Hello Again!

Updates: Here we Go!

It was May 19th and we were planning on going back to the trail. We had gotten off of the trail at Dick’s Creek Gap. But going back to Dick’s Creek would leave 10 miles of the trail unhiked. That didn’t sit well with me. Everyone else assumed we were going back to Dick’s Creek, but I printed out directions for Unicoi Gap (Unicoi is 16 miles south of Dick’s Creek). I did not tell anyone we were going back to Unicoi Gap until we were already on the road. They didn’t like it, but were willing to hike it “AGAIN” for my sake… This would be the third time we hiked Kelly Knob…

We left home at about 10:00 arrived at Unicoi Gap at about 16:00. We packed up our gear and headed into the woods. About twenty minutes into our hike we saw a plastic bag hung on a tree. There were granola and candy bars in the bag. There was also a note in the bag. The note was from a woman whose trail-name was Nana. She had hiked the trail in 2004 and had left the bag as trail magic for any hikers who found it. She wanted to give back some of the kindness she had received while hiking the trail. We were thankful and enjoyed her kindness.

We hiked up to the top of Rocky Mountain and set up at the camp near the summit. While setting up the fire and tents we found that the campsite was inhabited by hundreds of Snails . . . Each of us recognized the significance of the snails. It was God telling us Operation: Appalachian Snail was part of His Will.

Rocky Mountain Snail

Rocky Mountain Campsite