Date: 2016-05-26
From: Lance Creek Campground 

To: Neel's Gap
Miles today: 7.4

Up at 6am this morning, had breakfast and broke camp around 7:40am. Set off on the trail with J-Neen and Trooper, who refused to get out of tent, so she pulled the tent down around him and had to drag him out...poor puppy has sore feet. It wasn't long before the two of them were out of sight to us, it was very humid and slow going. My glasses kept steaming up and the sunscreen was running into my eyes until I donned my Pocahontas head band.Now this area is Bear cannister only until June 1st or so all the signs say...I hope the bears read the warnings and leave by June 1st or there will be some hungry hikers if those bears get into their food bags! As you've probably gathered by now I'm pretty freaked out by the thought of seeing, let alone coming close to a bear...much to Richard's disdain I hasten to add, he gets so irritated when I even mention a bear. Well, about a mile out of camp we started seeing areas on the side of the trail with "big" claw marks and loose dirt. We followed these for about 1.5 miles up the trail. It certainly looked like a bear was clawing certain areas of the ground looking for grubs or other wiggly beasties and you could tell the areas were freshly dug as the earth was still damp near the claw marks. OK guys now that's my explanation....there's also a pic that Richard took of said claw marks. Richards explanation is; some guy is walking the trail with a rake and periodically raking about a 2 foot section to clear the leaves. I know right! I think the trail is messing with his brain cos who has a 4 pronged rake that looks like a big old bears claw!!Just before slaughter Creek and the start of Blood mountain we saw a father and son who were breaking camp. Of course I couldn't resist asking if any bears had been around but was horrified to hear that early evening they had heard crashing around camp and then when they went to get their cannister at breakfast from where they had hidden them the brush was all flattened and their canisters had been messed with. Of course Richard scoffed at this and said "bears, was just their explanation, it could have been anything". Now there are warning signs all over the area of bear interactions so odds are- if it sounds like a bear, it's probably a bear. I figured I just have to be able to run faster than Richard hmmm! Feeling much better all ready ha! Ha!We both have bear bells on our packs which are supposed to warn bears and critters and they'll run away. Though a fellow hiker Mike (trail Ninja) tells me it's a bears dinner bell and the bear spray I carry....strong pepper spray that sprays up to 30 ft is just the bears Tabasco sauce! Well, we climbed up up and away and finally reached the top of Blood mountain . It really was a breathtaking view but Richard didn't think the views were quite worth the hours of sweat and toil. There is a stone shelter right on top with a fire place, mind it looks hardly used.The mountain is covered by blackberry bushes and pink rhododendrons though only a few are in flower but by next week the mountain will be a blaze of pink. I was surprised at how rocky blood mountain is- actually big massive granite boulders. The hike down Blood mountain was horrendous-2.5 miles of steep, knee wrenching boulder strewn hell. Why people say the trail is easier to start in Georgia I will never know! We were so relieved to get ther bottom and see the other guys from camp last night had made it. Both J-neen and Mike were hobbling and had knee braces on both knees and planned, like us, to take a zero day tomorrow. At Neel's Gap is an outfitters so we looked for a new pillow, new sleeping pad and lighter sleeping bag for Richard to no avail and had a cold drink and sandwich while we waited for the Hiker Hostel shuttle. We got to the hostel around 5pm, showered and opened our food packages that James had mailed us. One of the owners, Leigh, drove us to get Chinese takeaway and some cold beers, we were in bed by 8pm.