Date: 2016-05-30
From: Wolf laurel Gap

To: Unichoi Gap
Miles today: 17.6

I want to start off by saying thank you to all the service members who have given their lives protecting our freedom. I Did 17.6 today including a brutal final 4, but made it to a hotel and good in Helen look for a barrage of posts tomorrow. Thank you everyone for all the guest book posts.Had a long hard day, it feels good to know that I could push myself so hard, did 17.6 miles lots of elevations at the beginning and the end. Struck out for finding water in the morning, so I started the day in conservation mode summering Cowrock and Wildcat before finally getting water out of trickle of a stream at Hog Pen Gap. It took me half an hour to filter 3 liters because the stream was so low. I pushed on over Poor mountain and Sheep Rock Top, stopping for a long break at Low Gap Shelter. Low Gap had a great stream where I stocked up on water and soaked my feet. My left calf is getting a little sore I think it's a combination of breaking in the new shoe inserts and a little dehydration from this morning it's very hot out. I also have a small blister on the upper inside part of my right big toe. I took time at Low Gap to clean my feet, swap insoles back, put moleskin on the blister and powder my feet and shoes. I also talked for a little while to a family from Arkansas that I've been hopping with since I meet them on Big Cedar Mountain, 2 of them are hoping to do the whole trail in 60 days. Shortly after Low Gap the trail joins an old dirt road for about 5 miles. This was really nice walking even though the road is completely overgrown it's still makes for flat trail and relatively little elevation (I now consider anything less than 150' of change in a mile flat). Also had a short rain shower that made me put my pack cover on. At the Jack Gap Trail the AT splits with the road bed and becomes hell for the last 4 miles to Unichoi Gap. Tons of up and down on rough trail with lots of rock, in some places it was a scramble over old landslides. Climbing 400' in 1.5 over this to the Blue Mountain Shelter was terrible I just went into auto pilot and didn't stop once, I knew if I did it would be impossible to start again. When I finally got to the shelter I found that the water situation up there wasn't good either and I only had 1.5 liters left, I drank half of that while walking off the monster climb I had just finished. I had to decide if I was going on to Unichoi (2.4) or not. I had heard from Ben and Scott who are now headed south bound earlier in the day that they planned to stay at this shelter tonight, but they weren't here yet. After a breather I decided to head out. I had another 200' climb in the next .7 to the summit of Blue Mountain which had 3 false summits where I thought I was at the top only to round a corner and find the trail heading straight up again. At the top of the second false summit I called a few hotels in Hiawasse to see if any of them offered shuttles for guests, one of them gave me a couple numbers of locals they all went to machines. After finally summiting the trail plummets 1100' in 1.5 miles the trail was narrow and rocky I finally got to the bottom around 6:15 collapsing in a pile in a the parking area. There was also magic there as a there was jugs of water left for hikers. One of the shuttle guys called me back but the call kept dropping, I was worried I wasn't getting into town after putting in such a big day. About half an hour later the family from Arkansas walked in, and we all drank water and compared notes on how terrible the last section was. A little while later 3 guys came down off of blue who planned on camping at Unichoi. Followed a little later by Scott and Ben from the North side who informed us that the trial on that side of the road is much the same it will start with an 1100' climb in 1.5 miles but that's for another day. For now we were scouring our good books trying everything to find a ride into town. We resorted to trying hitchhiking at the same time. A very evil jeep driver slowed down pulled into the lot stopped waved to us and kept going. Nothing was working then more magic a taxi drove by and we flagged it down. We had tried calling Alpine Taxi out of Helen earlier but just got a voice mail. He already had a fare in the taxi but had room for one so I hopped in, and he said he would come back for the family from Arkansas. Big thanks to Alpine Taxi great service very knowledgable about the town and saved us. He dropped me at the Helendorf Inn, the guide books we had didn't say much about Helen other then a few hotels and Wendy's but it's a great town. Apparently the third most visited town in Georgia it has everything very touristy town reminds me a lot of Frankenmuth back home. The hotel room had an actual key, I don't know if I've ever been to a hotel with that. Great service at the Helendorf too I highly recommend both the Helendorf and Alpine taxi. After checking in the family from Arkansas and I went downstairs to the Mexican restaurant below our rooms. We had planned on the German restaurant across the street but they were closed by the time everyone got into town. The Mexican was also very good and we were all very hungry, afterwards I took an amazing shower and went to sleep in a bed.