Day Twenty-four

Last night I met a young girl on my way back from dinner at River’s End. She asked to bum a cigarette. Yes, I’m still smoking, I know. She was drunk. She said her name was Stacey and she’s been back packing with her boyfriend, Jared. He’s been making her do 15-20 miles a day and they’ve been fighting. They’ve not been staying in the shelters, but have been camping every night by themselves. They weren’t staying in base camp by camping in the campground at NOC. She called her dad and he told her he would fly her home. She also told me her little boy lives with his dad. Then she wanted to know if this was the right thing to do, meaning if this hike would help her find answers about herself, if it would help her clear her mind so she could know what to do with her life. She broke my heart.

I hugged her and told her if she wanted to sleep in my room tonight, there were three empty bunks, I had the room to myself. I told her I would be on my porch until dark. Then I met Jared. I didn’t like him. He just came across as one of those overbearing, domineering, egotistical, controlling assholes. She didn’t come to my room. He probably wouldn’t let her.

I said an extra prayer for Stacey last night that she gets stronger and realizes that “you gotta hike your own hike.”

I left base camp at 8 a.m. and realized I didn’t buy any coffee, tea or cocoa. Damn!

What was I thinking?

Met a couple of guys who were doing 20 miles a day and not enjoying it. Go figure. I’m enjoying myself. Today I have seen pine trees and pine cones. All I saw in Georgia were little baby pine trees that just looked like pom-poms among the rest of the foliage. I saw a raspberry bush with one red raspberry and another bush with lots of round green berries. I have no idea what they are. I’ve also seen a bunch of rust colored anthills. I haven’t seen any ants. I wonder if they’re big, black ones I’ve seen before. Also, someone or something has been hollering all morning. Sometimes it sounds human and sometimes it doesn’t. I’m steadily moving away from it so I’m not worried. I think it was a ground squirrel.

 I’m also hearing the train whistle.

It took me 9 hours to hike 7 miles up 3000 feet. That includes the stop for breakfast, so 8 hours. No one passed me on the trail so I knew I would be spending the night by myself. When the shelter came into sight, there sat Booger Bob and Zigfoot. I couldn’t help myself, I started crying…

Then came the comfortable banter. They said it was raining when they got up, so they decided to stay put and it rained all day at Sassafras shelter. They were making bets on whether I’d show up or not.

We all ate. Zigfoot got the weather report for the next day and they figured it was 9 miles to the next shelter. I’d bought Bob some candy bars at the Dollar store and he gave me cocoa mix. We got water and hung our food. Bob smoked a couple of my cigarettes. It got cold and I didn’t warm up until late in the night. I should have changed out of my damp clothes, duh.

A family of 8 moved in right after dark. They set up tents and made a fire. They were really nice this morning. When they came in, I woke up and had to pee, of course.

Well I thought they had enough light for me to see so I didn’t turn on my head lamp. I tripped over the side of the shelter and fell into a patch of wet grass and leaves with a big Ooof! I warmed myself by their fire this morning before I left. Nice family.