Date: 2003-05-15
From: Tray Mountain Shelter

To: Hiawassee, GA
Miles today: 10.5
Weather: light rain

OK, so this is my first trail journal. It's seems to be pretty cool. I actually got the idea back in March when I met up with a through hiker down in Georgia trail-named Skeemer (or Ed Meeks). Skeemer is from Ohio and he actually just retired. He also has a journal here on trailjournals. It's pretty cool so you it might be worth checkng out. So here I am. Right now, I am actually in the Hiawassee, GA public library. People here are the nicest people on earth. No doubt. Right now, I'm less than a day's hike into North Carolina. Just to let those who are reading, and I am sure there are probably thousands of you, I will be taking a paper journal with me on the trail. Occasionally, I'll go ahead and transcribe my journals from the computer onto this page. It might be a while before entries.The first thing I wanted to discuss was my trail name. I'm sure there will be many questions about that. Indiana Ben is a simple trail name. I'm from Indiana and I did some warmup hikes in Indiana. I thought it might be a cool name. I met up with some neat hikers on the trail already. Their names are Lunchbox, TFT(Two Fleece Turd), Tim, Butter, and Sage. Lunchbox and TFT are a husband-wife team from Tennessee. Tim and Butter are both from Cleveland, and Sage is from Massachusetts but he's not a Masshole. By the way, Sage also has a journal here on trail journals.com. Butter's trail journal is at this location (http://home.cwru.edu/~jkk3/). This crew seems to think Indiana Ben is a good name as well so it kind of stuck. I'm happy with it. Go IU!When I started I was concerened about my fitness level. It turns out I've been pleasantly surprised. The Knobstone Trail was a great way to get started. I would actually say that the Knobstone Trail is more difficult than the AT here in Georgia. Though, the Knobstone may get easier in drier weather. So far I've done three 15 mile days and two 11 milers. Not bad.Well, I'm not going to go into too much detail about my trip because I plan to update my journals that I have written down. I forgot to bring them with me to the library this time. Doooeee! I've been trying to write poems from time to time. I'll put a few of those up as well. I'll also put up my gear list. By the way, I ended up shelling out some bucks for a nice down sleeping bag after I froze my buttocks off the first night. I figured I got about four hours of sleep that night.Onto today- May 15. Today, I finished up the last major section of the Georgia AT. I went from where we stayed last night at the Tray Mountain Shelter down to Hiawassee. It was a nice little 11 miler. One speed bump with about an 800 ft. climb over Kelly Knob. It was fun. It really rained on us earlier this morning. By the time I was up on top of Kelly Knob, I was drenched with sweat and rainwater. Yep, fun. My umbrella kept my pack nice and dry. During the trip up Kelly Knob, I was hiking along with a girl name Krista who was section hiking Georgia with her Brother and Father. She's going to be working on her PhD at UGA. She seemed to think my singing was funny as it was dumping down rain. Her car was at the road where we finished hiking. She was nice and gave me and another guy named Bill a hitch into Hiawassee. Bill's heading up to Damascus. He's kind of a nice, quiet, older fellow who's into marathoning. Getting into town was great. Lunchbox and me have been talking about 40oz beers for days now. When Krista dropped me off, I went and picked up 2 fouty-once Miller High Lifes (Champagne of Beers). Lunchbox, Tim, myself, and TFT have holed up at the Holiday Inn. They have a thu-hiker rate there. Basically it means getting the four of us into a large room for $67 a night, total. Not too shabby considering the amenities - hot tub!!! Oh yeah, an AYCE (All You Can Eat) restaurant was right across the street. We hit that place before even bothering to shower. It was funny. The shower after lunch felt great. We were all very grubby. Mmmmm.My next stop is not scheduled to be for about another 5 for 6 days. I'll make sure to update everyone at that point. Until then, I'll hike on.Indiana Ben