Day 4: Unicoi Gap to Addis Gap

After the 14 mile excursion yesterday we decided not to hike 17 miles today. the new "plan" was to evaluate at Tray mtn (4 miles) or Addis gap (12 miles). About half a mile from the Tray mountain parking lot a nice lady fighting to keep her dirty girl gaiters on her hiking boots said there was some really great trail magic up ahead. Sure enough, a Boy Scout troop from Baldwin, Georgia had set up a breakfast feast: pancakes, eggs, juice, milk, and Gatorade. Well, after eating pancakes I couldn't very well call for a bailout at Tray Mtn, so we kept walking.

Met a few other thru hikers at the hiker feed, most of them young and fast. They were complaining about a weekend hiker at the shelter who passed a kidney stone last night. His agony kept everyone awake, but apparently he was ready to go this morning. Glad we weren't there.

We saw a hiker taking a break on a log, looking thoroughly dejected. I asked him if he was hiking with Donny (aka pipes), thinking maybe this was the lost hiking partner. He was not, but said he stayed in the shelter last night with pipes. "That dude needs an intervention with his 50 lb pack...he has a volleyball in there!"

When we got to Addis gap we realized we forgot one crucial bit of information: which way to walk on the forest service road to meet the truck. No cell service anywhere (the gaps I keep talking about are really the spaces in between mountains, so cell service is very limited). Luckily a couple of day hikers with pbr in hand said they saw a lady in a truck down the road to the east. So we went east, and a half hour or so later we found a very jolly a&e...they had been touring north Georgia's finest wineries and were very pleased with their findings.