Date: 2004-03-26
From: Neels Gap

To: Shelter
Miles today: 11.0
Weather: broken clouds

I am sitting in my private cabin, Goose Creek Cabins, Blairsville, GA, $28 for one night. They wash a load of clothesfor $5 and will take me into town to a restaurant for $3.I am doing great. It is unbelievable how good I feel, even with this too-heavy backpack. Nothing hurts. Feet are fine, thanks to the great Chaco boots.I am only wearing the sandals at night when I get into camp. So far I have been too tired to write at night, so I have only sent the one message.Everyone on the trail has been great. I have met lots of good folks. Monday I got out at Amicalola Falls State Park and started the hike at about 9 a.m. I hiked until about 5 p.m. and reached Springer Mountain Shelter. I was too tired to stop and take a photo of the sign marking the beginning of the AT. I went back the .2 of a mile the next morning to take the picture. So after one really hard day of hiking I had accomplished none of the trail. I found out later that most everyone signs in at the beginning and then skips the approach.Tuesday I covered the first 7.6 miles of the AT and slept in my tarp tent for the first night. It is difficult to climbinto the net tent feet first, but I am sure I will get used to it. The next two nights I have slept in it without puting up the net tent. So Tuesday night I was at Hawk Mountain shelter. I forgot to mention Monday night was the coldest night so far. I got up about three a.m. and put on just about all the clothes I had andthen slept about three more hours. Wednesday night I had made it to Gooch Mountain shelter at 14.7 mile marker. I saw John Braswill from Texas. His new trail name is treefrog. I heard Stones was looking for me, but I think he is hiking much faster than I am. Some other people I have ben seeing are Tom, who was my first friend to hike with. Tom is 31 years old, and his pack weighs 27#. He is a great guy to hike with, but I think he got tired of my stories. Then there was "One Leg" the amputeethat CNN has been telling his story. I hiked some with him and his daughter Casey and his deaf friend Allen. Then there is "Cruise Control" from the Boone NC area. He is 67. He hiked the AT in 2000 and is now back section hiking. There is a guy here from Austin, Texas, with litle money and food, so I gave him lots of myextra food. He had never heard of Gorp and was glad to get mine. Thursday was my longest hike so far. I left Gooch Mtn Shelter and hiked to Woods Hole Shelter, which was 11.7 miles. I arrived at 5:23 pm and was still feeling good. There was a campmate named Keith who has been fun to hike and talk with. He has a Golitetarp tent like mine, and this morning we were camped side by side, and I meant to get a picture of the two tarp tents side by side, but failed to. This morning we left camp about 8:30 and by 9:20 were on top of Blood Mountain. We were down to Neels Gap by 11 am. I bought a sandwich and a root beer. They sell Chaco sandals there but said the boots were great, but noone would buy them. My whole body has really been doing fine. Noproblems, knock on wood. I am not trying to cover too many miles a day at first, but am feeling better about my ability to do this. I go to sleep about seven each night and get up about 6:30 when it is getting light.Check out time here is noon and I will leave about then and return to Neels Gap. From there I will begin hiking for a few hours. The next shelter is at 36.9, so that is about 6.2 miles. With some steep mountains to climb, you only make about one mile perhour. When the ground gets level, you do two or better. I need to mention one other guy that I enjoyed talking with. He is "Halfway", a good guy, but has been hiking slower than I do. I hope to see lots of these folks in the future, but if not there are plenty of other good ones to visit with. The weather has been perfect for hiking. This morning near thetop of Blood Mountain it started to rain and maybe a little frozen rain in it.We stopped and put on our rain gear. I mainly wanted to put my camera in a garbage bag to protect it. As soon as we were all protected, the rain stopped.The top of Blood Mountain was in a cloud, but when we got over the top, the sun returned. I was hiking with Keith, who was hiking in canoe sandals. They were to pick up my laundry, which was everything I have except a pair of rain pants, at 1 p.m. They forgot, so I had to carry them down to the office. They are going to shuttle me to a restaurant tonight at 6 p.m. and said they would be ready by then.I hope so. It is now 2:46, and I feel like a nap, so I will sign off for now.Maybe I can write more tomorrow. I had my picture taken with ?One Leg?.One more thing, I hiked with two families who looked like Amish folks. I asked one what they were, and he said they were Old German Baptist. One of the men got really sick, and that family had to drop out. The other family hiked to Woody Gap, where their van was parked, and they left. They had lots of young beautiful childen, who were good hikers.?