Last night I dreamt of my family and woke up sad. It happened a couple of times during my “catnaps”. I call them catnaps because I don’t sleep very long. I never do when we are camping. After a little bit my body gets uncomfortable and I have to shift. However, last night was the first night that I could really settle in. Ben stuffed leaves around our tent to insulate under the rain fly and to cut down on any wind coming in. To save on weight, our tent doesn’t have windows with a zippable canvas, it’s only mesh. So we rely on the rain fly to keep heat in. The leaves worked awesome. So did zipping the sleeping bags together. It was perfect, we each still had our liners but could cuddle up for warmth. Plus it made it easier for sharing the pillow because we could put a corner of it in each of our head pockets of the mummy bags. All of that meant the catnap sleep that I got last night was pretty nice, except for when I woke up sad.
We were leaving camp around 8:15a, which meant we woke up and started moving an hour earlier than that. It was 15 minutes later than we wanted. We pushed about a mile uphill before we stopped to brush our teeth and go to the bathroom. Remember, there were 30 or so tents where we were. Privacy was an issue.
Today we hiked up Blood Mountain. I heard it is the highest Georgia mountain on the AT. I’m not sure if that’s accurate or not. Everyone had worked themselves up about this climb. But honestly, the hike didn’t seem all that bad. At least, not from the direction we came from. If you came from the other side of the mountain it was nasty. We were exhausted just from navigating downhill.
It was an overcast morning for about 3 or so hours. It was also foggy, windy, and spitting large occasional raindrops. It may make for a somewhat uncomfortable hike, but I appreciate the coolness and I think it makes it kind of fun, like a true adventure. It is also great for gorgeous photos! We didn’t make good time today because we were too distracted by photo opportunities. It was just too perfect to pass up!
On the top of Blood Mountain was a shelter. It is apparently the oldest shelter on the AT. It is made of stone and is truly impressive. However, you can only stay there if you have a hardened bear canister. So I doubt it gets used much other than as a lunch break spot.
You know the moment when a blister tears open inside your shoe? There’s an instant sharp pain and then after a bit there is just raw discomfort, which hopefully gets to be intermittent or dull. Well, I’ve felt that’s several times these last few days and expect I will many more times over the next 6 months. My left heel is basically one giant blister. There’s one in the center with a few smaller ones around it. It’s too big to moleskin now, so I just had to put a bandaid with first aid cream and call it good. My right heel is not as bad. 1 blister and I can still moleskin it. If you don’t know what moleskin is, it’s a padded square that you cut out the shape of your blister and put it around the wound so it won’t continue to rub and be irritated.
After Blood Mountain we went downhill for several miles and came to Neel Gap. It’s a famous point for thru-hikers. Usually the first point you will resupply on food, etc. It’s an outfitters store that the AT runs through. It also has a hostel and camping sites people can stop at. Only .6 miles down the road are also cabins where you can rent for $75 a night and they sleep 4. There you can get pizza and hot wings. Ben was tempted. Especially when some of our hiker friends were planning on staying there for another hikers birthday and had space in their cabin for us.
At the outfitters store, the staff can do a “shake down” of your gear for you. Basically, they’ll go through your pack and tell you what is unnecessary, can be replaced by lighter gear, etc. We don’t think we need one, so we didn’t bother. There’s also food and equipment you can purchase at the store. As well as many tourist knickknack items/apparel for those just driving through. Ben and I spent way too much on food, $50. We only need to get through 2 days until we have a room in town, but we allowed our stomachs to do the purchasing.
Overall, we spent a couple of hours at Neel Gap: shopping, eating, calling family, visiting with new hiker friends. There were 3 faces I knew: Kevin, Linda and her husband. They were the ones staying for the night at the cabins down the road. It was so nice they offered for us to join. We felt awful passing up the opportunity to connect. However, we wanted to push on since we had just a few minutes before that made reservations for town.
Linda and her husband are also Michiganders. They live about 15 miles north of Oscoda, a town my aunt and uncle live in. They also have a son and his wife who live in Grand Rapids (Alger Heights area). He should have spent the majority of the last week at our church, South Habor, for a conference there. Plus, their other daughter (who is in the Air Force) will be getting married in Grand Rapids this December. I am constantly reminded just how small of a world it is. Be kind to others people. If for no other reason than chances are, you are intimately connected.
The outfitter store had several porta johns set up for their hostel guests and the other thru-hikers. If you know me, you know there has to be a story about this. Well, I decided to take advantage of the opportunity (that’ll be the code name from now on, agreed?). Another guy did as well. He went into one and I turned to go the other way. Except there was no toilet paper so I had to choose a different one. I didn’t see which one he took. But I saw a vacant booth and opened the door. What waited for me on the other side was a very surprised hiker! He grabbed for the door and when he realized he wasn’t going to catch it, decided modesty was the better option. The look on his face! I’m sure it mirrored mine. We both made some sort of exclamation and I quickly closed the door. I shouted something like, “That’s awkward for everyone!” Then chose the booth next to him. I stepped inside (made sure it was locked) then tried desperately to compose myself. A snort or giggle escaping here and there. I didn’t want to embarrass him, but that was the funniest thing I’ve had happen on the trail yet! Finally I was able to continue on. Afterwards, we both acknowledge the unfortunate event. He said, “We are close friends now.” I just apologized. Ah… good times, good times.
After Neel, we pressed on. Just beyond the store you go up a hill. There is more camping there. We passed a couple of tents set up. One of them was having a good ol fashioned clam bake. We could smell it as we walked by. It was the first time on the trail so far. We both just looked at each other and laughed.
It was late in the day when we were getting back on the trail. We were hoping for another 5-6 miles but only made it about 3 we think. It was a bummer because we though we were really cruising! That meant we only did just over 10 miles today. But I feel okay about it since we lost so much time to taking photos and building relationships. An acceptable loss.
As we were walking, we saw two little birds flitting around. They would go just a little farther up the path and as we got closer would move down. Finally, one stopped in a tree nearby and we stopped to watch it. It would make some sort of click, we clicked back, and then it answered. It reminded me of Ben’s grandma. She loves to feed and watch the birds. She used to get Junco’s which are my favorite because it looks like they were dipped in milk. This bird was a similar pretty grayish color with white on its’ stomach, but it also had a black “cat’seye”, kind of like a finch. I tried to look it up, but couldn’t find the name of it.
Our campsite is on it’s own tonight. There are no other hikers and it’s not near a shelter, but it is a designated campsite. So far the AT has had many designated campsites, a small area cleared off just for a tent or a couple of tents. Tonight, we are in a gap with gorgeous trees around it. It’s a bit windy and now I’m convinced all Georgia mountains are.
We stopped at about 6p. Within an hour we had camp set up and had finished dinner. Tomorrow will be a big day. It has to be so we can be near enough to where the shuttle will pick us up and take us into town. Ah, town. I’m excited to shower, get out of the wind, and sleep in a real bed. It’s been almost a week! Seems a bit early, but hey, let’s go with it.
-k