Bama to Baxter, Day 22: Meeting people on the trail who weren’t hikers

I slept well last night. I ended up sleeping in a separate room from Hot Tang and Two Meals because I was planning on waking up a couple hours before them and I didn’t want to disturb their sleep. Since I had packed the night before, all I had to do was get dressed, go to the bathroom, and walk out the door. The hike back to the trail junction where I left off yesterday took about 15 minutes and I was officially on the trail at 6:15am. I like walking in the dark, especially in the woods, but the first part of the trail today was more walking, so I had to be alert. No vehicles passed me before I reached the trailhead. Once I was on the right path the climbing began, but it was gentle and the trail was of excellent quality so I was still able to maintain a good pace. About an hour later, I found that I was getting bored with my own thoughts, so I logged on to a podcast that a friend back home had recommended. The podcast worked and I soon found myself in an altered state. Because my eating and drinking are regulated by the timers on my watch, I don’t really think much while hiking; my mind can wander to anything, and it usually does. Unfortunately, this morning I was still thinking about what awaited me during the day. I knew there was a big climb before reaching Mulberry Gapp. I’m struggling on the climbs because they slow me down a lot. There’s not much room for ego on the road. Each episode of the podcast is about 45 minutes long, and I was in the fourth when I ran into three people who had just arrived at an ATV unloading area and were getting ready to ride quads. I have to remember that in real life there is still a difference between weekdays and weekends, and it was still the weekend, and they were out for what they anticipated would be five or six hours of work in the woods. As I usually do, I asked them where they were from and what it was like growing up there, and what they do for a living. Before I knew it, my watch was beeping to ask me to grab a drink, and I used that as a cue to continue north along the trail. After that, I put on some music and started looking forward to my lunch stop a couple of hours early.

Most of those two hours were uphill and I was really clicking in that section. Before I knew it, my watch was telling me it was time to rest. I found a nice embankment next to the trail that had a fallen log on it, so I took off my pack and got ready for lunch. I checked cell service. It had a couple of bars, so I called ahead to Mulberry Gap Adventure Center and reserved my tent site for the night. Unknowingly, I hadn’t been paying attention to my mileage, so while I was on the phone, Tori, who had answered my call, asked me, «How long until you get here?» I told him I expected to arrive between four and five. She let me know that if I arrived after five, I would have to register and explained the process. After the call. I ate my lunch and checked FarOut to see if water was available. Well, that wouldn’t even matter because I was already 15 miles into my day. Mulberry Gapp was only 5 1/2 miles away. Since I had been able to fill up with water just before stopping for lunch. I still had almost 2 liters left and I could finish the day’s walk with what I already had.

After lunch, I found a section of the trail where a developer was building some very nice and cool mountain houses on a hill. It kind of destroyed the wilderness aspect of the trail in that section, but it would be hard to argue that the houses weren’t beautifully built in their surroundings. Someone had taken their time on these designs. At first, there were just a couple, and then, as I continued along the trail, I encountered several more. They became even more noticeable as I progressed. At a bend in the road there were four houses arranged so that they all had different views and suddenly the path left the gravel road and returned to the forest.

Shortly after, I met up with my first group of mountain bikers, five in total. I had been planning to see them since I read that Mulberry Gap specialized in mountain bike tours. The first team I learned about later that day was a group from Ontario, who came every spring for mountain riding. According to their descriptions, their part of Ontario was quite flat. The second group, of three runners, was from Tampa, Florida, and pretty much the same deal. They had been friends for many years and chose a place each year to go to the mountains and ride horses in the hills. The third group was just a couple. I didn’t understand where they were from nor did I see them that afternoon at Mulberry Gap. I also took advantage of this time to call my mother. I promised to call her every Sunday while I was here. I got the full update on his life events from the last week, we talked about my existence on the road, and then he had to hang up the call because he was getting ready to go to a friend’s birthday party.

Before I knew it, I had reached the gravel road I would take to get to Mulberry Gap, which FarOut had listed as a 0.6 mile side adventure. Luckily, it wasn’t just a trail. It was actually a gravel road, and just as I started to go up the first hill, a guy in a pickup truck approached me, stopped, and offered to take me to the adventure center in the bed of his truck. I accepted with joy in my heart, because I was tired from walking that day.

After I was dropped off at the entrance to Mulberry Gap, I found the registration area, and Tori checked me in and explained the lay of the land. He also introduced me to a couple of people who would be staying the night; They were two of the Canadians I had met earlier on the road. Mulberry Gapp turned out to be a very, very nice place to stay. They offered sites for tents or cabins, or if you had your own caravan or car, you could get a place with water and electricity hookups. While it was known for its mountain biking, Tori informed me that many families were simply coming to get away from the city, since that city was Atlanta. Once I arrived at my campsite, I set up my tent, aired out my sleeping bag, hung up the clothesline, and then sat back and relaxed for a minute. I arrived at 3:00, so I had some free time. I ate some food left in my fanny pack and drank one of the soft drinks I had bought at check-in.

For the rest of the night I showered, ate, and talked to my wife and kids. I was also able to check out the camping arrangements for the three Florida mountain bikers. One of them had a very interesting tent on the roof of his Toyota Tacoma with a very utilitarian stainless steel bed cover. One of the things I want to do when I get home is build some kind of little camping kit, so I took notes of what he had to say. Once it got dark, I headed back to my campsite, made sure everything was ready for the morning, and crawled into my sleeping bag at 8:30. It had been a long day and a lovely evening. I am grateful.

Happy trails…

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