Despite falling asleep quite late last night, I slept well and woke up easily to the alarm clock at 5:30. I just wanted to go through my things and maybe eat something before Chris picked me up at seven. I was also able to write something this morning to finish my entry from yesterday. So the plan for today is to ride with Chris back to the point where he dropped me off yesterday and then hike about 20 miles north to a tent site that will take us right before we have to climb our first set of mountains in Georgia.
He knew that Two Meals and Hot Tang were camping under a bridge on the way, so he hoped to catch up with them. The first part of the road to Coosa was literally on the shoulder of a divided highway, so there was plenty of room and not much traffic. It was a good walk. AND . . . Chris turned around and surprised me with my first magical trail, a breakfast waffle sandwich with chips. I was able to text with Hot Tang while he was on the road, so I told him about my plans for the day. We agreed to meet at the Dollar General in Coosa and continue from there to our designated stopping point for the day. I took the time to walk calmly to call my youngest daughter, my oldest son, and my mom and then put my phone away to save battery. It was about a 5 1/2 mile walk to a crossroads that didn’t really amount to a big city, but there was a Dollar General Market about a half mile up the road and we would need to resupply for the next 4-5 days in Dalton, so I headed to the Dollar General.
When I got to the Dollar General, I went in and bought a bottle of Mountain Dew to drink with my breakfast cookie. Outside, I took off all my gear, sat down and enjoyed a breakfast biscuit, as you can only do in the South. It was delicious. Thank you very much Chris. Just as I was finishing my sandwich, Two Meals and Hot Tang arrived. They left their backpacks and went inside to do their resupply shopping. Remember, they are much more experienced than me. I cleaned up after breakfast and went inside, trying to mentally choose what I would need for five days of hiking and four nights of dinners. I quickly found the food I chose for breakfast and then went to the frozen section to find the Uncrustables that I’ve been eating without any problems so far along the way. Horrors, not Uncrustables. They didn’t have squeeze tubes of peanut butter and jelly. I would have bought those and some wraps as a second option. So I chose my third option for lunch: a single-serving package of Spam with a cheese stick or two and a small bag of nuts. I was able to find all of that in abundance. Then I picked up my snacks and headed to the boxed dinner aisle. I had to decide my options on the fly as I thought I would be eating dehydrated or freeze dried dinner packets the entire trip, but I ran out a couple of nights ago and don’t have another resupply box until Amicalola Lodge, so I’ll be making meals on the fly.
Finally, I had everything I thought I needed and I went out to organize and pack my food. My fellow travelers were already packing so I started to rush but then I realized they hadn’t eaten yet so I relaxed and organized things the way I like them.
We had to backtrack a half mile to the trail and then continue for a couple more miles of road before the trail changed to an unpaved trail. We followed that for another eight miles to our intended campsite. I arrived before the others and began looking for a suitable place to set up our tents. When Hot Tang arrived, he joined the search. I didn’t like our prospects here, so out of curiosity, I checked to see if there was an Uber available to take us the seven miles to Summerville, GA. I had looked for hotels when I was in Cave Spring, so I knew we could get accommodations. And the weather forecasts for that night and the next morning didn’t look very promising. I had never used Uber before, but my youngest son gave me a tutorial the day before I flew to Birmingham.
Luckily for us (because we were literally in the middle of nowhere), a passenger accommodated our request; Two Meals had 17 minutes to get to us before the driver arrived. I sat by the road while Hot Tang stayed at the trail junction in the forest to lead Two Meals. Just as I heard the car on the road, I heard Two Meals’ voice telling me he was on his way. We had a quick trip to the motel and got settled in quickly. There wasn’t much around us, but there was enough. Hot Tang immediately took a shower and ran to Subway. Two Meals and I waited a bit and went to the restaurant across the street. The food was delicious and plentiful. When we got back to the motel, I took the Uber driver’s advice and booked a ride for the next morning. We scheduled it for 9:00 am to avoid the possibility of persistent precipitation. We all went to bed thinking we were ready to get back on the trail in the morning.
Happy trails. . .
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