The Green Dragon – Hostel Heaven

The morning at the Blue Mountain Shelter was probably the most beautiful sunrise so far. It was a crimson sun shooting up from behind the mountains in the distance and bathing the forest in blood red light.

You couldn’t ask for a better motivator to get out of your sleeping bag than a beautiful morning. Well, that or the promise of a rest day at a hostel. Today was finally the day we arrived at Unicoi Gap and stayed at the Green Dragon.

The arch support inserts Jessie had gotten at Neel Gap had formed hot spots on her arches where they rubbed. The previous 14.7 mile day had turned those hot spots into beautiful and quite substantial blisters.

The positive way to look at things was that today we only had to walk 2 miles downhill to get to the ferry area. The negative reality was that the descent was absolute agony for Jessie and it was clear that it was going to be one of the hardest days yet.

I had enjoyed walking in my camping flip flops so much the day before that I decided to do it again this morning. What I didn’t exactly expect was to end up carrying both backpacks for the last mile. Jessie’s blisters were rubbing so much that I wanted to carry her backpack to at least take some of the weight off her feet. It’s very tough, but blisters that bad would destroy anyone.

The combination of walking in flip flops and limited visibility due to a bear canister in the face is not a combination I would recommend. I limped behind Jessie trying my best not to stub my toe and get out too. We finally arrived at the Unicoi Gap parking lot.

There couldn’t have been a better morning to welcome some trail magic. Admittedly, the blisters were affecting morale, but just as we approached, a father and son duo approached us with coffee, fruit, sweets, and other small snacks.

Their trail names were Possum and Jumanji, and they were as sweet as can be. A small group of hikers from the section also gathered and one of them struck up a conversation with Jessie.

I looked away for a moment and Jessie walked up to me with a big smile on her face. «I have a trail name! It’s Duckie because I have flat feet!»

There you have it, you get debilitating blisters on your arches and your name becomes Duckie for the next 6 months. However, he’s cute and definitely fits Jessie’s personality (the being cute and friendly part, not the flat-footed part).

Shortly after, the shuttle for the Green Dragon arrived and Donna (the lodge owner) was patient as we were all very reluctant to leave the magic of the trail behind and hop into the Ford Explorer.

However, there were absolutely no complaints once we arrived at the hostel. The location was a small, quaint house on the outskirts of Hiawassee, Georgia. The place was clean, the atmosphere was cozy, and most importantly, they had showers.

Over the previous five days, Jessie and I had reached a new level of not smelling very good, so the thought of a shower was enough to make a man cry. I picked out some borrowed clothes (hence the sick clothes we were wearing) and jumped straight into one of the open showers.

Because of how good I felt afterwards, I believed in his The showers pumped holy water. I might as well have undergone a baptism. Jessie came out a little later looking much more relieved and happy.

One of the many benefits of having family on the southern section of the AT is that they will drive to us for lunch in town. My mom and dad picked up a lot of first aid for blister care along the way. Now we just have to hope that it really helps heal his feet. We won’t get very far without treatment.

We had heard about a place called Bronco’s that was right across from Hiawassee Ingles. Dear God, this little restaurant delivered. I can’t tell if it’s because this was our first genuine meal out of the way or because it was actually that good, but I felt like they had an anonymous five-star chef behind the grill.

We had many moments of gratitude today. Even just 6 days of depravity makes you grateful for modern society (well, at least for the restaurant and grocery store).

After our first resupply, kindly provided by my parents (thanks again), we had to return to The Green Dragon and try to fit five days’ worth of food into a bear canister.

By now many familiar faces had already appeared. It was quite strange to see everyone in a clean state, without veils of sunglasses, hoodies, hats and dirt. They all had the same “thank goodness” glow after the shower.

It was quite a social afternoon watching everyone put their equipment in order. An hour watching people put soap on their air mattresses to find leaks reinforced our decision to stick with closed-cell foam.

It’s clear everyone is falling into their element and the excitement is palpable. Now we just have to get Jessie’s feet to stop blistering and we can really start moving. We may end up taking a zero day, or at least a day close to 0, for it to recover.

We might split up for this section and find the next space, which doesn’t feel great, but we’d only be separated for the day. She would ride to Dick’s Creek Gap, where there is a campground just a half mile away, and rest there while I completed the section between there and Unicoi.

It would be a 17 mile day for me through the section described as “the punk a** bi***” of the hike. However, if Jessie is on the other side, I will have the right motivation. We really don’t want to break up, but we have the unfortunate deadline of time and money for October. Falling too far behind our average mileage early on can come back to haunt us later.

We will make a final decision tomorrow morning. The best case scenario is that the showers actually had holy water and his feet are completely healed!

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