I walked into my office after working the ref desk this morning (around 10:20) and got a call from Tim. He had just made it to Unicoi Gap (located right off Hwy 75 which leads to Helen). He wanted to give me a loose itinerary to pass on to my parents so they would know approximately where/when to pick him up.
He is planning on making it to Tray Mountain Shelter today (hopefully before the bad thunderstorms hit this afternoon), he’s got about 5.5 miles left to get there. Friday, he is hoping to push past Deep Gap and pop out on Hwy 76 right outside Dick’s Creek Gap. If he can get that far and if my folks are able to pick him up that night, he’s going to exit the trail that evening so he can have all day Saturday to get cleaned up and chill out before the long drive home on Sunday.
Before we hung up, I quickly checked the hourly forecast for him to let him know the bulk of the storms were to hit around 2pm today. As I was looking up the weather, two guys from the trail yelled goodbye to Tim. Apparently they had decided to take a zero mileage day over in Helen so a shuttle was picking them up to take them to a hotel. I heard them call out, “Last chance for beer and crab legs! You comin’?!” haha Tim reluctantly declined…it was a pretty tempting offer. :)
He will try to call tonight after I get home from work and I’ll post an update after that.
Meanwhile, here is a picture of the Unicoi Gap parking area (by flickr member tjc) from where Tim called me:
