Day 3- Woody Gap to Neels Gap.

   Miles hiked: 10.6

   Blood donated: 1 pint

   Didn't sleep very well at the hostel. I'm sure it had nothing to do with the 96 oz of diet coke soda refills before bed. I would not hesitate to do it again, it turns out there is a real lack of Diet Coke machines in the backcountry.

  Woke up bright and early to make bacon and hashbrowns on my camp stove. Hash browns are a very silly choice for backpacking, they burn through a ton of fuel to get brown. But backpacking is also a very silly thing, so it all makes sense to me. Later in the day I found out there was a good breakfast joint a short walk away. Oh well...money saved,  and our packs are lighter.

   Caught a ride to Zion Baptist Church. Glad we went and could fellowship with fellow Christians. I also drank lots of their coffee. We made it to the trail by 1pm.

   Since the hike promised over 10 miles, and had a big climb at the end, Blood Mnt, our plan was to go as far as we could and camp on top of the mountain if possible. With such a late start,  we did not think it was realistic to knock out a full day. We had heard Blood Mnt was a killer, the biggest climb on the AT in Georgia. The problem is that they won't let you camp on Blood Mountain without a bear proof canister. We rented one in Suches, Ga.

   And we never used it. We put in a full days mileage. Yay! Will be happy to return that extra weight.

We crushed that hike. Ok..slight exaggeration,  but we made it to Neel Gap and hung our hammocks before dark.

   Our hike up the mountain went fairly smoothly, except that we ran out of water, and somehow missed the spring. This is not as bad as it sounds,  when hiking an area with lots of water, it is really silly to carry 2 to 8 pounds of water past every water source. Instead, the goal is to drink at the water source, and only carry what you need between sources. By carrying less weigt, you also make it to the next water source faster.

Well...out of water, but backtracking would be unacceptable, so we pressed on to the next spring in .5 miles. There was mud, a trickle of water, and lots of mosquitos. I dove into the cloud of bugs, scooping water with a cup and pouring it into my dirty water bag. We ran up the trail, and started trying to filter. The bugs were still hunting us, so I threw the filter bag on my head and kept climbing the mountain. Gravity plus a gentle squeeze helped to fill my camelback. I have a connector that allows me to filter straight into our camelbacks, so the unfiltered water goes straight up the drink hose. It is a big time saver. It also works well when you are very thirsty and running from mosquitos.

 I now understood why this is called Blood Mnt. Sorry, no video of a frantic, thirsty Dan scooping water and swatting bugs at the mudhole. Its a shame, it would have made a fine video.

  The views were awesome from the top of Blood mountain.

The oldest shelter on the AT. At least that is what a stranger told me. Sounds plausible. 

The dreaded hike down Blood Mnt. It did not live up to the hype.  Really..not that bad. Remember that my training regimen for this hike consisted of drinking extra coffee to get my heart rate up at my desk. If Sage and I can do it, you can too. Just don't strap 45#s to your back, or perhaps the dread Blood Mnt will live up to the hype.

We arrived at Neel Gap, home of a very well known outfitter and hostel. Note the shoes in the tree. 25% of all attempted through hikes never make it past Neel Gap. Tradition is that you chuck your shoes into the tree when you quit.

Sadly...the shop was closed, and the hostel was a joke.

 The showers and bathrooms were closed. What good is a hostel with no shower? Porta potties plus a bunk. No thanks, we will pass on this hostel. We got some water and hung our hammocks in the woods right behind the hostel. Hopefully they will serve me a diet pepsi tomorrow and my opinion will improve.

This is a good resupply point, but we really don't need anything yet. Except diet soda...we need more of that.

We still have tons of food, although as we eat it down, my pack is inching closer to under 20 pounds. Climbing with a 18# pack is much better than a 48# pack.

Most interesting backpacking technique observed today:

     There was a fellow in the hostel who had a water bottle with drink flavoring in it. And he was drinking the flavored drink  through his Sawyer water filter. I'm not an expert in these things,  but wouldn't the water filter remove most of the drink mix? Hey...hike your own hike... I guess it works for him, maybe if you clog your filter with enough Kool-aid. ..all water tastes great.