Date: 2008-11-17
From: Dicks Creek Gap/hiawasee, GA

To: Unicoy Gap
Miles today: 16.0
Weather: clear sky

I saw Thinkers twin on the trail, I swear!! We were about done with our hike for the day and there was a group of 4 male southbounders coming towards us(the first group of southbounders i have seen since like 3 years ago, well i guess since the week or so i've been back on the trail) as the first one came towards us, I was miliseconds away from shouting "Thinker!! What are you doing on the trail" but glad i didnt cause it wasnt him (you know those akward situations when you think you know someone shout at them and then have to pretend you have tourretts syndrom as it seems you have just loudy blurted out something seemingly really random and they look at you like your crazy, dont pretend you havent done this cause i know you have...), but seriously he looked so much like him i still was questioning who this guy was after i passed him. THen the last of the four also looked so familiar to me that as i passed i was racking my brain to figure out who this was, as i had just passed him, he turned around and was like, shelter monkey?? shocked i turned around and then it hit me i had passed him when i was in Vermont, he was heading south as southbounders do and i was in my northbound portion of my hike. we had chatted for a little while as he was from California and had done the pct out there on the west coast. it was great to see him again and so great that now at this point we are both just inches away from finishing! so hopefully we will be running into more southbounders these last few days as people are trying to summit springer mt the final weekend before thanksgiving! Well back to the begining of the day...we had heard that they were expecting snow and cold temps up in the mts today, so we decided to slackpack and come back to the same hotel tonight. and hey before you give me a hard time about this, remember i have been in winter low temps of around 45-50 degrees this past 2 or 3 years in CA, so i think im doing good being in these temps with highs in the 40's during day and lows in the teens or 20's at night...i'm turning into frosty. the sun was out for the first time in almost a week, seriously. so i was really happy to see blue skies and sun, had some great views of the surrounding mts. all of the leaves have fallen off the trees and are brown and all over the ground. so it doesnt seem to be as beautiful as it was in the height of the fall with all the colors, but there is a great part to this, since there are no leaves on the trees, you can actually see through the trees and have views most of the day. also as the leaves now cover the trail, you never know what is under them, you get some fun suprises like rocks you cant seen, acorns to slide around on, or even some animal scatt...you just never know, watching peopel hike in front of you is also entertaining b/c of this, as they seem to be walking fine and then suddenly seem to be having trouble controling all their limbs as they flail around trying to regain balance, having just stepped on one of the surprises. it is also suprisingly loud at times as all you can hear are the leaves crunching under your feet, then you get a tiny section with no leaves and it is like someone pushes the mute button as suddenly it is silent again and until you step back into more leaves. I walked up behind some older men on the trail today as i was finishing the last 1000ft climb of the day, hauling booty up the hill one older man stops me in shock of how fast i was walking and asks me questions about my hike, i think i really confused him as i was walking north today, but saying i was going south to springer mt, as i tried hard to explain i think i started speaking in a different language and so by the end really had him confused, i am amazed by them though b/c they dont have to be out there in the cold walking around and choose to, oh you crazy people who love winter!! so by 1:30pm had finished our 16 miles and were back on our way to hiawasee to get warm again. right before the end we found some more rodadendren tunnels to walk downhill through. great day of hiking up and down these north GA mts, i am just a short 50 miles from the end!!! can you believe it?????