Date: 2008-03-10
From: Neels gap (Blood Mountain Cabins) (3140')

To: Blue Mountain Shelter (3970')
Miles today: 24.0
Weather: broken clouds

I started out in reasonable time after a great sleep. Right before I was going to check out an orange cat wandered into the cabin and ignored any attempts by me to get it out. The cat belonged to the man who ran the blood mountain cabins and when I mentioned the cat to him he got worried and said the car will "spray" inside the cabin. I had left the door open so when I walked past again I grabbed the cat and shut the door with the cat outside now. I went to the outfitter to resupply on food and alcohol. They didn't have any windproof lighters as mine had crapped out on me. I was on the trail by 9:30 and the weather was beautiful. 60o and sunny and everything was wonderful. About an hour into the hike I realized I had left Esra's checkered bandana back at the cabin. I had gone anywhere from 2-3 miles at this point, but decided to go back. I dropped my pack on the side of the trail and headed back. By the time I reached my pack again with the bandana it had been an hour and a half and I was pretty beat. I had plans for an 18 mi day and it was noon and I had only about an hour of hiking towards my goal. I decided to keep going and see where I was when I reached the shelter before the one I wanted to get to which was 10.8 mi from Neels Gap. Before I reached it there was a road crossing and some trail magic, which is not drugs like it sounds but it is when non-hikers have food out for thru-hikers (or water or something a hiker would want). Seeing as how I was kind of in a rush to make up time I initially was going to reject the food but I'm pretty sure that it would have been incredibly insulting so I sat and ate an apple with the people there. Now I'm thinking I should have taken more but I'm still not so good on hiker etiquette.The people that had the food out were an old couple and the man (whose name I have forgotten already but his wifes name was Myrtle) had section hiked the AT and was a GT grad. He had also attended GA State and UGA at different points in his life but was an Industrial Management major (after transferring from Mechanical Engineering) from Tech which I'm pretty sure today is Industrial Engineering. I moved on after talking for a while (Myrtle was quiet and I remember her name because I thought she had a Myrtle Beach sweater on which would have been weird, but she didn't). The weather was still beautiful and when I reached the shelter I kept moving. I got to the 10.8 mi shelter at 4PM and figured I could go the 7.2 mi to Blue Mountain Shelter by sunset at 7:40. My feet were not happy though. They started to hurt bad and I felt a blister coming but kept going. The 7.2 was flat but real long because I kept thinking I was almost there and my feet were hurting.If I hadn't ran back to Neels Gap I wouldn't have felt so rough, but thank goodness the weather was nice. I finally made it and was spent. When I tried to get water my steripen was acting up and I really didn't want to deal with it. After consulting my shelter mate from Blood Mountain, who was already at the shelter, I finally got it working. Dinner was some chicken flavored noodle thing I got at Neels Gap and I threw in some Teryaki Beef Jerky. I'm in bed now (no homo) with probably the three loudest snorers this side of the Mississippi. They are all 50+ year olds from VA who are familiar with the area around Old Rag Mtn if that says anything. Because the weather was nice I saw more wildlife today than I have on any other day. I checked a bird book in Neels Gap yesterday to try and familiarize myself. I saw a couple of Dark-Eyed Junkos which are small dark birds (black and gray) with a white stripe on each side of its tail which you see when it flys away from you. I saw two woodpeckers and heard two others. One was the blue kind that can crawl down a tree trunk headfirst (possibly a downy woodpecker but I think I always confuse the blue one for a downy based on the fact it climbs down a tree). I also saw a normal red, white, and black woodpecker, but it didn't have a crest (possibly a downy woodpecker). I saw some kind of grouse 3 different times, although I think I saw the same one twice. They are real loud and startling when they fly away not from making any kind of call but their wings beating. I saw another bird which could have been a grouse but it was gliding through trees and wasn't as brown, more gray possibly an owl. I only got to see it flying away. I saw two tufted titmouses (or titmice) and these other birds that I don't know what they are. They have an orange breast which at first makes it look like a robin but they are more stout than a robin and have an orange breast instead of red. When I saw them there was a pair, most likely male and female because one had a browner color on its back and the other was almost black. They were hopping around together next to the trail and looked like they were trying to clear leaves by kicking the leaves behind them, but they couldn't do this without hopping. They were doing this little dance together and repeatedly as though they lost something in the leaves. I passed them three times on my way from, back to, and back from Neels Gap and they were always in the same place doing the same thing. I also saw a huge spider walk past me when I was taking a break and there is a mouse in the shelter going through everyones things. The mouse either keeps falling from the pockets of the jackets that are hung on the wall or he is dropping stuff. Its hard to be mad at a mouse once you shine your light on it and it looks like its lost running around the shelter. Its time for me to join the snoring chorus of 50 somethings from VA. One guy sounds like hes farting. Im going to have to top that.