The Second Segment Of The AT: Woody Gap to Neels Gap

This weekend we hiked from Woody Gap to Neels Gap by way of Blood Mountain. It was a shorter hike than our first. I think it only comes to about 10.7 miles over two days but it was fun. This time Michael brought his dog along too. We stayed near the shelter (for the bear bags and privy) but put up the tents and had a camp fire (for awhile at least). It started to rain just as I arrived at the shelter. I took 3 liters of water in my Camelbak and about a half liter of gatorade in my nalgene. We assumed we could fill up at the camp site since it was marked as having water in the trail guide. But unfortunately all of the streams nearby were dry. I had about a liter left for that night and the next day's hike and combined we didn't have enough water to cook. The next morning I ran out of water pretty quickly going up Blood Mountain. It was no big deal this time because the hike was only 3 miles or so. Had it been a longer trip it could have been a big problem. Our new policy is to always get water as we come across it no matter how full our Camelbaks and nalgenes are. By my calculation, we've completed about 32.6 miles of the 79 miles of AT in Georgia. That's 1.5% of the whole AT. The segment trips will be harder to plan as we continue to our goal and I hope that means they'll be longer trips. I like the 3-4 day trips, those are good, especially if you get good mileage in. I'm also looking forward to North Carolina and the Smokies.


Both of these bags and the bear bag were gnawed through despite the bear bag hanging about 18ft up on a cable with anti-squirrel devices.


JD, Michael's dog, developed some problems with the pads on his feet after the first day's hike of 7 or so miles. Along with not having enough water, he was in rough shape the next morning before the hike out.


Our camp site. My tent is camouflaged for protection against bears. Michael and Wanda did all but put out a "Bears Eat Free!" sign.


The view from the top of Blood Mountain. I'd been up here before at least once but never in the context of hiking the AT. A short while after I arrived this guy named Darrel appeared. He was hiking up from Neels Gap and back again with a full pack to train for a mountaineering class he has in Washington state next week. He said he would be learning to climb on ice and rescue people who have fallen in crevasses.


We ate some of these.


And saw some of these.


Stella didn't go. She's in Marietta.