Getting to Helen, GA

Neel's Gap had a neat little outfitters, which is basically a store that sells lots of outdoor gear so that hikers can replace what needs to be replaced and send home what they are sick of carrying. I bought a hamburger and a twix to replace the normal dry oatmeal that we had been eating for breakfast. They were delicious. We met Austin again here. He had decided to fly from Atlanta out to the Pacific Crest to hike with his brother. Scott also decided that he would fore go hiking for a couple of days and stay at the hostel that the outfitter provided while his heels healed. But Daniel and I, begin the hardcore hikers that we are, pressed on. We had only done three miles and had another 11 to go before the end of the day, so we had to truck it, which we did.
Unfortunately, or fortunately, we heard before we left the outfitter that bad weather was coming our way. A mix of hail and rain promising to be pretty intense. So this was a motivating reason to truck it as well. So Dan and I turned on our iPods and started a fairly fast-paced hike. Around five we had just finished going down the next to last big mountain and the wind was starting to blow real hard. We took a quick break and prepared to climb our last large mountain for the day. It was as steep as they come, but it was eventually conquered leaving us with four miles of little hills before we were to arrive at the shelter for the night. In my mind I decided that four miles could most definitely be done in one hour, but we just had to walk really fast. The wind had not let down by this point and rain drops were starting to fall here and there. We walked the fastest we would hike for the two weeks that I was out there, but by the end of two hours, we had only covered two miles, and it was officially raining. Dan kept up spirits while I felt defeated and decided that I was not pushing it anymore. My feet were killing me and I was already wet, so there was no need to continue sweating like I already was.
Dan made it to the shelter first. He put down his pack and came to find me, who wasn't too far behind him. We were officially done with our 14 miles.
We cooked three huge dinners that night, most of which Dan ate, but they were delicious. By the time we settled in for the night, the rain came down.
We woke up the next morning to a very foggy day. The clouds were so thick that it was difficult to see very far. But the up side was that we only had seven miles to hike today before we tried to get a ride into Helen. We covered this in no time soon made it to the road that would take us into town. Luckily for us, Dennis, a man who had spent the night at the shelter with us the night before, was having is wife pick him up and said that we could hop a ride with him. We got dropped off at the Super 8 in Helen, and they gave Dan their contact information for when he started hiking up around their way
Helen is an odd little town. Like any other town in Georgia, it has its big cars, camouflage, and teenage boys with crustaches. But Helen is unique in that it is a replica of a small German town. Definitely a tourist destination.
We visited a local grocery store, which had more expensive than normal groceries, but thinking there was no other option, we bought them and moved on to try and find some alcohol for the stove. Typical of normal small town, Ace Hardware was closed at five and would be closed on Sunday (it was Saturday), so we went to all other possible places that might sell this, like the drug store, the dollar general (where we learned that this is where we should have been buying food), and eventually the liquor store, where we bought grain alcohol (basically everclear).
On Sunday, also Mother's Day, we woke up and got ready to leave. We were surprised to find that our ride was not ready by the time we were. When we first arrived at the hotel, we had been told that they would give us a free ride back to the trail, but Sunday morning we were dismayed to find out that we would have to call "Woody's" who charged a hefty price to drive us 10 minutes up the rode. But we got back to a very foggy trail and got ready to begin the hike again.