Date: 2008-06-09
From: Groundhog Creek Shelter

To: Davenport Gap
Miles today: 11.0
Weather: few clouds

I slept pretty well last night. That's unusual for me in a shelter. Of course I wasn't sleeping on the sloping end of the shelter floor next to the stinky guy hiker, like Tigger. We've had fun teasing her about it.Therefore :o) ...we left early this morning.We headed uphill once more before the sun got hot. We passed over a hill with a strange looking radio tower and then started a long descent. We had read in the shelter journal where several NOBOs were raving about Standing Bear Hostel and decided it was worth checking out. It would mean pulling up about three miles short of our meeting place with Norma. We thought it sounded like a good place to stop for a cold drink.We turned right at the gravel road and walked up the hill (there is always an UP involved!) to a farmhouse. This really was a neat little hostel...a bunkhouse, shower house, internet and a little store building. There was a refrigerator in the store with cold sodas. Really cold sodas. It was a beautiful thing.We sat and chatted with four north bound hikers, three men and an 18 year old girl named Rabbit also. They had met up on the trail and seemed to be having a good time together. We enjoyed chatting AND the cold sodas. Then we were back on the trail.By this time the air was getting hot and steamy and we had a rough uphill to trudge through. Up and over the hill, across I-40, up another hill and on to Davenport Gap. Just before we reached Rt. 32 the air felt stifleingly thick from the humidity. We were thrilled to arrive at Davenport Gap and find we had a nice shady spot to wait for our ride.Meanwhile, as we made our way over this hill, we learned later that Norma was driving back and forth between Davenport Gap and I-40 trying to figure out just where we were supposed to meet. We apparently just missed her when we arrived at 1:30, thirty minutes before our planned rendezvous.While we waited for her we had a nice chat with a lost family. They pulled up on motorcycles unsure of where they were. We told them we were just following the white blazes, so we didn't know if we could help. Strangely enough, though, our trail maps did give good directions back to I-40. It was interesting talking with them about their journey and ours...how similar and how different they are.Soon we heard a car coming up the road and were thrilled to see it was Norma. ...in her brand new Prius. Quite brave of her to bring her brand new car to pick up four stinky hikers, but I guess the gas mileage won out over hiker stink. She also came bearing gifts of cold water, sodas and chips. She's got the Trail Angel thing down.It was a short drive back to Atwood and Norma's camper in Cosby. We told Norma we have a normal routine of showers, laundry and food when we come in for a rest, but we are always willing to do some ice cream first if available. Frankly we were hinting for a stop for ice cream, but she said she had ice cream waiting at the camper for us. Yep, she's a natural Trail Angel.I've always enjoyed spending time at this camper. It's such a peaceful place. Especially for our purposes on this stop, it had everything we needed. We washed up our clothes, showered and sorted our gear. Norma made us an amazing meal of meatloaf, beans, potatoes, corn, tomatoes and corn bread. We teased Soaring just a bit about not knowing how to eat her cornbread. Apparently in New England where she grew up they don't crumble their cornbread into their milk to eat it and she wasn't interested in trying it.By the end of the day we were ready to crash and it was soooo nice to have a comfortable place to sleep. Life is good on the trail.Rabbit, Owl and RooJoshua 1:9