Date: 2009-04-29
From: Hogback Ridge Shelter

To: Spivey Gap
Miles today: 15.8
Weather: light rain

It's amazing how the unexpected happens out here on the trail. I listened to a song once that stated "freedom is simply another perspective away." I couldn't agree more. Yesterday was hard for us mentally. We realized that we were too focused on beating the rain..thinking about the next town and so forth. But we know that's not what we're here to do. So we went a very slow 7 something miles, stopped at the first shelter we came to and rested, spent time in the Word and in prayer, and enjoyed the rest of our day. This morning we both woke up refreshed and revived! After a leisurely breakfast we set out with a few others to Sams Gap. Sparky and Morning Glory had told us to be there by 10am for some trail magic. We arrived just behind Flatlander at 9:15am. Sparky and Morning Glory were already ther cooking up burgers and brats. What a morning already! Everyone was ecstatic about the trail magic and swarms of thru-hikers started coming in like hungry pigs. Berry had a hamburger, apple, two bags of chips and a coke. I had a brat, hamburger, chips, apple and soda. We did all that before 10am! It was great to see Morning Glory and Sparky again and everyone was thankful for their service.As we were leaving, Morning Glory invited us over to his house for the evening. He had heard that we loved the show LOST and wanted to give us an opportunity to catch up on episodes and watch it tonight. It was an offer we couldn't refuse! We planned to meet him at Spivey Gap along with other hikers that he had planned to shuttle to Erwin.The rest of our hike was wonderful. From Sams Gap we had a hard climb up to Big Bald. Even though todays climbs were harder than the past couple of days, our day was fun and we enjoyed it, especially climbing big bald. It was beautiful on top of the bald- 360 views from 5500 feet. On top of the bald we celebrated and took pictures with Long Legs and Sassy Sunshine, Mama Lama and Juice, Flatlander, Seneca and Alan. Storm clouds were rolling in and it was getting very dark up there so we took off after about 30 minutes. We made it to a shelter just in time for a short burst of rain and hail. Once it cleared up we headed out and had no rain the rest of the day. We linked up with Flatlander and we walked into Spivey Gap together. As we neared Spivey we heard Otter yelling at us! He has been trying to catch up with us since Hot Springs. There was a miscommunication and he thought we had zero'd in Hot Springs last Sunday too, so he did a 5 mile day waiting on us to catch up... but we were actually 18 miles ahead because we didn't zero that day. Anyway, he managed to make it to Sams Gap by mid afternoon and talked with Morning Glory and Sparky and they told him we were there that morning. So he drove with Morning Glory to meet us and to get a room with Flatlander.After Morning Glory picked us up we dropped off some hikers and headed to his house. Berry and I were so blessed to be there. He and his wife, Shannon, and there 5 children made us feel right at home. They had a great guestroom in the basement wth it's own bathroom/shower. After cleaning up and doing some laundry Sparky and his wife, Dawn, came over and joined us for a BBQ dinner. The food was perfect in every way, everything a hiker could want: Grilled BBQ pork, hashbrown caserole, seasoned green beans, baked apples, croissants and home-made peanutbutter pie! After dinner we watched LOST then said goodnight to Sparky and Dawn.There just aren't any words to express how humbled and appreciative we are for there hospitality. What a day!