3/27/01
Last night in the bunkhouse holed up with Dave, Kellie, and Doodlebug was fun but short...we were all in bed before 9 p.m. except yours truly who was journaling. Sometime around 1 a.m., I awoke to the noise of Dave trying to re-stoke the wood stove, so I got up to help. The fire had burned completely out and there were no coals, and Dave only had large pieces of split wood and newspaper. I, being the brave Eagle Scout, left the cabin dressed only in my hiking shorts to collect twigs and branches to get the fire started. Seventeen degrees feels cold on bare skin, but it was worth the five minutes of shivering to keep the cabin warm for the duration of the night. After we got it started, I laid in my bunk for what must have been 30 minutes wondering if the tiny room had a carbon monoxide detector or not, in case we didn't operate the stove properly. Obviously we didn't have a problem or I wouldn't be writing this very moment!
Before going to bed we all put our food in the refrigerator in the room just in case a hungry mouse was a resident. When Dave opened the fridge, there was a chocolate meringue pie in the fridge with one piece gone. It was too nice a temptation to resist, so I had a large piece. Everyone else declined, waiting to see if I dropped dead during the night. This morning Dave and Kellie chowed on it for breakfast since I was alive and well. Doodlebug, Creeper and I all got up to the store at 9 a.m., paid our tab and rode in the pickup truck up to the gap where the trail crosses. Creeper and I reached Hwy. 64 by 10:30 a.m. and began our hitchhiking routine to Franklin. There were very few cars going by and the statistical odds were against us. About the time I got out the cell phone to try and get a signal to call a taxi, a gentleman picked us up and dropped us off at the post office in downtown Franklin.
As we were picking up our food box and bump box, we ran into Thor, who was a day ahead of us and was taking the day off in town. With him was a gentleman who gave us his card and told us how to get to his office when we were ready for a ride back to the trail! We moved to the far side of the post office, away from the crowd and sorted through our packs for items to be mailed to Wesser in our bump box as well as extra food to be mailed back home. The sheriff came in the post office while we had our junk everywhere and offered us a ride. He was kind enough to wait for us to sort everything out, mail our boxes and he then drove us to the office of the gentleman who earlier offered to take us back to the trail. Mr. Rich Bankston, trail name "Skunkcabbage", a realtor in Franklin, very kindly left the office, took us by Wendy's to get lunch, then drove us the 10 miles up the mountain to the trailhead. We were hiking by 1:40 p.m. Amazing! I know Mr. Bankston will read this so I want to say again thank you for being a great trail angel and for the wonderful trail magic you performed today! As an aside, he is often shuttling hikers to/from the trail and just as he dropped us off, two hikers emerged from the woods to the road and he gave them a lift back to town.
Everything was just ducky when I somehow turned my right ankle (rolling the foot) twice instantly while hiking. At first, I thought it was broken, but I now believe it is only a mild sprain. It hurt like hell and I had to tough it out the next 4 miles, but we made it to Wayah Gap by 4 p.m. and found a campsite. Amazing how you can hike 105 miles without falling or injury over 4 foot snow drifts, ice and mud on the trail, roots and rocks, then screw up on a flat section that is rock, snow, ice, mud and root free! Oh well, as they say, "no pain, no rain, no Maine". Tonight "Preacher" from Florida and "Sea Wolf" from South Boston, VA are camping with us. Both are older gentlemen thru-hikers who do low mileage but are having a great time and make great company. I prepared their garlic and vegetable soup as an appetizer for all four of us and we shared stories until the sun went down. Another wonderful day on the AT! Tomorrow we'll try to do big miles to get over a series of 5000 foot peaks as we hear heavy rain and T-storms are in the forecast tomorrow night and Thursday. We're now a day ahead of schedule since we didn't take tonight off in Franklin. Happy trails! Gimpy. No, still Rabbit...the foot will get better when we reach Wesser and I have a weekend with my spring bride to celebrate our 11th wedding anniversary! Rabbit
Whoops, forgot the stats! Low, 18; high 45, sunny. Mileage 9.0, cumulative 112.7
