Date: 2019-05-21
To: Woody Gap
Miles today: 16.8

I didn't sleep as well as I'd have liked last night. Charming through they are, barred owls and bullfrogs can be jarring when you're not used to them. Especially when two owls have a conversation almost directly over your tent. :) I also had to pee in the night, but when I finally decided to get up I heard a large bush or small tree crashing, and stayed in the tent to avoid a late night bear encounter.We drove to Woody Gap and started hiking by about 8:50. There were a bunch of people in the gap, all prepared to hike. We readied ourselves and took off on our kinda big day. It started off slowly and then came the climb. We passed five older people and then two more before we reached the top. One of the women said something like, "Not bad for an 80 year old." Readers, we barely beat them to the top!! What a great group - average age 75. They hike three times a week between 7 and 12 miles each outing. They are kind of my heroes!!After that we had a mostly down hill time. We came across several hikers in various forms: taking a snack break, day hiking, section hiking, and possibly one sleeping in a tent. Then we started our roller coaster ascent of Blood Mountain.* We split a 5 hour energy and started up the first hill, Gaddis Mountain. It was steady going down and back up over Turkey Stamp. We passed more day hikers and arrived at the summit much sooner than I had anticipated - especially since we didn't even notice our "third peak" before the final ascent! we had lunch at the summit and then Count explored some rocky/cave areas. *Ironically I got my period today.On the way down we met a chatty couple and talked for maybe 15 minutes with them. The trail was very beat up from over-use. THere's a parking lot just over a mile from the summit, so that makes sense. We also met a couple and the woman was easily 250 lbs carrying a full pack. She was doing it, and I'm proud of here even though I don't know her. You go, girl! We arrived at Neel's Gap and went into the outfitter where we each got a t-shirt and a soda. The guy working the store asked Count, "Why you walkin' like that?" haha After we hung out there drinking our sodas for a while on the deck we hiked on through the "tunnel." The only place on the AT that goes through a building. The man warned us about copperheads on Cowrock Mountain, so we were keeping our eyes open for them.Count saw a snake at a small overlook, but it quickly slithered into it's hidey-hole. I saw a skink, but no snake. There we met Bean, a hiker who we've seen the past few days. She was a thru hiker last year, but suffered a stress fracture in Damascus. She picked up from there this year and is finished out her hike on Thursday, like us! Also, since she'll have finished within the calendar year, she can still consider it a thru! YAY! Later we met two section hikers who needed water. Count gave them his liter, but they didn't take it all. They were tired and looking to camp, but they said we were 2 miles behind where I thought we were. Of of them had a GPS watch, so I assumed he was right, but guess what! I was right knowing our location by the elevation profile! Take that GPS watch!! BOOM!When we got to the car, we looked for water we could leave for the two guys, but only had Powerade. We didn't want to burden them with more stuff to carry, so we didn't leave it. As we were driving out of the lot, we saw them coming down to the gap. I gave them our half eaten bag of Doritos and Count gave them each a Powerade. I think they were grateful if the looks on their faces was any indication. :) The offered money, but we refused. The trail often gives you what you need.  We drove back to Woody Gap to get my car to bring back to Dockery Lake. I pulled out the cooking stuff and realized we had the gas canister in the main part of the car and it was VERY HOT. Yikes! I let it cool on the picnic table while we rinsed off the day's sweat in the stream. Even when I went to turn it on Count stood back, even though he was the one who thought it would be fine. It was. Phew!Tomorrow is a shorter day with several steep-looking ups and downs. What I do know is that we could finish tomorrow if we really wanted to. 20.6 miles left!