Date: 2012-03-28
From: Mt. Collins Shelter

To: Indian Gap
Miles today: 2.8

How quickly everything can change out here!I woke up at 4:30 this morning and started packing up. A while later I noticed some head lamps around the shelter and found that Blue, Phoenix, and Maine-iac had all gotten up early as well. I hiked out with them, headed for Gatlinburg. None of them had eaten breakfast yet and I was still tired from yesterday so we hiked slow. Still, I managed to get about a minute behind. When I came around the corner I saw Phoenix sitting on the ground with Blue and Maine-iac standing by. It turns out she had slipped on a step and twisted her ankle. She thought she heard something snap and her ankle was hurting. We assessed the situation, decided it probably wasn't broken since she could wiggle her toes, and after about 10 minutes of rest, getting some water and food in her, we worked out a plan to get her to the nearest gap. Blue took her backpack and carried Phoenix's backpack on her front. Maine-iac and I both supported Phoenix and we walked her down the hill towards Indian Gap. Luckily we weren't far, but it was still slow going. A trail runner came by and took Maine-iac's place, then Hungry Bear and Amber Cat came up and Hungry Bear took my place. We all hiked slowly in a hiker procession towards the gap. When we got there, the trail runner's friend brought her car around and she drove us to the medical center in Gatlinburg.We were all worrying if this was going to be the end of Phoenix's trip. While we were there Ryan of the Three Amigos showed up, also with an ankle injury and another section hiker came in with a cut on his hand. The trail can be a dangerous place. After about an hour, Phoenix walked out of the back with the biggest grin on her face. It was just a sprain, not a break. She had on a large boot that she could walk around in and we were all relieved.After that we were all starving so we decided to go to Shoney's for AYCE breakfast and luckily there was a trolley stop just outside of the doctor's office. We rode down to the center of Gatlinburg; that place is such a tourist trap. There is a dozen mini-golf palces, Ripley's Aquarium, Ripley's Museum, tacky shops, and lots of overpriced souvenir stands. It was a serious culture shock for us hikers who had been in the woods for nearly a month.After breakfast we got a room at the Grand Prix motel and saw a lot of other hikers we knew. We all showered, did laundry, then decided to try and resupply at the Walmart that was way outside of Gatlinburg. This was the beginning of our trolley fiasco. We had to transfer three times. We got on the red line, transferred to purple but did not know where we had to get off. We ended up having to ride the whole purple route again, then transferred to the trolley that would take us to Pigeon Forge. We were so fed up with the trolleys that we got off as close as possible to a grocery store and abandoned hope of going to the Walmart. After resupplying (which most of us went a little overboard with), we had to take a trolley to the trolley station, then transfer numerous times again to get back to the Aquarium.We were so hungry when we got back to Gatlinburg that we decided to just get dinner at a Mexican restaurant and bring all of our groceries in with us. The food was great and reasonably priced, but they were out of guacamole! What a shame. Blue kept talking to the waiter in Spanglish which was mildly embarrassing. Over dinner we decided that we would go ahead and take our first zero there in Gatlinburg. After all, it is such a fun town. And Phoenix was going to have to take a few days off and rest her ankle so it would give us more time to hang out with her before we moved on. After dinner we went back to the motel and stayed up chatting until 1:00 in the morning (quite an accomplishment for a hiker). Our room looked like an absolute disaster with 5 packs exploded everywhere.For such a weird and potentially horrible start to the day, it ended up being fun and for the most part relaxing. (Stupid trolleys.)