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Yo Alyssa, This Ones For You
I’m going to tell this story in the most vague way that I possibly can in order to protect the identities of all those involved.
After our 8 hour drive, Sam (now known as Caboose) and I arrived at this place in which we were planning on parking his car. It’s a really cool place, everyone was super nice and we both loved it but, shortly after arriving we met one of the people who work there and got to talking. Within 20 minutes of meeting this person he/she was telling us about his/her last experience with mushrooms and about that time he/she had a bad acid trip. Within an hour he/she drank two beers.
Shortly after all of this, that person offered to drive the shuttle in to what I assume was the closest town for food. Caboose and I decided to follow along in his car along with two other hikers. One was wearing a black coat and the other was wearing a blue coat.
The person who worked at the place took us all, along with 3 people in the shuttle, along these back windy roads that were all rutted up and very narrow. The shuttle driver was fish tailing all over the place and at one point got stuck in a ditch. At one point we fell behind a little bit and when we caught up with the shuttle it was parked in the middle of the road. We thought they were just waiting for us but it turned out the driver had just gotten out to pee.
After about half an hour we finally got to town and went in to the restaurant. The driver had 2 or 3 beers and a couple special cookies while we were there. When we left I offered to drive the shuttle back to the place but the driver declined.
We were hoping to follow behind the shuttle again just in case something happened but while we were getting gas the shuttle took off.
So we took the highway, along with the black and blue coated hikers as well as an extra who didn’t want to get back on the shuttle, and were back in about 10 minutes.
The shuttle didn’t make it back for another few hours. It was dark and we were in our sleeping bags before the driver pulled in.
And that was our first day.
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Comments 3
Awesome trail tail!
Don’t regret the lack of hiking the AT all in one piece.
You may enjoy it more section by section.
Post more stuff.
I don’t feel like you should protect the identify of a shuttle driver who is potentially endangering peoples’ lives! Can you at least mention whereabouts this was so others can beware?
Wow, the behavior you describe is disgusting. Anyone that drives a shuttle absolutely should not be DUI/DWI in any way. The fact that they take back roads when a highway is available is a clear sign that it’s habitual and they know what they’re doing. They have most likely been caught before.
Please consider posting the name of the shuttle driver or the place you were staying. It may just save some other hiker’s life when the driver starts out sober because they are out of beer, but gets smashed in town and the poor hiker is now coerced into an unsafe situation.