Date: 2015-06-09
From: Stealth Camp North of Powell Gap

To: Booten's Gap
Miles today: 17.7

I survived the night without incident from bears or other critters, though when I woke up there were at least 8 spiders on the outside of the netting of my tent. Fortunately they were the thin legged and round bodies kind that doesn't bother, rather than the 2x2 meaty stuff-of-nightmares specimen I saw a couple of days ago, shudder. I broke down camp quickly and was hiking by 6:27. Yay, I finally broke my record! And then I was really surprised to see a Sobo hiker right away. After a level-ish mile or so to start and a climb to wake me up, I got to Swift Run Gap, where several roads come together and which is an entrance point to the park. It took me a minute to find the continuation of the trail across the road and once I did I decided to have a snack before climbing the next hill. While I was eating, a big pickup truck swooped in and stopped and the driver came out and asked if I wanted a cold drink. It was only nine and not yet hot but I don't turn down cold drinks unless it's actually already cold out, so I got a Gatorade. He told me his name was Max Factor and that he does trail magic by letting 5-10 hikers stay at his condo in a ski resort 30 miles away. Then he gave me his number in case I decided to come this evening.It sounded really nice but I did not want to go without any other hiker and everybody was ahead of me. I kept on hiking, trying to decide if I wanted to go or not until I got to the South River picnic area where I had lunch. Fiddler2 (also called Fiddler but not to be confused with the original Fiddler so I'll call him Fiddler2) came by so I told him about the condo offer but he and his hiking partner Wizard wanted to get to the shelter many miles away and this would interfere with their mileage plans. Oh well.The next stop was to be the camp store at the campground. The guide said it was open in summer and I wasn't sure if that meant it was open now. The five miles there took forever and a lot of energy but fortunately when I got to the campground I found the store easily and it was open. Yay, chips and Coke! Fiddler2 and Wizard were there as well and proceeded to talk themselves into going to the condo. So, they called Max Factor and set it up for the three of us. We only had 3 more miles to the pickup point and lots of time before the pickup time so we hung around in front of the store for a good while. One of the campers came by, he had thru hiked in 2001 and he bought the guys a beer (I already had my soda). Trail magic galore today!The 3 miles to the pickup point went super quickly and we were all there early. On the drive to the condo, Max Factor told us he does this a couple of weeks every year since 2010, the year he attempted a thru hike but had to give up with an injury at Fontana. He and his wife are going to try again next year though, after they both retire.What we got here is beyond generous. Anything a hiker could want, any kind of food, fresh guacamole as an appetizer and chicken Marsala for dinner. Plus oodles and oodles of cereal, granola bars, fruit, you name it. I had a wonderful hot shower and now chilling on the couch waiting for Max to return with his second batch of hikers. And, Yoda will be in there. She has hiked some completely insane mileage the last few days and caught up. Not sure how long we'll be able to hike together at the rate she is going, but it will be awesome to catch up. That is, if I'm still awake when they get here because it's 8pm and I'm very sleepy!Open map in new windowWant to add a map to your journal?