March 27

Blood

Woke up to another perfect morning, and hiked on into Woody Gap were some ladies were getting ready to start setting up to do some trail magic for hikers.  We got there a bit too early and missed out on the hotdog cookout though.  Had a tough climb up Big Cedar mountain, followed by a long down hill section for miles into Jerrard Gap.  Here's the tricky part.  Just recently, the Park Service here in Ga has closed the next 7 miles of the AT between Jerrard Gap and Neel Gap to overnight camping unless you have a bear canister.  Bear canisters are used by hikers out west, where bears can be more dangerous, but generally never used out here on the east coast.  The bears in this particular area have gotten acclimated to humans and have learned to associate people with food, and are really clever about getting bear bags out of trees for an easy meal.  So we pushed on to clear this section.  This took us into the Blood Mountain Wilderness, and up and over Blood Mountain, a 4461 foot summit, and home to the highest shelter along the AT in Georgia.  The Blood Mountain shelter was on of the original shelters along the AT, built in the early 1930's.  Blood was tough.  A 2 mile assault up the mountain, and a punishing 2 mile decent down a boulder strewn trail.  But the views from the top were unbelievable.  I'll always remember Blood Mountain.  That is a mountain that has character.  While taking a break at the top, we met a hiker that had already hiked over 1400 miles this year, starting on Jan 5 in Key West, and hiked through Alabama, then into Georgia to get on the AT.  WOW!  Once we got down the mountain into Neel Gap, we stopped at the famous Mountain Crossings outfitter and hostel.  I got a snickers bar and a coke, and they were delicious.  The store is full of gear and souvenirs. Inside the store, and in the trees outside, hikers boots from years past are strewn about.  A really unique place.  And I got to meet an AT legend, "Baltimore Jack".  Pretty cool.  The hostel was full, but we ended up getting a cabin a quarter mile down the road at Blood Mountain Cabins.  The $60 fee included free laundry service for our stinky clothes.  Split 4 ways with me, KB, and 2 section hikers, Josh from Arkansas and 'Natures Own', it was a great deal.  We were in the "Raccoon" cabin, appropriately named for the stuffed raccoons in the living room.  We had an oven to cook our frozen pizzas for dinner, stove, sink, bathroom, shower, clean laundry, and a back porch complete with rocking chairs overlooking the creek.  Amazing!  Definitely recommend staying in the cabins.  I have a few blisters to take care of, so I treated my feet before turning in for the night.

Blood Mountain shelter.