Bud and Vicki Hogan's 1996 Appalachian Trail Journey
May 24
Neels Gap to just past Hogpen Gap.............................................................6 1/2 miles
Everyone had talked about the Walasi-yi Inn being really nice to hikers. We waited for over an hour for them to open the store so that we could pay them for last nights lodging.
Vicki, Taz and I were the only ones there that morning to pay for our lodging. Everyone else had already gone. The clerks took our money, then seemed to be having a difficult time figuring out how many hikers had stayed the night before and if any of them had paid for their lodging the day before, or if they had just skipped out early without paying. All of the clerks seemed to be ticked off thinking that some of the hikers hadn't paid, yet here we were trying to get some assistance and were virtually being ignored or given very short, curt, answers and very little help.
We found out that we had just spent the last night in the hostel before it closed for the season. We asked about help shipping some of our extra weight home and we couldn't get any help from any of the three people there. We were not happy campers. Here we were, the honest, good guys, who hung around to pay for our lodging and we were being treated very poorly! We asked if there was some place we could leave our packs while we all headed into town and we were given no help. We asked if we could just leave our packs in the hostel, out of sight while we were gone and we were told that it was being locked up for the season. The best offer we got was to leave our packs laying outside by the trail, "probably nobody would mess with them," we were told. THANKS FOR NOTHING, FOLKS. I was so ticked off after this that I refused to buy anything from these people, and when Vicki saw something that she wanted to buy I made the very strong suggestion that we shouldn't spend one penny more at this place. I hope that their other cutomers get better service from these guys than we did..
We waited outside for Don to pick us up to go into town. We stuffed three full packs, and four full grown people into a small, white, Ford Mustang with red interior. We were holding sleeping bags in our laps just to be able to fit everything in. I was still pissed off. Got into town, mailed junk home, bought groceries, ate pizza. Had a great time. It felt strange being in a car, how would we feel after 6 weeks?
Got back on the sweaty, muggy trail around 1:00 pm. It cooled off a little with some gentle rain. Passed Tesnatee Gap, steep ascent out of it, as usual. Started getting dark and we weren't close to a shelter. Started looking for a campsite. Just passed Hogpen Gap found a spot, didn't look to good. So I ran ahead without a pack to scout for another spot. Went about a mile, found a better place farther away from the road (we had read not to camp by a road). Ran back, got Vicki and pack and started back up the trail again. Reached the selected campsite. There was still light, so I decided to run up the trail again and see if I could find a better place. Came across another place that already had a camper in it. Said "hello" and told him to come visit us later on. Went back, set up camp. Was cooking dinner when we were visited by our neighbor from Seattle. It is interesting how you make "instant" friends on the trail. You all share the same common experience of being hikers. It's a great place to be.
Water abounded throughout Georgia due to recent rains. Hills were straight up, straight down. Beautiful green, few views, but the views you got were panoramic. The rocks shot through with mica broke the monotony of the daily hike, also, we noticed that each Georgia hill had its own differently colored species of millipede. Whoever started out in front each morning had to hold their hiking stick out in front of them to clear the cobwebs from across the trail, and to clear the inchworm silk, with many worms still attached. Vicki swore if she would just stop to collect all this silk, by the time we reached the end of our walk in Damascus, she'd be able to knit a sweater! Very interesting, hearing the worm droppings fall from the trees into the leaves beside the trail. It sounded like light rain, there were so many of them doing their dropping, and I do mean dropping! We had to stop every so often to inspect each other for the little critters. Once we had to pick a different place to eat lunch, to get away from the worm droppings falling all around us and on us. That's Georgia.
That night it rained. Our tent didn't leak. I'm a happy camper again. Late that night as we drifted off to sleep I was shocked awake by an unbelievably loud animal call. I bolted upright in my sleeping bag by a noise that sounded like it was right outside of the tent. I held my breath, was it a bear, was it going to attack? I was waiting for it to roar again. And then it did. Just an owl. But it must have been the biggest owl in Georgia to make a hoot that loud. Go to sleep.
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