Day 4 – Blood Mountain Sunrise

Mileage: Mile marker 24.3 to 31.7
Starting Spot: Lance Creek Campsite, Georgia
Ending Spot: Cabin in the woods, Blairsville, Georgia
Slept in: Nice cozy bed (whaaaat?)
Weather: Sunshine and 70

My buddy Connor and I woke up at 4:30am to hike the 5 miles up Blood Mountain to see the sunrise over Georgia’s tallest mountain since we couldn’t stay there due to bear problems. It was amazing hiking under a blood red full moon through the Georgia backcountry and we got to the summit just as the sun was rising at 7:30am. I must have been half-asleep when we saw two headlamps coming towards us on the trail and I asked, “Connor is that a car?” The trail was about a foot wide on the side of a cliff and he laughed and said no. My bad!

We rock scrambled to the top of Blood Mountain and watched in silence as the sky lit up towards the east over the foothills. The mountain got its name from a battle between the Creek and Cherokee Native American tribes that left so many dead and wounded that the ground ran red with blood. The rock shelter on top of the summit is also supposed to be haunted and it gave us a weird feeling being there so we didn’t linger long.

After the sun rose, our exhaustion from run-hiking 5 hilly predawn miles caught up so we took out our sleeping bags and napped for 3 hours on the grass near the summit in the sun. I woke up a couple times to talk to early morning thru-hikers. The first one scared me so bad I got stuck in my sleeping bag and had to roll around for a bit to get out then tried to nonchalantly wipe the drool off my face and smooth down my crazy hair. The guy laughed at us and told us to have a good day. I felt the infamous quote from the first Back to the Future movie, “Smooth move, exlax” would appropriately describe this moment.

We scrambled down a couple miles to Neels Gap where we had our first taste of civilization in 30 miles on the trail and where I had my first mail drop at Mountain Crossings Outfitters. I had heard rumors that people have literally outfitted their whole hike from the amount of gear that hikers leave behind here in the hiker box after the legendary gear shakedowns. The guys working at the store will help you for free go through all of your gear, give suggestions on what they would eliminate and help you mail it home or donate it to other hikers. They must make a killing here, I thought as I found myself shelling out an excessive amount of money to mail home 4 pounds of microspikes, a poop shovel (“Use yer foot fer that!”), caribiners, the second half my AT guidebook that the guy literally tore down the spine (“Gotta get creative!”) and my 8oz. canister of bear spray. I had found a 2 oz. bottle of pepper spray in the hiker box and even though the guys at the shop assured me that most of the bears on the trail would stay well away from me, I was still nervous to ship this home. Since I didn’t want to spend $300 on a raincoat, the associates quickly grew bored of me and moved onto the next thru-hiker shmuck.

Seminole, a 20-somethingish wanderer with the crazy coon dog from a few nights before and former thru-hiker gave us the grand tour of the gear and resupply shop. I bought a microwaveable Philly Cheesesteak sub, cheese, a chocolate bar and Mello-Yello soda (which I’ve only had once before but was craving it from thru-hiker hunger) and I was Trail Magicked a Butterfinger bar at the register. Note to self: don’t eat a Philly Cheesesteak in 30 seconds or it will threaten to come back up!

Jess and I met Miss Janet who is an AT thru-hiker legend and magically seems to appear driving her crazy hippie van up the road all along the trail at times when thru-hikers are in times of need. I don’t know how she can afford to follow the thru-hikers year in and out but I would love to find out. We also met the infamous Baltimore Jack who is a hilarious prankster not actually from Baltimore temporarily running the hostel at Neels Gap and apparently sells moonshine in hiker-friendly portions on the side. He asked why I was hiking the trail and I said I wasn’t sure if engineering was what I wanted to be doing anymore. His words sliced straight to the point. “If you’re bored with it, it’s your fault for going to college for a boring major. There’s a million jobs out there and no point sticking with something you don’t want to do.” I was a bit taken aback by his unabashed advice. “Well, uh, yeah I guess that’s why I’m out here…” I replied. “Um…I guess I’m going to figure out if engineering is right for me.” He smiled and I headed outside to shake off his bluntness and to rejoin the rest of my Trail Family. Shortly after, Baltimore Jack came to sit at our table and started cracking us up with stories of past trail celebrations and tricks, his favorite being the time they dressed up a goat and put it in his buddy’s tent where it ate and pooped all over everything. Turns out they had gotten the wrong tent. “The only thing you need to know about putting red fishnets on a goat is that you need 40 minutes,” was the quote of the day from him.

Later that afternoon, Franky the Sleeper wiggled his way into an amazing cabin deal and Connor, Jess, Tank and I piled into a shuttle up the most ridiculous hill climb to a beautiful cabin just south of Neels Gap. Franky had stayed at Baltimore Jack’s hostel before and said it’s really crazy in a not good way so we decided to pump the brakes on the Trail for some pampering and regrouping somewhere else. The owner of the cabin was a sweetheart of a man named Keith who welcomed us to his cabin. After doing laundry, showering and an AYCE dinner in town of fried chicken, brisket and all the fixins, we were starting to feel like humans again! We spent the night relaxing, sharing stories, hanging out in our porches and enjoying the awesome Trail Family we were becoming.

Pictures from top to bottom are:
1. An ambitious early arrival at Blood Mountain for sunrise with hiker pal Connor.