Day 5, near Log Cabin Road to Hot Springs

We were back on the trail by 7 a.m., a much better time than yesterday. Log Cabin Road was less than a quarter mile from our campsite. The last hiker I saw yesterday, Heisenberg, told me he found trail magic there.

I wasn't hopeful of finding any today. Trail magic mostly happens on weekends when it's convenient for the people who provide it. Today was a Monday, which was also the day after Easter.

That guess turned out to be wrong!

When we arrived at the road, we found on a table a thermos of hot coffee, oranges, and a guestbook to sign. A cooler of soft drinks was also there, but no one was around. A note said the trail magic was provided by Mickey and Minnie, a couple who previously hiked the AT.

There were no signs pointing to where we could find Cookie Lady, at least none that southbound hikers could see, and there were no cookies on the table.

Just as we were about to give up on cookies, a woman walked toward us from a cabin at the end of Log Cabin Road. It was Cookie Lady, otherwise known as Peggy. She brought with her two paper bags, and each one had a frosted sugar cookie shaped like an Easter bunny.

More accurately, she was Southern Cookie Lady, her acknowledgment that she was not the original Cookie Lady. That was Marilyn Wiley, who lived on a blueberry farm in Massachusetts. For 30 years, she gave AT thru-hikers free cookies, and water, and allowed them to camp on her lawn.

Southbound hikers were encouraged to pick blueberries when they were ripe and take them to Upper Goose Pond Shelter, where the caretaker would put them in pancakes for breakfast.

When I hiked the AT in 2017, I didn't meet the Massachusetts Cookie Lady and didn't get a cookie because she wasn't home when I passed her house.

After she died in 2021, a family bought her blueberry farm, and they continue her tradition of offering free cookies to hikers.

Southern Cookie Lady was talkative and inquisitive, an enjoyable person to meet. When she learned Polecat had a degree in geology, she tried to get him to go to her cabin to look at some rocks she had collected. He had to decline, though, because we were on a deadline to meet Kim in Hot Springs.

Allen Gap was 1.5 miles from Log Cabin Road, and we arrived there at 8:30 a.m. A cash-only general store called "Mom's Store" used to be a short distance up the road from where the trail crossed. I remembered a crudely made sign for the store was here when I hiked through in 2017. The sign was no longer here and the store was closed.

The next mile was a steep climb of nearly 900 feet. It quickly tired me and I couldn't keep up with Polecat. This amused me because he had been complaining about the climbs on this trail.

Because trees had not yet begun to leaf out, I could look behind me on the climb and see the ridge we followed yesterday. The highest peak was Camp Creek Bald.

The temperature was rising thanks to a mostly clear sky, making this a beautiful day to be on the trail.

I didn't catch up to Polecat until I arrived at Spring Mountain Shelter, 3.7 miles past Allen Gap. When I got there, he was talking to Lil’ Buddha, an American thru-hiker of Hmong descent who has completed each of the Triple Crown trails three times. That made him the second triple-Triple Crown hiker I've met. Regretfully, I failed to take a photo of him.

Lil’ Buddha was now hiking the AT on a walk no one has ever attempted, which he calls the Pangea Traverse. He started last December at the southernmost point in the continental U.S. at Key West, then followed roads to the start of the Florida Trail. That took him to Alabama, and after another road walk led him to the Pinhoti Trail, he reached the AT on a short section of the Benton MacKaye. When he reaches the end of the AT, he will continue on the International AT to Canada and through New Brunswick, Quebec, and Newfoundland.

This route is part of what's known as the Eastern Continental Trail (ECT), which he's already hiked twice previously. The total distance is 6,077 miles. While that part of his hike is remarkable, Lil’ Buddha is far from done.

He then intends to continue his hike by going across Greenland, Iceland, and the UK, which will be 5,800 miles. Then he will follow the Pangea ridge through western Europe and into Morocco That section will be 5,932 miles, making the total hike of the Pangea Traverse 17,809 miles.

As if those hiking plans weren't interesting enough, Lil’ Buddha also told us he saved a hiker's life a couple of days ago when the weather was so rainy and cold. He was walking over Max Patch when he came upon a hiker who was disoriented and showing clear signs of hypothermia. Lil' Buddha called 911 on behalf of the hiker, but the dispatcher told him an EMS crew couldn't drive to the top. They would only be able to meet the hiker in distress at the bottom near Interstate 40.

Lil' Buddha then carried the hiker's pack and his own down a gravel road several miles to the highway. When they reached the bottom and the hiker was safely in an ambulance, the crew left, leaving Lil' Buddha to trudge back up to Max Patch to resume his hike.

Polecat and I enjoyed chatting with Lil' Buddha and would have loved to hear more stories of his adventures, but we had to keep moving. From the shelter, we still had more climbing before descending to Hurricane Gap.

There are many gravestones and memorial markers along the trail, such as the graves we camped near on Day 3. When I see them, I'm curious to know more about the people memorialized by the stones. Some lived here long before the trail was built and others had connections to the trail.

Just before reaching Hurricane Gap, I came upon one of those stones, and I didn't remember seeing it on my thru-hike in 2017.  Etched in the granite were the words, "In memory of Rex R. Pulford," and the dates he was born and died. I took a picture to file this information away until I could look it up later.

The climb up to Rich Mountain was steep. This was not a good section of the trail to try to pick up my pace so that I could make up some of the time spent talking to Southern Cookie Lady and Lil' Buddha. On the other hand, I had hiked this section more than a couple of times and knew I would have a long, smooth glide down as soon as I reached the top.

I saw several day hikers and thru-hikers heading up Rich Mountain as I descended to Tanyard Gap. I also saw wildflowers, including some lovely wild iris. For the most part, I resisted stopping to talk or take photos. I only stopped to collect water from a spring just before arriving at Tanyard Gap.

Polecat waited for me at the parking lot at the gap. We didn't stay long, and once again, he was quickly out of sight after we left.

Either I was slowing down or he was getting stronger.

The French Broad River and Hot Springs started to appear in the distance as the trail approached Lover's Leap, a tall bluff overlooking the river. There were several switchbacks on the way down.

I arrived in town at 4:45 p.m. Kim was where we agreed to meet, but Polecat wasn't. We tracked him down in a coffee shop.

As I noted before, Kim and I have a son and daughter-in-law who live in Asheville, less than an hour away. Kim drove Polecat and me there so we could take a shower, sleep under a real roof, and resupply with the food that she brought for us. She will drive us back to Hot Springs in the morning,

When I had time to look up Rex R. Pulford, whose name was on the granite memorial stone, I found a remarkable story, both heartbreaking and heart-warming, which was told in the book Walking the Appalachian Trail by Larry Luxenberg.

Pulford became inspired to thru-hike the AT when his daughter completed the trail. He was 62 and had just retired when he set off northbound in 1983. Like most thru-hikers, he quickly fell in love with the trail and enjoyed his time with other hikers.

On April 21, shortly after passing Hurricane Gap, Pulford collapsed and died. The spot where it happened is where the memorial is today.

"When he fell," his daughter told Luxenberg, "he must have called out. One of the young men who was just ahead of him came back and tried to resuscitate him but had no luck."

In a sense, Pulford's hike did not end there. A group of hikers took turns carrying his walking stick all the way to Mt. Katahdin. They also brought along his journal and regularly wrote entries in it.

More than just a walking stick and a journal, those hikers carried Pulford in their hearts. His dream of hiking to Maine was fulfilled.