Date: 2003-04-29
From: Flint Mountain Shelter

To: Sam's Gap
Miles today: 11.2

I want the address of the sick sadistic @%$&*!# who routed today's trail! Yeesh!My day started out very, very badly when I took the food bags down from their rope, high in a tree, at first light. Mice had gnawed two big holes in my food bag, with me still 30 miles from town!I went through all my food item by item, grumbling and cursing all the while. I discovered that the little vermin had sampled a bag of gorp and a tootsie roll, and had left a few little souveniers in return. Not so bad. I put the ruined food into my trash bag, swept the mouse droppings from the otherwise unblemished rations, and applied three days' allotment of hand sanitizer.Hiker-Biker Babe's food bag, hung on the same rope as mine, was undisturbed. This gorp recipe is a big hit with the rodents: I forgot and left some in the camera pocket of my pack at Cold Spring Shelter weeks ago, and the mice chewed a hole through the heavy pack cloth to get to it then. Me and my fancy gorp!(Gorp stands for Good Old Raisins and Peanuts, but has come to mean any trail mix type of concoction. This version, my favorite as well as the mice's, includes a variety of nuts, sunflower seeds, toasted pumpkin seeds and crystallized ginger.)By the time I ate a big pot of four cheese mashed potatoes (yes, for breakfast; I figured I needed comfort food. Besides, I somehow ended up with way more dinners than other meals) I felt a lot better. The profile map for today didn't look too bad, but the trail took us all the way to the top of every possible rise along the way. We were rewarded for the climbs by a magnificent view of... a thick wall of rhododendron!There were some lovely spots, though. We crossed one stream several times that had a big waterfall in the middle of it. There were also stretches through meadows dotted with wildflowers and blooming trees. On the whole, though, it was a long hard 11 miles. I admit that I hated the AT for a couple of miles there.HBB and I decided that, when we arrived at the gap, we would hitch the three miles to a cafe and eat dinner, then return to the trail. Fat and happy, we would then take the first decent campsite we found.When we arrived at the gap, Headlamp, Two Dog Night (with the two dogs, Dylan and Cade), Michele and Crazy Talk were sitting in the middle of the large pulloff area there. Superman? and someone else (it was all a little confusing... there was a lot going on there after stepping out of the woods) had hitched a ride to a store to get sodas and junk food for the rest of the group. We were informed that it would take us about 20 minutes to get a hitch.About 2 minutes after we stuck out our thumbs, a semi pulled off the road. The kids were all very impressed with our hitching skill, and claimed it was due to HBB's hiking skirt. Don't tell them, but the trucker had pulled over without even noticing us.We trotted up to the truck and I said brightly, "We're trying to get a ride to the restaurant three miles down the road. Will you give us a ride?" The driver, John, laughed and unlocked the passenger side door. HBB climbed in, and I handed up our packs and poles and climbed in after. Too cool! This was my first time in the cab of a semi. The interior was all done up in wood paneling, with dials and displays that made it look like a cockpit.John was a lot of fun on the drive, and seemed to thoroughly enjoy what HBB dubbed the Two Woman Show. He was duly impressed with our plan to walk to Maine. He even promised to give us a ride back to the trail if we needed it when he came back by in a couple of hours.Mmmmmmm, good homestyle Southern cooking! I devoured slow roasted pork, cheesy scalloped potatoes, green beans, cornbread, a roll and a huge plate of fried okra, washed down with at least a gallon of sweet tea. Then I had peach cobbler with ice cream! Did I mention that hiking brings on an appetite?A few friendly locals in the restaurant chatted with us about our hike and looked awed at the amount of food we were putting away. We filled our water bags in the bathroom and headed outside.After hanging around the front of the cafe for a little while hoping John would swing by again (I wanted a picture!), we walked a little way and stuck out thumbs again. We were picked up moments later and whisked off to the trail.When we arrived back at the gap, Auntie Em and Captain Ben were there. A little car bearing the logo SUPER 8 drove up and they began to pile their stuff in the back. When we realized they were headed for Erwin, we hopped in too before anyone could protest.We are now clean (in a relative way; some of this dirt will take a sandblaster to remove), well-fed and drowsy in cushy beds here at the Super 8. We will continue on this path of self-indulgence by taking a town day tomorrow, then arranging slackpacks until Pete gets here on Sunday. Hey, it's a tough life, but somebody has to do it, right?