Date: 2005-04-09
From: Winding Stair Gap (Franklin, NC)

To: A. Rufus Morgan shelter
Miles today: 26.5
Weather: clear sky

I couldn't believe how easy it was to find a ride this morning, literally the first people I went up to in the motel parking lot gave us a ride. They were University of Michigan students and their professor and they were on a class trip down here to look at salamanders. They passed by Winding Stair Gap on their way to their first site and dropped us off. I hiked my own hike today, running into Tom and Mateo a couple times early on. I wonder if I'll ever hike with someone else during this trip for a while. We would have to hike at the same pace and have similar daily goals and also get along pretty well. Who knows. I got along pretty well with those guys but they're into their 2-person group and although quite fast, are hiking shorter days. I'm enjoying meeting different people every day as I pass them but it would be nice to make a good friend, something that seems so easy out here with the almost automatic comraderie. I think about Jude, the guy I met the first day at Amacilola and stood shivering with, both of us cold and nervous about the prospect of the difficulty of the hike, and I wonder if he's still around and how he's managing. I think about OC-1, his strong smile and gently positive personality, a man who seems like he must have been a wonderful father, and wonder how he's faring and how his knees are holding up. Doing the AT and becoming a long-distance hiker is truly one of the best things I've done with my life. I was thinking this today a lot. I feel myself changing on the trail, accepting my intensity as alright and learning to forgive.Anyway, it was a fairly easy hike today with little steep terrain. The trail magic was just incredible. The first group of folks worked with AT Servants (http://www.atservants.org). This is a Christian group whose ministry is to provide support to AT hikers. It's spearheaded by a couple that is devoting their entire lives to this project. They solicit churches for help and have even gotten some corporate sponsors. They're always looking for more resources to help with their ministry and are working with churches to open up cheap hostels along the trail. They were offering snacks and soda at Wayah Gap and encouraged me to take as much as I could carry with me. My food bag was already loaded up from my resupply last night but I managed to take some more food along! My bag feels like it weighs at least 25 pounds right now, heavy!I lugged all this stuff up to Wayah Bald where there was more trail magic! The Anderson, SC Hiking Club was grilling cheeseburgers for thru-hikers. They were good, I'm talking restaurant quality good. I had 2 and sat around and hung out with them for a while. When I finally rolled myself out of there, I walked the few hundred feet up the trail to the Wayah Bald lookout. It was one of the best views on the entire trail. The rest of the day was rolly polly with little steep up or down. I'm keeping well hydrated. I listened to my iPod most of the afternoon. When I got to the shelter at around dusk, only one other person had his stuff set up in it. The rest were cowboying it down around the fire. The usual questions about the Florida Trail, how I hike so fast, etc. It was alright. They're four or five guys, about my age. I didn't gravitate towards any of them really, they seemed to be the soft Oberlin male type. One of them kind of bugged me too. I was eating some of the junk food I got today and this kid starts going off about how I should eat healthy on the trail and should substitute banana chips for Little Debbbie. Now, I'm the first to acknowledge that I don't always eat as healthily as I should, but besides just being annoying, this kid was smoking a cigarette as he lectured me. What a twit. Then when he started getting into "Umm, like I'm not into the whole ultralight backpacking thing.! .." I knew it was time for bed. Whatever, I'll leave him in the dust tomorrow morning.