Date: 2016-06-05
From: Swaim Gap

To: Big Cedar Mtn.
Miles today: 11.8
Weather: broken clouds

I got up early to do the several miles down to Neel Gap. Christian got up same time, & we parted in opposite directions. When I got down to the outfitters store. Not only didn't they have any of the stuff I wanted in the store, they didn't have any water for showers; but at least the toilets were still working, and I was able to wash up and change in the restroom. Then I got out to hitchhike up to Blairsville, where I had the address of an Episcopal Church. The guy who picked me up thought he was heading out the same direction -- turned out it wasn't quite, but he took me to the church anyway. People have been very helpful that way. Norman (?) & wife welcomed to me right away, although they denied being the official greeters. Several other people welcomed me on the way into the church including one who said, "We are a very friendly church and we love our minister." I replied, "That's good for you, and it sounds great for the minister."It was youth Sunday; so the teenagers were involved in various ways in the service. The children's sermon was unusually long, and then there was no adult sermon, which I thought was interesting. Another interesting thing was the way that they rigged up a candle holder on a wheelchair so that a severely handicapped kid could be a candle-bearer in the procession -- it helps to have a church with everything on the same level.Lots of good singing and liturgy. Afterwards the couple who greeted me first invited me to their house for lunch and for a ride back to the trail. I couldn't refuse even though it sounded like the fellowship food was going to be extra special because someone was celebrating an anniversary.By the time I got back to Mountain Crossings at Neel Gap, they no longer were using the toilets for a lack of water, and everybody was told to use the porta-potties, but I was still able to use the restroom to change into my hiking clothes.I had wanted to stay at Blood Mountain shelter, just 2 miles up from the gap, because it was the first time in a long time I've been there when there was no ban on camping without a bear canister, but it was still early afternoon.The mountain itself was just as I had remembered: a few rocks on the way up but nothing terribly difficult and very gradual slope on the other side; however, it is the highest mountain that North-bounders have crossed to that point; so I guess that's why they complain so much about it.I cooked myself a second lunch while I was up at the shelter (yes I'm eating a lot these days), and a woman with a dog came up and wanted to look in the shelter. The dog wanted to look in my food. We worked it out.As I headed down the mountain, I noticed [for a few miles, it seemed] that there were rocks pulled out of the trailbed: sizable rocks up to a foot across. It seemed to me it must have been done by a person because I think a bear or some other animal would be looking for insects and would be digging in the dirt underneath. I saw no evidence of that: just the hole where the rock had been. Also, an animal wouldn't bother to toss the rocks off the side of the trail, which is where almost all of them ended up. I don't know what that was about.Lots of miscellaneous ups and downs with sprinkles but no serious rain thru-out the cloudy afternoon. I did want to get as far as possible, to keep tomorrow from being excessively long. No good shelter options in this area; so eventually, just before dark, I found a place up on Big Cedar Mtn., just before Woody Gap, that had at least a spot to set up a tent. It was right near a rock overlook where you could see some distance even in the cloudiness. After dark, a hiker came by with his headlamp; I didn't get to talk to him. I met mostly day- or week-end-hikers; If there were any thru-hikers, I think they came thru while I was at church.