Date: 2011-04-16
From: Blueberry Patch Hostel

To: Muskrat Creek Shelter
Miles today: 11.8
Weather: scattered clouds

No AT&T tonight, so will have to update journal tomorrow hopefully. The breakfast this morning at the Blueberry Patch was wonderful, especially after a week of trail food. Pancakes with blueberry syrup, sausage patties, scrambled eggs, biscuits with pieces of cheese mixed in, and hash browns. And OJ and cofee  That's what I'm talking about. Needless to say, my plate was clean. Gary's trail name is AT Chef, and well-deserved it is. He and his wife, Lennie, live and breathe what they believe as Christians, and treat everyone like family. Gary said a very nice grace before the meal, with emphasis on thanks, not requests. I am so glad I had a chance to stay with them and enjoy their hospitality. Truly inspirational.    Let me finger a few words about the crowd at the BP.  Most prominent were a collection of six nice young guys who seem to be hiking together.  Evan, Jacob (who looks like a young Groucho Marx or Frank Zappa), Kyle (aka Winny), Jonas (aka Frodo) from Sweden, Patrick (aka Mowgli), and Stu (aka Safety Stu). The others were Pink Floyd, Sean (aka Tomahawk), and Mike (with a heavy pack, knows the six). At 10:30 and lights are still on and all are still up, except Mike, who is snoring away. "Snoring like a lawnmower". Sounds like a trail name in the making to me. These guys need to learn about hiker midnite. I tried to hint at 9:00 by trying to get to sleep. Just not possible with 10 of us all crammed in here. All nice guys but most in stay-up-late mode. No big deal. More time to journal, and whatever sleep I miss out on I can catch up on tomorrow night. The group of six is planning (after I pointed out that they could bypass Franklin and be at the NOC in 5 days) to stop at all the same places I do, at least till we reach the NOC (Nantahala Outdoor Center, a big white water raft and kayak venue, and my next resupply).    Magilla update. He's now back in Ohio, having finished and gotten off trail at Dick's Creek Gap a day before I did. I'm glad he was able to get back on trail and do most of what he planned. I'm sure we'll share trail on a future Club outing. See his guestbook entry where there's some talk of closing some of the AT to camping for awhile due to all the bear activity hikers have encountered South and North of Blood Mountain. I hope for those starting later this month that this does not become necessary. I'd personally rather see a mandatory bear cannister policy. Maybe a cannister loaner program for GA like some of the national parks have, like Yosemite and Olympic. It would be hard to get this organized quickly though.    Today began very well - after maybe 4 inches of rain last night, it stopped and the sun came out and hiking was just about perfect when I set out at about 10 AM. Later in the day the wind really came up, grey clouds were rolling over, and the temperature began to drop. One highlight though: in mid-afternoon I crossed into Tennessee, completing the 76.4 miles of AT in Georgia. Add in the approach trail and it comes to 85.2 miles in GA. Very pleased to have a state completed. Now I'll be crossing back and forth over the TN/NC line for some time, including just about all of the Smokies.   It is cold now and tonight is shaping up to be our coldest yet. I have my tarp set up in the most wind-sheltered spot I could find, as it's still howling.  The forecast in Hiawasee was for mid-30s as a low temp, and we're at 4600 feet, so it should be colder here, especially with wind-chill. No ice forming in the water bottles yet, but it's only hiker midnight.