Date: 2004-03-06
From: wood's hole shelter

To: goose creek cabins
Miles today: 4.1

i woke up around 11 last night when ashtray wandered in with his dog, which was mistaken by sweating pig to be a bear. well after that, i realized that i had to pee like you read about. eventually i got up the courage to put ross's "trainers" (shoes) on and leave the tent. fog everywhere and the bear cables were in between me and my pee spot. i was positive after sassafras mt that my peeing expedition was going to be interrupted by a hungry bear, frantically jumping for my oatmeal and cheddar soup. so, it took a little whining and coaching but i made it out past the cables and squatted. mid-stream there came a huge gust of wind which nearly knocked me over, and most likely knocked my pee onto ross's "trainers". shh don't tell. got back to the tent only to be kept up by the storm. i swear that wind meant to take the tent with us in it. damn natural forces ruined my beauty sleep. morning rolled around and it was still raining as the shelter thinned out. ross and i were still sleepy, though, so we lingered in our bags a little longer, giggling at ourselves for being so damned irresponsible. the rain thinned out and we decided to make a purpose of our laziness and wait for the sun to dry our gear. good thing we did, it was perfect by noon. we took our time sorting camp, talking with the two hikers who came in to dry around the time we finally emerged. by the time we ate, packed, filtered our water, and made the 50,000 mi trek from blue to white blazes, it was 3pm. 3 hours later including a nice stop on blood mountain, and we were at the walasi-yi center. ahem. i was charged over $60 for a pack cover, some aqua mira for ross, some snacks, and a stick of lip balm. they offered to go through our packs to see if we needed to buy any gear. it was a free service, of course. sanford and midas were there and staying in the adjoined hostel. midas came over for a chat while he was doing laundry and when we asked about the cabins at goose creek, he said that the guy in the center seemed to think that you had to stay a 2 night minimum, the pricing was up in the air, and it was generally fishy. ross had stayed at the cabins a few years ago, so we knew it was poppycock. hogwash too. ross called the goose creek office, but had to leave a machine message, so we wandered around confused for a bit before deciding to have the guy in the center call goose creek. turned out that the shuttle was on its way. five minutes later and we were saying goodbye to walasi-yi for the night. the folks there were nice and all, but their business strategies towards hikers were just a little cruel for my tastes.sarge ripped around the curves in the road as he quizzed us about hiker volume, his eyes widening with the story of our last hour's experience. he's a thru-hiker and despite his white hair, hikes a thousand miles every year. he comes up to georgia from texas every spring to offer a hand with shuttles to his friend keith bailey, who was waiting for us with a grin when we walked in the door and past the stuffed and posed lion. sarge waited as we worked out our stay with keith, who offered us the 2 br cottage on the hill at a discount for $25 each since it was so late in the day. we happily agreed and sarge drove us to the top of the hill. we walked across the porch and into a nest of hiker-chic decor. paneling, mallards, framed feathered braves, orange on armchairs, silk zinias, and even a chianti bottle candle holder. perfect. ross made dinner from his care box from burn after we took showers and sent our laundry down with sarge. a real bed tonight, by some truly top shelf people. if you come through this way and want to be treated as family instead of revenue, call keith and retter at 706-745-5111. they'd love to meet you.