Peaceful dry night out @ Jakes mtn TH. Chilled off enough to pull up light weight blanket. Trails are deemed too wet to ride per Jon @ bike shop once I arrived there. Jon & I sat around w/ him attempting to work but happier telling his bike stories. I shared a few. In his day Jon was quite the racer. His wife, Nancy, was every bit as great. Spent the AM visiting.
The IRS sent me a letter informing me of taxes owed from my house investments. The letter was mailed to my mail forwarding service, Earthlink. I requested a scan which was emailed to me. I chose to save it as PDF and copied it to my Flash drive. I needed it printed @ an office supply place. Chose UPS which was only 1 in town. Have it printed and determining course of action.
Needed a shower so I drove out to Hiker Hostel. Hatched an idea of offering sweat equity for payment. met Josh outside and made my offer. he said he and Lee were going to be planting their garden and I could help. I told him I am a good worker but I ask a lot of questions. he said, no problem, it’s really simple: Brown is down and green is up. He was leaving to pick up an ill AT hiker and I should visit w/ Lee which i did. She was preparing dinner giving me a captive audience for Talkin’ Dude. Josh returned rescuing her. Neat garden idea as it is raised beds and string marked off in 1 foot squares. They engineered the plants to go where. This design allows for higher density planting yielding more vegetables. It was a fun task for a shower. I made a comment about moonshine and Josh suggested a place up the mtn.
I showered and drove off up to Woody Gap where the AT crosses the hwy. Climbing twisting tight turns to Gap @ 3000′ where a pull out for the AT exists. Drove down towards Suches and turned into road to trout farm. Pulled in. Saw an older man and a younger man on the porch of shop bldg. Younger man was smoking a cig and drinking a bud. I warmed them up w/ free form Craig questions until I could state that I had a ticklish question to ask about moonshine. They each said No. I don’t really know if they meant no they did not have any or answered me as an untrusted person. I accepted No and stayed to chat some more.
I drove down to Suches which is a shadow of an old mtn town. Residents have left the land and little life remains.
Drove back up to Woody Gap and parked @ AT crossing. I walked a bit North on a path marked “Water” In a short ways I came upon a spring ushering forth from under a boulder. Sipped a few handfuls. Back @ Gap a CXT outhouse from Hillsboro Texas stood. Across the hwy there is a great vista out to the South. The land just falls away. Just very wooded. There were 3 backpackers satnding around and I chatted w/ them for awhile. Rookies, ill prepared and unprepared for their adventure. Their packs were too heavy w/ unnecessary gear and were physically unprepared. Their goal was the NC border or 7 days of hiking. They realized NC was unobtainable @ their pace so they relaxed. Another hiker joined them. He had been downsized. His goal was Maine but he was having a hard time. Interesting, this guy and 1 of the 3 were trying to quit smoking but the 1 of 3 scored a pack from someone else who was trying to quit. The single guy bummed a smoke and chain smoked a second. The 3 were looking for an easy way out. The single decided he wanted to go to the Hostel for the night and I offered to drive him down as it was on my way. He accepted. I dropped him off.
I continued to Dahlonega to other grocery store for h20. 2 women were in front of me @ check out. The first one told the checker to stop checking groceries when he reached $10. What was left were 3 bottles of baby food for her child. The woman in front of me told the checker that she would pay for the baby food. She had a $10 bill for her groceries. The baby food sale needed change. I held out my hand full of change for her. Between us the baby food was paid for. People helping people.
Drove back to Jakes for the night. I park in the day use parking lot as I can get internet and XM. The turtle left during the night last night as did the puddle.
Borrowed Kill Bill Vol 2 from Jon to watch.
Tomorrow is Augusta and IMBA.