Warning: This will be a long entry since it was such a big day. Thanks in advance for hanging in there with me!
I woke up several times throughout the night to check my watch. It did rain. It started just as we were going to sleep. Well, Ben was already passed out and snoring. I was trying to shut down. I heard the thunder start to roll in. A couple of soft rolls and that was it. The rest was just rain, nothing too hard. It rained most of the night and stopped early in the morning. Just in time for us to break down camp. We woke up at 6:40a, laid another 10 minutes and then started to get up. Since someone set up their tent right next to ours, we tried to pack up quietly. After about 15 minutes I heard they were also up and packing things. We weren’t the first ones awake though. I heard someone walk by probably at 6:30a or 6:45a.
We were out of camp by 7:20a. Our fastest morning pack up yet! We are learning how to make our mornings faster. I’ll share some of that another day. Probably later in the trail when we really have it down to a science!
We had a small(ish) climb first thing. It felt rough, but I think that was my morning muscles talking. We were done with all of the uphill within the first mile, mile and a half. After that, it was mostly downhill. Since it had rained all night, the path was a bit more treacherous. It was muddy and the rocks were slick. Ben slipped a couple of times, I did too. The ground was too soft to trust our hiking poles too much. It was another beautiful morning though. Misty, some rain spitting, not too much breeze – much like the other mornings, just warmer. Much of the 2.5 miles was downhill. It went by fast. We were at the road and parking lot by 8:35a. Almost 50 minutes earlier than we needed to be.
Becca and Robin were waiting at the visitor board for their shuttle to the hostel, Top of Georgia. That came about 8:45a for them. While the 4 of us were waiting, a van pulled up. He offers a shuttle service in town for hikers and gave us all his card should we need it. After they left, Ben and I brushed our teeth. I took photos. Then a couple of guys we’ve seen on the trail also showed up. Their plan was to hitch into town, resupply, and hitch back. It took them about 30-40 minutes to get a ride. They had finally given up and just started walking into town when someone stopped.
After that we saw Bear Bait (from the other night) and a guy named Tarzan who were just being dropped off from a night in town. Tarzan was kilt wearer #2 that I’ve seen. I think it’s awesome. Bear Bait had lost Pier a couple of days ago and hasn’t seen him since. I’m hoping we run into him again. We waited for the shuttle with two guys, I can’t remember either of their names, real or trail. The shuttle was late, it was more like 9:35/9:40a before it got there.
Ben said it was supposed to look like a creeper van. Holy cow he was right. Except it had windows. This thing was in rough shape though. It did not bode well for what kind of a room we were about to walk into. I keep telling people, I’m okay with dirty and outdated. I cannot do bed bugs though. I’m just hoping it doesn’t have bed bugs. It’s a $45 room, so I was very cautious.
After we all got in to the van, the driver popped in his cassette tape, an old radio murder mystery show. We all just looked at each other like, “Is this for real??” It took about 10 minutes for it to finish. The driver was actually a nice guy, we talked some after his show ended. He had 4 years in the Navy, working on a Destroyer a long time ago.
It took about 15 minutes to get into town. We checked into the motel. We had to wait a couple of minutes for our room to be cleaned. While waiting, I rifled through the hiker box. A hiker box is a place that hikers dump all of their unwanted items. This is often after a resupply when they have too much weight or are sick of certain things. There were a few books in there. One had little love notes that a lady had written for her hiker. I felt bad that the notes had been discarded, left to die an exposed death in the hands of some stranger. My hope is that he just accidentally left the book in the room and is on the trail heartbroken for losing them. That’s a much better scenario than unrequited affection.
Quicker than expected, we got the keys to room 103 (yes, legit brass keys – that’s the kind of fancy place hikers stay at). Out of respect for the the motel, I won’t say name it here. However, it was not nice. I knew it wouldn’t be. I expected hair on the bathroom floor (which was there). I did not expect urine behind the seat of the toilet (which I was okay with). But… but… bed bugs?! Yep. Bed bugs. There were freaking bed bugs or at least evidence of them. Nope. Nah. Uh-uh. I was NOT going to do that. I wasn’t. I couldn’t. I told Ben, I’ll prop myself up and sleep in the shower then.
Thankfully he called the Holiday Inn and got us one of their few remaining rooms. We spent more than twice as much. I was maybe a little disappointed in myself that I couldn’t lower my expectations. But I know I would have gone insane there. The clerk was incredibly friendly and didn’t give us a hard time at all. We got our money back. He came and saw what we were talking about. He said it probably had been previously treated, just not replaced. But understood our concern. That’s cool. I still don’t want to risk it. I’m sure he’ll just turn around and book it again. Probably within 10 minutes.
So we walked the .7 miles down the street to the Holiday Inn, checked in. We waited 45 minutes for our room to be ready, got into our beautiful, white linen king bed with a couch nearby and I sighed with relief. A part of me still felt bad about not being willing to slum. But this place is still packed with hikers. So no, I don’t feel any less legit. I just feel relief at knowing I’ll sleep tonight bed bug free.
Once we settled in our room we decided to grab lunch, care items for my massive heel blister, and maybe resupply on food. Ben added on another night to our stay because my heel is so bad. We spoke with a hiker who was giving me care pointers. He had been a professional soccer player and said he’s had plenty of experience with blisters. So I am heeding his advice.
We had lunch at a BBQ joint and it was magical. I had a cheerywine float. Cheerywine is a local cherry soda. While we were waiting for our food we saw another hiker get dropped off by the Top of Georgia hostel shuttle. She was in all scrubs, loaner clothes while they did her laundry. We offered for her to sit with us since she was alone and there were basically no booths available inside. Her trail name is Brave. She got it because 1) she looks like the girl from Brave, red curly hair, petite frame and 2) she was stealth camping, went out to use the restroom and got lost in the fog. She couldn’t find her tent so she hiked several miles down the trail in the middle of the night (alone) to a hostel and got the last bunk at 1am. The next day she went up and and it took 3 hours for her to find the tent again. She said it’ll be the last time she stealth camps. Stealth camping is when you try to hide your tent, which she obviously did really well. Brave was a born Texan. She has also spent the last couple of years in South America teaching missionary children and then children in Lima, Peru. She has a German Shepherd named Sarge, whom she was very sad to say goodbye to. We had a great lunch. I hope we run into her again.
After lunch we walked to the Rite-Aid and got supplies for my heel. We headed back to the hotel, took showers, called family, and then dressed my blisters. I was instructed that I needed to dry it out really well. The other hiker suggested something called a Septic Pen?? But the pharmacist said he didn’t have one, he recommended zinc oxide – so basically baby diaper rash cream. So right now my heels are covered in Destin. It was the highest concentration of zinc oxide of all of the diaper rash creams.
Ben did laundry and met other hikers. One lady is thru-hiking with her husband. This is their 4th time hiking the AT. They take two cars, park on opposite sides of the mountain stretch they are hiking that day, swap keys when they meet, and stay in hotels at night. I had seen her on the trail but thought she was a day hiker, which she sort of is. She’s a day, thru-hiker. It’s basically how they spend their retirement. There are worse things they could be doing! Anyway, she gave Ben and a girl named Chelsea a lot of pointers on where to either go or avoid later on in the trail.
Poor Chelsea. If I thought my heels were bad, her blisters are way worse. She has lines drawn around the infected parts to monitor if the red grows. They look like an olive loaf. If I see her tomorrow, I’m going to recommend the trail name, Olive or maybe Pimento. She plans to go into the clinic and have them seen. I hope they heal quickly.
After the laundry was done, we headed into town for Mexican. Eating there was also the guy who gave me advice on how to care for my heels. He’s the one who has the 2 dogs with him (the Anatolian Shepherd). When they were leaving, I was in the bathroom and I could here him ask Ben if I had a trail name yet. Ben said no (really, we do for each other, but you technically aren’t supposed to pick your own name – it picks you). Well, this guy said, “Let’s call her Blisters.” Oh man… I don’t know. I’m not sure that I like the name. I wanted something super cool. Maybe it’ll morph. Maybe I’ll wait to see if someone names me something else. But Ben thinks it has to stay for now. Sometime trail names change. We’ll see where mine goes from here. I think I would have preferred “Grandma”.
Alright! I’m all caught up! Tomorrow we will do errands around town and eat too much. Then on Tuesday it’s back to the trail. But for now… a comfy, bug-free bed is calling my name.
Night!
-blisters