Date: 2003-03-07
From: Tray Mtn Shelter

To: Dicks Creek Gap
Miles today: 10.6
Weather: scattered clouds

Basically I didn;t wanna get up this mornin. It was pretty cold-in the 20's . Braveheart was gone by 7am as always. The 3 other guys left early too. Bonedancer left pretty early as well. I've spent a couple nights with him. Hes a skinny kid about my age who hikes with a banjo. It weighs about 7 lbs with case. Hes treated us to some night music a couple of times. Grunt, Dimples and I were lazy and stayed in the bag a little longer. It is hard to pack up when its so cold-especially after a 15 miler. I neglected to cook breakfast and decided on poptarts as an alternative. Todays hike consisted of the same crew as yesterday-Ray, Dimples, Grunt and I. It turned into another gorgeous day. The temps climbed steadily and we had to de-layer. By 1030 we had all cranked out 4 miles and were feeling pretty good. We leapfrogged Pat for awhile who still has no trailname. She is sending Carly, her dog home in town-Shes been a good watch dog against bears at night.    We all flow pretty well together. We push on the uphills, fly going down. -but still all appreciate some sitdown time, with breaks for food and water. I've been making a conscience effort to drink more water. I've felt dehydrated at night.    We descended down to Addis Gap and decided to skip the water. it was half a mile downhill. We all started the slow climb up kelly Knob. It was probably the longest one yet, but not horrible. We skipped going to Deep Gap shelter since its a quarter mile off the Trail, but did have lunch at the turn off. We all felt the pull of town and started movin'. About 3 miles from the road we met a guy doing a study on thru-hikers. He gave us a questionare which took 45 minutes to answer. He said hes gonna try to find us in Maine and seen how we've changed. I thought it woulda be kinda cool to see myself in a book one day. The last 2 miles were straight downhill. Really did a number on our feet and knees. I think we all have blisters. When we got to the gap a hiker was unsuccessfully trying to hitch a ride. The guy is trying to hike the Trail in 3 months. 24 miles a day-sounds horrible to me. Underpants came thru and there was now 6 of us trying to get a ride. Many happy Georgians in pick-up trucks passed and waved as we desperately sat there roadside for 30 mins. Finally our angel landed. An older guy in a truck picked all 6 of us up and we sat in the back of his pickup with the wind whipping us at 60 mph. Dimples took some pictures of us as we shot down the hilly roads. We got dropped off at Mulls Motel, because thats where Subman and Pringles were supposed to be. No sign of them. The woman in the motel office was about 112 years old and the heat was set on about 90 degrees. We all shot each other this look like 'this place blows' and decided to split a room 4 ways at the plush Holiday Inn. The 4 of us did laundry, showered, called home and went to Daniels Steakhouse-AYCE. we've been talking about this place for awhile. I can safely say it was worth it. I had chicken, shrimp, salad, veggies, desert and about 6 glasses of sweet tea. They all made me try sweet tea, the yankee i am. Well it was sweet alright. We ran into Subman and Pringles and had a big reunion in the parking lot. We also ran into OX, who was a thru-hiker in 97' who stayed the night with us at hawk mtn. He had just payed for some hikers dinners. A little late!    We were all very full and satisfied and decided to go grocery shopping. Dimples and I set out on the town to Ingles supermarket. Not many people buying food at 10pm on friday night in Hiawassee. We had a fun time staring at everything and debating weights, costs, packability and all that. We ran into Squirt and Redstreak there who we've run into before.       Its so amazing the bonds you build with other hikers. Once you've met someone more than once you feel like you know them so well and can relate to everything. Each person adds a little something to the trip and i've the diverse people ive met. Seems some of the hikers my age keep to themselves and are anti-social, trying to do big miles. I've felt at ease with many of the older folks. Of course ive been with Grunt whos 21 and Dimples who is 25. We're getting back on the Trail tomorrow and will make it only 4 miles. Then we hit NC! life is good!