Day 9, Tuesday, February 20. Dicks Creek Gap—11 miles

We watched some of Jake’s videos on UTube before going to bed. I highly recommend subscribing to his UTube Channel—Jake Hikes. We found out during the course of the day that he has finally gotten a trail name; Hot Sauce. And we get a cameo in his video from Neel Gap to Tray Mountain. He even said we were good people. I like this alter ego that comes with a new trail name.

Jake has been ordained as “Hot Sauce”

We got our earliest start of the trip at 8:15. We were motivated because we have decided to spend the night at Top of Georgia Hiker Hostel at Dicks Creek Gap. It’s a good thing we had that to look forward to because today was another heads down hiking day. As has become usual for us in Georgia, it was raining and cold after an all night rain.

Could this be evidence that Big Foot has made it to northern Georgia?

We did meet one hearty guy out for a short 20 mile run. He’s just getting his legs warmed up for a 60 mile run this weekend and a 100 mile run later this spring.  We both said the same thing as we parted each other—“what you’re doing doesn’t look fun to me.”

Best of luck to this long distance runner who passed us twice on his 20 miles “light run”

There were a couple of decent climbs today but none more than 1,000’ so I don’t understand why Bunny and I were dragging so bad. I guess we still haven’t lost all of our winter fat stores. I tried toughing out the day without “vitamin I” but gave in rather early on and took 600 mg. The rest of the day I had no problems. I wish I could say the same for Bunny. She struggled all day until Squirrel lapped us.

Snap, who through hiked last year, and Squirrel who gave us trail magic with a ride to town

Squirrel put in at Dicks Creek Gap to hike back 5.4 miles to make up a section he missed earlier in January. He started hiking January 5 but got froze out after 11 days. He is just returning to the trail now. He walked with us the final mile and a half and then gave us a ride to the hiker hostel. As luck would have it, we had just missed the last shuttle into town so Squirrel stuck around while we got checked in and gave us some more trail magic in the form of a ride to town.

It’s easy to see why the AT is often called the “green tunnel”. How beautiful would this be with the rhododendrons in bloom
We were soooo ready for Dicks Creek Gap

We had a little over an hour to eat, get a USB battery pack, and get groceries before meeting the return shuttle. Once back, we showered (glorious hot water falling from the sky) and laid everything out to dry overnight. We are sharing a room with Indianapolis Lindsey and a woman from Bavaria, Germany that goes by Packers. There are already 15 hikers in the hostel so the season is beginning.

I got chocolate on my peanut butter—I’m cutting back on snacking on dark chocolate and just take it in my main course

We got a bit of a shock tonight once we got connected to Wifi. Bunny’s Aunt Joanne died yesterday morning. She was a very sweet lady and we are feeling a bit down. Our hearts go out to Uncle Harvey, Carol, Charles, Wendy, and all the grandkids. She will be missed by all.

Probably the last we’ll see of Lindsey as she is in much better shape than we are at present

EFG

4 thoughts on “Day 9, Tuesday, February 20. Dicks Creek Gap—11 miles”

  1. Looks like you are making good time and having more fun doing it than you did across the pond.
    It’s raining here as well and is really sloppy but we’ve got three good days maybe coming up.

    1. We were interviewed by Zen at Gooder Grove Hostel. It was a 16 minute video of just us. As soon as it get’s posted to UTube, I’ll let you know.

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