I woke up and checked to see what time it was. It was 5am. The sun was not up yet, there was still an hour before that would happen. I pulled my bear bag down as quietly as I could and went about the business of breaking camp. By 6am when everyone was beginning to stir – I was ready to head out. I had made the decision during the night that I would not be escorting The Cop the remaining 10 miles he needed to cover in order to get off the trail. While I felt for him and wanted him to make it out safely – I had to be a little selfish. I had 16 miles to cover to make it to the next shelter. And it was a tough day…it started with a lot of descending which can be harder than going uphill, especially if your feet are blistered. It was uncomfortable because I could tell he was sitting (still in the shelter) thinking “what the heck?” and I was obviously not holding up my end of our gentleman’s agreement.
I hiked off telling myself that it wasn’t like I had left him alone, there were other people at the shelter and most of them were hiking to the same spot he was aiming for – Unicoi Gap, where the trail crossed Hwy 75 taking you 9 miles into Helen. I spent the first couple of hours of my hike justifying having left The Cop behind but in the end I decided that I came out into the woods alone and I didn’t expect anything from anyone…no one should expect anything from me. But that wasn’t entirely true, I had relied on so many people along the way if for nothing other than knowing there was another human being nearby. I hope The Cop made it out though I would end the day without knowing…and feeling a little bit like a jerk.
When I came out of the woods at Unicoi Gap, the highway seemed like the surface of the moon. There was nothing but a gravel parking lot along the side of the highway. A few clusters of hikers sat scattered in the gravel sunning themselves. I passed two young kids and asked if they were hiking. They said they were looking for a ride into Helen. I sat down by myself in the middle of the parking lot. Not long after I had stripped my socks off to air out my feet The Swiss Family Robinson came out of the woods. They sat down near me (on their little, perfect blanket seats) and began eating their lunch. They were waiting on a ride – they were coming off the trail before the bad weather was supposed to hit. I sat there chatting with them. I really liked them – they operated as a unit and they were just all so comfortable. This was easy for them. I asked if I could buy any bars (power bars) off them because I was out and had resorted to making myself peanut butter, sunflower seed and raisin burritos (ok, now I am gagging). They fished around and gave me a couple and I began putting my socks back on.
Just then a pickup truck pulled up and two guys jump out of the cab. I can just hear the old man driving offering one of them some words of wisdom as they grabbed their packs out of the back. It was a lucky break for the two kids waiting to hitch into Helen – the two guys jumped out and the two kids jumped in and everyone was happy. The two guys joined us in the parking lot. We all chatted a bit and asked where everyone was heading. I told them I was planning to make it 6 miles over the top of Rocky Mountain and Trey Mountain to the Trey Gap shelter. By then they had both cracked a beer and were saying they too planned to get to Trey Gap. The thought of a beer before climbing these mountains in the heat made me giggle. These guys were jokers. I tied my shoes and headed up the mountain. There was no sign of The Cop.
I was halfway up the first of the two mountains when I heard something coming behind me. I looked back and was SHOCKED to see they guys from the parking lot. I mean, I hike pretty fast and watched them drink a beer (or three) before starting. Regardless, they made some snarky comment and I liked them instantly – so I jumped in behind them and we made our way toward Trey Gap together. The weather was moving in and we were racing the storm to get into camp. We finally saw the sign for the shelter and hiked in. I was telling The Guys my dream – that no one would be at the shelter and I could set my tent up IN the shelter and let it dry out. It had been wet for days. As we came around the final bend, it became apparent to us that someone else was living my dream. There was a family (of some strange sort) set up in and around the shelter. They had THEIR tent in the shelter. They had other tents set up all around the shelter. Two little girls, maybe 10 years old, ran up to great us wearing princess crowns. What the hell is going on here? I immediately asked The Guys if they were also seeing the fairies. We hiked straight on past the weird family and found a little spot to set up camp.
(Side note: I am struggling with what to call these guys because I actually learned their real names. They were the only people on the trail I had called by their actual names. But out of respect for their privacy – I need to give them nicknames. One is easy…Mr Grumpypants. The others is more difficult so I will just refer to him as The Guy until something better comes to me. Stick with me, Reader.)
We set up our tents on a clearing and made dinner. Mr Grumpypants and I tried to make a fire and were successful for approximately 4.5 minutes, during which time one of the fairies wandered up and stood staring at us. “I like smoke,” she said. Ok, creepy. It was too wet and the rain was picking back up. There was not going to be any campfire…in fact, we were going to be forced into our tents at 4:30 when the rain began in earnest. We sat in our tents yelling to one another. Poor Grumpypants brought a tent straight out of Charlie Brown…it looked like a tarp over a string. From what I saw of Grumpypants, he was not really enjoying his time on the trail – but if you saw this tent, you would understand why. He was getting soaked. It could not have been fun. The sky darkened and the storm hit us full bore. We were in tents on the top of a mountain in a thunderstorm. We giggled and screamed (like girls, all of us) as lightning struck and thunder clapped literally on top of our heads. It was both terrifying and, for whatever reason, hilarious. The storm eventually blew over and only the rain continued. We were stuck in our tents for the night with nothing to do but go to sleep. And so we did.
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