Day 4 - Woody Gap to Neels Gap

Saturday April 22, 2017

Today has been weird.

It rained some last night, not too bad, but forced us to get into the tent earlier than usual. We chatted for a bit until there was enough of a lull in the rain to let us dash to the bathroom one last time before falling asleep. When we got up it was nice with clear skies. I didn't sleep very well again. Lauren got up like 20 times I swear! Another rough night for the both of us. We got on the trail around 8:40, not too shabby. It seems like it takes way longer than it should to pack up and get moving.

Morning of day 4

The morning trail had some awesome views right off the bat. We started the hike "with" Jacob and were able to stop and snap pictures for each other. Preacher's Bald I think is the name of the awesome overlook. For the first 5-6 miles of the hike we were in the zone. My thought process was to push it as fast as I can while I still feel good. It's my feet that hold me back, not my muscles. They just start to ache after a while.

Killer view #1

Killer view #2

Killer view #3

 

Climbing up to take a picture with me

the struggle is real

Maybe a quarter of the way through the day we passed this idiot dude who is hiking the trail BAREFOOT with a 10 WEEK OLD PUPPY! Seriously stupid. As we were passing him his poor dog fell down the side of the mountain and couldn't get back up. The last thing Jacob heard him say was, "Dang, I wish I had some shoes." HA HA!

Not long after that we met up with the Weed Bro's again. They're a group of of 4 nice middle-aged guys who go on a trip like this every year. We ended up hiking the rest of the day with them. After summiting a difficult hill we all took a little pit stop and one of the Weed Bro's asked another for some Ibuprofen. He started digging in his pack and out rolled the weed, to which he says, "Oops, wrong medicine." Hah

Hard to see, but these white flowers were littering the hillside. 

We took a decent break about halfway through the day to filter water, rest, and snack. Then it was onto the trek up Blood Mountain; the highest point on the Appalachian Trail in GA. It was a gradual climb for about 1-2 miles and I left Lauren in my dust. I'm not going to lie though, it was pretty rough. It started out gradual but got steeper and steeper the closer you got to the summit. I, for some stupid reason, had challenged myself to get up there without stopping. Why do I do this? So, I kind of booked it up.

The views at the top definitely didn't disappoint. It's Saturday though, so there was quite a crowd. An annoying boy scout troop was running around, and some ATL Hikers Club was camped out right where everyone wanted to take a picture. They dumb.

How we really felt

Maybe 5-10 minutes later Lauren made her way up. She was struggling. It took her a good 5+ minutes to catch her breath and compose herself. 1-2 tears may have been shed. I felt bad for ditching her on the hardest part of the trail that day. After getting the mandatory pictures (once the idiotic ATL Hikers Club left) we found a nice, empty, quiet spot just 30 yards up the trail to set up shop, put our feet up, and eat our snacks. The Weed Bro's joined us there as well.

Some seriously amazing overlooks. Can't decide which was the best view of the day.

After about 30 minutes (maybe longer) we started the trek down. Boy was that a bear. Steep and rocky. Totally killer on the knees and toes. Lauren led the way and kept it at a pretty good clip. Jason (one of the Weed Bro's) shadowed us down and helped keep some of the conversation going. It was only 2.5 miles to our destination, but was basically all downhill. I was feeling it for sure.

Finally we reached Neels Gap and a re-supply store called Mountain Crossings with the famous Hiking Boot Tree. We found out they have a hostel + shower deal for $18 plus they sell whole pizzas (cooking them for you and everything) for $8. Lauren immediately said, "yes please." and after paying and claiming a bed became a new woman. We were so surprised to find Paul (from day 1) staying at the hostel too.

Once our bed was claimed and we had kind of settled in I got to making lunch. It was about 2:30 - 3pm by this time and long overdue. Once we had finished all I could think about was showering and washing my clothes. So I did. Here's to hoping they dry and don't smell (at least not as bad?) by tomorrow. Once out of the shower I went back to the store for an ice cold Coke.

Now I'm sitting on the picnic table out front while Lauren pops her blisters (long overdue  in my opinion), poor girl, and Jacob makes his dinner. Flies are everywhere and I don't even care. I'm sitting with only my rain jacket and shorts on while all my other clothes are hanging out to dry. I feel a bit self conscious, but, whatevs.

Never seen her so happy. Ever.

Anyways, the day feels split in two. It's weird being back in "civilization" even after just three days. Lauren is in heaven haha. I've never seen anyone so happy about crappy bunk beds, a semi-gross shower, and cheap frozen pizza.

Later in the evening we played poker with Paul and Boston Rob, both fun guys. Rob is a stereotypical Boston dude. He's pretty funny, has the Boston accent and attitude and everything. Paul is a ski instructor at Alta in SLC. They all taught me some poker and I think I did pretty well? Eventually a hostel worker came out to join us and we moved on to Black Jack. Eventually the worker guy's friend also dropped by bringing his backpack with a base weight of 20 lbs or something ridiculous like that. Lauren was soooooo jealous haha!

All of a sudden the wind picked up drastically so we grabbed all our clothes hanging out to dry and booked it inside. Now people are kind of just doing their own thing. It turns out that it's supposed to rain ALL DAY tomorrow. Hard. We may suck it up and go 11-12 miles to the second shelter of the day because the first shelter is a mile off the trail! I don't know, nothing sounds super great. We've been really lucky with the weather so far... maybe that luck will continue? We shall see.

Good Quotes:

• After I got out of the shower a fellow bunk mate asks, "Are you the same girl who was in here earlier?"
• Lauren - "Even my blisters have blisters."

Trail Thoughts:

• I could really maybe do this. At least in sections.
• While hiking you're either hyper aware of everything happening to your body (is that a hot spot? Chafing - need to put on some body glide, etc.) or totally numb to it all. I usually go dull on the uphill climbs, and I think that's why I like them better.
• I find myself purposefully stepping onto rocks or roots right on my arches to give myself a little massage-on-the-go.
• It's my joints that give me grief more than my muscles. Achilles, knees, etc. I don't know if that's a good or bad thing.
• Got lucky again with no rain today, it was supposed to shower in the afternoon.
• Thunderstorms (scattered) are forecast for tomorrow.
• Dinner = 2 slices of Lauren's pizza, coke, and trail magic snickers...
• Passed a guy wearing a skateboard helmet with a go-pro strapped to the top ha ha! Talk about sendy AF.
• Met Betty (also staying at the Hostel), a cute 70+ year old lady planning on hiking half of the Appalachian solo! She's super cool. Her and her husband have previously biked up, across, down, and over the whole continental US. In different trips, but still! So cool. Makes we want to be like her. We've daubed her "Badass Betty."