Date: 2009-04-05
From: Neels Gap

To: Low Gap Shelter
Miles today: 10.8
Weather: few clouds

Empty Trail MagicThis morning we left Neels Gap after another great meal of chili dogs and hamburgers from teh Trail Dames, and after Einstein got another opportunity to play with all of his new trail dog friends. Ten Sticks decided to take a zero day, so we set off shortly before Ezra, Muscles, Julio and Patience Jr. It was a beautiful day and perfect terrain for hiking. Eventually Ezra caught up to us and we all hiked together. We expected Muscles and Julio to catch up, but there was no sign of them for the rest of the afternoon.In the afternoon the sun got stronger, and the trail got steeper - and every mountain crest was a deception - merely a tease to the top that continued to elude us. The trail kept getting steeper and longer, and every time we thought we were nearing the top of the mountain, there was more to go or another mountain in the way of us and our shelter. This was our most ambitious day yet, for a total of nearly 11 miles (which is still less than we need to be averaging over the course of the trail). There were two reasons for this new found ambition: 1) the pesky bear that was stealing food in teh 6 mile stretch after Nees Gap; and 2) the forcast for two days out which included sleet, snow, high winds and freezing temperatures - which we planned to sit out. So, we wanted to make Unicoi Gap in two days so we could hitch a ride into Helen, GA (the same Bavarian tourist town we stayed before starting). So, we had over 20 miles to cover in the next two days.One highlight we were looking for that day was some trail magic reportedly left for us at Hogpen Gap - a cooler of ice cold beer someone left daily for the thru-hikers. When we spotted it from the top of the mountain descending into Hogpen Gap we made a beeline for the cooler. We hopened it to find only 1 can of beer. Just as we discussed splitting the can, we realized someone had added insult to injury by leaving us an empty can in the cooler. So, no beer for us. Very sad.After having our hopes dashed many times over by the elusive mountain tops, we finally made our descent into Low Gap for the shelter. Comptely burned out, we barely had teh energy to pitch our tent or make teh trek up to the privy (something like an outhouse for the uninitiated), which was cruelly constructed about 250 yards up hill behind the shelter. Our water source came from two mountain streams that converged right in the middle of camp. As we could see the source of teh spring coming out of the mountain, we didn't bother to treat our water (a tip we learned from Alpine at Neels Gap).Maxwell, Liz, Ezra and I camped together and built a nice fire. Mary (now Fleet) came up from the shelter and joined us. Fleet, Liz and I commisserated and traded stories about the dogs we left at home. Liz had gotten some updates from her aunt who is watching her dog Boo, which is Einstein's sister and littermate. Fleet showed us pictures of her chocolate lab that she left in Bellingham, WA with her partner. Julio, Muscles and Patience Jr. never did who up at the shelter. We surmised that they hitched a ride into town at Hogpen Gap, when they discovered the empty cooler of beer.The new tent worked great. It was a little crooked going up, which we were fine with. Alpine warned us that it was tricky to get right and would take us a few times to get used to it. But it was very room and all of our stuff fit inside and stayed dry during the overnight drizzle. Einstein was very grateful. That evening the temperature began to drop and we realized we were going to have a cold morning. But I was much more comfortable in the roomy tent and in my new sleeping bag liner which added 10 degrees more protection at night.