Date: 2003-03-12
From: Beyond Woody's Gap

To: Neel's Gap
Miles today: 10.7
Weather: clear sky

I actually got the best night¢s sleep so far last night. The two boys who were camped and had the fire going when we showed up dead tired last night had hung my bear bag with theirs and when they gave it back to me this morning there was a giant Hershey Chocolate Bar in it. I was so grateful! Last night for supper all we had was hot chocolate and the last of our pop tarts. I was about out of esbit fuel tablets and I told them about my difficulty with cooking. They really were sweet guys. We didn¢t have breakfast but ate some of the chocolate bar. Gary was still a bit miffed about not stopping last night at Woody Gap and he was grouchy as hell because he was sore, tired, and uncomfortable. His pants are chaffing him and he has blisters. I hike 15 min. then wait 15 min. for him to catch up. Yesterday he complained that I always get a break and then when he comes along I push him to keep going. I told him he might be able to take a break if he hiked faster. He really didn't like that. I guess he is doing the best he can, but he should have been doing more walking to prepare for this. We finally made up a few miles down the trail, I think the place we camped last night was just before Lundsford Gap, so right away we had two big ups, Big Cedar Mountain, and Granny Top. Then it was fairly easy going and we got to Jarrod Gap. We rested here a bit and tried to do something about Gary¢s chaffing problem. We were debating where to spend the night. I didn¢t want to push Gary to the point of exhaustion again, but we also had heard that a rain front was coming through tomorrow. When I got to Woods Hole Shelter, I started to go back in to get water, but it was a long way downhill and off the trail so I didn¢t go down there. I waited for Gary and we decided to go on to Slaughter Gap where we could get water and maybe camp. We met some boy scouts on the trail from Mississippi. They seemed like really nice kids. I showed them where they were on my map. A little before Slaughter Gap, I tried to filter water and the filter wouldn¢t work. I couldn¢t find the tablets that were my backups if that happened. I think I left them behind trying to save weight. We were almost totally out of water and there was a big sign,¢ Blood Mountain 1.4 miles, no water.¢ We went on to Slaughter Gap and there was another water source, the last before the climb up Blood Mountain, the highest point in GA. (4500 ft) I was so relieved when the filter began to work. If it wouldn¢t have I had decided I would use my last two esbit tablets to boil a little water to get us over the mountain. It was now 2:45. We met some college kids from U of Florida who had just come down from Blood Mountain. They said it was about a two hours climb to the shelter. We decided to do the climb and be that much closer to Neel¢s Gap tomorrow. The climb wasn¢t that bad. There were a lot of switch backs. The views were great. You get in a rhythm on the ups-3 steps, rest and look at the view- 3 steps, rest. About 4:00 or 4:30 we got to the shelter. It is a pretty stone building, but I think it would be kinda scary to sleep there. I signed the register and said hi to a mouse that ran under my legs as I was sitting on the steps. The view was absolutely FANTASTIC! I took pictures of it and of Gary standing there. We took some of the other side from the rock just beyond the shelter. I felt like I was on top of the world. We decided that we would hike on and try to find some place to camp. The down on Blood Mountain is really rocky! Often you are walking across the face of rocks and the white blazes are painted on the rocks. At one point, Gary said, ¢ God, I love the trail mountaineers who painted these!¢ We saw a few places to camp and it was getting windy and we decided to hike down further. Now it was about 5:30-should we try to make Neel¢s Gap? Gary was really hurting and we were about out of water again. We lost the trail about 6:00 and I was really worried, but we bushwhacked down a ways and found it. I was so happy to see that white blaze I could have kissed it! We finally got to Neel¢s Gap about 7:00. Gary hiked about 10 minutes of it in the dark with his head lamp. There were two bunks left in the hostel but we decided to see if we could get picked up and rent a cabin there. About 15 minutes later, a van pulled up and took us, our packs and the two cokes we brought from the owner of the Walasi-Yi Center to the lodge. We told the van driver how starved we were and he called the boyscouts at the restaurant they were eating at and asked them if they would pick up a pizza for us on their way back. Then he took us to our cabin where we got hot showers and put on our cleanest clothes-It felt sooooo good! He drove our pizza up to us when it came and brought two beers, two cokes and cookies with it. I never had a better meal! Ah! The beer! Later we called Kristen from the lodge. During the night I heard some thunder and saw lightning. I¢m glad we made it down the mountain last night. Allan at Goose Creek has been wonderful help!