Day 10

Today was agonizing.  Instead of the 7 miles that I thought I would be walking it turned out to be 9.5 miles after yesterday's 11.5 miles from Neels gap to Low Gap Shelter.  I will admit that from Hogpen Gap to Low Gap was the longest 4.5 miles I ever walked until today.  I met 4 hikers all young college kids. One was from Maine so I gave him all the extra food I was carrying.  He was glad to get it. They broke camp early and were on their way about the time I was crawling out of my tent.  The first 5 miles was fairly level.  Knees were feeling fine. Then the terrain changed to climbing up and down rocks and roots.  The uphills were tough on the knees and the downhills were treacherous causing me to go even slower.  A day hiker passed me for the second time. Once going and once coming back.  As he passed he said that "if you ever got lost just look for the rocks and the roots".  Then he was gone. With about 3 miles to go I stopped to refill my water. Just uphill from the water was a shelter.  I passed it heading for Unicol Gap   The day was running out.  I truly believe that God puts people in our paths to teach us something or to help us in some way.  With 2.5 miles to go I met a trail angel. A lady by the name of Jane Kuck (cook) appeared behind me.  She was a day hiker out looking at flowers and looking for Ramp.  She mentioned that she was from Hiawassee and parked at Unicol Gap.  I asked her that if I could keep up with her could she give me a ride into Hiawassee.  She said yes, but let me lead so she would make sure not to leave me behind.  That way I could choose when to rest.  As we walked she pointed out the different kind of plants and flowers I had been seeing along the trail.  As we talked about families and hiking the miles passed much easier.  After we got to her car we drove to the Holiday Inn.  She waited until I got checked in then I asked her to let me take her picture so, we asked a stranger to take a picture of us.  I will post that tomorrow once I download the pictures from my camera.  Two things popped into my head.  One the book by Dale Evans "Angels Unaware".  The other was the song "Angels Amoung Us".   To me she was the ultimate trail angel.  More to come tomorrow.