Day 39 went from mile 107.5 to Winding Stair Gap – 1.7 miles.
Today we did another short hike, but hitch-hiked back into Franklin to resupply for a longer stretch.
The lady that picked us up immediately started talking about a situation that happened a couple of nights prior at Gooder Grove Hostel. I let Nooner do a lot of the talking because I wanted to get her to give me as much “information” as she had gotten from the female “victim”.
Before going to Ingles, we decided to go back to the Mexican restaurant for lunch! Yum! Nooner loves Mexican food, and I do too, so Mexican restaurants get a lot of our business!
On the way back from the Mexican restaurant, we also stopped by The Lazy Hiker Brewing Co. to get a few cold ones! I highly recommend the Margarita Gose!
As we were checking out at Ingles, we ran into Zen, the owner of Gooder Grove Hostel, which worked out perfectly because I was going to contact him later about what I had heard from the lady who gave us a ride into town (who actually ended up being a shuttler in the area and supposed business acquaintance of Zen’s). I told him about the interaction, and he was grateful enough that he offered to take us back to the trail.
Long story short: A girl named Luna (trail name Cheez-It) made up a HUGE lie that she was “fearful of her life” because something that happened at Zen’s place. I was present during the time of the conversation and heard exactly what was said and there was NO REASON WHATSOEVER for her to have any reason to feel that way. Zen and I have an idea of why she might have come up with the lie, but that is irrelevant. The truth is that Zen is a really great person and he runs a very generous, very professional business. This girl had no right to lie to this shuttler nor did this shuttler have a right to spread lies about Zen or pretend to have a friendly, business relationship with Zen while talking about him and his business behind his back.
On our way to the trailhead, Zen called the shuttler to confront her about the situation while I was present since I was also present during the supposed incident. The shuttler actually hung up the phone on Zen mid-sentence. This was very unprofessional in my opinion!
Zen drove us back out and even showed us a good spot for our tent since it was going to rain that night!
Thanks for joining me on Expedition Elizabeth!
Expedition Elizabeth 