Restart the Race?

Jill heard from Tom Tom.  He spent the night at Neel's Gap and was getting a ride back to Springer Mountain to start his race over this morning.  She didn't get to talk to him, as it was left on her answering machine or on facebook.

I loaded up fast and left hoping to make it down the two miles from the ridge of Blood Mountain to Neel's Gap and catch him before he left.  It wa a beautiful trail covered with green leaves knocked off the trees during the storm.  The trail at the top was a steep stair step down over nature's switchbacks over large irregular shaped stones.

Two miles in the mountains is equivelent to walking about five miles on flat land.  When I finally made it down, the first group of hikers I met said that they had spent the night with Tom Tom.  They had been camping fifty yards past Neel's Gap when the hail storm came through and they had to make a run for it to the building because of the baseball size hail.  Tom Tom cut his new hammock lines with his Rambo (smaller) knife and held it above his head for protection as he ran.

Tom Tom had left on a private shuttle at 7:30, almost 3 hours before I got down.  I heard stories about Tom Tom from his camper friends that spent the night with him outside the bathrooms under the overhang of the building.  Tom Tom slept in his hammock tied to the stair railing.

By the time I checked on a shuttle, all the cheaper ones were booked up.  The only one availible was $120.  I was either going to hike back to Springer Mountain  or wait and see if I could get a ride with any other hikers that might be going back to Springer.

Doug and his two girls came in and they had a shuttle schedule to pick them up.  I could split the cost of his $80 fair arriving at 2:00.  I got a needed shower for $3.50 including the use of soap and a towel.  During the ride back I told them that Tom Tom was running the 30 miles back to Neel's Gap and that I was going to get my car and head back to meet up with him.  Ron the shuttle driver (his car), told us about the tornado that hit a half mile from Neel's cap during the hail storm last night.  We drove past the forest all ripped up.