Tuesday, May 24th

Gooch Mountain Shelter (15.7 mi) to Neels Gap & Blood Mountain Cabins (31.3 mi)

Hiking Miles: 15.6

Total Ascent: 3,750.3 ft

Total Descent: 3,402.9 ft

Total Grade: 457.9 ft/mi

Steps: 41,595

I ate a cold breakfast (Cliff Bar w/PB) to start the morning, then we packed up our stuff and headed out by 7:15 am. At least there was no rain for now, and we were headed for the Neels Gap Outfitters before it closed at 5 pm so we could purchase a fuel canister and a few other goods. There were many long climbs today; the landscape was plush with a lot of greenery and beautiful flowers. There were a number of pretty flower petals on the ground that with the right angle (and sunlight) resembled goldfish.

Along our hike, we did run into a few snags where we sort of lost our way. There were stretches of trail where white blazes were few and far between and we actually backtracked a half mile or so because we hadn’t seen one for awhile and our GPS was spotty. But we used our intuition and eventually found a white blaze.  

We also ran into Yues a number of times and we chatted with him. He had remembered our trail names., and jokingly suggested that Stevie’s trail name should be “Chatterbox” because he clearly could hear him talk with me while we were ahead of him on trail.

During our ascent to Blood Mountain, we came upon literally hundreds of inch-worms hanging down from the trees like puppets on a string. They were unavoidable, and were Stevie’s Achilles Heel. It was hilariously funny watching him stop every 10 feet to swat them out of his way with his trekking poles, and/or wipe them off his body. When we eventually stopped for a break at the top of the Mountain on the Slaughter Creek Trail, I took off my pack and noticed it was covered with them.

We reached Blood Mountain (highest elevation in GA at 4420 ft) at about 2:20 pm with 2.4 miles to go before heading down to Neels Gap. The descent down the mountain was rocky (similar to what I remember in New York) but we made it to the store in plenty of time by 3:30 pm.

While at Neels Gap, we ate pizza with Coke, and did a light shopping, the biggest purchase obviously being fuel canisters. And whereas heavy rain was in the forecast, we then decided to stay under cover for the night at the Blood Mountain Cabins just a short way down the road, especially whereas the next shelter was 6+ miles on trail.

So we got a cozy cabin called “Squirrel” for the night that had a tv so we could watch some playoff basketball. We visited the resort store to inquire about laundry (and also to dry our clothes), but it was late to use the facilities whereas the store was closing in 10 minutes at 5 pm. We were able to purchase some ice cream and visit with the store cat, Sassy.

We were able to acquire cell reception just outside the store, so Stevie called and reserved the “Around The Bend Hostel” for the following two nights. The challenge was we needed to hike 21 miles the following day to catch the shuttle ride to the hostel, so we anticipated an early start.

The only Wi-Fi available was just in front of the cabin store, so I called and video chatted with Teresa from there. However shortly after, the Wi-Fi buffered a number of times so our call was shortened. That evening, we watched the movie “Kingsmen”, and a little bit of the Golden State Warrior – Dallas Mavericks Game 4 of the Western Conference playoffs.