Date: 2006-11-17
From: Neel's Gap/Walasa Yi Hostel

To: Gooch Mtn Shelter
Miles today: 15.6
Weather: scattered clouds

As remembered 4/25/07 (finally getting these last entries in)Up around 6 am - breakfast - cheese grits and peanutbutter on bagels from the hiker box. Caught up on some journalizing and read the guest log. People got up and moving around 7am, and everyone but me was on trail pretty early. I waited around for the store to open, and in hopes that Birdnut would catch up. Watched a movie and read some outside magazines in the interim. Also took a shower. Considered doing laundry but decided against it since I only had 2 days left on the trip. At the store, did some shopping and bought food for the next 2 days (6pk bagels, some snack mix; don't recall what else). I tried to find some cool piece of new gear to enhance my last 2 days, but determined that I really had everything I needed, and that there was no way I could improve my comfort on trail with the aquisition of anything else, despite their being a well stocked outfitter. I did get a disposable camera for summit pics since I broke my digital camera a few days ago. Around 10:00, a group of hoods in the woods from Pittsburg came in, and we talked for a while (see Tentpole's 11/26 entry for additional description). I finally left around 11:00, and climbed Blood Mtn for some great views, passing a few dayhikers on the ascent. Great cell service on top, allowed me to make a few calls (talked to Melissa for a while), and took a few pics with my new disposable camera. Blood Mtn shelter was an old, stone shelter, and I found the journal waterlogged, with the pages frozen together (it was freezing out overnight, and there was ice over all of the trees), but sunny and pleasant as the day progressed). I put the journal up in the rafters to in hopes that it might dry out one day and hiked on. At Woody Gap, bet a guy who had seen the Bear Mafia (c) earlier in the day and said, "There was a group of 4 people who passed by earlier who said they walked here all the way from Maine!" and was clearly impressed as well as unfamiliar with thru-hiking. I smiled and non-chalantly replied, "Oh, them? They're a bunch of liars. They skipped about 20 miles. I hiked all the way from Maine.", and walked off smiling to myself. (Read I as if in italics-I don't think this text editor maintains them). I saw a V-22 osprey (tilt-wing vertical take off airplane) flying around Gooch Mtn with it's wings at 45 degrees. Reached Gooch Mtn shelter around 5pm to find Easy, Link and Cowsie as well as Easy's friend Dennis? who joined him at Neel's Gap to finish the trail with him. The Bear Mafia (c), Boots and Kansas were all at Hawk Mtn Shelter, 7 mi ahead. Chilly night, but we had a fire going and a pretty mellow time. At some point in the evening, I saw a group of flashlights moving through the woods, and went to check it out, thinking it might be a platoon of Rangers on patrol with really bad light discipline for some reason (they do exercises around Hawk Mtn shelter according to a lot of the register entries). Turned out to be a scout troop hiking a bit slower than they had planned, and heading for the tentsite at Gooch Gap, 1.4 mi N. I was relieved that they weren't planning to stay at the shelter. I normally enjoy scouts (I used to be one), but I was enjoying the mellow, peaceful mood in camp and didn't really want it disturbed. We talked for a few minutes & they hiked on. In bed sometime between 9 & 10 pm.