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As we hiked, the day warmed and we were able to shed layers. As always, I was absorbing a lot of the Sherpas’ body heat, so I could get very warm. We stopped for our lunch break at a place about a mile or so from the trailhead where Honey and Bear were to meet us. Sean decided that the Clemson crew would eat their Mountain House meal, then be able to eat something else that Honey and Bear might bring. While we were taking our breaks we met Sassafras and Gray Eagle. We also met an ATC ridge runner who keeps a check on the trail and the people hiking it. And Honey hiked up from the parking lot to meet us. She brought bread and meat that the Clemson Crew and Hopper dug into. She said that she had started off hiking with Bear, but that his legs just couldn’t do it. He had had the cheese and other things. Tuesday was his birthday so they had a birthday cake that he wanted to share with all of us. Honey left us before we broke our lunch camp. She wanted to go back and check on Bear.

Sassafras was a retired educator. He had grown up in the country and they had done lots of hiking and camping as children. As an adult, he had married and had children—daughters. He didn’t do much hiking during that time, but always wanted to do the Appalachian Trail. He had done some practice hiking the previous summer with his grandson, who planned to join him this summer. The grandson was in high school. Sassafras got his trail name because he had always loved sassafras. He said that he swung back and forth between confidence and feeling overwhelmed and doubtful. He wanted to help us by doing a rotation, but was cautious about his ability. We encouraged him and said that anything that he could do–even a minute—would help us. So we got him into the harness and me onto him and away we went, after packing up from lunch. He did just fine. He was tentative at first, but then found his legs and confidence. He was a sweet, gentle spirit who lightened our loads in more ways than one.

Gray Eagle came along at about this time, too. Gray Eagle had just retired from the USMC and a job in Washington, D.C. I didn’t get to know much about him. The carry was harder for him, so he did not talk much. He did do a whole rotation with us but it took much out of him. He sat down to rest after that.

We saw both Sassafras and Gray Eagle on the trail the next day. Gray Eagle acknowledged us. Sassafras did another rotation with us. We would have one more set of people help us with a carry the next day, Wednesday.

When we reached the trailhead where Honey and Bear were waiting, we could see that Bear was pretty done in. His legs had just given up on him and he had had to go back to the parking lot. He was resting in a plastic chair. They put me on tail gate and we all had carrot cake and celebrated his birthday. He enjoyed visiting with the kids, especially Lindsay. We decided to get a ride over a couple of miles so that we could make it comfortably to Gooch Mountain. We needed to rendezvous with Heidi, Sean’s wife, around there the next morning so that she could pick up Nate and the Clemson Crew could get its resupply. At this part of the trail, the road would not be patrolled, so the kids were able to sit on the tailgate. Bear drove with Saint and me in the front. Sean, Honey, Hopper and Nate sat in the backseat. At one point we heard a yell. Philip had fallen off the tailgate but had not been hurt. This was also where Jimmy picked up some trail magic—a Coke that Bear had left along the road for anyone who was thirsty. It was around here that Bear also stopped to pick up trash from people who were camping. He and Honey often that did, which was a great help to people so that they did not have to carry out all their trash.

They dropped us off and it was a race now for a place to camp. The weather was turning. There was danger of strong storms, thunder, lightning and hail. We wanted to try to get to shelter before things hit. This was when the students really, really came into their own. They felt the urgency and did longer carries than normal. Our “mile or so” to the shelter wound up being longer. As we thought that we were getting close, we could hear the thunder getting closer. It was time to switch, but Philip did not want to take the time. He wound up doing the longest rotation of the week at that time. He brought me safely to the shelter and got me out of the carrier so that I could sit down.

There were not enough places in the shelter to accommodate everyone. Smooth was there and offered me his spot downstairs, offering to go upstairs. But going to the bathroom through the night, which I always have to do, would be problematic. It was my call and I said that I needed to sleep in the tent.

The problem was where to put the tent. The area around the shelter was already quite filled with tents and there wasn’t much level ground available. The ATC had a couple of volunteers, staying at the shelter and helping out hikers: a man and his wife. I didn’t really meet the man. But the lady’s name was Mother Nature. We had a chat and she told me about her health issues. She had been told by doctors that she should not and really could not hike. But she was still doing so because she loves it. When she learned that we were looking for a place for our group to camp, she said that she would take us to a place nearby that was secluded and not open to regular camping. This worked out wonderfully for us. It was so kind of her—we had a nice place to ourselves. We took extra care to Leave No Trace.

During that night, we experienced a strong storm. All that had been predicted—short of a tornado—hit. The kids were playing cards at first in Lindsay’s tent. But as the weather got really bad, the guys gave up and fled to their hammocks. They got wet but were so exhausted that they slept deeply. Fortunately, it didn’t get as cold that night. I was thrilled by how well our tent stood up. We were snug, warm and cozy in our tent all night. After a few hours, I gathered that Big Agnes would come through, so we were able to sleep well.

It was still a bit raw in the morning. We put on our rain gear. I noted that Philip, like Hopper, had Rain Togs. The others had variations. Mother Nature came to check on us that morning and gave us a chance to thank her once more. Then we made a stop by the very nice privy. I have become something of a connoisseur of privies. The ones at Katahdin were lovely. They were my first encounter and were wonderful—very clean and spacious. The ones at Debouille were pretty dreadful—really dirty and unpleasant. This one was fine. And it was to be our last for this stretch of the hike. A couple of the guys carried me in using a fireman’s carry. Then Hopper helped me pivot and sit. From there I could manage on my own until it was time to be carried back out.

We needed to meet Heidi by 10 a.m. Since we were quite close, that was not a problem. In fact, we were early. It was still cool and damp, so the kids sat me in a sheltered spot and made a little windbreak for me of a raincoat. Heidi came along with the Mountain House meals and a box of doughnuts that the crew devoured. She took Nate with her so that he could attend his swim meet on the weekend. She had a chance to meet Hopper. And I asked her if she could help me by finding an accessible place to stay for a while in Clemson. She said that she would be leaving town in a day or two, but she would see what she could do. We had realized that Sean had left his phone in the Clemson vehicle that was at Springer. So he was using Hopper’s cell phone to communicate. He had also brought a separate camera that he used to take photos. Heidi did some sleuthing and did find us a place to stay. She belonged to Airbnb and went that route. I had never really paid attention to that before. She did some digging and found a great, ACCESSIBLE place in which we could stay. It wasn’t easy to find because it wasn’t listed for the start of when we needed it, but Heidi did some sleuthing and make it work. We’ll have much more to say about Airbnb in upcoming blogs.

Sunday, March 19, was D-Day minus one. We were to meet the entire gang, most of whom we did not know. We got a message from Hopper that she would be arriving around noon, driven by her sister- and brother-in-law. But before she arrived, there was a knock on our door. We opened the door to an older couple: It had to be Honey and Bear, and it was. They came in and we had a bit of a visit. Honey is rather hard of hearing. Bear wanted to know what they could to help me. We really couldn’t think of anything. They offered to make a Walmart run for us. I thought that it might be wise for them to wait until Hopper arrived.

Hopper and her in-laws arrived a bit early. These are relatives through Hopper’s marriage to Mike. We had time for a little visit, although the room got pretty crowded. Hopper put down her pack and hiking poles. Then pizza arrived. Honey thought that people would be hungry, so had ordered a pizza to be delivered. She was thinking that the leftovers would feed the Clemson group, who were supposed to arrive around 2. It was such a kind and thoughtful thing to do. But a single pizza would not go far with hungry college students, particularly after five people had eaten from it.

We took the pizza out into the breakfast area where we had a chance to visit a bit. I was entrusted with the remaining few slices for the kids. Then Hopper’s in-laws headed out. Hopper and Honey and Bear set out to do a little shopping. They were concerned because there had been some reports of ice on the trail. And no one had ice cleats. They went off to try to find some and get other things from Walmart. They couldn’t find any cleats at the outfitter in town—as Hopper said, he was more a tourist outfitter than a hiking outfitter. So they called another outfitter (at Neel’s Gap?) and learned that that one had cleats. So Honey and Bear were going to go buy some. They had barely set off than Sean and his student group arrived.

I asked the woman at the front desk if we could spread out the content of the packs in the breakfast area so that we could do a pack shakedown. She said that we could not block the lobby. I said that we would be careful not to do so and that we would put back the breakfast room as we had found it.

So we met the Clemson Crew. They are Brad Bradley; Jimmy Knott; Lindsay Costin; Philip Gee. We would learn a great deal about them on the following days and come to admire them greatly. But for now we were focusing on how to pack what they needed to take.

We would be two packs short. I did not have a pack. And the person carrying would not have a pack. That meant that each pack would have content for more than one person. Hopper had bought a new, larger pack made of cuben fiber so the pack itself was light but very strong. She managed to carry most of the gear and such for Saint and me. But we had the risers for the cot that needed to be distributed: one set weighed about five pounds, and we had five sets, so each pack had one set. Thus the packs wound up being around 45 pounds or so. This is much heavier than a typical thru-hiker would want to carry. And, unlike with the Katahdin climb, there would never be a time when someone was not carrying something heavy: if it was not me, it would be a heavy pack. So people got no respite. We knew before we started that the small number was not ideal—having one or two more people would have made a huge difference because then the rotations would not have been as frequent and each pack would have not been so heavy. This was born out through experience.

Hopper took over with the pack shakedowns. Sean had done some work with the group before they came. Now Hopper had them empty their packs and went through each one with them. She also had them bring in my pile of gear and spread it out. I didn’t have to go through a real pack shakedown because Hopper had already done it with me many times over when we had weighed and listed everything that I might take. For the kids, though, it was eye opening. Hopper didn’t just tell them not to bring something: she explained why it would be an unnecessary luxury. She worked with the guys first, then took Lindsay, our lone female, off to the side and went through her pack with her. Soap, mouthwash and deodorant were all luxuries that people were told to leave behind. So were multiple changes of underwear. Hopper told Lindsay that she could always turn her pants inside out. The kids noted that they would get smelly. Hopper explained that everyone would acquire “Hiker Funk” and so it wouldn’t be noticeable. The Clemson group had a four-pack of toilet paper that got distributed. And they had a mountain of Mountain House meals that a company named “Campmor” had donated. They had food for Sunday through Wednesday, when Nate would leave us. Heidi would come pick him up and the Clemson gang would get its resupply then. So we had a definite place we had to get to by 10 a.m. Wednesday morning, when Heidi would arrive at a trailhead.

Hopper next instructed the kids on how to pack their packs—what should go in the bottom, what should go on top. She talked about pumping water and bear bags. She also asked about camping experience. None of the kids were hikers. Philip had done some camping. Jimmy is in ROTC, so they go out for field exercises on weekends and will go out for two weeks this summer. I don’t believe that Lindsay or Brad had ever camped out. For all of them this was going to be a huge stretch. But they were game.

After they had their packs packed with their items, all the packs needed to take a set of bedrisers. (There were five sets.) Someone had to take Saint’s food. Hopper took most of my things: tent, cot, air mattress, food, clothes, miscellaneous. This made for a heavy pack for her. She said the first time that she had started hiking the AT, she had weighed 110 pounds and her pack weighed more than 55. She had since learned to pack much lighter.

As they packed, I got a chance to talk a bit with the kids and started to figure out who was who. Nate, because of his experience, and Sean didn’t need pack shakedowns. The Clemson Crew were very interested in me and Saint, what our goals were, what had brought us to this point.

After we left Maine and really New England in general, the highway driving changed a good deal. We recalled that the interstates were really built for commerce—so that tractor trailers could move goods. Most of the highways were two lanes wide, with sometimes passing lanes on hills. Often we were one of the few cars on the road. It wasn’t unusual to be boxed in by trucks. The trucks generally drove really well. But it could be a bit unnerving. Some of the trucks were tandem tractor trailers, so that made driving even more interesting.

We noticed other things in our driving. Maine has a billboard law. Many of the states in our travels did not. That billboard law really does a good job of preserving some of the natural beauty of the land. Maine (and apparently many New England states) must also have a law against adult entertainment stores. We had them in Michigan and North Dakota. But I don’t recall seeing them in Maine or New England. Perhaps that hearkens back to the blue laws and puritanical standards. But with the Internet, I wondered why people would need such stores.

After Pennsylvania, we were in Maryland and then West Virginia for a very short time. We did see a sign for Harper’s Ferry and gave a shout out to ATC and to Pete Roe. But we plugged on. Finally, we entered Virginia and after a bit, came to our destination for the night: Troutville, Virginia. They had been so nice before we even arrived. I had forgotten to cancel one of my nights staying there. They called me on the night of March 16 at around 10 p.m., asking if I would still be arriving. I was appalled that I had forgotten to contact them. I apologized profusely. Since they have a 6 p.m. cancelation policy, they could have easily charged me for the night of March 16. But they did not do so.

I got an education at Troutville. They are experiencing some construction, so actually getting to them was a bit of a trick. I don’t always think of Virginia as the real South, but it clearly is. The woman who called to check on us on March 16 and the woman who checked us in sounded very southern. And she described the extensive breakfast offerings, including sausage gravy and biscuits—true southern fare. It was raining in Troutville. The weather for our trip had not been fantastic—drizzly and cool, but no snow or ice. Our room had an outside entrance, but we were able to unload without too much trouble. The next day was to be a pretty short day—only about five hours to Dahlonega. When I had talked with Sean that Monday, he had suggested that Saint and I stop by on our way to Dahlonega. We debated whether to stay in Troutville for two nights. The room was very reasonable. The room at Dahlonega was much costlier. But we thought that it was probably wise to try to arrive on Saturday and then have that night to rest and catch our breath before meeting up with the rest of our team on Sunday.

Sean had suggested that we stop by to see him on our way to Dahlonega. He said that he was only about 90 minutes from there. So we decided to go slightly out of our way to visit briefly. We started off on Saturday morning in drizzle and 40s. But the weather improved as we went. We drove more in Virginia, then North Carolina then into South Carolina. We got to Sean’s in the early afternoon.

Sean welcomed us cordially. He had met with the Clemson kids that morning to go over information. He wanted to welcome us to his house, but had underestimated how inaccessible it was. It looks like a lovely colonial—with lots of steps. He had some skate board jumps that he got out of the garage, but they were much too steep. He had no planks and couldn’t borrow anything appropriate. So we sat outside for a visit. Saint and I both had some water. We met more of Sean’s family, too. We met his youngest son, Nate, who was going to go with us for three days of the hike. Nate is 15 and quite fit. He and Sean have done a lot in Boy Scouts together. They spent a couple of weeks this past summer doing an extensive hike in New Mexico. I’m not sure why Nate wanted to take part, but he was game. It would be a challenging environment for him, since the next youngest person would be 19 going on 20 and a college student.

We met Sean’s wife, Heidi, who had been napping, but came out on the steps to see us. And we met their dog, who is a Catahoula Leopard Dog. We stayed for a couple of hours, learning a bit more about Sean and Heidi’s backgrounds. They both grew up in Utah. Heidi works from home. The house is close to a lake—the one on which the movie “Deliverance” was filmed. That’s a movie in which some mountain men kidnap a group floating down a river in the south and abuse them. Probably just as well not to share that fact with the folks at home who were already worried about Saint and me.

The trip from Sean’s to Dahlonega was supposed to take a couple of hours. One thing that we were learning about the South was that almost any paved two lane road was called a highway. So we went on a lot of “highways” to Dahlonega—but no interstates. I still use my Garmin, much to Sharon’s chagrin. She much prefers Google maps on her iPhone. I should have listened to her. Garmin took us down something called “Sandy Bottom Road.” They weren’t kidding when they called it “sandy bottom”: it isn’t paved. Yet Garmin expected us to go 30 mph. No way. Then we came to a one-lane bridge. I was beginning to wonder what kind of place Dahlonega could be. But it’s a good-sized place with a number of hotels/motels, restaurants, shopping. It’s quite a tourist draw. It claims to be the site of the first gold rush in the United States.

We were happy to find the Holiday Inn Express, on a hillside. The weather was cool and very windy. We were also happy to check and find that our room was still reserved (some were being turned away). We asked if we could leave our van there while we hiked. The lady at the desk said that that was fine but the Holiday Inn would not be responsible.

The inn itself was overrun by hikers. There were a lot of young people, particularly young men, clad in hiking clothes. Saint and I did not exactly fit the stereotype. We wondered if people would be surprised that we are hikers.

When we went outside to get a load from the car, we heard someone call “hello.” Although I couldn’t imagine that we would know anyone there, we turned instinctively. There was Miss Janet, a lady whom we had met at the ALDHA Gathering. Miss Janet takes care of hikers—shuttles them from place to place, feeds them at a hostel, is a trail angel and does some trail magic. She asked if she had not met me at ALDHA. I said yes. She asked if we were preparing to start our hike and again I said yes. She asked if Hopper and Honey and Bear were around. I said that I expected them tomorrow. She said that Honey and Bear had been around for a while. She had been up to Springer recently and had just missed them doing some trail magic. She asked if they were staying at the campground and I said that I thought so.

I told Miss Janet that we were to meet our first hiking group, a team from Clemson, the next day. I told her that we did not have a team lined up right away for after that. She said that she had some ideas for that. She said that she would like to be there when we started out. She said that she had a friend who cannot walk whom people got through Georgia last year.

It was nice to see someone so supportive and nice. She didn’t manage to catch up with us for the start of the trail. When I mentioned seeing her to Hopper, Hopper said that Miss Janet probably wound up tending some hikers—that’s what always happens.

In our next blog I’ll talk about meeting Honey, Bear, Hopper’s in-laws and the Clemson Crew; pack shakedowns; and our exciting first week on the trail. So please check back and in the meantime, please remember that It’s All About the Journey.