Date: 2003-04-11
From: Tray Mt. Gap USFS 79

To: DickÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂ¢ÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂs Creek Gap. US 76
Miles today: 11.7

Drop off rental car at Dicks Creek Gap. Drive our car to Tray Mt Gap. We took off at 9:00am, a cloudy day. Now we¢re on top of Tray Mt at 0.8 miles. Very cloudy day. Can¢t see a thing. Sounds like the story of our trip. Some snow on the ground but dry. Took some pictures. We are at the turn off to Tray Mt Shelter at 1.3 miles. Didn't go. Had a little snack at Steel Trap Gap at 2.8 mile at 10:34am. No snow down here in the gap. Just a few people out, kind of quiet on the trail today. Beautiful day, just cloudy, windy and cold. Other than that, it¢s really good. We stopped for lunch at Sassafras Gap from 12:35pm to 12:50pm.Now we¢ve moved on to Addis Gap. It¢s 1:19pm at Addis Gap. We¢ve gone 6.6 miles and its cold today. It¢s cold and cloudy. Talked to a guy with a dog in and out hiking. Just passed a couple from Springfield, MO. They like to hike the Ozark Trail in Missouri. They¢re down here for a 10 day section hike trying to get to Springer Mt. Heading south from Deep Gap. We got to move on. It¢s cold and we¢re ready for the car.We¢re on top of Kelly Knob. Nice, steady climb up here by Cindy, she did a good job. Taking a breather. Cindy tried to use her cell phone. Doesn¢t seem to work down here in Georgia. Just saw one more guy heading down the trail. He¢s heading to Springer, doing a section this week. The sun is trying to come out, but no way. We¢ll have to wait until tomorrow for better weather. I think its above freezing now, so it¢s not miserable. We¢re at Kelly Knob at 2:00pm . We put down the tarp to rest. We¢re leaving at 2:19pm. We¢re taking off. A guy comes up and starts talking to us. His name is Toro. He lived in Chicago but now lives in New Mexico. He¢s section hiking to Damascus from Springer. We waited for his 4 friends who were behind him. They are thru hikers. One is a brother and sister. One is Famous Shoes; another is the Rambler (brother) because he talked too much, originally from Massachusetts but now in CA. His sister was the Dealer who lives in AZ. The other guy has a lot of different names, real name Tim. He seems like a character. Tim¢s folks are from IL, they went to Champaign, U of I, and one is from Peoria. We had a real nice time. They¢re going down to Dick¢s Creek Gap and catching a shuttle somewhere tonight. Toro, after he gets to Damascus, is going out to the Continental Divide Trail and hike at least a couple thousand miles he says. We¢ve got a mile to go we think. It¢s 3:42pm. We¢re going thru a nice Mt. Laurel tunnel. We¢re on a downhill stretch to the car. We¢re kind of beat. We¢re anxious to get there. The sun came out for a total of 30 seconds today. But we had a nice day and enjoyed it.It¢s 4:22pm. After walking a mile we¢re not at the car yet. It looks like we have another mile to go. It¢s been real steep downhill. The temperature is nicer, but we¢re getting tired.It¢s 4:55pm at Dicks Creek Gap. A long day. We¢re glad to be here. Feet hurt a little bit and glad to be done. Looking for a hot tub tonight. That would be good for the muscles. After hiking, we drove around Hiawassee, Ga. Checked out Mulls motel and saw some hikers there from the trail. We got our mini-van from Tray Mt Gap and drove on to Franklin, NC and stayed at Country Inn Town motel (stayed there before). I backed into their mailbox, leaning it to 45 degrees. We saw some hikers there that we would see again on the trail the next day. We heated up some delicious canned soup in our room for supper.