Date: 2004-03-30
From: Low Gap, GA

To: Cheese Factory 
Miles today: 12.5
Weather: scattered clouds

Last night I returned to my tent having responded to the call of nature at 1:09 am. Shortly after, it began to rain, as anticipated. At 6:30, having slept fitfully, I was packed and gone, still in the rain. About an hour later, I stopped for coffee and oatmeal trailside and about the same time I stopped, so did the rain. As I drank my coffee, I watched the mists rise in the valleys below, form into clouds and then part for ¢BOB¢ to poke his head through for the rest of the day.I took the day easy stopping frequently to look at things through my monocular (a birthday present from Jack and Alicia that's one half the weight of a binocular!), to rest and to simply take in the day. Doing so, I was treated to the sight of a wild turkey taking flight about 20 yards to my left, soaring in a large, graceful arc through the trees before landing about 50 yards off to my right. Later, I watched a grouse ¢be-bopping¢ around on the forest floor about 10 feet away from me before, seemingly in embarrassment, having suddenly realized it was being watched, scurried off into the underbrush. Cool. It's like having my own Discovery channel! There¢s definitely something to be said for ¢being in the present.¢At lunchtime, I stopped at the Blue Mountain shelter and unpacked my tent and sleeping bag to let them air out and dry off while I had a couple of PB&H (honey) wheat wraps and a liter of peach ice tea (well, peach tepid tea, more exactly.)The afternoon became more challenging -- over the next 5 miles the trail went down 1,000', up 1,000', down 1,000' and up 600' (personally, I think the "downs" are tougher than the "up's" because of the shock each step places on the knees and quads. As we say in skiing, "It really gets the dogs to barkin'!¢) Late in the day, I crossed Unicoi Gap where a cooler of "Trail Magic" had been set out for hikers. I was tempted to grab a couple of brownies, but decided not to since nothing could measure up to those Susan Rogers left with me last Sunday when she and Tom departed for Atlanta. Besides, which these could have been made by some well-intended Alice B. Toklas wannabe which would not have been in the least appreciated? What the world and I don't need is a tripping Bumpo, stumbling through the Georgia wilds!Just before sundown I arrived at the area known as the "Cheese Factory" because once, long ago, some eccentric farmer had actually produced a variety of award-winning cheese way up here. I had expected to find others from our loosely formed confederation of hikers to be here (i.e. ¢Craig¢, "Coyote", "Meanderthal", etc.) but when I arrived, the "factory,¢ (nothing more than a flat piece of ground in the woods along the spine of a ridge) was bare. Not a soul. Just me!Being too tired to press on any further, I set up my tent, cooked dehydrated pea soup, munched some crackers and "go-crappy" (aka GORPPY) hung my food bag, "Miss Piggy", and crawled into my sleeping bag just as it began to rain and the temperature started to fall. As I tuck myself in, I fully expect to hear a convention of miscellaneous bears, pit vipers, banjo-playing mountain-boys (out for a "really good time") and maybe even a few Raptors escaped from some near-by Jurassic Park drawing lots for me in the dark. All humor aside, this is a test for me as this is the first time that I¢ve slept completely alone in the woods with no one within ear shot and no tangible man-made signs of human life (like a shelter or sign or fire ring) to suggest that I¢m not as totally alone as I feel. The thought running through my head is ¢Can I do this?¢ ¢Can I be this alone and not be over com with fear?¢