The trail doth provide

  So it was a fantastic weekend back in the Atlanta area. Melanie and her husband Mark were brave enough to endure having me in the car with them for the 2+ hour trip back home. After a couple of showers and a night in a real bed I was right as rain.

  I had hoped to grab a metal cup while I was off the trail. Something I could use for coffee, the most important part of my morning. I went through the options at the house and could find nothing. I stopped by an outfitter on the way back to the trail, and all they had was a $45.00 titanium cup. Titanium would have been nice, but at that price I was willing to do without. I also hoped to refill my fuel canister and the outfitter wanted $12.00 for a pint of Coleman type fuel. I learned my lesson of stopping at an outfitter anywhere near Lake Lanier, a popular water recreation area in Ga. I figured I would move on to Hiawassee and get some there. Unfortunately everything in town was closed on a Sunday, and I had to get some unleaded gasoline to carry me for a few days. Luckily I had an MSR multi-fuel stove that would allow me to use gasoline.

  The weekend was fantastic and my friends had refilled my food supply. Melanie became notorious on the trail for making sure that I hiked with the heaviest pack possible. There were times when she even made sure it was too heavy. I wouldn’t have thought that a week of food could be so heavy, but sure enough it can.

  As I said before, if you are not out hiking everyday you will lose your trail legs. It only takes about 2 days for that to happen, and I was gone for three. When I started back on the trail with a heavy pack it felt like I was starting fresh all over again. Though I had a great time over the weekend, I was regretting it now that I was back on the trail. I somehow managed to remember everything as I prepared to get back into the woods.

  It took me a few hours to climb that first hill. I stopped to rest about 5 times on the incline, and I was very happy to find that the first shelter was only a couple of miles away. On the way up I was contemplating the best way to serve my coffee in the morning. I didn’t want to use my water bottle for coffee. It would make me have to take 2 trips to the water source each time. I couldn’t use the plastic Gatorade bottle as it would melt, and I was tired of using my cook pot because I had already managed to burn my lips a couple of times. It did look cool though for many of the other hikers. I heard several comments on how much of a “Mountain Man” I was while sipping from my cook pot. The pot I had with me at this time was about as old as the trail itself. The trail was completed in 1937, and the cookpot was last manufactured in 1940 when the company went out of business.

  I reached the top of the hill, and dropped my backpack off next to the picnic table. Noone was around the shelter site, and after checking the shelter log it appeared that the last hiker had been through about 3 hours before me. Sitting on the table in front of the shelter was a blue enamel coffee cup. Here again I picked it up with the intention of returning it to it’s rightful owner if I came across someone who had lost one. It is still attached to my pack to this day.

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