Date: 2015-03-02
From: Neel Gap

To: Woody Gap
Miles today: 10.9
Weather: overcast clouds

Today was another SoBo day, starting at Neel Gap and finishing at Woody Gap (our starting point yesterday). For today¢s hike, we first drove to Woody Gap and left a car there in the parking lot. Then Ranger drove us in a second car to Neel Gap where we started at about 8:00. Neel Gap is an AT landmark. A single, stone roadside building houses Mountain Crossings, a top flight outfitter and a hiker hostel, and the AT actually passes through the building. We¢ve never stayed there, but we have shopped there and they have an extensive line of hiker gear. Just out front is a large tree known as the ¢boot tree¢, aptly named since its limbs are festooned with many dozens of hiking boots thrown there by hikers who apparently don¢t want them anymore. I took several pictures of the tree, but I don¢t like any of them. I¢ll try again tomorrow morning, since we plan to start there heading NoBo.We climbed out in the parking lot outfitted in our ponchos, expecting rain. The sky was overcast with hanging mists. Our first challenge of the day was Blood Mountain, the highest peak on the AT in Georgia. Last year we hiked it NoBo with full backpacks, this time we were SoBo with slack-packs. It made quite a difference. The mountain is a steeper climb on the SoBo side, with more rocks, but it was much easier for us this year. As we neared the top, the sun poked through briefly, but retreated and most of the rest of the hike we were spattered with ¢tree rain¢ (the mist condenses on tree branches and drips down on passing hikers). After Blood Mountain, the rest of the hike was relatively benign. There was a gradual 5 mile descent punctuated by a series of small peaks and followed by a moderate climb up Big Cedar Mountain with several good views of surrounding valleys. Portions of the trail were muddy with slushy ice, but other sections were completely clear. The temperature climbed to about 50 deg and we stripped down to T-shirts. The final descent to Woody Gap was steep in parts, and the wind in the gap was chilly. We finished our hike about 1:15, rescued our car and headed down the mountain back to Ranger¢s. We saw many of the same hikers today that we met yesterday, but not as many and we¢re not quite sure why. But we stopped and talked with many of them. Most are on their third or fourth day of hiking and many are starting a thru-hike. We try hard to memorize their trail names, but only a few are sticking. Late in our hike we met Boondoggle from Iowa, and That Guy, his 11-year old son. They seemed to be thoroughly enjoying themselves and we hope to see them again. My YakTrax worked well again today, they gave good traction on the ice patches and even on wet rocks. But the rocky northern side of Blood Mountain took a toll and a portion of the strap-on on one foot came loose. It still served well for the rest of the hike and we have already ordered more durable (we hope) replacements. In the next few days, I¢ll try to provide more details on our equipment in the ¢Gear¢ section of this journal. I did this last year, but we¢ve made a lot of changes since then so the 2014 gear list is woefully out-of-date. And we¢ve made even more changes in the last couple of days. I have a new backpack that I plan to checkout later this week. Some of this may be helpful to 2015 thru-hikers who are finalizing their equipment and preparing to set out in the next month or so.