Date: 2017-05-04
From: Woody Gap/Hiker Hostel

To: Neels Gap
Miles today: 10.9

Day 3Thursday, May 4, 2017 Woody Gap (20.8) to Neels Gap (31.7)Miles: 10.9 miles total in 5.5 hours with two breaks2017 AT trip miles: 31.7Total AT miles to date: 1325.8Weather: Overcast, showers, clouds, more showers, heavy showers, potential storms, colderDinner: Pizza at the Blood Mountain CabinsHikers: Waldo/Bill the Pony, Rob and his daughter Bethany, Shawn, two older section hikers, RC, about half dozen day hikersNumber of falls: OneWhile this day would seemingly be challenging, it instead was another pretty awesome day¢in part due to the fact that I'm writing from a cabin, not a shelter, but a cabin. With a bedroom, loft, kitchen and most importantly, heat. The rain is currently hitting it sideways. Best $18 I've ever spent.After the shuttle driver backed into a tree taking out the right door rear window, Waldo/Bill the Pony, (he hasn't decided on a trail name yet and started in the Smokies in March where the two naming options were first bestowed upon him and is finishing up this section before flipping back up to continue north), Rob and Bethany (father/daughter hikers out for a week), Chuck (the two to five mile per day thru-hiker guy) and I all headed back to the Woody Gap trail head at 9:00. A little late for my tastes and disconcerting¢due to the forecast¢storms are predicted to arrive late afternoon with gusting winds. 11 miles ahead is Mountain Crossings, an outfitter right on the trail with a 12-bed first-come, first-served bunkhouse. Who didn't return to the trail this morning was one of the two guys I had leapfrogged with yesterday and had arrived at the hostel with me. This was really surprising. He was a very steady hiker. The shuttle driver was actually in the process of telling us that this hiker decided to quit and was heading home later that day. Then he nailed the tree. I guess that van won't be used to drive him to the airport. The day started out fine, just some light showers. I had my umbrella up and stayed dry. Waldo/Bill the Pony and I fell into step soon after Woody Gap. Today¢s section included 4461-foot Blood Mountain, a mountain I have 35mm slide documenting having hiked in 1981. I still can't figure out where I might have started on that spring break college trip. Woody Gap seems possible, but that doesn't add up to a 60-mile Georgia only hike that I thought it was. Remarkably, the trail isn't looking all that familiar. With the exception of Big Cedar Mountain, about a 500-foot climb out of Woody Gap, the rest of today's mileage was all about climbing up Blood Mountain and down it to Neels Gap¢more than a one thousand feet elevation gain and descent. Waldo/Bill the Pony and I chatted for more than half the distance and we made good time, stopping for lunch at the Woods Hole Shelter where the two section hikers were debating about reserving a cabin tonight. Rain was still light at this point. I left first and met up with Rob and Bethany at the Blood Mountain cabin at the summit. They too were talking about trying to get a cabin tonight. So when Waldo/Bill the Pony showed up we collectively decided to get a cabin together if the bunkhouse was full. The outside of the stone Blood Mountain shelter is just as the slide shows, but with a fuctional roof and poured concrete floors. It felt slightly familiar, although I do not recall it having two rooms. Unlike 36 years ago, no view this year. The mountain was socked in.The four of us started down the last 2.4 miles of the day through rhododendrons and over bald rock faces reminiscent of Maine. And within minutes, I slipped on nothing. Like a verifiable hole-in-one, this fall counted. I had witnesses. And felt my crappy left foot twist. I got up and it didn't feel too bad, but as I kept walking down, I noticed a little something something going on around my ankle. Arrived at Mountain Crossings, passing under a knarled oak festooned with the footwear of hundreds of hikers who decided hiking the AT was not for them and threw in the towel, or more literally, their boots. Nice shop with tantalizing inventory. At 3 p.m., the bunkhouse was already full. As we were talking about getting to the cabins located .3 miles down the highway, a man with two young daughters overheard us and offered to drive. It was now raining, so we said, ¢Sure!¢ Turns out he thru-hiked in the late 90s. We were able to get this place, one of about a dozen plywood paneled housekeeping cabins offered at a reduced walk-up hiker rate of $72. We are in Bear, which is accented with two namesake bearskins hanging opposite the loft. The freezer even has ice. So I am sitting here in relative luxury, eating pizza from the restaurant at the front desk, icing my slightly swollen ankle, watching the rain pour down. And the wind gust. It really looks cold out there. The kids just inserted Ocean Elevens into the video player of the 13¢ analog TV mounted next to one of the bearskins. I'm telling you¢all this and hot water¢for only $18 per person. Well the pizza was extra.