Day 3 - Blood Mountain Cabins

Hello from Neel's Gap! We're deep in the woods of northern Georgia, in the shadow of Blood Mountain. That was the peak we scaled today, and it was formidable. Now, we're in a cozy creek-side cabin down the hill from Mountain Crossings, the hiker souvenir and resupply shop at Neels Gap. Let me rewind and explain the past few days...

"We" is me, Lili, and the three fellow hikers we met the first night: Rambo, Tank, and Brendan. Rambo and Tank have trail names already... Brendan and Lili and I are still waiting for ours. We all have the same pace, and we like each others company, so we're traveling as a team, looking out for each other and camping together.

Most importantly, having friends means sharing food! Lili and I traded some sopresata for pre-cooked packaged bacon and dry mango, slices of herbs de Provence sausage for cheese sticks and packaged brownies. Food has been great so far, mainly because when you're burning so many calories all day, you just want to eat everything! We all brought too much food and are eating decadently.

The first day, we arrived in Atlanta and had a delicious send-off with our step-family Kevin and Joan and Joe. Then we hired a local shuttle guy to take us to Amicalola State Park. We departed wearing all our rain gear around 2 in the afternoon, and we hiked the approach trail from Amicalola Falls. We camped at a shelter a mile and a half below the AT trailhead at Springer mountain, so even though we hiked about 6 miles Sunday afternoon, we were still at -1.5 AT miles. It rained all day and night, but we made good friends and pet a really cute dog named Hank.

Monday morning, we ascended to the summit of Springer in heavy fog. Then we hiked another 10.5 miles through the beautiful Chattahoochee National Forest. Springtime is fully underway here, with the buds on the trees just starting to burst open, so that you can still see the blue horizon through the trees on the high ridge lines, but with a pale greenish haze. The leaf litter on the forest floor is freckled with blooming trillium flowers, umbrella-shaped mayapples, and tiny purple flowers whose names I am forgetting right now. It's breath-takingly beautiful and the air is cool and soft, but by the time we reached Horse Gap, we were starting to feel the weight of our packs and the soreness in out boots. It rained again at night.

That night, a fellow hiker named Steamer arrived at the camp saying, did you hear what happened? He told us about the explosions in Boston. Within moments, many smartphones were out searching for service to get news. Lili's phone had service and she let me log in to Facebook to see what my friends were saying. I was so relieved when I saw everyone posting about where they were. I was stricken with a sense that I wanted to be home, close to my friends. My heart is in Boston, but here I am in the back woods of northern Georgia.

We woke up feeling ready to hike again, making big plans to hike 14 miles, but halfway through yesterday's hike, we realized we were all in constant pain with every step, bruised, blistered, sunburned, and sore. I knew this would be hard. I knew there would be challenges. I just didn't quite anticipate how much pain I'd be in! We camped at 10 miles and took Advil.

This morning we somehow felt refreshed, just in time to scale the summit of Blood Mountain. The shelter at the top is the oldest one on the AT, and on a clear day you can see all the way to Atlanta. Of course, today the sound of thunder was rolling over the hills, so we scurried down as fast as we could, and still got caught in the rain.

Tonight we're sharing a cabin, which offers such luxuries as a shower with fresh towels (!), laundry, and frozen pizza. It's nice to hear the raindrops pattering down on the water-tight roof and feel carpet underfoot. And of course, I get to post to the blog :-)

Now it's bedtime (and healing time for sore muscles ad blisters). Feeling strong and refreshed for tomorrow's hike! More words to come when I reach civilization again.

The photos here are of Brendan and Tank blogging in the cabin, me enjoying a cup of tea in my titanium cook pot, Lili in warm clean clothes, and the view from the summit of Blood Mountain. Enjoy!