Date: 2007-03-30
From: Woody Gap

To: Blood Mountain Shelter
Miles today: 8.2
Weather: overcast clouds

Where's the Mammoth?Just rolled in to Blood Mountain shelter. It's made of stone - very imposing. Two rooms - the front room has a fireplace, the back room has two windows, one on each end, and a raised plywood floor along the back. No bear cables, unfortunately. That was one reason I continued up here instead of stopping at the Slaughter Creek campsites. (Blood, slaughter - are you starting to catch the theme?) But at least I won't have to pitch the tent. I need to go through my gear for my trip to the outfitters at Neels Gap tomorrow.Last night at the hostel I knitted on my afghan square and watched "Survivor". I had started the square the night before, mucked it up and ripped it out. Last night I pretty much had it down, except I was still trying to figure out what to do with the wrapped stitches and did them a couple of different ways. I considered ripping it out again at Row 12, but decided not to. It's trial and error, a good metaphor for my first few days on the trail, so I will leave it as it is, mistakes and all.What a great day! JJ was back! (that's Joyous Jane)I started out this morning from the hostel. When I carried my pack out I went to lean it against the wall near the cars like I did yesterday, but Jamie told me to put it by the Suburban because I would be going in that. It turned out that I was going in the Honda with Leigh and when we came out of the lodge I saw that my pack had been thrown in the Suburban and was on its way to Springer Mountain. Leigh made a quick call to Paul and told him to stop at Woody Gap. Yay for cell phones, I got my pack and all was well.Got started at 8:40 a.m. It was foggy and 45 degrees. When I got to the place I turned back yesterday it started to rain a little so I changed into rain gear and covered the pack. A few steps down the trail I realized I had forgotten to close the top of the pack so I had to take it off again to do it. To me, the most onerous part is taking the pack off (and especially) putting it back on. It's getting easier and easier, though. The pack weighed 34 pounds at the lodge this morning with 2 liters of water, 2/3 pound of cooked ground beef, almost a pound of carrots and a half a pound of apples. (It weighed 33.5 pounds when I started out at Springer Mountain.)It stayed pretty cool throughout the morning and after the first uphill stretch the terrain was gentle. After I warmed up I was averaging about 1.5 miles per hour. I felt good, but I was hungry! For breakfast I had coffee, about 4 eggs, and an apple. I ate nuts and carrots while I was hiking. I finally got full when I stopped about 11:30 and ate half the hamburger and another apple.Arthur Devany is right - its totally about the protein with endurance activities. I felt great today even though I am very low carb (~100g today). I started getting hungry again about 4:30 p.m. but my stamina was fine which means I am still burning fats preferentially to carbs.I was a little stiff after my day off, and various body parts took turns complaining to me during the early afternoon. Frist the left knee saying: Hey Jane, I'm getting a little tweaky down here. You remember the last time we did this? You hurt me, remember? We had to side step for miles to the car, and then I had to wear that honking brace for two years whenever we skied or hiked down hill. You do remember that, don't you?Jane: Yeah, yeah, yeah.Then the hip flexors: Are you sure you're doing this right? I don't think we should be having to work this hard. Is the pack on high enough? Aren't the quads supposed to be doing more of the work?Jane: I'm sure the pack is high enough. If I move this pack up any higher I'll be wearing it as a bra.Quads: Whoa there, hip flexors. We are working plenty hard down here. We are doing our share. Isn't that what the hiking poles are for - to take some of the burden off us?Arms: We may not be graceful, we may not be pretty,But we can wield poles, (not to mention, we're witty).We are not tired. we are not sore.If there's work to be done, we'd be glad to do more.But if we up the pace, then I'll tell you this sister,Hand One or Hand Two will develop a blister.Neck: Look here, Jane, I don't care if you're carrying 30 pounds, wearing trifocals, and trying not to trip over rocks and roots. Can't you please stand up straight and look up? I'm dying up here.Jane: Sorry, neck, I'm doing the best I can.NecK: Well, how about this pack that's pushing on the back of your head? It's a pain in the neck.Jane: O.K., I'll see what I can do about that. Hey, there's a drawstring up here that pulls the load back. Who knew?Feet: (whining) Are we there yet? Mom, she's poking me. Make her quit it.The sun came out in the afternoon. I didn't push it the last couple of miles, just ambled along, singing. I stopped at Slaughter Creek to get water and washed my feet in the stream. I continued up past the campsites through a beautiful rhododendron forest with huge granite boulders. Got to the shelter where I ate and went through my stuff. I met two local men up there. The older guy pointed out the highest peak in Georgia to me (Blood mountain is the highest on the trail in GA). He said there had been a hippie commune up on Blood Mountain in the 60's - "people running around naked in the woods." There was no way to get them out so an access road was built. The hippies were then rounded up onto trucks and shipped out. He warned me that there were mice in the shelter and that they were bold.I wandered around and found a tree to hang my food. The rope I brought doesn't work well - it gets tangled easily. When I went out to pee before bed, I realized I didn't know exactly where the food was. :>) I thought it might be foggy in the morning so I looked around until I found it and noted the spot.My night in the shelter was uneventful and I slept well. It was a little creepy up there by myself. I told the ghosts of slaughtered Indians and the mice that I meant them no harm and I would leave them alone if they would please leave me alone, which they did.