It was yet another cold start to our day. We were dropped off at Unicoi gap. We pulled up and saw several hikers getting ready to set sail for the day. I saw Jake, who I walked with the night before. He was facing the street and not the trail. He didn’t look well at all. I asked him if he wanted a ride into town with my pops. He said he already called someone and was waiting for them to arrive. He said his feet were in bad shape. Especially one. It was black, blue and red, and had cut that was opened as well. I asked him what he was going to do. He said he wasn’t sure. He was going into town to figure things out. He wasn’t sure if he was going to return to the trail or not. I’ve always heard if you ever feel like giving up, take a day or two off, before throwing in the towel. I shared this with him. I wished him good luck and told him that I hoped to see him again. He said the same.
I felt good this morning so I flew up the mountain at the start of our stretch. I passed quite a few hikers along the way. I stopped and talked to several of them for a few minutes. I met Needles. She got her name because she sewed. She said it’s a good thing she didn’t knit or she might have been called Hooker ?I met Pringles. She got her name because she polished off a can of Pringles before dinner several nights in a row. I met G Man. He loves a lot of things that start with the letter G. We saw Evo who was now called Evolution (as if Evo wasn’t a cool enough name already, right?)
Larry caught up with me after a few hours. Said he was running down hills to catch me. He yelled up the hill “break time”. So I stopped and waited for him. We sat for a quick bite to eat and drink of water. Then got back up and headed up the hill. We passed a spot in the middle of no where alongside the mountain where someone setup some Gnome figures. With so much focus on pack weight its hard to believe someone would carry little figurines with them and set them up in the middle of the woods. It was kind of cute though? Then we came across a tree that looked like Bigfoot tried to kick down. He wasn’t successful but he left his big ole foot print on the side of the tree though.
We finished our 17 mile day at Dicks Creek in Hiawassee, GA. This was the last stop before heading into NC to check off the completion of our first state (GA). My pops picked us up and we stopped by a Mexican restaurant for dinner. Well into our first week on the trail people were starting to get their trail names. One that seemed to be sticking with Larry was Woody Harrelson. A bit long and not that original he thought the name of one of his movie characters would be better. He thought Haymitch (from the Hunger Games) would be better. We walked into the Mexican restaurant and the hostess asked him “has anyone ever told you you look like Woody Harrelson?” We laughed. It became official. His trail name is Haymitch.
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