Date: 2017-04-01
From: Lance Creek 

To: Mountain Crossing at Neel Gap
Miles today: 7.5

Day 4 on the Appalachian TrailApril 1Miles Today: 7.5Total Miles: 31.4I quit the trail this morning. I hiked back to Woody Gap and caught a ride in to town. From there I took the bus to Atlanta and plan to fly home to New Hampshire... Did I get ya? April Fools! Still on the trail and doing well. The rest of last night was really enjoyable. There were probably around 20 of us all camped out at Lance Creek and everyone was grouping up and having a good time. What brought everyone together was quite comical. This girl, now known as "Ontrak" was helping another hiker get his tracphone set up. She offered to call customer support and speak to someone. After spending several minutes dealing with an automated voice system on the other end, she finally got through to a real human being. By this point, everyone was huddled around waiting to see what would happen. The person that ended up on the other end of the line was obviously not a US citizen and communication between the two was difficult and humorous. To top it off, the cell reception where we were all standing was pitiful at best. After numerous tries to relay information to each other on how to get this tracphone set up, they eventually got it figured out after about a half hour but it didn't come easily. Language barriers and lousy reception were easily the hardest obstacles that were overcome yesterday. The plan of attack, like most people I camped with last night, was to get an early start and push for Neel Gap which was only a 7.4 mile hike. However, we had the highest point of the AT in Georgia, Blood Mountain, standing in our way. To add to the challenge, the section just ahead of us, Jarrad Gap, marks the section of trail where a bear canister is required. No one has one.. so we had no choice but to push our way over the Blood. It was my earliest start yet on the AT this morning. I was up at 6am, had everything packed and ready to go by 6:45 and was headed up the trail by 7:15. I was able to catch my first sunrise while hiking and it was absolutely stunning. I stopped for a few minutes and just stood on the trail as I watched the sun creep up over the mountainous horizon. It was a great start to what would end up being the best day on the AT so far. After watching the sunrise I continued to push forward and climb over several little knolls until I got to Jarrad Gap. As I approached the gap I saw several hikers who were just taking down their tents from the night before. It was a good feeling knowing that I had gotten up, broken down my gear, and pushed on 2.5 miles before most other hikers had taken down their setup. After Jarrad, I knew I would be climbing uphill for the next several hours. I checked my water and made sure I was set to climb up and over Blood Mountain. After climbing a ways up I ran into Joe and Murph, two guys that my dad and I had met previously. When I caught up to them they mentioned that they were going to try and grab a cabin at Blood Mountain Cabins for the night. They offered for my dad and I to join in. Appreciative of the offer, I accepted. We all began our climb up Blood. About half way up the mountain I decided to give the Cabin office a call to try and book a room for us. I was disappointed at the response from the desk worker, Matt, who said they were full up for the night. Kinda bummed, I continued up the mountain and made the summit at around 11am. The trail up Blood wasn't anywhere near as difficult as it was hyped up to be. I didn't stop the entire way up and was feeling good about my progress. Shortly after summiting, I got a voicemail from Matt saying they just had a cancellation. After listening to the voicemail, Joe and Murph arrived and I asked them if they wanted me to call back and book the room. Of course they said yes, and within a few minutes we had a 4 person cabin waiting for us at the bottom of Blood. It was shaping up to be a good day. We sat at the top of the mountain and took in the views for awhile. They were impressive and none of us wanted to start our way down. Eventually we got to it, and we're down the mountain by 1pm. On the way down, we crossed paths with what seemed like endless amounts of day hikers. You could tell it was a Saturday with the amount of people on their way up the mountain. We eventually got down and arrived in Neel Gap. We were all thrilled to be walking out of the Blood Mountain Wilderness and that we were reaching the first major milestone of the trail at 31 miles in. There was a lone Natty Ice sitting on one of the picnic tables when we walked in and a thru-hiker from last year told us we could have it. Joe quickly picked it up and instantly asked, "can I shotgun it?" To which I replied, "that's the only way to do it." He punched a hole in the can and had the beer down in seconds. Pretty sweet trail magic. After having the beer, we all went inside to grab our mail drops and pick up a few other items we needed. Joe and I each grabbed a frozen pizza and the workers at Neel cooked them up for us. We proceeded to eat our whole pizzas without issue. We then walked down to the cabins, checked in and got our key. First order of business when we got to our cabin was to gather our dirty laundry and bring it back to the office. Within a few hours, our laundry returned clean. Joe and I made the decision to hitch a ride down the road a few miles to go to a convenient store to get some beer. After thumbing it a few minutes we were on our way to the store. We each grabbed a 6 pack of highlife pounders and grabbed some food for dinner and breakfast. Loaded with goodies from the store, we stuck our thumbs out again and shortly had a ride back to the Cabin. When we got back, my dad had arrived at the cabin and we caught up a bit on how the last two days had been since I hadn't scene him since Thursday morning. Everything had gone well for the both of us and we were both glad to be relaxing in our own cozy cabin. The rest of the night was filled with conversation, consumption of beer, and listening to music. It was much needed and allowed us to take a break from the trail. Joe and Murph will be heading off in the morning while my dad hang out and spend another day and night at the cabin. We each have things we want to send home and I'm waiting for another package that will arrive on Monday.