I didn’t sleep well. I don’t know, maybe sleeping on the floor in a public bathroom had someone to do with it? My feet hurt from the 20+ miles we hiked the day before…barefoot, uphill, both ways in the snow. Oh wait that’s what our parents used to tell us they did when they walked to school, right? ? Ok so I wasn’t barefoot, we did hike over 20 miles, it was uphill mostly, it was snowing, and it was the highest point on the entire AT. I tossed and turned all night. It didn’t help CoCo was snoring most of the night too. Which echoed off the bathroom walls and floor ?
We all got up around the same time. Luke made us coffee, I supplied the power charger for phones, and CoCo supplied the, well, of course, chocolate bars for breakfast. We got ahold of our shuttle driver for pickup. She said the road was still closed so she wouldn’t be able to get us until they opened the road about 2pm. The funeral I needed to attend started at 4pm…and it was 3 hrs away (plus I needed to take a shower still). So 2pm wasn’t good at all.
As I mentioned, we stayed in the lady’s room vs the men’s room. I wasn’t sure why other than it might have been a bit cleaner. We were glad we chose the lady’s room though. At about 9am while we’re looking like hobos in the bathroom, a young lady barges in. I don’t know who was more surprised…her or us! She thought she entered the men’s rooms. We quickly explained what happened and that we’d get out of her bathroom so she could “handle her business.”
She came out and we chatted more about our evening and explained we were waiting for the road to open so we could get picked up. She said she and her boyfriend stayed at a shelter the night before, they had a SUV parked there, and could take us down the mountain. Nice! We grabbed our stuff, hopped in their ride, and chatted with several truck drivers who were there to clear the snow off the road. They agreed to drive in front of us and dump dirt / salt in front of us so we could dive down safely. Nice. I should have taken some videos of this. So many strangers coming together to help us get off the mountain.
We got to the bottom and they let us out. We thanked them and offered them money. They refused. Strangely our shuttle driver was in the same parking lot waiting on us. With sausage biscuits and donuts. The road was still closed so we’d have to drive around. This added another 45 miles to our trip. There was a landslide a few weeks back and they were still working on the damage caused to the roads. We sat and traffic and waited patiently. I wondered…could anything else possibly get in my way? ?
While waiting the shuttle driver and I talked. I told her I was running a business while hiking the AT. She told me I was crazy for trying to do so. She said in all of her years of driving people around to and from the AT she’d never heard of anyone trying to do such a thing. I stuck out my hand, she looked at me puzzled, took my hand, I shook it and said, “Hi, I’m Wolverine, now you have.” ?
I got back to the cabin, showered, got dressed, and ran out the door to head to Dahlonega for the funeral. Around 5pm I got a text form my mom questioning my where-a-bouts and reminding me it started at 4pm. I just chuckled. If you only knew what I had been through in the past 24 hrs I thought ?
I arrived to the funeral home and walked in. Though it was a very sad reason for myself and everyone else to be there, it was so wonderful seeing everyone. This was a friend I knew since middle school. He was a neighborhood friend. We grew up together. He was a part of our Cardinal Lake family. We had such an amazing childhood growing up in this neighborhood. This was evident by how many people showed up from our neighborhood to celebrate his life. Jamey Edmondson was such an incredible human being. A fellow Libra, I could really really relate with. So smart, witty, kind, creative, and giving…he helped so many people, in so many ways. His sister said it best, “if only he saw himself as the rest of the world saw him, he’d still be here today.” This is so true. Though we lost touch over the years, I never forgot the fun times we had together. You will be truly missed my friend.
Some of the neighborhood friends posed for a group photo before we sat down for dinner at a nearby restaurant. We caught up with one another and shared memories of Jamey for hours. We paid our tabs our parted ways. I headed back to the cabin to get back on the trail the next morning. I got back around midnight and crashed in my bed falling fast asleep. What a day I thought, what a day…
Leave A Comment