Date: 2016-04-14
From: Top of Georgia Hostel

To: Muskrat Creek Shelter 
Miles today: 12.0
Weather: light rain

4/14 - Day NineWow! What a day. It started at 7 am when my alarm went off at the hostel. In a moment the sunrise scramble was in full force as hikers packed their kits with resupply goods and fresh laundry. The first shuttle to the heady left at 8. I took my time as my laundry was floating around somewhere. Andy was nice enough to let me throw a few things in with his stuff since the maximum "load" is 5 pounds of grungy hiker wear.So by the time I packed the food I bought at Ingles into my pack and chased down laundry it was 10 am and the last shuttle was leaving. I weighed my pack as I got on the shuttle and it was 33 pounds. Big Deal (who was on the shuttle) joked that the next resupply we should fill individual carts and then at check out scuttle one. We all over supplied. In the end I tossed a full jar of PB&J into the hiker box. The damn jar weighed 1.5 pounds. What was I thinking?Andy was in the shuttle, but hardly ready for the trail. The hostel vortex had grabbed him and he was thinking of pulling a zero. The hostel vortex sucks hikers in with hot coffee, electricity, running water and a unlimited supply of VCR movies. Now I know where all the old VCRs are!!!On the shuttle was Andy, Big Deal, Janett and her dog, a guy from Alaska and his super cool husky, Tracie and a few others.Tracie's boyfriend Odie thru-hiked in 2013 and is now making AT yearbooks. He is following the bubble in a school bus promoting this cool idea. Check out hikeryearbook.comSo when we got to the heady I was feeling the Hiawassee Resupply Blues. Tracie, Janett and Deal bolted ahead of me. They are fast!This left me alone for the morning. That's when I realized I lost today's page the I ripped from AWOLs guide. Tearing the page out of the book makes it easier to find... Until you lose it. So I hiked blind most the day until I caught up with Big Deal and Janett having lunch. There I soaked in as much Intel as possible and discovered Bly Gap and the NC border was just four miles away. Piece of cake.After yo-yoing with a group of section hikers all day I started to run low on water. I knew the NC border was close and I wanted to arrive there with someone to take a picture. But that was not going to happen. I ran out of water and had to scrounge some mountain sludge from a seep. My Sawyer Mini Squeeze was put to the test as this water was nasty. I drank a bottle of it and chilled for a moment. I started hiking and discovered Bly Gap and the NC border was less than 200 yards away followed by the Bly Gap camp site.... With a clear stream!!!But as luck would have it here comes Feel Good and a girl from NH named Pending. We took each other's pictures at the border sign and refilled dirty water bottles with clean Bly Gap water. Pending pitched her tent and said she was done. Feel Good and I had other plans...,Muskrat Creek Shelter, about three miles up the trail.Now Feel Good is a 25 year old kid and, since I was still hiking with limited Intel, told me that the climb out of Bly Gap was a "double bitch". And he was right!!!! Halfway up his hiking pal Magic Man comes running up the mountain. Literally running up the mountain. He stayed back at hostel waiting on a package which evidently came in. He also bought a Purple Rain hiker skirts. I don't know what a little ventilation down there does but he was out of sight in no time. Just imagine a dude wearing a hiking skirt and carrying a eukele kicking your ass. (Note... Magic Man and Feel Good's combined age equals my age so I have an excuse).So I finally made it to Muskrat Creek Shelter! There was a big crowd, most of the hikers from the hostel were there. The shelter was sold out..so I am typing this from my tent (first time I set it up on my journey).As I was approaching the shelter about a half mile out I noticed atv tracks on the AT and a spot where something evidently slid off the trail. When I got to the shelter, Tracie told me there was a big rescue today. I hiker had went off the deep end and was lost for three days. The rescue team came up on atvs and one fell off the trail at the spot I noticed. They finally found the hiker and took him down in a stokes basket on the atv.So here is the wacky part. After the rescue team found the hiker they came to the Muskrat Creek Shelter. This hiker that stayed in the bunk next to me in the hostel last night decided to call it quits because he was low on Pepsi so he paid the rescue guys money for the 15 mile atv ride out of here. I knew this cat was an odd one when at the hostel last night he was going through his "medical kit" and asked me if I wanted a self suture kit ,... You know, in case you get cut and you have to sew yourself up. I declined. For being in the middle of nowhere there sure is never a dull moment.