Date: 2004-05-04
From: Big Cedar Mountain

To: Low Gap Shelter
Miles today: 20.3
Weather: clear sky

On the morning of May 4th the sun came beaming across my tent and the warmth drove me from my sleeping bag sometime after 7am. This would start my second full day on the AT. Yesterday had been an 18.5 mile day. I was stunned and thrilled to be covering so much ground so soon. But hey, the fact that there were still over 2,150 miles to go was not lost to me. It would be a long time before the idea that this might actually happen would take hold of my brain. Virtually everyone I had encountered on my way to the trail had expressed with a great deal of concern, ¢you¢re getting a late start¢. That was not what I needed to hear. My approach was that this was just another hike, like so many others. OK, so it was biggest hike.On the way up Blood Mountain, near Slaughter Gap, there were obvious trail reroutes and signs explaining them. It occurred to me that this was where my co-trail adopter, Graham, had come to work on a volunteer trail crew from UNH during his April break. It was nice to think a friend from home had walked and worked on this very hunk of trail just last month. On the way up Blood Mountain, I met a couple of college age guys. They were from Manchester, NH of all places. We hung out together on top of Blood Mountain for a while basking in the warm sun and eating lunch. They were both having foot issues. I gave them some suggestions and some moleskin. They were going to college in Utah. In response to my question, why Utah, they replied with the obvious. We¢re Mormon. I say obvious because I have lots of Mormon friends. These guys were a bit disappointed in the college experience. NH is not exactly the center of Mormon life. They thought going to a place so heavily Mormon would be much better. What they found was that many of the other Mormon students conducted themselves in decidedly un-Mormon like ways. It¢s sad. I encouraged them to stick to their beliefs and conduct themselves accordingly. It¢s all we can do.We checked out the old stone shelter and headed off down the rocky trail together for a bit. Before long I pulled ahead of them with their aching feet. Hiking with them was really fun but already the miles were calling to me. I always wondered if they made it. I hope so. One of them might have been named Seth.Half an hour later at 2pm, the trail led me through Neels Gap across US 19. There is a hostel and outfitter right there on the trail. In fact the trail goes right through an archway in the old stone building. I even took a picture of the place. Of course this was completely lost on me as I just rambled right through. Later people I met were incredulous that I had missed the Walasi-Yi Center. Hey, I thought this was supposed to be a wilderness adventure. The place looked more like a rest area or visitor's center for tourists to me.The weather was perfect all day. The hiking was great. Late in the day after lunch part 2, things took an unexpected turn. Actually it was my ankle that took the turn. That could put a quick end to this adventure. Granted things have been going well, but let's not get overconfident. The twisted ankle wasn't bad but the placement of my steps became more careful. The occasional pain kept me well reminded.It was 7pm as a little side trail pulled me down past some tents to Low Gap Shelter. Wow, 20.3 miles. Talk about being psyched. Hunger weighed heavily on my mind. Water and food preparation took precedence over social encounters until the preparation was done and the food was cooking. This was my first night with others on the trail. Surely I never expected my first 2 nights would be solo. There were lots of people at the shelter. It was close to full. There were folks tenting too. There were all the questions you might expect. How far did you come today? How far are you going? What¢s your name? Where are you from? When did you start? Where are you going tomorrow? I made friends by offering chocolate covered craisins. Of course my ulterior motive was to lighten my load. The guy in the gray cap, or tuk, in the photo apologized for eating so many of my chocolate covered craisins. He was from Canada and his name was Alexandre. Of course it pleased me to no end that he ate so many craisins. Others passed around gorp undoubtedly for the same reason.There were a bunch of folks there who all worked together. They were just out for a few days or maybe a week. They were tenting. They were really interested in the thru-hikers and gave me an email address so I could keep them abreast of my travels but the address didn¢t work. There were at least two solo male thru-hikers, Alexandre & J , a solo female thru-hiker and a young couple. There were other folks too. I slept at the right end of the shelter. It was four or five feet off the ground there making for a bit of an awkward entrance requiring a mantle move. Being the last person to arrive, I was also the last to bed. This was to become a pretty common occurrence.That's my sleeping bag hanging over the edge in the photo.