Neel and Neil

We have a few extra hours of tent time ahead of us as we got into camp early to hide out from the rain. Here is a short recap of the last 2 days.

I slept in a little at Gooch Shelter and then had an easy hike to meet Neil at Woody Gap. We should have done a better job of coordinating our outfits as Neil showed up in his matching Boston Marathon run shirt. They are perfect for the hike but totally killing the laid back hiker vibe out here. I used to run with the Hash House Harriers and it was forbidden to run in a race t-shirt. The few poor newbies that showed up with them were called “Racists”. We headed out across Blood Mountain and although I have hiked and run this route many times it felt really good doing it as thru-hiker. The ascent up Blood was steady but not too hard and the views from the top were amazing.

We had our first trail magic in form of a 12 pack of Mountain Dew. I normally wouldn’t touch the stuff but it sure tasted good and the sugar rush was a great boost. The back side of Blood is pretty technical and we took our time getting down and got to Neel’s Gap around 5:30 and found a quiet place tucked behind a hill to camp next to a friendly hiker named Paul.

Our hike today was soggy but not too cold. The rain started around 10 and it was steady but not a down pour. We decided against a lunch stop since we would get too cold and pushed on to our overnight here at Low Gap Shelter. Setting up the tent in the rain was a mess and I dumped all my wet stuff inside and got Chuck settled in and fed. Not sure what I’m going to do with this pile of wet muddy clothes but I think it’s going to be in the same pile when I get up in the morning.

Chuck has quickly taken to his sleeping bag and is tucked in and taking a nap. Neil and I are planning our next few days and are going to resupply and do laundry in Hiawassee. It turns out that the place we send our box of food to is out of business so we are working on plan B to shuttle into town and stay in a hotel. Looks like another rainy day tomorrow but looking forward to sun on Wednesday.