Date: 2008-01-12
From: Low Gap Shelter, GA

To: Woods Hole Shelter, GA
Miles today: 14.3
Weather: scattered clouds

Dawn in the forestWe got away early, although it was pretty cold this morning. There were only 14 miles to go to Woods Hole Shelter so we took it pretty easy. It was an absolutely gorgeous day with temperatures ranging from 1-20o C. There were quite a few people about as it was Saturday and we were close to Walasi-Yi (at Neels Gap), which is a major access point. We met another NOBO, trail name Trek. He said he was doing his sixth thru-hike of the AT!! He is retired and he does the AT beginning on 1 Jan every year and the Long Trail in Vermont as well. He had two dogs with him, both with radio collars. He apologised for them as they rushed towards us and were quite rambunctious, though not dangerous at all. They were not his dogs as it turned out, but he said he had been unable to make them go back to wherever they came from (more about these dogs shortly). Trek loves the winter time on the trail especially when the snow is deep and it is necessary to use snow shoes - up to 5 feet in Vermont. Apparently Stumpknocker is also on his 6th thru-hike. Trek said there was a group who started every year on 1 January from Springer. We've only seen three so far. I can't quite see the appeal of this myself, as there is so much out there in the world, I can't see myself having the time to repeat the same thing over and over. However you wouldn't need to maintain a home, just have a house trailer parked up somewhere. Trek was retired, former military, and single, which could be a typical scenario. Unlike Stumpknocker, he does not keep a journal, preferring to be remain anonymous on the trail. He said if too many people get to know about you, they want to pick your brain and he prefers to just get out there and do it for his own satisfaction. He reckoned Stumpknocker has an army of private secretaries keeping up his journals! One thing I plan to do when I get home, if not before, is to look up Stumpknocker's journal and see what more one can write if one does the trail 6 times. Amongst others we met were two men from the Mountain High Hiking Club. They were doing a "recce" in preparation for a club trip. We had something in common as we do the same for our club in Wellington (ttc.org.nz) so we talked to them for a while, sitting in the sun. I was intrigued by the vast and impressive array of high tech gadgets that one of them sported hanging from every possible place on his chest, including GPS and a radio for contacting the "sweeper" - this is the last person in the group whose job it is to ensure no-one is left behind. We call this person the "tail-end Charlie". We enjoyed meeting them. There was also a group of three hunters with an undetermined number of dogs, all with radio collars. They said they had lost two dogs and had we seen them. We had, of course, about 3/4 hour further back along the trail latched firmly onto Trek and heading north at Trek's fast pace. Maybe the hunters will not see those dogs again! The radio collars have antennae on them and I think are used to enable the hunters to find the dogs when they "bay up" some poor animal - assuming the dogs are in range of course. These hunters had killed a pig and were carrying out the meat. We arrived at Walasi-Yi at Neels Gap in time for lunch. On the rapturous recommendation of Wingfoot (AT guide book) we had planned to re-supply for the remaining two days at Walasi-Yi. Wingfoot says the owner is a former thru-hiker who knows what thru-hikers want in the way of food and stocks it. Stupidly, given the time of year, we relied on that, but when we got there we found they only cater for the large group of NOBOs who go through in March and April. There was very little there at all in the way of supplies. The problem is that there simply aren't enough SOBOs for the owner to justify devoting expensive store space to carrying supplies for them. So be warned, any SOBOs reading this, and don't count on re-supplying there! And whoever takes over Wingfoot should put in a caveat for SOBOs. The supplies we ended up with would have been at the bottom of my list if I'd had a choice, and were very expensive. At least they had fuel, though that was at the highest price we paid anywhere on the trail. One very good thing they had was a frozen pizza and an oven to heat it up. I am not a pizza fan as a general rule but this one went down very well indeed and gave me a much needed shot in the arm for the pending climb up Blood Mountain. Part way up Blood MtnBlood Mountain Shelter is picturesquely built of what looks like locally quarried rock but would have been a bleak place to stay with its broken windows and wet sleeping platform. Some kind person had left a gallon bottle of water there.View west of Blood Mtn We really enjoyed Blood Mountain which had great views on this fabulous day. Woods Hole Shelter was not far away but, according to two men we met on the summit, had no water source so we carried it in from a small spring we found on the way down. There were two men and three young boys in residence at the shelter and we had an entertaining evening watching the boys experimenting with preparing the trail foods they had brought in and trying to light a fire. Woods Hole Shelter