Start point: Woods Hole Shelter
End point: Neels Gap
miles hiked: 4.1
Slept in pretty late, it got pretty cold, mostly cause it was so windy. Lots and lots of wind and rain throughout the night and a cold morning so I was in no hurry to get out of bed. Mike and Madeline were out pretty early. They were having the same problem I was the other day, all wet clothes and on a cold morning nothing but wet clothes to change into is no fun at all. They needed to start hiking so they could warm up. After sleeping awhile longer I finally started packing up and some day hikers showed up. Talked to them and took my time getting out of there. Only a short hike before I started the ascent up Blood Mountain, the highest peak in GA. Got near the top and little bits of ice were falling off the trees on me. A pretty neat stone shelter is at the summit, I doubt many people ever camp there, its gotta be very cold. No view to see, still lots of fog. I start heading down the other side and thats where I got my first great view of my trip. There was no fog on that side of the summit and you could see for miles, nice view of all the mountain ranges and ridges. While going down I noticed my left knee starting to bother me. It's weird because my right knee is the one with 2 pins in it, and it hasn't bothered me at all. What happened is I have been starting to get a blister on my left hell and have been walking alot on the toe and middle of my foot, so by walking like that it caused my knee to hurt. Sharp pain right at the top of my kneecap. It only hurts on the downhills, hopefully it will start feeling better after I let these sore spots on my foot heal and can start walking with a proper gait again. Anyway, made it down slowly and got to Neels Gap. They have an outfitter and hostel. Finally found a bunk open in a hostel! Bought some stuff at the outfitter; a sleeping bag liner (my bag is just not warm enough for some of these cold march nights, its rated to 35F, but this liner should make it good to 25F), a sil nylon bag and some cord to hang my food (bear bagging). Had a good meal of lasagna, red beans and rice, and some salad. Talked alot w/Spider, Swamp Gas, Counsler and Goat. I met all those guys at Gooch Gap Shelter while drying out. Met an older guy named Butch whoe was pretty funny. Shared some wine w/Swamp Gas that I had bought from Wal-Mart (Twin Fin merlot, not bad for $6!) and had carried with me all the way from Woody Gap. It was Swamp's birthday so I thought we should celebrate.
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