Tuesday, April 19th

We woke up around 8 at our campsite, which was about 50 yards away from where the shuttle come to pick hikers up. Our goal was to catch an early shuttle to the lodge, buy some food there and then get on with our hike. We saw a shuttle across the street but we didn't get there in time so we had to wait for the next one. Before we left the camping spot we saw a rack that we could possibly grill something on over the fire. So we joked about grilling out some burgers. The next one came and we tried to get in but they said if you weren't planning on staying at the lodge then you have to pay $10 to get a ride. We didn't have cash on us so we decided we would try and hitch hike. But first, after the shuttle left, there were people with a lot of food at Dick's Creek. They are offering all the hikers free food in memory of their father who hiked the trail and then would always come out to Dicks Creek and give food to the hikers. We talked to them, got some food, then started hitch hiking at about 11ish. We failed and about 20 cars passed us until a construction truck picked us up and took us to the lodge. Conveniently, the construction truck was going to the lodge also. We went into the main den and talked to the ladies there. We bought about 3 sodas each and a huge pizza. At the lodge we told the ladies we are on a school project and we are interviewing hikers about their experience and what they love about the hiking community. They told us we should interview Bob, who is a triple crowner and owns the lodge. A triple crowner is someone who has thru hiked the AT, the PCT, and the Continental Divide. We interviewed him and he had some great things to say. We then asked if we could buy food here and resupply. They had a really small room with supplies in it. They didn't have much good food except some Spaghetti with meatballs Mountain House meals. We decided we could go into town today and go to Ingles and buy better food. So, we bought some Mountain House meals and left to hitch a ride in Hiawassee. We hitched a ride on our first try on this go around. A man named Jose, who was headed to Hiawassee because he owns a restaurant there, picked us up. Jose dropped us off at Ingles where we resupplied enough food for the last 2 days of our trip. We bought some burger meat too since we saw that rack earlier this morning. As we were about to leave Ingles with all of our food, James decided to charge his phone (mine was already pretty charged so I didn't need to). He charged his phone at the eating area and a kind old lay saw our packs and offered to give us a ride back to the trail. We gladly accepted since we thought we would have to hitch hike for awhile until getting a ride. Her and her husband took us back to Dick's Creek and she said she loves to give rides to hikers. We then ate lunch at the picnic area at Dick's Creek and we interviewed a guy named Corky, who we have leapfrogged* with over the past couple of days. We quickly went back across the street to get the rack and then we proceeded to Bull Gap which was about 2.5 miles from Dick's Creek. We purposely gave us an easy day today since we are way ahead of schedule. We also just resupplied so our packs were really heavy. We camped at Bull Gap where we set up the tent and grilled out burgers. A young guy named Alex came by and told us he might camp with us if the shelter isn't any good. He came back about an hour later and set up his tent near ours. We offered him a burger and we found out he just graduated from UGA and is attempting to thru hike. He seemed like a cool guy so we asked him stuff about college and what to expect. We didn't interview him because we felt like we have enough footage. After awhile we went back to our tent, put out the fire, then went to bed.

*Leapfrogging is when people pass each other over and over again on the trail.