Jimmy Dean

March 1, 2018

Destination: Blue Mountain Shelter

Today’s Miles: 18.80

Start Location: Neel’s Gap

Trip Miles: 49.90

I slept like a baby last night. The bunk at Neel’s Gap was quite comfortable, and there was no snoring! We were all up early: Bear Meat, Cassandra, Stephanie, Preacher and his son, a kid I’ve been calling Skids, and a few other folks. Cassandra struck again with the trail naming! There was an older gentleman at the hostel who she named Obiwan. Apparently he gave them a lot of good backpacking advice, and he’s also an OBGYN. Get it? Cassandra is good at this! I hope to name someone at this point, if the trail has that in the cards for me. 

The outfitter store didn’t open until 8:30, so we were all blatantly hanging around for one thing – hot food! As soon as they opened I bought two Jimmy Dean breakfast sandwiches and a coffee. Based on my hiking plan, I didn’t need to resupply after all, which was nice. I did buy three packs of M&Ms though. Gotta have those little rewards for the tough weather and long miles! 

I inhaled the sandwiches and they were amazing! The coffee was bad and excellent. What I mean is, it was like bad diner coffee but at the exact moment when that is precisely what you want, like when you’re in college trying to stay up to study. Energized, I decided to hit the trail. I didn’t want to start with the larger group. I tend to be a bit faster so I would pass some of them, and the rain had momentarily turned to mist, so I wanted some alone time with the trail to appreciate it and start my morning. I headed off through the archway at Neel’s Gap that the trail runs under. The forecast called for rain all day, so we were all in our rain gear. I didn’t make it half a mile up the ascent before stopping to take my jacket off. After that I got in almost a good hour of hiking before the rain came. It was a gorgeous, foggy morning. Rain dripped from the trees and mountain laurel. I kept hoping to spot a bear, thinking I might have a better chance of seeing one with lower visibility. A few squirrels puttered about, and I enjoyed the cheery sounds of small birds flitting about. They didn’t mind the rain so why should I? I didn’t really. I knew it was coming. And it did. The hiking wasn’t as hard as yesterday, BUT originally I had planned to hike to Low Gap Shelter, about 9 miles away. The weather is supposed to be beautiful and clear the next few days, so I thought a shorter hike to the shelter would be good and I could wait out the rest of it, let gear dry, and socialize. However, I knew a lot of people had that plan, so I knew there was a chance the shelter would be full. It was! Well, it wasn’t really. The people inside had just spread out. They said there was room for one more, but really there was capacity for free. They were also smoking pot inside the shelter, so I decided to move on. I filtered water there, slammed down a pack of m&ms, and kept moving. I was wet in many places by that time, so I needed to keep moving so I wouldn’t get cold. I had to belt out quite a few more miles so I hustled on. 

As I crossed Tesnattee Gap, the heavens opened up a bit more. That was the heaviest rain of the day. On the other side of the mountain (I forget the name of that gap), I crossed a road and there was a guy biking. It was only misting there. I told him it was pouring on the other side. When I left he was contemplating whether to keep riding or turn around. 

Thereafter, I was gifted beautiful views of stunning waterfall streams cascading down here and there along the mountainside. It was like the veins of the earth had opened up for my viewing. I guess that sounds kind of gross, but you get my point. I wish I had a picture, but it was raining hard enough for me to not want to pull out my camera.

As I got closer to blue mountain, I thought I had arrived at the water source right before the shelter. I didn’t want to have to walk back in the rain to get water, so I filled my bag. Then I kept walking and realized I wasn’t at the water source by the shelter, so I dumped the bag and hiked on. I soon came upon it, refilled, and joined the folks already at the shelter. There was a man and his son, and two other guys, one of whom looked slightly hypothermic. He was shaking and trying to warm up. I stripped off my wet clothes and asked him if he wanted tea, but he said he was going to make soup. We found creative ways to try and hang wet clothing and fasten it down. As the storm blows through tonight there will be 40mph winds, so hopefully we don’t wake up to everything blown away! Luckily the wind is hitting the back of the shelter. I cooked up some dinner and took some vitamin i (ibuprofen, as it is known on the trail). We hung our bear bags and chatted for a bit. A guy named Swagman showed up, as well as a German guy I had met the night before named Mateus (spelling?). 

I’m so grateful I got a spot at this shelter as it would have been hard to tent with the wind. I’m also grateful that I had the strength to be ok with going so far today, and for the beautiful views the trail allowed me to see today. 

A few postscript notes: I didn’t do a pack shakedown at the Neel’s  Gap outfitter. I am using everything I brought and don’t feel like I would want to get rid of anything, and I also didn’t want to get a late start. In hindsight I’m really glad I did skip it!

I passed by a couple today whose names were Which Way and Next Step. They have a trail journal but I have not read it. 

Aside from the pictures you see in my journal entries, I’m posting others in the photo section if you’re interested.

Tomorrow I aim for deep hole gap, or something like that. I think it’s about 16 miles. Then I can resupply in hiawassee Saturday and decide if I duck back out to the trail or stay the night there. I stink so badly!! A shower might be good.

Time for lights out. Going to get down to about 32 tonight so sleeping with my water filter inside my sleeping bag. Will be a cold and beautiful morning – hoping to see what the clouds were hiding! Oh man…..some snoring just started. Trail life!

Thank you for all of the great guest book posts! I wish they were easy to respond to, but just know that I read them and appreciate them all very much. Hungry cat, out!