May 23
End: Dalton
Miles: 11.8
Total: 3426.5
Moses left before me, as usual. I just could not get myself to get up when my alarm went off. Instead, I did what I usually do: sleep for another half hour or so after the alarm, then get up and leave.
The trail was a mud pit after the previous day’s drizzle. I did a pretty good job of keeping my feet dry, hopping around on the rocks scattered throughout the muddy areas. At one point the trail actually went through a beaver pond. In hindsight I really wish that I had taken a picture of the tree in the middle of the pond with a white blaze on it. I can see the Demotivation poster caption now. Misfortune: Sometimes Life Throws You Beaver Ponds.
Circumventing that obstacle, I continued on and neared Dalton. I noticed that Google Maps is actually a tiny bit off on the Appalachian Trail route in this area, which surprised me. I wanted badly to go to the Walmart west of Dalton, but it was far off of the trail. Instead of trying to hitch immediately, I walked the trail down a residential street.
A man mowing his lawn stopped to talk to me about my thru hike. It was Tom Levardi, a local trail angel. It turned out that he was more angelic than most, because pretty soon I was eating ice cream, taking a shower, getting my clothes washed, and sitting on the couch.
Pretty soon my hiking plans were history. I had done a few rough hikes in the rain and was ready to rest a bit. Meeting Tom at this point was perfect timing. Phlegm showed up and was just as grateful as I was to meet Tom.
I can’t really say enough about how fun it was to be invited into Tom’s home and to talk with him. He had been doing this for decades, and had seen tons of hikers every year. I looked over pictures of past hikers, and saw a few big names: Earl Shaffer, Nimblewill Nomad, and several others.
Tom had many great stories about all the antics that tend to occur when hikers stay at his house. I enjoyed plenty of ice cream from the store while visiting with him, then got to sleep in a nice big bed. I was basically in hiker heaven.