Date: 2014-05-04
From: Tray Mountain Shelter

To: Dicks Creek Gap (new hostel)
Miles today: 11.5
Weather: clear sky

Day 7: Tray Mtn Shelter to Dick Creeks Gap"Trees are sanctuaries. Whoever knows how to speak to them, whoever knows how to listen to them, can learn the truth. They do not preach learning and precepts, they preach, undeterred by particulars, the ancient law of life." Hermann Hesse I awoke around 6:30 and to a beautiful morning at the shelter, the sun was shining and the temperature was just at the point of making it hard to decide whether to put on a jacket. I had gotten up once last night and was rewarded with a dark sky filled with stars and a beautiful moon. Living near an airport, my nights are polluted with lots of unnatural light so it is an awesome experience to be surrounded by dark skies. When you¢re the only one awake at camp, you become a witness to a private light show of shimmering stars, spotlights of planets and the occasional satellite or red/white blinking lights of a plane. The sky bridges distance and time in a way that is only intellectually comprehensible to me; to think that the North Star was used in early navigation and brought people across oceans and land or to consider that our moon can be seen by every person on earth, it gives me the sense of how very big the universe is, and yet, how very connected. If that¢s not enough to generate wonder in a person¢¦ Blue Eyes and Leatherneck were up when I was, and they moved faster- both were gone before me. I ate breakfast, ambled around a bit and headed down to the exceptional boxed spring about .2 mile behind the shelter. What was here before? There is, maybe, a foundation from something not far from the spring, a shelter, a home or maybe a tower at one point? The area near the spring and along the path back to the AT is filled with trees; it must be welcomingly shady on hot summer days. One thing about GA, there are some FANTASTICALLY strange trees here. I think Blue Eyes referred to them as ¢Burtonesque¢ after Tim Burton¢s movies (The Nightmare before Christmas). These trees, I assume sculpted by the wind and weather, are contorted into such shapes and angles, it would make a master Yogi feel an amateur. I've seen trees with branches that seemed to sprout a new trunk at a right angle to the main one. I have never seen so many uniquely-tangled, crazy, patterns. Trees that look like large storks, dinosaurs, human faces, Dr. Seussian creatures with long snouts and pursed lips, trees within trees even! There have been so many trees to look at the last few days and quite a few here, at this shelter. I've taken photos, but I know already that there is no way to capture their quirky, twisted majesty so memory will have to do them justice. Trees of GeorgiaThe trail north headed downhill first today (yeah!), I passed through a number of gaps and noticed the same white smoke on a (now closer) mountainside that Greg and I had seen last night at the bluff. It was northeast of me, and I was hoping that it would not be a fire near the AT. I stopped for water at Sassafras Gap, and met Preacher along the trail down to ¢John¢s Spring¢. The path to the spring was VERY steep and Preacher had taken his pack down with him, so I found him resting on the side of the trail as he made his way back up to the AT. Me, I am lazy. I leave my pack at the trailhead all the time, and just figure it¢s unlikely someone will steal it. The spring welled up under a tree and had a pretty good flow-rate. I filled up, cooled off a bit and then began the ascent back to the AT which was tough. At this point the temperature was definitely warm and I was starting to feel it. More hills lie ahead. The toughest climb (to me) was Kelly Knob. The white smoke appeared to be getting closer as I walked. I had stayed at Sassafras for a little while after Preacher had taken off so I figured if there was a fire ahead of us, he¢d turn back. The trail up Kelly Knob crossed areas that I just got a feeling, had been old homesteads. I could be wrong, but some of the flowers seemed more domestic and organized than the swaths of wild Trillium over much of the mountain. I often wonder about the families that lived in many of the places that are now federal or state park land. I wonder how I would feel if I were displaced from my home; could I find a way to be at peace with the thought that so many people would pass through my front yard or my garden?Such are the thoughts with which I distract myself when I have hard days; and today was a hard day. I stopped frequently ascending Kelly Knob. I ate much of my food early, trying to suck energy out of calories but it still seemed like I was moving in slow motion. A young couple running on the trail stopped a moment to talk. I asked about the smoke but they said they had not seen a fire so figured it was below us. The hike down Kelly Knob should have been the highlight of my day; from here it was ¢supposed to be¢ downhill and a quick path to Dicks Creek Gap (DCG)... but as usual, the more I wanted to be somewhere, the longer it took to get there. The trail is an exceptional teacher when it comes to patience, but sometimes I am a stubborn student. I had passed Leatherneck before Sassafras Gap. I caught up to Preacher again probably about 2 miles from Dicks Creek. There was a guy down the side of the mountain who caught my attention. I didn't know at the time that he was quite ill. I called to him to see if he was ok, and he said yes and waved me on. After a week of cool/cold weather and rain, today¢s heat was difficult to adjust to and at the time I caught up to Preacher, he warned me that my face looked quite red. On the bright side, this warm weather has encouraged more flowers to make a grand entrance into spring. Today was my first sighting of Flame Azaleas. I love these cheery bright, orange flowers; no matter how tired I am, they always boost my mood. I also saw my first Lady Slipper today, about a mile before DCG. A woman walked towards me and asked if I had seen a man whose description matched the guy I saw on the side of the mountain. She was his wife and I found out later that she had gone to drop her pack at the road and return to carry his and help him back to their car. I felt terrible not knowing that I could have been able to help this guy down the trail. I finally got to the road at DCG and walked the ¢easy half mile¢ (not as easy when you are hot and tired) to the new hiker hostel. I climbed a nicely paved driveway to the door and started to remove my boots (per the sign instructing to do so). I dug through my pack for my wallet and then was met by a young man named J-. He showed me the bunkhouse where I picked out my bed and then we went back to the main house to complete paperwork and pay up. This was the hostel¢s first season. It¢s clear they have done a lot to try to get ready in very little time, I wish them success. I didn't see much of Hiawassee. Since I was the only one that was going to town on the last shuttle, J asked if I could finish things up in an hour instead of two. It was Sunday; there was nowhere to have a beer in GA, so that made the stop quick indeed. I arrived back at the hostel where I met two gentlemen ¢ Ironhead and Headfirst who had moved into the room I was in while I was gone. I also met a nice couple- No Hurry and GOBNU (Growing Old But Not Up- a Jimmy Buffett thing) and we all hung out and talked for a while. It was nice having the bunkhouse to the 5 of us; it made the one bathroom tenable to share between us. I couldn't imagine having a full house with the single bathroom, which must be tough. Dinner tonight was junk food- A veggie Subway Sub, a big bag of Cheetos, a Hardee's large chocolate shake, M&Ms. Poor Ironhead and Head First had arrived later than me at the hostel and missed the ride into town. Headfirst ended up with a frozen pizza after no luck trying to find a place that would deliver on a Sunday night in GA (no luck). I arranged for my rental car in Asheville and coordinated a rough pick-up time near Franklin with Dave. It struck me as odd that it was last Sunday that he had dropped me off at Amicalola. I had gone 7 days without a shower, I wasn't sure if that should be a badge of shame or honor, LOL! It felt good to be clean, to have clean clothes again (boy did I smell like perfume now) and it was nice to meet the folks at the hostel. Ironhead and Headfirst were section hikers while No Hurry and GOBNU were in it for the long haul. Oh, a note for other hikers, the cell coverage (I have Verizon) in the area is virtually non-existent. Thankfully, you can use the hostel phone and computer to connect with home.That¢s all for now, excited about tomorrow which brings the day that I can check off Georgia from my AT section hike and cross into southern North Carolina. So long Bull Dogs, Hello Tarheels!!!Goodnight from less than 10 miles south of the border! More photos for day 7 of the trip can be seen at: 2000 Miler Day 7