Date: 2009-04-06
From: Low Gap Shelter

To: Unicoi Gap
Miles today: 9.4
Weather: overcast clouds

Amanda RoseToday we awoke to a much different day than the night before. The temperature had dropped quite a bit and the sky was overcast, but we assumed it would warm up as the moring went on. Boy were we wrong.Maxwell set off before us and we followed an hour or so later. Anticipating cold weather, our goal was to make it to Unicoi Gap - about 9 miles, by early afternoon and hitch a ride to Helen to ride out the storm. We shared our plans with several of the others at the shelter, who considered it upon hearing the latest forecast - but most were determined to stay the night at the Blue Mountain shelter just before Unicoi Gap.Ezra, Liz and I started off together. As Einstein had now taken Ezra into his pack, he walked up with him most of the morning, periodically pausing or running back to check on Liz and I. We had a rather steady climb from Low Gap up 1000 feet to Blue Mountain, except for the last mile which went about 400 feet straight up. So, it was a pretty easy walk most of the morning until we reached Chatahoochie Gap. The mountainside that had been protecting us from the wind gave way to a long ridge toward Blue Mountain adn the icy wind came whipping over, slamming into us like a wall of ice.The next few hours were a constant struggle uphill against the wind as we made our way across the ridge. As we headed up the mountain, the snow flurries turned to sleet, and then tyny pellet sized hail and snow. But we continued to fly up the steep incline, completely out of breath but too cold to stop moving. Even Einstein whined impatiently adn urged us on whenever we paused.We decided it was too cold to stay together adn that we would all just make a beeline for the summit and meet back up at the shelter on top of Blue Mountain. It was every man, woman and dog for themselves. Einstein took off with Ezra, I plugged away as fast as I could a few hundred yards back, and Liz raced on somewhere behind me. For an hour or more we fought on against a frigid wind and stinging pellets of ice in our face. I felt the mousture freeze at the tips of my nostrils.On the way up the hill, we passed Maxwell struggling over a boulder field. Maxwell is an art student, taking a couple of smemesters off to hike the trail. He is having severe problems with his knees from old skateboarding injuries and wears braces on both knees. He can barely wak each morning when he rises, but he straps on the braces, puts on his pack and gets right back on the trail. You can tell its killing him, but he suffers it silently and keeps putting one foot in front of the other, determined to keep going.Ezra, Einstein and I finally hit the peak, where a shelter gave only the slightest respite from the wind. One of teh firefighters we camped with th enight before was already there, and another (named 'Fragile Flower' by his cohorts) arrived shortly. There were 5 firefighters in all who all took a week each year to come up from Tampa and hile a 50 mile section of the trail.After Liz arrived at the shelter, we quickly took off for Unicoi Gap, which was about 1200 feet down over a 2 mile decline. We moved quickly and didn't look back.At Unicoi Gap, we tried to hitch a ride for a half hour or so, to no avail. Then suddenly, and seemingly out of nowhere, a woman and her daughter came rujnning across the road toward us. The girl asked if she could pet Einstein and the woman asked if we needed a ride. She had an Expedition and could take all of us - packs, dog and all - if we were willing to wait 10 minutes for them to hike up the mountain. We knew they either weren't hiking the mountain or it would take much longer than 10 minutes, but we were overjoyed for the ride.A couple of minutes later the two came back down the mountain with Maxwell, to whom they had also offered a ride. The girl, Amanda Rose, insisted on rideing in the back seat with Einstein, who immediately fell asleep on her lap. The woman, Linda, worked at IBM in Atlanta and had brought Amanda to their timeshare in Helen for the week. Mistakenly thinki9ng they were going camping, Amanda Rose wanted to go hiking, thus the shortlived trip up to Unicoi Gap and Blue Mountain - which no longer interested her once she saw Einstein and this crazy group of hikers.As Linda tried to make polite conversation about who we were and where we were from (and she had some kind of connection to each of our hometowns), Amanda Rose talked our ears off about Grandma Rose (her namesake), their departed and beloved dog, her brother's college football team, teh age of the appalachians and nearly everything she had learned in 3rd grade last year. She reminded me of the boy in Jerry McGuire. Linda and Amanda Rose were both great and the ride down into helen was very entertaining. We were all very grateful.Ezra, Liz and I met up with Ten Sticks, who took a shuttle from Neels Gap, and all checked into one room at the Super 8 - where we also found Muscles, Julio and Patience Jr, all who had hitched a ride from Hogpen Gap the day before. We also ran into In The Wind, a woman construction worker also thru-hiking with us. After showers, we all went to a mexican restaraunt to celebrate Ten Sticks Birthday with large amounts of food and margaritas. In The Wind snuck off and paid the bill while no one was looking and refused money from any of us. Another welcome act of Trail Magic.To top it all off, we stopped by a gas station on the walk back and got several pints of Ben and Jerrys to share. Best ice cream I ever had!