Mr. Thigpen fires up the hiker shuttle

April 27, 2000 -- Day 27
Destination: Camping near Groundhog Creek Shelter
Today's miles: 9.6
Trip miles: 244.3

The best part of my stay at Mountain Mama's was the one-dollar shuttle ride back to the trail. At 9:00, Mr. Thigpen fired up the John Deere tractor, and a dozen hikers piled themselves and their gear into the trailer for the slow trip up the winding dirt road. Even though our annoying bunkmate from the first night wasn't leaving, he just had to come along for the ride. I tried not to listen to him tell stories about his two-timin' ex-wives to yet another captive listener. "Thanks for traveling with Mountain Mama's Express!" he repeated several times, as we all unloaded back at the trail. Yeah, yeah ... go away.

We got lucky with the weather today. The forecast we'd heard turned out to be wrong. After a very cold morning, the day warmed up to comfortably cool and sunny. Good thing, because Marie and I were sluggish, not completely recovered from our temporary illness. Joker hiked at our slow pace, and we took a couple of nice long rest stops to enjoy the sunshine.

We're now in our tents near Groundhog Creek shelter. Brandon is here, too. For the third time since we met him, we found belongings of his that he'd dropped in the trail. The way he's got his gear lashed together, it's no wonder it keeps falling off of him.

Brandon had stopped at Mountain Mama's briefly yesterday. We saw him go into the store and grill, to ask about a work exchange, we guess, but he left soon afterwards, saying he was going to camp near the trail. He was talking loudly and constantly for a while tonight as he cooked something he got from the hiker box at Mountain Mama's, in his blackened tin can. A rude thru-hiker, puffing away on a cigarette, complained that the fire in front of the shelter was making it too smoky in there. Grumpy politely put the guy in his place.

Brandon does seem to have something a bit "off" about him, but he's more conscientious than a number of other people out here, and it's rotten to hear some hikers give him a hard time. Those people are a minority, though, and it seems enough of the rest will speak up to stop the rotten apples from bothering him.

Well, it's time for bed. Rain is the rumor for tomorrow, but maybe we'll get lucky again. Not that rain is bad, of course. But it does get to be a drag to hike in after a while.

--Ramkitten