Had a pretty good night for my first time camping on the trail. It was pretty nice not having the commotion of a shelter. The foot tendons were feeling pretty bad when I pulled into camp last night, but they felt a bit better again this morning, especially the right one. About halfway through the day I came to a side trail with a sign “vista.” I think a lot of thru-hikers blow right by stuff like this, but with the lack of good views so far I decided to have a look. It turned out to be the best view yet, and there was a nice campsite to rest for a few minutes and put my feet up. I also met a group of hikers just out for a day trek here, they were pleased to meet a thru-hiker, and they gave me a chocolate-chip cookie from Subway.
After the zero day in Helen I had been planning on pushing 4 or 5 days and not going into town again until Franklin, but at some point this morning I was looking at my options in the guidebook and I saw that one of the Hotels in Hiawassee had a hot tub – it sounded like a wonderful opportunity to continue to heal up. I decided to make it a short day, about 6.5 miles, and head into town again. Going into town this often can certainly get expensive, and the Holiday Inn Express was not the cheapest option in town, so I decided to save some money by hitch hiking into town. Not something I’d want to try anywhere, but everyone says people along the trail are great. It was a long downhill into Dick’s Creek Gap, I got there, sat down for a few minutes to make sure I wanted to go to town, then went up the road, waited for the first car and put my thumb up. It only took one. Of course I already forgot his name, but the guy that gave me a ride was a one-time electric company worker who was now a preacher. He was pleased that he had made the switch from a company man to a Jesus man and now only had God telling him what to do. Good guy who, on the 11 mile ride into Hiawassee, told me about the time he spent working with the park service in the region and some of the other people he’s given rides to since he moved into the area.
I got my room at the Holiday Inn, and immediately started icing and elevating my feet. After an hour of resting I went over to a nearby Huddle House for dinner – pretty awesome to be able to order mozzarella sticks, a giant hamburger, and soda with no regrets. I came back and spent some time in the pool and spa. Amazingly refreshing and did good for the tendons/muscles. I’m spending the rest of the evening just relaxing, watched most of The Wrath of Khan on ScyFy, found a real computer here at the hotel to fix up the blog and type on a real keyboard, and probably going to check out some NBA playoffs. Looks like there might be a bit of rain again tomorrow; the goal is to do about 10 miles to a shelter, another 11 the next day, and 15 miles to the next town, Franklin, NC the day after.