Date: 2010-02-12
From: Unicoi Gap

To: Tray Mountain Shelter
Miles today: 5.6
Weather: overcast clouds

Last night we had a good time in Helen. Evidently we made an impression on some of the locals because while we were walking down the road this morning with all of our gear on, a truck slowed down on the opposite side of the road. The driver rolled down the window and pointed at us so we started toward the truck thinking he was offering us a ride to the trail head 9 miles up the road. Instead, he yelled out to us, "You boys is funny, we had fun with ya'll," and drove off. I guess he enjoyed our Johnny Cash and Dixie Land Delight Karaoke. We didn't do too many miles today, less than six, but it was a pretty tough day nonetheless. We got a ride pretty easily after meedting Ed, a member of the ATC (Appalachian Trail Conservancy), in Betty's Counrty Store. Thankfully, he was happy to help us out. We started back on the trail around noon and had a few very tough climbs early. We had to battle an icey trail most of the day, but the worst part of the hike ccame about a mile and a half from the top of Tray Mountain where we are staying tonight. We had heard yesterday that Tray Mountain was impenetrable due to a number of down trees and ice. We have already passed some pretty rough spots in the last few days so we decided to push on anyway. However, most of the last mile we spent ducking under, hopping over, and even army crawling through trees and other debris that had collapsed under the weight of all the ice that had accumulated on them. There were also some points where we had to created our own path until we cuaght sight of a white blaze because the trail was completely blocked off. I was a little concerned we might get lost a couple of times, but after a hard faught battle against the elements we finally found our way to the shelter on top of Tray Mountain. By this time the snow was coming down fairly hard and I honestly wouldn't have even attempted to get a fire going, but our Candian friend Kevin, or CanUsa as he is called on the trail, knew some tricks to get one burning fairly strong. Around 6:00, an older guy came strolling in looking pretty rough. He was covered in snow and had ice hanging from his mustache. He wore a cheap plastic raincoat over matching camoflauge top and cargo pants. As he set down his old school, external frame backpack and wealking stick and shook the snow off his shoulders and hat, I noticed a teardrop tatoo under his eye. It looked like the type of tatoo that might be common in prison. A lot of thoughts went through my head when he first walked up and, initially, I felt pretty uncomfortable with the idea of sharing the shelter with him for the evening. However, he was very polite and grateful that we had a fire going. After taking a few minutes to regain feeling his fingers over the fire and telling us a little bit about his background, he proceeded to venture back out into the cold and collect enough firewood to last us the rest of the night. Clay, known by many as simply "Teardrop," had a very interesting story. He was a marine in Vietnam and earned the Purple Heart after taking a bullet in the stomach that nearly killed him. It seems taht he has had a pretty hard life since then, and it was interesting to get the perspective of someone that has been through as much as he has in his lifetime. It was nice to meet Teardrop and I wish him the best of luck in his journey. Right now it is very cold, even in the sleeping bag, and there is a lot of snow and moisture floating into the shelter from outside. Tonight might be a little long, but hopefully we can manage to stay dry. If not I'm sure we will have plenty of time to get cleaned up in Hiawassee tomorrow where wer are meeting my dad and are more than likely staying for the night.