Date: 2006-04-26
From: KINCORA HOSTEL

To: KINCORA
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: light rain

THE SULTANBefore I say anything else I would like to say Happy Birthday to Briauna. She is five years old today and Nana and Poppy are very proud of her.    It was a day of magic: trail magic, that is. We waited anxiously on the front porch of Kincora for our Trail Angel in the form of Jeff Pratt to arrive. When the black SUV pulled into the driveway, we knew it was him. He has been e-mailing us for weeks now, tracking our progress and waiting for us to get near Boone where he lives.We agreed a few weeks ago that it would be fun to do some trail magic for hikers in this area. Originally, we were going to do it at Watauga Lake, but after speaking with the other hikers this morning, we changed our plans. When hikers woke up at the hostel this morning and saw that it was raining, many of them chose to wait out the bad weather indoors. Others were doing a slackpack the 9 miles back from the lake to the hostel. Thus, we decided to go where we knew hikers would be ready for some magic.US 19E is at least 3 or 4 days out of Erwin for strong hikers and possibly more days out because of rain. We were just there a couple of days ago, hitching in and out of Elk Park for a resupply. We pulled into the gravel parking area next to the trail. I quickly made up a cardboard sign, grabbed my duct tape and trotted the half mile south to Apple House Shelter. Just as we hoped, there were some hikers inside who would walk a half mile out in the rain for some food. First to arrive was Marco Solo, an interesting man who has lived in India and Nepal. Then came Crazy with dog Baily, Armsleeve and Brave Friend.While I was gone on my one mile round trip hike to post the sign, Jeff and Mudflap laid out the goodies. Jeff was so thoughtful to bring the makings for ham and cheese sandwiches, fresh fruit, cookies, Cokes, little Debbie snacks and more. We took pictures of each hiker as they arrived and learned their trail names as well. At first there were few hikers and we were afraid we would have to bring the food back to the hostel. Later, many more came in one's, two's and three's. We had twenty-five in all. They were Marco Solo, Crazy, Armsleeves, Brave Friend, Dylan, Carnivore, Rasta Legs, Bud, Mule, Chuck, Juke Box, Ketchup, Kilgore Trout, Hawkeye, Knock Knock, Jodie Foster, Waltzing Matilda, Vegemite-on-toast, Bluey, K'ache, Pie, Brainfreeze, Hikercycle, Hike-N-Mike and Mute Snail. It was fun to watch hungry hikers devour the food.Meanwhile, after an hour or more, I noticed Jeff was getting soaked in the rain. We did tie the rainfly of our tent up to some trees for some shelter, but it wasn't working out too well. So I had an idea: he could put my pack cover on his head for at least some protection. He draped the bright blue, elasticized nylon over his head with a certain pan¡che. He sort of looked liked an Arab or something. A hiker pointed at him and laughed and said "Hey look, a Sultan!" Thus, Jeff's official trail name is The Sultan. We all got a pretty good kick out of it and overall, I think we had a good time in spite of the weather.Jeff also treated me to a Filet-O-Fish sandwich, large fries and strawberry shake from McDonald's. I'd been craving it since the Smokeys. What an Angel!