Date: 2015-03-06
From: Gooch Mountain Shelter

To: Neel Gap
Miles today: 15.9
Weather: clear sky

Day 3. Woke up all night because it was freezing. My sleeping bag got a lot of condensation so I had to put my towel on it in the middle of the night. It was genuinely freezing. I heard that a hiker had to be rescued by helicopter because he had hypothermia. It's not surprising, it would be very easy to be unprepared for the minus temperatures.A bit of a slower start because the cold made everything uncomfortable and terrible. I also burned my coat on my sleeve, but the hole is only very small. Not sure how. My gloves kept sticking to the metal hooks of the bear hangs. My boots and laces were frozen solid. My gloves frozen not long after I put them on.Myself and Mikayla left at 8.30 into a winter wonderland. All the branches were covered in ice, and little ice bits curled out of the ground. It was beautiful but freezing. Another day of coats/gloves on and off.About 1 1/2 miles later, we had our first trail magic! A man, called Fresh Ground (I think), was running a tarp shelter that served pancakes and coffee in the morning. I had two, one with banana and one with saut©ed apples. It was delicious and really made a huge difference to the day. It was also the last time we saw James (who might now be called Smasher) and Aser. Maybe we will see them someday again.My camelbak tube was frozen until about 12, when everything finally started melting. The trees started shaking off all their ice. The sun appeared for the afternoon. I got frozen and sunburnt in one day.We climbed over two massive mountains. Blood mountain was tall, but actually really nice and not like what the name suggested. It had the most green I have seen yet, and the sun was out in force. The climb was a lot of mostly gentle switchbacks, and it was very peaceful and quite lovely. It just took a long time. The top had some spectacular views though- I could see where the ice had been melted away already on the mountains we had just climbed.From Blood Mountain it was 3 miles of descent through a forest down to Neel Gap.Unlike other days, today we saw a lot of weekend hikers (even though it's Friday!). They're not as chatty as thru-hikers, and you can actually smell the difference between us and them already.When we reached Neel Gap, at first we were confused. It was supposed to be a town, right? It was just an outfitters. It was disappointing, until we entered and were greeted by Greywolf offering freshly cooked pizza. Amazing!!We decided to stay here the night, and we got our own pizza to split. I bought some cheese, powerade, a honeybun and a quesadilla too. Also some aloe for my sunburnt face and sunscreen for the next time I sunburn. I'm not sure how I managed to lose my sunscreen, how annoying!!After, we got settled into our bunks which were incredibly comfortable compared to my roll mat and seemingly forever damp sleeping bag (or puddle filled tent).I discovered that after our first 15 mile day, both my index toes have blisters. It's a little strange, but today I wore Darn Tough socks instead of my usual Bridgedale so maybe that's why. My legs, knees and back are all horribly stiff at the moment. Tomorrow I must stretch before walking. My pack feels a bit better, though is suspect it's because I've eaten more of the food.Tomorrow I need to get some dinner food from the store here, and then we're planning a later start than usual - at 9-9.30. We're going to walk 11 miles to Low Gap. I hope my blisters will be okay.