Date: 2007-04-21
From: Neels Gap

To: Low Gap Shelter
Miles today: 10.6
Weather: broken clouds

A first for us on the AT today. We did some night hiking! Let me start at the beginning, The day got under way as we all woke up one by one at the hostel bunk house. After a first cup of coffee at the outfitter's store, we watched one of the employees there evaluate the contents of Huck's backpack. He had been struggling along for the last 3 days carrying 52 lbs.! When the evaluation was finished Huck had shaved 18 lbs. off his pack weight and mailed the uneeded gear home. This is a great service provided by the Walasi-Yi outfitter at Neels Gap. On the average, they mail home 9000 lbs. of unwanted gear for hikers each season. Neels Gap is the first reality check for AT thru hikers.The owner of the Walasi-Yi outfitter, Winton, let us borrow the store van, and Huck, 5 Eyes (Craig), Wooly Bear (Jesse), and I (Easy Strider) drove to Gainsville, a small Georgia town 12 miles west of Neels Gap. Side note: Jesse and I now have trail names. He goes by the name of Wooly Bear and I'm Easy Strider. Jesse's trailname was a nickname he had for a while and one which his brother suggested before he left for the trail. He says it's about his heavy beard and unruly hair, and I know his wife would attribute it to his cuddly nature. You can read the reason behind my trail name, by clicking the "Trail Name" option on the journal menu.The first stop was the Hole In The Wall diner. For about 4.50 we each had the "Mountain Special" - 2 eggs, home fries, sausage, bacon and toast, with a bottomless cup of coffee - excellent breakfast. Some drove to the local supermarket to re-supply (Jesse re-supplied for us) while 5-Eyes and I went to the local public library to access the Internet. My Pocketmail (email device) has stopped working so it looks like I will be writing my journal entries long hand to be transcribed by myself or someone at home (if anyone has a spare Pocketmail they'd like to lend or sell, I'd be interested). By the time we got back to Neels Gap it was about 2:30. We were greeted by "Mr. Burns" and Joe who arrived in the afternoon. We packed up and were on the trail by 3:30. Since we were leaving so late, we originally planned to go only 4.2 miles to Baggs Creek Gap. When Wooly Bear and I arrived at an open grassy area (I think it was Wolf Laurel Top), we dropped our packs, sat down, and munched on some gorp enjoying the views to the east. The day was beautiful (60's and sunny) and we seriously considered camping there. However Huck strolled in about 1/2 hour later with a smile on his face, bursting with energy (due to his much lighter pack) and the three of us started hatching a plan to push on to Low Gap shelter which would be a total of 10.6 miles from where we started.We finalized the plan and Wooly Bear and I took off. We were moving fast, since we only had a few hours of day light. We soon hiked to Cow Rock Mtn. and then descended to Testnatee Gap. The climb out of the gap was grueling and we were happy when it leveled off on the ridge. The rest of the hike was very nice as we hiked along a hard packed dirt trail cut into the side of the mountain. We had to be careful though since the trail was no more than 2 feet wide with a very steep drop off. After witnessing a spactacular sunset, dusk set in quickly. We spotted the flicker of a campfire from the ridge and figured we were close to the shelter.We arrived at the shelter in the dark at around 8:30 and quickly and quietly set up our tents (the 5-6 hikers in the shelter were already asleep). Huck hiked in about 1/2 an hour later and we had a cold dinner, hung our food bags and fell into a deep slumber.Another great day on the AT!