, but he grew up in Lexington. Funny how you can meet a complete stranger in the woods, but feel like you have a connection because you grew up near each other. Or maybe it was just that Wildcat hat. :o)Owl, Roo and I completed our slackpack by 1:00 and drove to Hogpen Gap to pick up Tigger and Soaring. Since we weren't far away we decided to drive over to Helen, Georgia and check it out. I'm not sure it was a great idea on a Saturday. We just got stuck in a line of cars inching through town. Cute place, but really looked like a tourist trap. We were happy not to get out of the car.On the way back to Vogel we made a quick stop into the outfitters at Walasi-yi to pick up our final drop box. Then back to the campground.Owl and I were in charge of dinner tonight. We made kabobs on the grill, which were delicious. But anymore anything tastes great, so I'm probably not a good judge.We got everything cleared up from dinner and crawled into our tents just in time for the sky to open up and thunder and lightening to roll in. I love sleeping in a tent in the rain.   tent that doesn't leak that is (ours doesn't). AND especially when I know the next morning I do not have to pack the wet tent up into my backpack and carry it on my back. So....this is a nice rain. I just hope it stops by morning.Rabbit, Owl and RooJoshua 1:9