Date: 2003-03-07
From: Florida sun

To: Wildcat Mt
Miles today: 6.0

Day SevenMy responsibilities at the show ended early, so my shuttler, former thru-hiker Pilgrim shovels me up at the Conyers Olympic Horse and does the shuttle thing to Neels Gap. Good-bye horses, hello hiking.At Neels, I mail home my heavy fleece (uhhh, yeah Cricket, weren't you supposed to take that home with you from Springer?). I've finally cut my guidebook apart, so I bounce the excess forward. My digital camera, my first, is a Canon Powershot s230. I stayed up late last night cramming the manual into my head; and the hard copy goes into the bounce box. No sooner do I send it ahead than I forget how to reformat the CF cards. Aaaaarghh!At the Neels Gap hostel, I sniff around for someone setting out at this late hour of the afternoon. No dice. Only three people here. I will have to set out alone. The big bulge that was Pack 31 is moving forward down the Trail like a meal thru a snake's belly, about four days ahead. The Trail is nearly deserted now.Note to those who want solitude on the AT: no need to start in February. Just start mid-week.My late start means I will not make the 11 miles to Low Gap shelter, and for sure I am not staying at the "closer" Whitley Gap shelter. That durn place is 1.2 miles off the Trail! That's an hour and fifteen minutes of round trip walking time, just to get to the shelter!Water is scarce tho here, so perhaps that's where the water was. In any case, I am drinking like a fish early on in the hike, and stocking up at ?Boggs Creek Gap, the last official water listed in the Data book - altho I did see some unnoted blue blazes, including one on the backside of CowRock Mt.Though I would have liked company and sought it, I am unexpectedly thrilled and exhilarated to be hiking alone. Go figure. For the first time, my thru-hike experience is sinking in, and I felt it almost from the first footstep outside of Neels Gap. I am the world's most social person, but I swear I love hiking by myself. I get out of my head and into the woodsy details almost immediately. Hello moss, hello towhees, hello burls.I have my own hiking rhythm too - walk a little bit and sit, walk a little bit and sit, walk and sit and fiddle, walk and sit and eat, pack off, pack on. It's not very efficient in the short run, but I can go all day this way. If I try to go at someone else's pace, I wear myself out early and the last miles of the day are a misery. Though I still have on antiperspirant from my morning in civilization, the very first pull out of Neel's overwhelms it. Phew! What a change. In the a.m., I'm the judge everyone is trying to please; in the afternoon, I am scruffy hiker trash with whom the spandexed yuppie bike riders at Neels studiously avoid making eye contact. Transition complete.Once again I pass over Cowrock Mt. and think how pretty it would be to camp on this grass top. But it's only 4:45 and I have made a pact with myself to hike until 6. I am feeling good - 3.5 days on and 3.5 days off must be a magic formula - and want to go as far as I can and still have time to cook and hang a bear bag.I roll up and over Cowrock, and down into Tesnatee Gap. They say this is where John Muir crossed on his eastern trek. I did not see him, though I was watchful.Up the rocky, steep path to Wildcat Mt. I love this sort of stony terrain. When I get to the top, it is just about six and lo! and behold! a perfect grassy camping spot, with a fine stone ledge for sitting and cooking. I drop my pack and set up camp.Though I would only have to go another few tenths of a mile downhill to Hogpen Gap, a familiar place Clyde, David A. and I once camped Labor Day week of 2001, I like the idea of staying on this grassy, mountaintop site.I time myself. I need about an hour after arriving to set up camp, cook, clean up and hang my food. For now, six is about the latest I can hike and do chores by natural light, as it is darkening down by 7PM. Funny to think that next month, April, will have the same length of days as August does.It's now after supper, and I am snug in my puffy down bag. I hadn't planned to spend my first night alone in the woods so soon, but it was bound to happen sooner rather than later, so here it is. I really like the freedom of camping wherever, whenever.Good night from Wildcat Mt.