Date: 2011-04-16
From: Neels Gap

To: Cheese Factory Site
Miles today: 23.8

Trail Day #3Day three was unexpectedly.... long. And I learned some good lessons along the way. Staying in the hostel at Neels Gap was a great and fortunate choice I made. After I posted the journal for day 2, I took a nice hot shower, played some frisbee with the boys, had some cheese pizza and was gifted a Dr. Pepper knock-off beverage named Mrs. Lynn (I think). The rain and thunder began around midnight, and carried on until 2 or 3 in the morning.My bunkmate Trek was up and gone by 6 a.m. I lazed up out of bed around 7:30, made some cold instant oats and slowly gathered my stuff together. My body didn't feel too excited about another day of hiking, so I took a quick look at my guidebook and figured I would shoot for hiking 12-18 miles or so, but didn't formulate any sort of definite plan. Most of the people leaving Neels were talking about heading to Low Gap, 11 or so miles down the trail, which seemed like an agreeable distance to my legs. I popped into the store on my way out for an apple, a banana and some paracord and started the uphill trek out of the gap. The trail was wet, but thankfully not too sloppy. Once I got going, my legs felt great and next thing I knew, I was at Low Gap before noon. I stopped for a small lunch and a quick chat with Ogie. The terrain after Low Gap proved to be fairly flat, with the only thing slowing me down being scattered patches of water on the trail. Blue Mountain proved to be a nice climb, but it felt near freezing, so I continued down to Unicoi Gap.I found my first sign of Trail Magic (gifts left on the trail for hikers) in the for of a little note and a white plastic bag, which proved to be fully plundered and full of rainwater. Bummer.Reaching Unicoi around 5 p.m., I ran into a group of six thru-hikers who were planning to hitch into Helen, GA to stay in a hotel for the night. They almost talked me into going with them, but since I had stayed indoors the night before ad was planning on hostelling again the next night, I had to continue on.So, having hiked 21 miles already, I figured I could plug onward to a campsite at an old cheese factory site. So I ate a few almonds, drank some water gifted to me by Downhill, and proceeded uphill for the next few miles. I stopped once to refill water at a stream, and found myself so pooped that I probably took 4 or 5 rest breaks on the climb. On the backside of this unplanned-for hill, I had to sit down and slam some peanut butter just to keep my head straight and keep moving. There was a camping spot at Indian Grave Gap, but for some reason (I'm sure you an guess...) I kept moving. Finally, 10 hours and 24 miles from my starting point, I stumbled into the cheese factory site, which turned out to be pretty ideal. Decent cover from the wind, lots of tie-down places for my tarp, a nice spring for water, and two friendly fellas with a warm fire going. I had just enough energy to set up camp, cook up some instant potatoes with sun-dried tomatoes and tuna, eat, and pass out.Lessons learned today:1. Keep up the calore intake.2. Make more of a definite daily plan, and know the terrain.3. I need 3 more stakes to make my tarp system just a bit more comfy.But I made it, and it's only 13 miles to the road where I can get to Hiawasse, a hot shower, some kind of restaurant food and a real bed.Cheersblog directory