Date: 2010-03-29
From: Woody Gap

To: Blood Mountain
Miles today: 10.2
Weather: light rain

9:20am I just sent off the sortings of the first maildrop. Leigh was kind enough to drop me off here at the P.O. in Suches on her way to taking hikers to Gooch Gap. Unfortunately I left my walking stick in the back of the truck, darn it! That's okay, if they have trekking poles at Neels Gap Outfitters I'll pick up a pair to try. The stick really helped me guard my knee on the downhills. The knee is doing much better and if I can get my pack weight down a bit mor I should be able to eliminate the problem. Going to give G a quick call then phone off until tonight.7:45pm. Hunkered down in tent. Got to Blood Mountain shelter at 5:20pm very happy to have put in extra miles today. This morning at the hostel the sun was coming over the mountains but once at the P.O. it was overcast. I could see the clouds enveloping the mountain tops. When I left the hostel I only had on a t-shirt and pants, no base layer. I put on the rain jacket for a little extra warmth but got so sweaty that I was getting a chill from the biting wind. Took a break at 2pm when I made it to Jarrad Gap. I took off the rain jacket and was freezing in the wind. Quickly grabbed the bace layer and fleece made things much warmer. Four SoBo hikers passed letting me know it wasn't far to the peak. Jarrads Gap Was Supposed to be 3-27 and feeling pumped from being well rested I decided to push on another 1.3mi to WoodsHole Shelter and see how I felt once there. Some other hikers had mentioned it wasn't a very good shelter and it was far off the trail. I passed three more SoBo hikers who had just left Woods Hole, they had brought fresh oranges and oreos for the people there to share and encouraged me to stop in. I was very, very, tempted by the oreos but was itching to make up miles lost by the zero day. When I arrived at the sign for the shelter I didn't want to leave the trail, oranges and oreos weren't going to break my stride and Blood Mtn. Shelter was only another 1.8mi away. It was so foggy and cold I kept expecting Baba Yaga to float by on her mortar and pestel, or at least the Red Knight. Once at the Blood Mtn. Shelter I stomped around looking for a camp spot. There were voices in the shelter so I went in to see who else was on the mountain top. There were two thru-hikers in the back room of the shelter. The Blood Mountain Shelter is a stone structure with a front and back room. The front room has a fireplace in the center of the back wall. To the right is an opening to the back room which has a raised wooden platform for sleeping. In both rooms there are open windows on eitherside which let in plenty of wind and mist. The two hikers inside were Debbie 'Sid' and Dan 'BillNye'. They had blocked off one window to cut down the breese and were in their sleeping bags going over maps. I let them know I'd be stoming around outside some more. I found a place and set up, then took time to hang my food bag. It took forever!! At 30 minutes I was ready just to leave it in my tant but after 45 had hung a by the book bear bag. I was so proud I took a picture to show the folks back home. From there it was back to the shelter to cook dinner out of the wind. When I got back there Sid and BillNye had packed up and were gone. It was so cold and windy up there I considered moving on too but at my rate I wouldn't get to Neels Gap until 9pm and that ment doing a major downhill rock scramble in the dark. I made dinner, cleaned up and crawled into the tent to journal. A few minutes into writing I heard something outside at the bear bag. I was confident at this time that I was the only human on the mountain top. What could be out there? My heart was racing. I didn't care what was out there just let it take the food and go. I began to shake and fumble in the darkness to pull out the only defensive thing available other than running, a leatherman lent to me by Nate. While looking for it I came across the can of tent seal and felt that would actually work well as an improvised mace. I opened the knife and laid it on one side, uncapped the tent seal and laid it on the other side. Thank you Nate for that little but sharp knife, it gave me an object to focus on. In the back of my mind I envisioned falling asleep and rolling over the knife either puncturing the tent floor or worse myself. This made me chuckle. I didn't belive the tent was in view from where the bag had been hung and thought that getting out to see what was at the bag was not worth risking giving away my location if it was another person. I heard rope slip through the trees and then it was just the wind. The last time I looked at the clock it was 10:15pm. I woke up at 6:15am after sleeping straight through the night for the first time. Must have crashed after the adrenaline rush.