Date: 2016-02-27
From: Woods Hole Shelter/Blood Mountain Cabins

To: Mountain Crossings
Miles today: 15.6
Weather: clear sky

Day Three - Gooch Mountain Shelter to Woods Hole ShelterCrazy day. Started out beautiful but then the rain and the snow came through. We found out what happened to Emily. Poor girl... she hiked 12 hours and wasn't able to make it to Gooch shelter. She ended up hiking in the dark til 11pm and stopped by a stream 3 tenths of a mile from the shelter. She ended up wrapping herself in a tarp by a stream after falling in it. It eventually washed her water filter away...she has had to drink unfiltered water until now. She ended up going into town (Suches, GA)...seriously has the best attitude of anyone I've ever met. She walked into Gooch this morning smiling. I would have been in tears. Right now I am so so so cold. We are 3 miles away from Neel Gap but we were so tired, wet, and cold that we headed to the shelter...thank god we are in the shelter because lots of people showed up after us and are having to tent camp. Started snowing sideways, down to 6 degrees tonight. Day Four - Woods Hole Shelter to Neel Gap/Blood Mtn CabinsWoke up this morning pretty discouraged from yesterday's low point. Also, it was about 15 degrees last night with snow and wind blowing into the shelter. My boots were frozen solid. All of my soaking wet clothes from the rain during the day froze into a solid block of ice. Hadn't gone to the bathroom so I was worried about constipation. We started up the last uphill mile of Blood Mtn around 9:25am. Katie (Echo) from NJ and Paul from Pennsylvania joined our group of three (with Turtle). Echo has a really sore knee right now so She was going nice and slow. I stayed with her on the uphill and then pulled away from her on the downhill because I was able to move a bit more. Blood Mtn was absolutely beautiful in the snow and the uphill was not bad at all. My knee wasn't hurti me. So amazing on the summit. Not super clear views but gorgeous with snow all over. There was a shelter from the 30s or 40s right on top that was great. 4 sided and made of stone with a fireplace in the inside. We took some pictures then headed downhill for the next 2 miles. When we began the crazy descent (TONS of ice on vast slabs of rock) very steep. We were eventually passed by a pack of about 15 Army Rangers. They had on packs that weighed about 60lbs, didn't use poles and we're basically running ("racing" they said). At one point we lost sight of the white blazes marking the trail (covered in snow) and started down a very steep and very dangerous slab of cliff face covered in ice. We saw one of the Rangers head that way so we followed. I was about a quarter of the way down when we realized there wasn't a trail at the end (thanks to Rangers already at bottom). I went back up around the top of the cliff face with Paul and we searched for another blaze or at least a more traveled trail. Thank god we finally did, everyone (including Rangers) came back up and went on our way after drawing arrows in the snow leading in the correct direction. Unfortunately, with every step down my right knee and knee cap was in pain. Ria said its not serious and to rest it and ice/hear it and stretch everyday and it should be fine. Hopefully she is right! The 2 mile downhill took us longer than expected but we made it to Neel Gap around 1:30pm. The people here are awesome. In the front of the outfitters there is a large tree with hundreds of hiker boots hanging from all the branches. They say these are all the boots that hikers didn't/couldn't use anymore. We checked with them about cabins but they only run the bunk room so they were nice enough to call down to the cabin guy for us and there was availability. We left our packs at the Neel Gap Outfitter and walked about 200 yards downhill to the cabin check in. 5 of us split one ($14.30 each) and we raised their freezer of pizzas. Then Ria, Echo, Paul and I went back up to the outfitter and had a free pack shakedown. Sending my book, bowl, packtowel and a couple other items home tomorrow. I will also be purchasing a new raincoat and possibly a new pair of mittens...along with a patch for my pack to sew on. I also need to send Truitt some stickers for his collection: anyway, after about 2 hours we made it back down to the cabin and I immediately cooked my pizza and ate all of it and it was freaking glorious. Then I sent all my laundry off (done for free) and hopped in the shower. We talked and watched movies all night until around 12am. I started dozing off so Ria and I are in the main room with a door. Talked to mom and Truitt today which was so great. I definitely miss everyone. Anyway, we decided to take a zero here tomorrow in the same cabin so hopefully my knee will get back to full force by Saturday. Got hungry again a second ago so I made a pepperoni hot pocket which was soooo tasty. Time for sleep in a REAL bed. Updating the trail journal tomorrow via iphone!