The Gatlinburg of Georgia

My second day on the trail was a bit longer than I expected.  I arose early and walked to the Walasi-Yi center at Neels Gap, a distance of 15 miles.  This store has everything that a lightweight hiker could ever want or need. They offer a service where they will take everything out of your pack and help you decide what to carry for the rest of the trip.  On this day there were 4 hikers with all their gear spread out on the floor, deciding what to send home and what to replace.  I'm sure it is very traumatic to find that all the carefully selected gear that you acquired is not suitable for the challenges that thru-hikers will face over the next 5-6 months.  Fortunately, I didn't need the service as I have winnowed my load down to the lightest that I am willing to carry when we could still face some winter weather in North Carolina and Tennessee.
My original plan had been to stay at Goose Creek Cabins near Neels Gap to celebrate completing the first 30 miles.  Unfortunately, they were closed so I decided to continue walking for a ways longer.  Finally, at 5:00pm and six more trail miles later, I made my way down a 1.2 mile side trail to the Whitely Gap Shelter for the night.  In contast to the previous night's horde, there were only 4 hikers at this shelter as the beginners were unwilling to walk that far off the trail to spend the night.  In fact, all the hikers there that night were former thru-hikers for whom an extra couple of miles made no difference.
It was very cold and windy when I went to bed but by morning it had warmed up considerably.  "Looks like it will be a hot one Bill."  My goal today was to make it to Unicoi Gap and then hitch a ride into Helen, GA for the night to get cleaned up and enjoy a hot meal.  The skies were perfectly clear and temperature unseasonably warm as the day progressed.  By 1:00pm I had made the road crossing and eventually hitched a ride down to Helen where I am composing this blog entry.  It is 75 degrees here today and forecast to be sunny and in the 80's for the next two days.  Wait a second!  I came down here to start in March so that I could avoid those kind of temperatures.  All the locals say this is very unusual to see this kind of heat early in the season.  Yeah.. right.
The city of Helen is designed along a Bavarian theme with the facade of all the buildings made of timber and stucco.  Very cute!  The city calls itself the "Gatlinburg of Georgia" so I just couldn't miss it as I plan to stop to enjoy the kitsch of Gatlinburg as well.  What a chore it is to be a cultural researcher as well as AT hiker.

Trail miles to date : 50.9