Date: 2018-03-28
From: Lance Creek

To: Bull Gap
Miles today: 8.3
Weather: scattered clouds

By morning, my feet were feeling much better and my headache had gone away. Around 630 I began packing my things and got myself dressed while Cole remained tucked away under his covers. Once I was finished, I got out of the tent and Cole was able to get dressed and pack up with more room to maneuver. I seem to have more tolerance for tight spaces than he does and this method of packing up was much less aggravating to him. We gobbled up some pop tarts and downed some electrolytes for breakfast and then we headed up the trail. Or should I say up up up the trail. It seemed like we were doing nothing but climbing. It was misty and cool but with all the exertion I soon had to remove all of my layers except for my T-shirt. I knew that we would be going by two shelters during today and I asked Cole to wait for me at the first shelter. Foolishly I had not checked my guide book before I made this request, and I did not realize that the first shelter was .4 miles up a blue blazed trail. Noticing the sign for the shelter, Cole headed down the blue blazed trail. Thankfully he turned back when he could not quickly see shelter. He is becoming well known in our little bubble of hikers. I am constantly hearing things like ¢your son just flew by me¢ and ¢Boy your son is fast¢ and even ¢ I was trying to keep up with your son but just couldn¢t¢.  We continued on our method of having him hike ahead for 30 minutes and then waiting for me to catch up. As I hauled myself up blood mountain, my speed, such as it is, diminished greatly. Sleet was coming down and the only thing keeping me warm in my T-shirt was movement. I began worrying about Cole and imagined him sitting somewhere shivering as he waited for me to catch up. When I finally reached him it was at the top of Blood Mountain. He was sitting comfortably inside the shelter on a borrowed cushioned seat. Whatsittoya had given him some pepperoni to eat and a lady had given him two granola bars. All that worrying I was doing and here he was warm , comfortable and being fed. We sat there at the top of Blood Mountain and ate the last of our food. About 15 other hikers were there doing the same thing, celebrating the successful summit of the most difficult mountain in the Georgia section of the AT. There was no view to behold from that majestic peak, just fog. However, there was a privy and that is always a welcome sight. Heading down Blood Mountain required less exertion, but it was steep, rocky, wet and muddy. Not a good combination. As I picked my way down the mountain, being cautious of every placed step, a day hiker approached me from behind. I moved aside to let him pass but he declined and said that if I didn¢t mind, he would like to walk with me for a bit. It was odd at first. Perhaps he thought that I looked unsteady. He asked me lots of questions about my thru hike and it was actually nice to have someone to chat with. I did actually lose my balance at one point, but my poles, and God¢s grace kept me upright. After quite some time my hiking buddy met up with some other day hikers and they all continued down the trail ahead of me. It wasn¢t much long after that when the trail brought me to the bottom of Blood Mountain. I had concurred the beast! An outfitter, Mountain Crossings, sits there at Neels Gap waiting for tired hikers who need to resupply. Cole was there with at least 40 other tired, smelly hikers, milling around at the picnic tables, shopping in the store and scarfing down hot pizza. I had promised Cole a pizza too, so we ordered one and gobbled it up. I also picked up our resupply box and purchased a few items in the store.  Emergency crews arrived and we learned from other hikers that an older gentleman had fallen coming down Blood Mountain. We think it was someone in our bubble but we are not certain who. ( I found out later that is was Bampa. We started from Springer at the same time. You can read his journal on this site.)  Many people from our bubble are spending the night at Neels Gap. Whatsittoya, Maine Mike, Dunk and Egg ( hikers in our bubble) are all taking a zero. Cole liked chatting with them and is a little disappointed, but we are sure to run into them again down the trail. Eventually we continued on one more mile to Bull Creek. Only one other hiker was there. Two more arrived before bedtime. We had to hang our food in a tree for the first time. At all of our previous stops there have been bear boxes or cables to hang. It took us quite a while to get our food up into the tree, but eventually we concurred that task too. It was a nice warm, although windy evening.