Date: 2014-07-08
From:  Leveland Mountain, passed Neel Gap

To: Blue Mountain Shelter
Miles today: 17.1
Weather: overcast clouds

After ending the day with a very low supply of water, my first task was to pack up quickly and hike north in search for water; I could eat breakfast after finding water. To my delight, there was water only about 200 yards up the trail. To my disappointment, it was a very, very small stream. With my pump filter that would not be not a problem. I just place the tube into a small shallow pool and start pumping. The problem is that my pump filter was on its way to my mother's house after being replaced yesterday with the new lighter-weight squeeze system. With my squeeze system, it was not so easy. I had to use the syringe meant for back-washing the filter if it got clogged. I sucked water up from the shallow pool one syringe at a time and squirted it into the bag. It took about twenty syringe fills to fill the bag and it took about three bag fills to fill one Nalgene bottle. If you do the math you will realize why as unwise as it is to start the day with only one water bottle, that is exactly what I did. I hiked over Cowrock Mountain and down to Tesnatee Gap where I stopped for breakfast. On the way over Cowrock Mountain I came across a Timber Rattler, my first on the AT. Most people seem to worry about bears on the AT, and apparently I should focus my fear on running out of water, but my biggest fear is snakes. I don't even like garter snakes, so as you can imagine, running into a rattle snake that was lying on the trail was not a good way to start my morning hike. Fortunately it was at a relatively level spot on the trail so I could walk off-trail to give the snake all the personal space it might desire. Unfortunately it was an area overrun with poison ivy. So those were my choices; hike on the trail with a rattle snake or off the trail with prison ivy. I chose the poison ivy because I could attempt to hold it away from me with my hiking poles, I wasn't sure that would work with the snake. All the way to the next gap, every crooked, exposed root was a snake and every hole on the side of the trail was a snake den. I saw a dozen more rattlers on the way to the gap, but none of them were real and eventually I started thinking rationally and seeing roots as roots. (The photo is a "root snake." The real snake photo us under "photos.")I got to the gap and had breakfast. At the gap the trail met a forest road and there was a parking area. A father and son pulled in and got out of their car. The father quizzed me about my hike and talked about how he had always wanted to do that but he wasn't sure his knees would take it. He also heard it was a great weight/loss program. (I didn't tell him, but I thought moving tons of gravel, sand, and rock is a faster weight-loss program; about one pound for every ton.) Most non-hikers that I meet on the trail think of me as crazy or as someone doing a phenomenal feat. Basically you put 30 pounds of survival stuff on your back and then take one step after another while you try to figure out "How can I position everything I need during the day in a way that I can teach it without taking off my pack. (There's an engineering challenge for some mechanical engineer to take up. That's got to be tougher than designing a Diesel engine.). Anyway, it is more likely that the group who think I am crazy have the correct assessment. While I was talking with the man and his son, a lady preparing to do a day hike parked her car and joined the conversation. The man asked if I needed any food, I said I was in good shape, he said "How about some cold water?" And I said that would be fantastic. He gave me a bottle from his cooler, I drank it and handed the bottle back to him. The lady then asked if I would like more water as she pulled out a liter sized bottle from her cooler. I said that would be great if you don't mind my pouring it into my Nalgene bottle. I had two full water bottles and I was fully hydrated !That afternoon I ran into fellow hiker Laura. She was carrying 42 pounds and thought she might have too much weight. She had 10 days of food! I carry about three or maybe four days of food. We hiked together for a while, but as much as I hate to admit it with my 28 pound pack, it was too much work to keep up with her. I did run into her at the shelter that evening. I thought about eating supper and moving on but the family of four, the Bacons, already at the shelter said it was going to start raining soon so they were setting up their hammocks. I was anxious to get into town (Hiawassee, GA) so I could get on line and check my Calc students' AP scores that came out today. Instead I set up my tent, ate in the shelter as the rain fell in torrents, and got on line in the shelter to check on scores. Mrs. Bacon is a fifth grade math teacher so she understood how anxious I was to see how my students did.(They did great - 92% high enough for college credit, 72% had a score of 5, the highest score possible. I am very proud of how hard they worked!) it all seemed a bit surreal to be in a shelter I the middle if the forest and accessing the internet to check on student data. I guess that is part of what makes it hard to really "get away" in our culture. But I was glad to see the scores.