Lake Bath

Tom Tom ran about a marathon with a 30 pound backpack.  He came across a bear, but he saw it first.  He stepped on a twig and the bear heard it and ran up the mountain in cover of the trees.  Tom Tom said the bear was pretty big. He stopped at a shelter and ate his three day supply of food.  All he had left was an emergency jar of honey. 

The next morning he ran about fifteen miles until he came to Dick's Gap, a trail head eleven miles from the town of Hiawassee.  He called me and left a message that he would be there for ten minutes and then leave.  He said he was out of food.  I didn't get to talk to him, but heard the last ring of the phone and checked my messages.  I tried to call him back, but he had already turned his phone off.  To save his battery, he never left it on.  The battery would quickly die as his phone would always try to find service.

I was in an Internet cafe updating his blog.  I had already paid my bill and left as fast as the computer let me post the blog.  I found him a quarter mile from the trail head.  He was walking the 11 miles into town.  He had no idea that I would be in Hiawassee, as we had made plans to met in Frankland the day after tomorrow.  I just by chance decided to stop in Hiawassee.  He gobbled up some food that I had in the car and we stopped by a lake so he could go for a swim for his bath.  I had been sleeping in the car and had gone swimming the day before in the same lake for my bath.

We went to the grocery store to get some more food and then stopped by a McDonald's so I could post some pictures on my facebook page.  Jonathan was reading the book "Just Passin' Thru" written by Winton Porter.  It is about the stories that Winton learns from and about some of the hikers passing thru his place of business, he is the owner of Neel's Gap.

We rented the movie "Salt" and watched it in the parking lot of the grocery store where we also spent the night in the car. 

At Dick's Greek Gap

Getting a drink near the lake where a bath was needed