Date: 2012-04-11
From: Winding Stair Gap

To: Home
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: light rain

I'm off the trail. No major issues as in the past, just kind of done with this for now. It started when some idiot stole my food in Hiawassee. That bothered me more than it should have but while I climbed up and down mountains over the next few days I couldn't get it out of my mind. Then when I stopped over in Franklin, N.C. my hiking poles dissappeared. I discovered this at 10pm and went to the office where it was the last place I had them. The person I spoke to didn't offer any answers or suggestions, then I returned at 8am the next morning and again the same person didn't offer any help. At this point I was at the point of packing up and calling it quits. In the past few years the A.T. has attracted characters who are not people who love the wilderness or the experience of tranquility that you gain by walking alone with your thoughts. Perhaps it's the economy or the internet making those who would otherwise never know about the A.T. that is bringing the masses to the trail. In the early years a hiker could drop a one hundred dollar bill on the trail and someone behind him would carry it until he found the owner. There have been times in years past when I left my pack on the side of the trail while I dissappeared down a side trail to a spring for water, but not today. Today you never leave your gear out of your site. So it was in Franklin when in a rush and tired from the trail I left my poles behind at the office. What happened to them I can't say for sure, but I do know that after inquiring twice with no success that Sod about 15 minutes after my last inquiry approached the same person I had spoken to the previous night and again in the morinig and he was told where he should look and mysteriously there they stood. My hiking poles are 4 feet tall and telescoping so they can be collapsed to fit into a backpack and when Sod found them they were collapsed so someone had taken them and collapsed them. While Sod thinks I'm too analytical I ask you.... if you found hiking poles would you turn them in to the office or would you take a few minutes to unscrew the joints and collapse them then place them in a corner outside of the office. By this time I had made a call home to find my wife was sick with a head cold which she assured me wasn't bad. I was concerned for the well being of our 4 parrots, (my kids), since they are always out of their cages and usually on my wife's or my lap or shoulder. When one of us is sick the other takes care of the needs of them, but now my wife was left to care for them alone and had to be very careful so they as well didn't get sick. While I was on the phone Sod appeared at my door with my poles and we decided to go to breakfast so I could settle down and consider if I wanted to continue this hike.In addition to the theft of my food mail drop, actually a federal offence as a fellow hiker reminded me (u.s. mail) I was troubled by the fact that this "thru-hike" was no longer a thru-hike since I skipped the 17 miles from Unicoi Gap to Dick's Creek Gap while we spent 2 days in a hotel at Hiawassee, Ga and now the plan was to spend another 2 days in a motel instead of hiking in the wilderness and to skip the 25 miles before the Smokies trying to coordinate our schedule to meet up with Tom at Fontana Village to begin hiking the Smokies where again we would adjust our schedule to meet up with a second guy who was coming from Alaska to hike a week with us.While I could have moved on by myself I enjoyed hiking with Sod, and was looking forward to hiking with the other 2 hikers as well through the Smokies, but the boredom of motel rooms allows even little things to become bigger than life and with all things considered I decided to leave the trail to come home. I felt extremely bad about leaving Sod since he had expressed a couple days earlier on the trail that he missed his family and wanted to go home, but I believe since he had committed to meeting up with his lifetime friend, Tom, and a friend coming all the way from Alaska, he felt he couldn't leave.I arranged a shuttle to Atlanta airport and drove with a very interesting gentleman who had previously been a sheriff in Georgia, and now was doing professional archeology work on the indian mounds in the area such as the one I had photographed in Franklin, N.C. In talking with him on a what was a 3 hours drive he also told me about another project he was working on. Now some of you will stop reading right here, but perhaps you should read on and keep an open mind. He was working with a couple of university profesors from other parts of the country on the "Bigfoot" question. Ok.... for those of you who are my close (very close) friends you know I worked many years ago for J. Allen Hynek investigating the possibility of UFO's. Hynek had previously worked for the U.S. Airforce on project Bluebook, one of the government organizations investigating the subject. So with my background I wasn't taken back by my shuttle driver's announcement of his investigation. We talked for quite awhile about his research which was very thorough and professional and not something to be laughed at even though I'm sure many of you reading this will do just as many did dealing with the research I did years ago. However, to lighten up this subject and journal I want to tell you about one of my shuttle driver's associates who photographed and followed tracks in the snow across the summit of Wayah Bald until the tracks entered the rhododendron bushes. If you read my previous journals you know I commented on being in these bushes and not wanting to meet a bear coming the other way as there is no good means of a quick exit. Since the A.T. goes over the summit of Wayah Bald as did bigfoot on that snowy day I guess you could say bigfoot hikes the A.T. as well .....hopefully with more success than I've had.Finally when I arrived home at the airport I learned just how sick my wife was when it was my brother who picked me up. She was sick enough that when he dropped me at my home he wouldn't come in. And if I had had doubts about leaving the trail they were extingquished when I entered the door and my "kids" all started screaming louder than I ever heard them and Murphy my largest parrot was ready to jump off her cage to get to me. Within minutes I looked like a tree on the A.T. with birds hanging off every appendage. Even now over 24 hours since returning home my oldest (23) parrot, Sydney, wouldn't stop screaming this morning until she was placed at the foot of my bed where she immediately ran the length of the bed to cuddle under my chin for the next hour.I apoligize to those of you who were following my adventure that once again I have let you down. In looking over the past I belive my best chance of a thru-hike was in 2000 when I literally retired while I was on the trail. At that time I had been away from home on a regular basis for work as well as working 13 hour days so I as well as my family were used to my being absent. So as someone who knew of my previous 4 attempts said to me as I was entering the vehicle of my shuttle driver "perhaps someone is telling you you belong elsewhere". Perhaps this is true, but wherever my physical presence is my heart will always be in the wilderness. "Bone's" and I thank you for your understanding and following along. May every day of our lives be an adventure.See you up the trail... Joe Kelly   aka.. Ironmanathikery2k@yahoo.com