The plan was to hike and prepare their lunch at mid day. On the A.T. (and probably other trails), hikers are sometimes blessed with 'Trail Magic'. These are unexpected welcome surprises. I think they are also God's way of walking with them. They reached the mid-way point and found that some 'trail angels' had hot coffee, hot dogs and snacks already prepared for any hikers who came by. They stopped, ate lunch, and enjoyed the fact that they now had one more meal to eat on the trail still in their packs. During lunch, they talked with other hikers who were talking about the cold snap that was about to hit them with 24 degrees and 1-2 inches of snow projected. Ken told them about me and the cabin (which 'coincidently' had 3 beds) at Blood Mountain. He called me and told me to meet them at the Gooch Gap/Forest Road 42 crossing at 4:00pm. Not knowing how to get there, I attempted to get directions. I finally went to Vogel State Park, 3 miles away, and got a forest map that showed all the forest service roads. What would take them 13 miles to hike took me 30 miles and about 45 minutes. I suspected they would appreciate something for dinner other than trail food, so I picked up a loaded pizza on the way.
When I arrived at the Gooch Gap (Mile 17.3, Elevation 2,821), there was another tent with A.T. volunteers. I walked over to the group with the pizza box and one young guy yelled "PIZZA!!!" and I was approached by many hungry hikers. Ken saw me and said "That's ma'woman!" The 3 tired hikers piled in my car and they told me I was now a 'Trail Angel.'
Ken told me that he now 'needed' a high-tech light-weight pack (like the one I tried to get him a month ago) and hiking poles. We stopped at the AT trail store 1/4 mile from the cabin and Ken got a new pack, hiking poles, shoe carbon insoles, and reduced his pack weight by 5 lbs. He paid full retail price and didn't whimper a bit...honest!!!
We spent the evening talking and I learned that Jill and Dennis were old friends we just hadn't met, yet. We were snug and toasty in our warm cabin and we all slept well. We woke up to 24 degrees and 2 inches of snow. Boy, were they glad they didn't have to sleep out in the snow and cold! While they all had 3-season tents, Snow and Cold was the one season that was not included in the fine detail of the tent descriptions! We had breakfast of granola, warmed with almond milk and flavored with some of Ken's homemade maple syrup I had brought as a surprise. Yum!
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