Date: 2014-05-01
From: Lance Creek

To: Bull Gap
Miles today: 8.5

Let the sun shine, let the sun shine in¢¦ the sun- shine in¢¦¢ Sour wakes me up ~5 a.m., but I closed my eyes and enjoyed the warmth of my sleeping bag in contrast to the cool air on my face. It was barely light out, I fell back to sleep. I next woke up to a soft, golden glow inside my tent. Could it be? No rain hitting the tent, the wind is still. I unzip the tent, slide my Crocs on and slowly come to full vertical stretch. The sun! It¢s the sun and it¢s just starting to climb above the horizon, back-lighting 3-Bar and Jeff¢s tent. Simply beautiful! I think my luck with weather is starting to change. Even with a quick breakfast, I left Lance Creek late, choosing to give my tent fly some time to dry out. The morning started with a barely noticeable incline from the creek area, and I was easily distracted. So many Trillium in bloom! When I arrived in Atlanta last Sunday, it was in the 80s, but when I reached the crest of the first mountain at the approach trail, I noticed that spring really had not arrived in Georgia. It still looked like winter with few trees having new leaves (or even detectable buds!).Had the skies be clear, I¢m sure the vistas would have been spectacular. The Trillium though, had not only arrived and bloomed but survived the wind and rain-beatings of the last few days, a weather system that had landed tornadoes to our southwest. The flowers looked ¢weathered¢ but even still, they were beautiful: light pink, dark magenta, and white ones large and small, carpeting the mountainsides and very fragrant. I think that I mentioned Blood Mountain is a 1,000¢ elevation climb and so far, I hadn't had one of those. I spent the morning psyching myself for the ascent. I guess it worked because it felt like I was moving smoothly and quickly up the three minor foothills leading to the base of Blood Mountain. I felt so good that when I arrived at a blue blaze leading to Woods Hole Shelter, I decided to take that path and see the shelter. I will just say that after what seemed like 10-15 minutes of walking with no view of the shelter, I turned around and ditched the idea. When I got back to sign for the turn-off, I noticed someone had scratched an informative update to the distance on the sign- not .2 miles more like .5. Good thing I turned around! This intersection of trails (Freeman Trail, the Woods Hole Shelter turn-off and the AT) is where Blood Mountain begins in earnest. The climb was overall a gentle grade with some pretty nice rock-work done by the Georgia AT club, many nicely constructed rock steps or stairs made the climb easy from the southern side of Blood Mountain.Day 4- Blood MtnI arrived on Georgia¢s highest AT summit in less than an hour from the trail intersections. I passed a privy to my left (fairly stuffed with trash) and a number of rock outcroppings some of which looked like partial picture frames, directing your attention to the numerous mountains that stretched far into the distance. It was as if I was looking at a ¢green ocean¢, with the mountain tops forming wave crests. I rounded a bend in the trail and saw the two-room, stone and wood constructed Blood Mountain Shelter, originally built in the 1930s. A fireplace and chimney remain though they've been closed-up likely due to bad behavior on the part of prior visitors. I read about the history of the shelter along with the angering fact that the shelter roof, window frames and shutters had been pillaged for firewood in the past. Well, that explains the ¢no fire¢ rule. I saw Sweet and Sour (S&S) atop one of the rock formations and climbed up to enjoy a spectacular view of the surrounding mountains and valley. I ate lunch, talked with a few day/section hikers and chatted with S&S a bit before they left for Neel Gap, the final destination of their hike. It was hard for me to leave such a stunning location. Although still cool, the sun was bright and the rock was warm; there were a number of Juncos flitting around to clean-up any food crumbs that might have fallen in the area. It was peaceful. I did however need to decide what I was going to do about accommodations for the night. Should I stay at the Mountain Crossing Hostel? The cabins down the road from the outfitter? Continue a mile or so beyond the outfitter to a campsite that is supposed to have a water source? Decisions, decisions¢¦I was getting ready to make my descent to Neel Gap when I saw 3-Bar and Jeff coming up the trail. We took a few photos together and they stopped to have a hot lunch there (chicken fajitas, maybe?!). Their hike ends at Neel Gap today, just like S&S. So today, I was losing the company of the remaining trail community with which I spent time over the last few days. As Jeff broke out the stove for their meal, I started to laugh. Earlier today I had been thinking of an appropriate name for Jeff, since Heather was now 3-Bar. It would have been an easy ¢team name¢ since they had both been in the airline industry (come on how about ¢Mile High Club¢), but since they both deserved their own name and since Jeff liked to cook the meals, I thought of things like ¢Top Chef¢, Sous Chef, Master Chef but none of those really stuck and in truth Jeff liked to ¢BAKE¢ (remember the yummy garlic, cheesy biscuits I mentioned from yesterday). I then mentally ran through some names with baker in them. Then it hit me and I very nearly rolled off the trail with hysterical laughter. I had indeed come up with a name for Jeff, but the association of it was with an episode of a terrible SITCOM (2 and a Half Men) in which one of the characters had been in a soft-porn movie that took place in a bakery in her younger years. The name: Master Baker. I had just met this nice couple a few days ago, and now I was on Blood Mountain, hysterically laughing as I tried to tell them this trailname. I think I must have been bright red when I stopped laughing long enough to spit out the name. God knows, if Jeff will keep the name but it was conceived with no ill-will. Day 4- Blood MtnDown the mountain I started, the northern side was more treacherous and rocky but also afforded some great views. I tried to move quickly enough but stopped to get pictures of Balance Rock and some pretty lavender Showy Orchis. I passed S&S on the way down the mountain and arrived at Neel Gap, US 19 and Mountain Crossings (Walasi-yi in Cherokee, which means not Mountains Crossing, but Frog-Place). Went into the outfitter to pick-up my mail drop package, looked for a new rain jacket, but no luck. I got a ham and cheese sandwich and hung out on the wide-patio to wait for my hiking friends to show. I still had not decided where to stay for the evening, there was a wedding at Mountains Crossing two days from now and they were in full, preparation mode for that. S&S¢s ride showed up, and Heather and Jeff were also getting ready to leave so we had a couple of photos together, I said goodbye to my friends and watched them head back to civilization in their cars. In the meantime, I had met Smoky, and it sounded like we might both end up hiking to the campsite a short distance north of the gap.Arrived at Bull Gap with plenty of light left in the day and another opportunity to dry out my still-damp tent. Smoky is here as are two trail maintainers from the great state of Virginia ( Slapshot and Hippn' Hop)! Nice evening, took a while to locate the water source since there was all of one blue blaze near the campsite and it was very light at that. For anyone looking, the water source trail is on the west side of the AT and in the northwest corner of the campsite. Good luck! The wind has picked up and it feels cooler than I expected it to, hope I stay warm enough tonight! Good night from the Bull Gap .More photos for day 4 of the trip can be seen at: 2000Miler 2014