Date: 2023-06-25
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Miles today: 9.4

What a day!  First of all a quick backstory. The Appalachian Trail is known for it¢s trail culture.  This includes something known as ¢trail magic¢ which includes ¢Trail Angels¢. These are people who wait at road crossings to give food, drinks and goodies to AT hikers. After a gorgeous morning of hiking through towering pine trees along a crystal clear creek we stopped for lunch along a forest service road. The kids were struggling and we still had 6-7 miles to hike after lunch to make it to the next shelter. It was going to be rough. After lunch and a quick nap lying in the dirt we hiked a couple more miles and then met Max Forester, our first ¢trail angel¢.We came off a steep mountain into a gap or low spot next to another forest service dirt road. There was Max calling out to us. We just took him for a jolly older man out for a picnic and then he told us this setup was for us!  We had read about trail magic but I was taken back to actually experience it. Erin and Scout got camp chairs to sit in and we all got cold waters (that we didn¢t have to filter or carry) and the kids got air heads and tootsie pops. My favorite part was he made the kids say ¢please¢ and ¢thank you¢ but in a fun and silly way that reminded them about manners. He kept saying, ¢we may be living in the woods but we¢re NOT savages¢ and then let out a boisterous laugh. He was a character, and he took our minds off the struggles of hiking. He also served the ladies first every time and he took our trash, which is a big deal when you¢re thru hiking as it adds up quick for a family of 6. Such small gestures of kindness have a huge impact when you¢re exhausted, dirty, hungry, thirsty and carrying a huge pack.After more chatting more and getting to know us Max offered to ¢slack pack¢ for us. Meaning he¢d take all of our packs and drive them to the next road crossing while we hiked a really tough section pack free. We were thrilled. Funny note here; I realize that we met a stranger in the woods, let him give our kids candy and then handed him ALL of our earthly processions. Life just works differently on the trail I suppose :)Just as we said our goodbye to hike, Erin noticed his phone buzzed with a thunderstorm warning signal but we didn¢t think much of it. We practically ran up the steep mountain feeling weightless with no packs and made it to the top in 40 min or so. We noticed the weather had changed, the air was heavy and still and the skies looked dark in the distance. We had reception up on the mountain and I checked radar. There was an enormous storm headed our way and it looked fast. By the time we reached the bottom Max was there.  He said ¢We have a bit of a situation¢. He showed us his radar app and said ¢I don¢t think I should leave you here.¢Immediately a thunderclap overhead rang out and a gusty wind started bending the tree tops. Max said if we¢d let him. He would drive us to a hostel in town. Erin and I looked at the sky, looked at each other and said ¢YES¢. Somehow we got 7 people and 6 giant packs into a small car in about 60 seconds as the storm showed up in full force. Driving the next 20 min down that first road felt like an Indiana Jones movie as tree limbs crashed all around us and even on the car. An entire tree came down once and we barely made it by. Max told us he had been praying God would send someone whom he could help today and decided to drive the hour and a half to the trail to just see what happened. Our first trail Angel turned out to be a true Godsend. God knew we needed help when we didn¢t!Now we¢re in a warm, dry hostel full of wonderful hikers. It¢s the same hostel we had booked for tomorrow night so we plan to leave our packs here tomorrow, slack pack all day and make up the miles we missed and then stay again tomorrow night as planned. It wasn¢t the plan, but we¢re learning to be flexible and accept help. I¢m realizing no one really hikes the AT on their own, we all have receive help in different ways.