#008 Day 3: Gooch Mountain Shelter to Neel’s Gap. ATMM 15.7- 31.3

Between the two locations lies Blood Mountain, the highest point of our hike this week.

I rise early and hit the trail long before the rain dies down. Walking through small waterfalls, along narrow ledges, over and under boulders, I am genuinely enjoying the saturated beauty that surrounds me. Determined to get some decent miles in today I continue moving forward.

It’s about fifteen miles from Gooch Mountain Shelter to Neels Gap. Between the two locations lies Blood Mountain, the highest point of our hike this week. Many of the hikers at last night’s shelter feared the climb and were planning to hike to the base of the mountain, camp, then climb up and over tomorrow. I figure my best strategy is to climb it today while my body is still warmed up. Its easier for me to climb a mountain after my muscles have been engaged all day.

The rain eventually gives way to the sun. The warm sunshine and cool breeze begin drying the trail--for a while anyway. With a loud clap of thunder as the only warning, the sunshine and blue sky immediately give way to clouds and a heavy hailstorm. I drop my pack to retrieve my rain jacket from its top pouch while being pelted with hail. I see another hiker about one hundred yards up the trail doing the same thing. We both stand still as the thunder rolls and the hail beats down on us. After a few minutes the icy assault ends as abruptly as it began. The unknown hiker and I both continue moving north.

Shortly after the unexpected afternoon hailstorm I find Mosey sitting on a log at the base of Blood Mountain beneath her tarp. We climb the Mountain together. Neither one of us think it’s as difficult an ascent as the other hikers made it out to be.

The sun had long reappeared, and the wind grew stronger by the time we reached the summit. We hang out up there for a while trading our hail-storm stories with other hikers. I officially meet the unknown hiker (John) who had weathered the storm near me on the trail.

In August of this same year Problem Child, Beast, Hurley, Road Kill, and I hiked on the AT and some other tails in New Hampshire’s White Mountains. Road Kill and I sat soaking wet on a rock high on a mountain when I heard someone curiously say my old trail name, “Not Yet?” Looking up through the fog and drizzle I see the unknown hiker (John) standing there. I immediately recognized him but was surprised he remembered me.

He had been hiking north toward Maine this whole time and was just a few hundred miles from finishing his through-hike. I thought it was cool to have that encounter with him. As I went about my life after a week on the trail in Georgia, working, family vacations, kid’s homework, and hanging with friends, he kept trudging forward, then we meet randomly on a mountain in the cold drizzle and fog.

Coming down the other side of Blood Mountain proved to be a little more difficult than going up. The trail offers a steep and rocky route to the bottom. The wet rocks and slippery mud made for a tricky decent--a fitting way to end a fifteen-mile hike.

When Mosey and I walk into Neels Gap we see Problem Child hanging out on a bench at the Walasi-yi Inn. Mosey and Problem Child had devise plan to get a cabin for the night. They invited me to join them. I was planning on staying at Walasi-yi which is part backpacking outfitter and part hiker hostel. There is also an area to camp if you wish. After peeking inside the hostel, the girls’ offer to stay at the old rustic cabin a mile down the mountain becomes more enticing.

For fifteen dollars each we have our own bedroom, our laundry done for us, a full bathroom, a full kitchen, cheap frozen pizza, and couches to sit on while we watch cable on a super-small TV. After two nights of rain, it is nice to have a place to dry out, clean up, and get reorganized. “Has anyone heard from JS today?” Mosey asks. None of us had.

I’m sound asleep when I hear Mosey yelling my name. She’s sleeping on the futon in the living room and gets startled by a loud scratching noise coming from the front door area. I stumble through the dark unfamiliar cabin from my room to the living room to…..well, I don’t know what I’m going to do until I get there. It turns out to be a rodent in the rafters scratching and banging around.

I’m relieved to not go toe to toe with a bear-shaped burglar in the middle of the night.