Date: 2016-06-01
From: Unichoi Gap

To: Atlanta 
Miles today: 4.4

Later in the afternoon I will get picked up by my friends in Atlanta to spend one last weekend with them before I'm out of range. While these breaks do interrupt my progress it allows me to adjust my gear very easily, I have left a lot of gear in Atlanta and have another pile of stuff set aside to dump this time. After a busy day in town yesterday, we all headed to the country store this morning for a shuttle ride back to the trail head. We got to the trail head around 10:45 after spending some time talking to some locals in town. Talking to the locals is one of my favorite things to do, heard some great stories today about the man who made all the AT plaques in Georgia. He made them after completing a thru hiker but was apparently a real character who repaired chainsaws and was known for putting "whimpy saws" out their misery by putting a few rounds into them. The day was supposed to involve two big climbs first up Rocky Mountain and then Tray Mountain both are 1100'+ with a similar decent between. I only plan to do 4.4 miles up to Tray Gap halfway up Tray where I was going to get picked up this evening. It was a rough start with the mid heat and humidity really slowing us all down but we made it up Rocky. After stopping for lunch at Indian Grave Gap we headed up Tray with the sound of thunder in the distance we decided to put pack covers on (there is only a 20% chance of rain today). We made it up the to the Cheese Factory site just as it started sprinkling, as we got to Tray Gap it started pouring and I quickly waved to the family from Arkansas as they decided to make a dash for Tray shelter 1.3 ahead. I threw up my hammock fly only getting the center lines up before the sky just opened up with huge drops and almost zero visibility. I crouched under the fly as the rain just pounded down, looking out at the road for the first time I noticed that it was dirt not gravel like I expected and became skeptical that anyone I knew would have a vehicle to make it up there to pick me up today. I had good enough signal to pull up radar and realized it wasn't going to be a quick shower. After a few minutes I decided to try and make the situation a little better and reached out, dragged my pack under the fly to pull out my rain gear. Just as I got it an off-roader in a jeep pulled into the parking area to secure his soft top the rest of the way. He asked if I knew for sure which fork lead down the mountain, I told him I had no idea and asked him if there was anyway he could get me back to the main road. He said sure and I quickly rounded up my soaking wet gear and threw it in the back. It's a good thing I was able to grab the lift down the mountain because the road had really taken a beating with lots of craters and washed out areas it wasn't until we got to the Indian Grave Gap area that the road improved. Even after that there was still areas that were really rutted and right before we got to the main road there was a river raging across the road about 10' wide and probably 1.5-2' deep luckily the big Jeep had no problem. I knew that I definitely would have been stuck with out the lift so big thanks to the Jeep driver and his family who picked me up, sorry I didn't catch your name but definitely Trail Magic Flagging down an off-roader in the middle of nowhere on a Wednesday. As we got to the main road and turned to head back towards Helen the rain finally let up.After getting dropped off in Helen I stuffed my soaked fly into a dry sack and packed everything up heading over to pizza shop to wait. Got picked up by John and got a ride into Atlanta for the weekend. Also I was looking at the camp shoes that family from Arkansas had they're actually Sperry Top-Sider water shoes, I really like them lighter than my sandals and since they're closed toe they can be used on trail in a pinch. I'm going to look at getting a pair while I'm in town. Also heard today that Scott and Ben finished the Georgia section, congrats guys have a safe drive home.