April 18th – Unicoi Gap to Deep Gap Shelter
Total miles on AT – 13.1
Elevation gain – 3555ft
Elevation loss – 2855ft
Weather: sunny and warm

Lew “Train” paced around incessantly last night and this morning while I busily tried to get a blog post off – a nervous pace, as if he was about to play the most important game of his life. Yes, he missed his wife of 40 years, but he was also having trouble being out of his routine. At almost 66 he’d been doing the same thing every week since he was a young man. Now newly retired he was having trouble going to bed and getting up without facing what he knew from day to day.

“Have you ever seen that movie Shawshank Redemption?” he asked me. “There’s one line that really sticks with me. ‘Get busy living or get busy dying.’ Well that’s what the trail is for me. I just want to get back out there but I don’t know what is going to happen to me. I don’t know if I’ll be strong enough to do the miles or if I’ll get injured. I just want to get back on the trail and get back to it.”

He paced around some more and then apologized thinking that he might be distracting me.

“You’re going to tell everyone you had this roommate in the Hiawassee Budget that wouldn’t sit still.”

“And you’re going to tell everyone that you had a roommate at Budget Inn that wouldn’t get off his iPad,” I added. “That reminds me of a Shakespeare quote, “Do not go quietly into that gentle goodnight. Rage, rage against the dying of the light.” He acknowledged with a nod although I had incorrectly given Shakespeare credit for Dylan Thomas’s work. Then I ate a whole bag of Milano cookies for breakfast. The 9am shuttle couldn’t have come any earlier for Lew.

I ran into a fellow hiker outside and asked if he had slept well. “No,” he said. Two rabbits got into my room.” I waited for an explanation.

“Two rabbits?” And then I finally understood he was talking about a male and a female roommate who decided to share the same bed.

I headed out for the 11am shuttle driven by the man who drove the mini van yesterday with that wretched front license plate I mentioned in my last blog. He had a confederate flag tattooed on his right arm to boot. And he hated life.

“Is there an 11am shuttle today,” I asked him at the front desk?

“Everyday,” he answered impatiently as if I’d asked him five times already today.

We stopped at Dicks Creek Gap first where we dropped off a lovely young couple from west Texas out on their first trip and picked up a couple people who were headed back to town. One of them was Juju, a 50 year old woman who was going to take a zero day in town because of a blister.

Trail magic was waiting for me back at Unicoi Gap – a church group had set up a hot dog and hamburger stand with all sorts of goodies for all hikers. I chatted with some of them and signed their book. There was a space where you could put down something that they could pray for and I put down my dad’s health.

I caught up with Lew at the end of the day at Sassafras Gap. He was camping with two other older men. One of them was having knee trouble.

“Bone on bone,” he told me. “The VA told me I need a knee replacement.”

The other guy’s pack rode low on his butt. The two of them quit the trail the next day.

April 19th – Deep Gap Shelter to Muskrat Creek Shelter
Total miles on AT – 15.4
Elevation gain – 3799ft
Elevation loss – 2801ft
Weather: warm and sunny turning overcast

I out-hiked everyone but one other person today, a 40 year-old man from Newington, CT. I mean it when I say I don’t prefer to out hike everyone. It’s like walking into a house full of strangers at camp and tonight was particularly cliquey. But getting to Gatlinburg by April 28th for Mike’s bachelor party weekend keeps pushing me along.

At Dicks Creek Gap – more trail magic. A woman whose husband died last November was running a snack stand at the road side. Her husband thru hiked in 2010 at the age of 63. It’s getting to the point where if hikers don’t see trail magic at a road side they are greatly disappointed.

I spent the afternoon hiking with Juju whose blister is doing better after a day off in town. Juju is recently divorced and has a youthful face for a 50 year old woman. We found the ups and downs of the last few miles in Georgia a little aggravating. We did not run into anyone else – the trail has thinned out considerably in the past few days.

We took pictures at the GA/NC border and then I left her at the border in the care of a few other friendly thru-hiker faces before tackling another 900 feet vertical on route to Muskrat Creek Shelter.

The privy was unsettlingly near the water source and a good rain will wash much of its content into the small little creek where hikers fill up.

This was the first night I had to set up my own bear bag line as every shelter in Georgia had bear bag cables. I threw my bag over a tree branch attached to some string and sealed it off to the shelter sign right on the AT pathway. I was happy to get inside my tent as little biting black flies had made their presence known for the first time on the trail. It was a warm evening and I hardly needed my sleeping back until the late hours of the night.

April 20th – Muscrat Creek Shelter to Long Branch a Shelter
Total miles on AT – 21.1
Elevation gain – 2444ft
Elevation loss – 2777ft
Weather: warm and sunny

I recognized specific parts of the trail today from my 200 mile hike 19 years ago. One of those places was the steep incline before Albert Mountain – the steepest climb yet on the trail. And another was along a stretch of path surrounded by rhododendron near a shelter that no longer exists.

I had intended to go only 12.5 miles but I got it in my head that it would be a good idea to leave a short day for tomorrow so I could catch the 11am shuttle to the Budget Inn in Franklin. So I pushed it and did 21.1 miles. It was probably too much.

I camped up the hill from Long Branch Shelter with the West Texas couple, two guys from Maine, and another couple that were both in the Marine Corps. They were all real nice and I enjoyed their company.

As it got dark I noticed something that I hadn’t noticed before. It looked like a procession of candles all the way up a mountain in the distance. Forest fires! – we haven’t had a drop of rain since I’ve been out here. They had been burning throughout the afternoon and we watched as they morphed and grew. I must say I got a little worried. My companions thought they were 30-40 miles off but I wasn’t so sure. I slept very little. My knees were sore and I worried that I had done too much that day.

At 1:30 am I got out of my tent to check on the fires. They had died down some and no longer stretched up the mountains, but a few sections still burned down closer to the valley.

April 21st – Long Branch Shelter to Winding Stair Gap
Total miles on AT – 7.3
Weather: mild and mostly sunny

My alarm went off at 6:00 am. It was still dark. I needed to get going so I could catch the 11am shuttle. Despite the least amount of sleep so far, I got my earliest start. I passed two southbound day hikers who said that the trail was closed after Rock Gap, just a couple of miles ahead, due to the fires. I saw the flashing lights of the forest ranger’s SUV at Wallace Gap. He told me that the the trail had reopened. He wasn’t sure how the fire had started but helicopters had been working on it since yesterday and they flew up above me as I climbed up and over to Winding Stair Gap and US 64. My toe hurt a lot on the way down and I was very excited to get off the trail for 24 hours to get much needed rest.

I was picked up by Ron from Budget Inn. I felt like I was on a paid tour as he told my fellow hikers and I everything we needed to know about maximizing our R&R time in Franklin.

I’ve learned a lot from Ron. He seems like a regular old hillbilly when you meet him, but he is one of the more eccentric people you will find and a friend to all hikers. He was a pro wrestler and married a woman from Los Angeles. His son speaks four languages: English, Spanish, French, and Cherokee.

A number of us celebrated at a brewery in town where it started to rain for the first time since I’ve been out. I caught up with hikers named Red Dragon, Danger, and Brew, among others. I told them about my plans to get to a bachelor party weekend in Gatlinburg. “You’re the bachelor! We’ve heard about you!” Damn it, my new friends Sassy, Honey Badger, Friskie, The Chef, and Burrito-Hammock had given me the name “Bachelor” back in Hiawassee and I guess it had stuck!

My roommate for the night, Living Proof from Newington, CT and I both downed a pizza each at the motel. Heading towards the Smokies again tomorrow.

Week 1 Totals
Miles: 102.5 (avg. – 14.6)
Elevation gain: 17,016 (2431)
Elevation loss: 16,677 (2382)
Avg start Time: 10:05 am
Avg finish time: 5:46 pm
Total time hiking: 44:20 (6:20)