Date: 2009-03-28
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Miles today: 0.0

Recap of the 1st 4 days-- (**I wrote this out at Neel's Gap since I didn't journal too much out on the trail.)   Coming into AFSP was really great. It was a cloudy morning but not cold, and it was sweet to drink our instant coffee outside. We signed in as thru-hikers number 348 and 349. As far as the approach trail goes, it is so hyped up on Whiteblaze that I didn't know what to expect. Some say you can hurt yourself on it-which is ridiculous-and some say that it's so beautiful you shouldn't miss it. It's neither. It's pleasant ridgewalking, with some climbs, and wood views. That's it.    Black Gap Shelter has a lovely spring down in a ravine. I gathered enough water for that night's dinner and the next day's breakfast without having to treat or filter.    We had dinner early that night and settled down in the tent. Matt fell asleep right away. I couldn't sleep because because I kept getting psyched out by people walking around camp. I have to calm down about that. Anyway, that kept me up, and then the rain started at 2 am, so I never really fell asleep.    It was a crappy, dark, rainy, fog filled morning that would repeat itself over the next 3 days. We rolled up the tent in horizontal rain, ate breakfast under the awning of the shelter, and took off for Springer Mountain. One hour later, we were there without ceremony. No one else was around. It was crazy dark. I searched out the first white blazes, and then we continued into the rain. I was already starting to get cold despite full raingear and layers underneath.    We took a long coffee break at Stover Creek Shelter and I started to feel better. We chatted with a few hikers that came through, Lion King and then Motor, and drank a lot of spring water.    The trail then took us through Stover Creek, where we gawked at the impossibly big trees, and up to Long Creek Falls, which were roaring. Then it was dinner inside of Hawk Mountain Shelter. After, of course, I got lost looking for the water source. There are a ton of side trails at that shelter! Hawk Mt. Shelter was wet, muddy, packed, and pretty depressing. It looked like the underbelly of the Mayflower. It also had a loud, opinionated hiker who had alot of unwanted advice and a fat pug. No way were we staying there! We ate our hot ramen and took off down the trail again.    I had hoped to find somewhere to camp at Horse Gap, but there was not much in terms of camping, and a road runs through there, anyway. Sassafras Mountain was tough at the end of the day but we got up in reasonable time. We found a spot to camp that luckily wasn't too windy, and put up the already wet tent in a soaking rain. We had a great time taking turns getting in, and eventually we were settled in for a wet night. Especially Matt, whose sleeping bag had somehow gotten damp.    I slept surprisingly well but woke to my worst morning on the trail. I has to pee at 5:45 am. I changed into my hiking clothes, secured my dry set, and donned wet hiking gear, so I was already wet before stepping out into the black rain and fog. I had to coax a salamander off my rain jacket, and then I discovered that a mouse had chewed through my pack. Great. So much for hanging all the food. After all that, I could finally do my business and get wetter. I stood in the soaking wind seeing ghostly outlines of trees and fog that fell over the mountain. I got colder by the second. I was very low, already questioning myself as to why I would want to do this.    I waited for Matt to finish packing up in the tent and then I did the same. It was so dark and so early that we really had to wait to break camp completely. Headlamps only reflect off the fog. So we were waiting in the tent, facing the vestibule, when the mouse that took up residence there tried to run into the tent via my arm. It was barely 6:30 am and we were already having so much fun!    Eventually we took down the food bags, rolled up the tent, and got the hell out of there as soon as we could see enough to walk, around 7:15 am. Slowly we marched the 4 miles to Gooch Mountain Shelter on no breakfast. I got pretty sluggish but we made it without any major fainting episodes.    Another long break out of the rain was had. That shelter has a great spring that spurts right out of a rock, so I got a ton of water and we made lots of coffee, talked to other hikers, etc. By afternoon we took off again. All the springs and intermittant waterfalls are flowing, some of them are very pretty.    We hiked out to Woody Gap at 4 pm. Lots of other hikers were there waiting for a shuttle into Dahlonega, but we made dinner under an overhang at the trailhead and we the only ones hiking up Big Cedar Mountain. No matter, I felt much better after eating a hot, homeade, veggie dinner. When we got up the ridge we started looking for a campsite. We found an out-of-the-way place on a blue blazed trail. Thankfully the rain at least slowed in intensity as we set up camp. We both slept okay that night, and made it through another night in the rain.    By morning the ground was so saturated with water that our tentstakes were loose in the ground, but luckily it wasn't windy. It also meant that the windless night contributed to a ton of condensation on the inside of the tent, making both of our bags really wet. Better than a collapsing tent, I guess.    Yesterday was sustenance hiking. The rain was constant, fog thick and dark, and I couldn't take much more. We slowly climbed up Blood Mountain and for the most part I tried to block everything out and concentrate on the trail in front of me. Blood Mountain is very rocky and steep going down, so I was picking my way down wet rock on trailbed resembling a mountain stream.    We finally came down into Neel's Gap and got the last room available. I didn't feel too great about bailing from the trail yesterday, but staying here has been great. I got to rest and relax, our room has a porch you can walk out onto, so there is lots of fresh air, with a view of tall trees and the sound of a creek. We got to clean up ourselves and our gear, cook in the kitchen, and rest. Last night I slept like the dead. Today has been so quiet, only one hiker in for the night, Tord, who we walked with for awhile.    Now that I'm decompressed, I'm ready for the trail tomorrow.