Date: 2015-03-23
From: Unicoi Gap

To: Sassafras Gap
Miles today: 10.4

Monday, March 23The left knee feels great and it is time to hit the AT at Unicoi Gap, GA.   Delivering me to the trailhead, the shuttle dropped my pack, me, and another hiker from Illinois. It is a chilly but very sunny morning. Climbing up in the first mile to the top of Rocky Mountain (yes we¢re still in Georgia, not Colorado, I met four young ladies from Dartmouth College. The AT in Hanover, New Hampshire is a centerpiece of Dartmouth¢s outdoor programming. We as ¢older¢ hikers may certainly learn from these young ladies, too: as they passed each white blaze that marks the AT, in unison they called out ¢Blaze!¢ so that they could maintain their course on the trail. I was pleased to make their group photo just down the trail from the summit.As I walked northward I encountered the boulder field that brought back a memory from a day hike here a few years ago. On that blazingly hot Georgia day in August, some of the A-Team members (Jeff Miller, Shauna Nefos-Webb, D. J. Dycus and I) hiked from Unicoi Gap to Tray Mountain Shelter and back out. On that particular hike I met another type of ¢hiker¢ on the AT---a timber rattlesnake. It was large, had nine or ten buttons on its rattling tail, and was more than mildly disturbed that I had very unintentionally but successfully disturbed its time in the summer sun. I was more than pleased that it did not extend its ¢hisspitality¢ to me this time in 2015.Down in Indian Grave Gap it was time for a lunch break. I met Marie who is a recent Clemson graduate. Also, Full Throttle and Grasshopper (section hikers from Delaware) hiked in, and it was a real pleasure to see them after missing them for a few days. I joined them in the climb up Tray Mountain and at Tray Mountain Gap, we were heartened to find that Grits, a thru-hiker from 2009, had grilled hot dogs (the aroma in the early spring air was divine and reminded me of the hot dogs at the ballpark), chips, and drinks for us. This would be a ¢second lunch,¢ for which we were quite grateful as we still had more climbing ahead and five or six miles to Sassafras Gap to camp for the night. Caruso Fire and his son, Colt .45 (West Virginia) were here, too, as was a young man who is attempting to hike the trail barefooted. That certainly solves some boot, sock, and blister issues, but perhaps creates a new category of other challenges (e.g., bear scat, mud, ice and snow). THANK YOU for this wonderful trail magic!Several of us passed on staying at Tray Mountain Shelter (although from past experience it is a good shelter with a good water source) and we continued a trek that was mostly level (by Georgia AT standards). The Minnesota Twins tented at Steeltrap Gap. At Sassafras Gap I met Tom (Indiana) who is a wonderful gentleman (over 80 years of age!), who is returning to backpacking after an absence of a few years. He shared that his wife had some health issues, but was doing much better now in assisted living. Tom was visiting family here in Georgia and was getting off the trail at Dicks Creek Gap. Thanks very much for the visit, Tom, and you are an inspiration to me and others, too!On the Mutual of Omaha Wild Kingdom or Wild America report (I am showing my age here), some other hikers who tented here saw a sow boar and her three piglets down the hill at the creek that is the water source for this site. Amid shrieking cries of ¢barbeque!¢, ¢bacon!¢, and ¢pork chops!¢, the boars casually dismissed a bunch of unarmed but hungry thru-hikers and went about their boar business.It is time for another dehydrated dinner selection and on to bed. This winter sleeping bag has been hot at night, so I¢ve been using it more as a quilt to cover me. I have a feeling however, that this bag will encounter some colder conditions up the trail.This has been a good day and ¢good night¢ from the wilds of North Georgia.