March 22nd on the trail

3/22/01

This morning we woke up to sunny skies and a light breeze. Yea!! The wind machine is off for now. We broke camp fairly quickly, Creeper was on the trail by 6:55 a.m. and I started around 7:15 a.m. It took me 45 minutes to catch up to Creeper with an all uphill climb. He's getting faster! We arrived at Unicoi Gap around 9:30 a.m. (a four lane road crosses there) and proceeded to stick out our thumbs to hitch a ride to Helen, GA, about 9 miles down in the valley. It took 17 minutes before we got a ride. I found this experience disheartening and frustrating! First of all, it's a strange feeling having no car to drive, and secondly, the 17 minutes watching cars go by with people not stopping seemed like forever to me. Guess I've still got a lot of big city time table in me and I'll have to chill out and lower my expectations of quickly getting a ride. Oh yes, I have to remember that we're in America, where everyone is conditioned by the media to live in fear of everything and trust no one.

Anyway, we got picked up by a small pickup truck, Creeper rode up front, I rode in the back with the packs. Man, talk about a chilly ride! But I was grateful anyway. We made it to Helen just before 10 a.m., got dropped off at the Visitor's Center where June had kept our food drop boxes safe for us, then walked a half mile with our heavy packs (6 days food pickup) to the Helendorf Hotel. We checked in, then proceeded to empty our packs to clean and dry out all our gear. The room looked like Little Havana after a tornado, but somehow we managed to get everything in order. We then walked to the laundromat and washed our clothes. While at the laundromat, we ate our last trail lunch (takes a lot of willpower to eat hummus on a tortilla with a Wendy's right next to the hotel!) and met "Powerbar" from Mass., an older gentleman thru-hiking. After laundry, we went back to the hotel, made a couple of phone calls, worked more on drying our gear.

By now, it was 3:00 p.m. and we still had to refuel our bottles for our stoves AND go to the post office, both before 5 p.m. Out came the thumbs again. We stood in downtown Helen for 15 minutes trying to get a ride. Interestingly enough, the sheriff drove by and shook his finger at us, gesturing that we were doing a no-no, but he didn't stop. We later theorized after talking with other townsfolk that we didn't look like thru-hikers without our packs and with clean shaven, showered, towns clothes appearance. All these towns are used to thru-hikers hitching a ride.. I guess I'll have to work on looking grungy, wearing a do-rag, etc. so the sheriff will approve next time! Anyway, an old, old, old lady finally picked us up. She told us to get in the back. As soon as she started driving, she promptly told us she doesn't normally do this and what we were doing was illegal. After our formal scolding, she dropped us off at the outfitter. When we walked in to get our fuel, we were greeted by Mary at the cash register. I didn't realize it unil today, but there are thru-hiker groupies out there! When she found out we were thru-hikers, she latched on to us like a tick on a dog! Very nice young lady, she helped Creeper with another piece of clothing so he could add weight to his pack since he felt he was too light (ha ha), and we got our fuel. Then she borrowed her boss's car to take us back to the hotel, waited for us to get our bump box ready to mail to ourselves at our next town destination, and drove us to the post office. She was a real trail angel! She promised to pick us up at our room after she finished work at 6 p.m. if her own car would start, said she would take us to the restaurant, pick us up later, then would go drinking with us.

"Happy Mary" never showed up at our room, so at 6:30 we hitched a ride again from downtown Helen to the outskirts of town to eat dinner at the Nacoochee Grill. We saw Mary's car sitting in the parking lot next to the post office, so we knew her plans must have changed (she had been out until 4 a.m. last night with another thru-hiker she met yesterday). This is how we decided that Mary must be a thru-hiker groupie! It was just as well as we were exhausted from running around town all day. We had another great dinner at the Nacoochee Grill as we had before starting the trail, and our new friend Brian Shaw who works there and had offered to give us a ride into town if we called was working there. Brian is a great waiter (comes naturally and has a real love and enthusiasm for the AT). After we finished dinner, we had a photo taken with Brian. We then asked if he knew of any customers about to leave the restaurant we might be able to catch a ride with back to town. Instead, he went to the back of the restaurant, came back in a minute or two, and handed me the keys to his car! Holy cow! Talk about trail magic! He said he'd get a ride to our hotel after work and to leave the keys under the car at the hotel. The aura and magic of the trail and the warmth and generosity of people in these small towns is simply amazing. Brian, if you read this on the website, thank you so much for your tremendous generosity to a complete stranger and for making our evening in Helen so great! I'll catch up with you after I reach Katahdin in Maine!

After catching a quick beer downtown, we headed for the room for a good night's sleep. We have two major mountains to cross tomorrow morning. Today's statistics; Low: 30 degrees, high 62 degrees sunny. Miles hiked 4.2; cumulative 50.7.