Four years ago Lorne Blagdon and his daughter Naomi hiked the entire length of the Appalachian Trail. He kept a trail journal and from that wrote a regular column for the local paper and he called it Trail Magic. We’re posting every Trail Magic column here on Doing Stuff Outdoors. Lorne is also turning his column into a regular audio segment on our Doing Stuff Outdoors Podcast. Be sure to listen to the podcast regularly for the latest from Lorne. Hope you enjoy this series.
After several days on the trail we noticed that we all smelled bad. I wrote a song entitled We All Stink, a couple of lines from the chorus goes, “We all stink, hold your nose, we all stink like smelly toes, nobody smells like rose, but that’s the way it goes….” It is incredible that an everyday experience like a shower became a luxurious treat.
On May 23rd it seemed like some cruel joke that after a days hike and everyone was totally exhausted and hurt that the shelter and water hole was one half mile off the trail. But, the next morning a family from South Carolina rewarded us with pancakes and bacon. It turned out that the father of the family parents were from Ontario.
Later that day we summited Blood Mountain the highest point in Georgia. We hiked down to Neels Gap where the trail came to an outfitter’s store. Everything in the store was very overpriced. We paid $6.00 American for 30 oz of camp fuel and 25 cents for a single ziplock bag. The owner offered his services to ‘shake down’ your pack. He would check all the items you were carrying and offer suggestions on what you could do without or recommend better gear. Most people came out $400 lighter. Regardless the place was incredibly busy, full of tourists and hikers. Chris got sick. I played guitar with one of the workers who wore farmer john pants and a hillbilly hat and accent to match. I felt like I was in a scene from Deliverance. We had fun sending home 29lbs of unwanted and unnecessary items. Chris kept getting sicker. The worker told us that Chris would probably be able to stay at the hostel for free because of his state and our shortage in money. Finally we made the decision, while waiting for our laundry to dry that Chris and Naomi would stay at the hostel while Nathan and I hiked a mile up the mountain to set up camp in the dark.
The next day while Nathan stayed with the gear I hiked back down the mountain to get Naomi and Chris, but they were still in bed. I talked to Brian and Sasha, a young couple from Calais who were doing a through hike. When Naomi got up we hung around the outfitters talking to nice people who gave us food. One of the workers gave me a better pack for Nathan. The owner went through Naomi and Chris’ packs and we sent home another 11 lbs. He also rummaged through the gear that other hikers had left behind. He gave us 3 stuff sacks, a pair of lightweight pants, shorts, 2 water bottles, a spoon, plastic plate and a water sack. Chris got up at noon and seemed to be coming around. I carried his pack up the mountain to our campsite where we stayed the night. We ate ham steak that we had gotten for free at the hostel. We were looking forward to the ham and potato dinner, but it turned out to be awful. The ham was cured in brine and was like eating a saltlick.
Despite our disappointment in the meal we were very happy. We discussed how pleasantly surprised we were that the outfitter was so good to us. He gave us some great advice, showed us how to organize our packs and gave us some better gear. His unexpected kindness contributed to our success.
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