Date: 2005-03-15
From: Somewhere on or near Big Cedar Mountain

To: Neel's Gap
Miles today: 8.5
Weather: light rain

Day 4Started: Somewhere on or near Big Cedar MountainDestination: Neel's GapToday's miles: 8.5 milesTotal miles: 30.5 milesLast night was so cold! Every time I woke up I was freezing but was too cold to get into my clothes bag to put on more clothes. Mike said he was warm enough when he would wake up except for when he had to get up to go to the bathroom. Twice during the early part of the night there was a loud jet that flew over us and it was sounded very close! Other than that and wind and what sounded like dogs barking, we did not hear anything else.We were on the trail @ 7:30am and my hands and feet were very cold--almost numb. Our water was not frozen but we feel it had to have been in the 30's.Hiking warmed us but if we stopped it got cold fast. On down the trail we met up with Jackie and David from S. Wales. They were breaking camp but David passed us a while later up the trail. We stopped at a spring that had been partially developed and filled our water bladders and liter bottles. We still filtered it since we do not want to take any chances getting giardia. jackie had passed us by this time and we met up with them resting up the trail. We stopped to check out my feet. They were hurting and a couple of places were feeling pretty hot. We cut some pieces of moleskin and put on them. They did feel better for most of the rest of the day.At the place where the shelter is that we were unable to make yesterday we met up with David and Jackie again. Jackie said she was getting off the trail at Neel's Gap because it was not what she expected it to be and she felt that she was holding David back. We were about to climb over the top of Blood Mountain but Jackie was taking a blue-blazed trail around the side of the mountain because it was shorter and she did not feel like climbing. Mike wanted to see the mountain top; it is a place where, according to tales of the Creek and Cherokee Indians, a battle between the two nations took place on the slopes of the mountain. So many were dead and wounded that the ground ran red with blood. The thru-hiker's companion book says it is the most visited place on the AT south of Clingman's Dome in the Smokies. The trail up is full of rocks and in some places like steps, only it took a pretty high footstep to get up to the next one. As we got near the top the rocky trail started winding through mountain laurel bushes. Finally we rounded a corner and the stone shelter came into view and b!eside it is a huge high rock and David and a young couple on spring break from Kentucky that we had chatted with just before we started climbing the steep ascent were up on it. We climbed up to it and sat up there for quite a while taking in the view. Finally we started down so we could get to Neel's Gap and get a place to stay where we could get a shower. The young spring breakers, John and Jessica, and David left us bringing up the rear. The trail was rocky and hardly a trail. The rocks had the white blazes painted on them at first and then for a while they were not present very often. Mike was ahead and he couldn't find the trail at one point. He climbed up the slope and decided it was below over another rock and started to go straight down to it and slipped on a rock and fell and slid down a few feet. I was so afraid that he had injured himself. After a while he moved and realized he was OK. It was a scrambling over rock all the way to the bottom and then the trai!l smoothed out and we actually walked in some sandy soil. We began to hear cars on the road at Neel's Gap and started walking parallel (?sp) with the road until we got to where the trail crosses the road at Walasi-Yi Center where there is a bunk room and a cabin. David and Jackie were there and had gotten a motel room 15 miles away. We were told there would be room for us so we paid for a shuttle into Blairsville. Jerry, our driver, said he'd pick us up at 8:30am to take us back to the center. He gave us suggestions of places to eat. Tonight the all you can eat (AYCE) buffet at The Cookie Jar and tomorrow, The Hole In The Wall for breakfast. So after we all got the sweat and grime washed off and put on our cleanest clothes we hiked to the restaurant. We saw Jerry--he must have gone back to get hikers from the hostel for the dinner shuttle. We saw a couple that started the trail the same day as us. They are an older couple, also, but I had expected them to be way up the trail because this is their 2nd time hiking the AT.We are ending the day clean, well fed, and in a soft bed with heat and an inside flushing toilet. Life can't get any better than this!!