(Jarrard Gap (mile 26.2) - Rock Top Spring (mile 34.2))

I went to bed last night with the wind howling against my tent. In anticipation of a cold night, I bundled up in my base layer, insulated hoodie, rain jacket, fleece beanie, and fleece gloves. I fell asleep rather cozy and woke a few hours later to discover that the wind had died and I was actually too hot. I quickly removed a couple layers and settled back down for a restful night of sleep. I woke at about 7am desperately needing to dig a cat hole, so I grabbed all the necessary equipment and made my way towards my bear bag.

The goal was to kill three birds with one stone; I would dig my cat hole, appreciate the rising sun, and take down my bear bag. I only accomplished the first two goals because I realized I had not yet taken a picture of my bear bag hang. Maybe this seems silly, but I was rather proud of that hang and I wanted to document it because it was such a pain in the ass to get right. I mentioned in my last hikers log that it took me a long time to find a suitable branch. What I neglected to mention is that I never really found a suitable branch, at least not one suitable for my usual bear bag hanging technique. I use a technique called the PCT method (if you want any context for the rest of this paragraph, I recommend looking it up on YouTube😅). This strategy only requires a single tree as opposed to a more traditional two tree hang, and is apparently more bear-proof. The branch I ended up using was a little too close to the trunk so when I finished my single tree hang, the bag was at the proper height relative to the branch and ground, but it was only two or three feet from the trunk of the tree. This was easily remedied by pulling the slack end of the rope away from the trunk and tying it off to a tree about 15 feet away. This modified two tree/PCT method did the trick and my food was not disturbed in the night.

I took my time to stretch and collect water before leaving camp. The climb to the top of Blood Mountain would begin more or less right away, and I wanted to be loose and hydrated on my way up. I left camp at about 9:15am and quickly passed Tom, an older gentleman who also spent the night at Jarrard Gap. I briefly stopped to chat and we ended up discussing strategies for getting out of camp quickly in the morning. I told him that if I'm really trying to break camp fast, I will deflate my sleeping pad right after I wake up so I'm not tempted to lounge around too long on the hard ground. I then hiked on for another 20 minutes and found a nice log for breakfast. Apparently I was not the only person who thought it looked like a good snack spot because I noticed three large pieces of jerky that someone had dropped on the ground. As a prospective thru-hiker, I am not especially ashamed to admit that after subjecting the jerky to a visual and olfactory examination, I deemed it safe to eat and devoured it all. Calories are valuable during extended endurance exercise and food waste is bad. Also, it was delicious😈

The climb up Blood Mountain is heavy with switchbacks, making the 1.2 mile 900 foot climb manageable. It also helped that I had eaten just about all my food and my pack was feeling extra light. As the trail wound up the side of the mountain, I was routed through dense tunnels of Mountain Laurel. The climb brought back many fond memories of my first time climbing Blood Mountain. I reached the top sooner than I expected and ran into Kyle and Alyssa, two other prospective thru-hikers I've been running into a lot over the past couple days. The view from the top was spectacular. Blood Mountain is the highest peak on the AT in Georgia and the panoramas from the top are awe inspiring. Also at the top is Blood Mountain Shelter, a very impressive stone building that could potentially sleep a lot of hikers.

After appreciating the views, I began making my way down the mountain towards Neel's Gap. On the way down I realized I had cell service, so I stopped at a large boulder to call AC. After talking on the phone for a little over an hour, I countinued hiking and arrived at Neel's Gap around 1:00pm. This is the location of Mountain Crossings, a fully stocked outfitter providing the first convenient resupply option for north-bound thru-hikers.

My first priority was to resupply food. I also planned to charge my phone and power bank. I met a bunch of familiar faces at Mountain Crossings, including Lauren (the ex-corporate accountant) who is quickly becoming my personal finance coach for this hike. I inventoried my food and modified my four day food resupply list to ensure that I would not be purchasing anything I still had enough of. I proudly told Lauren that I had prepared my shopping list and was now ready to resupply without making frivolous, hunger-fueled purchases. She then reminded me to check the hiker boxes before shopping to see if anything I needed was available for free. Hiker boxes are bins outside of outfitters, hostiles, post offices and other places that hikers frequent. These bins are a place where hikers put things they don't want to carry anymore. This often takes the form of unneeded gear, but just as often, hiker boxes are full of food that people bought too much of or are sick of eating. Fortunately for me, my visit to the hiker box eliminated a few food items from the shopping list.

The food options were about what I expected, including all the thru-hiker staples: ramen, Knorr Pasta Sides, and instant oatmeal. The prices were not cheap, but I figured the convenience was worth it. Paying for a shuttle into town to resupply wouldn't be any cheaper. Mountain Crossings also has a famous pizza freezer full of Red Baron pizzas that they will cook on site for hungry hikers. I still had a lunch to eat so I passed on buying my own pizza, but was lucky enough to be offered a slice from a day hiker.

I hung out at Mountain Crossings for a while to charge my phone and power bank. As I waited, I talked with many other thu-hikers about their plans for the night. There seemed to be a 50/50 split between those planning to continue hiking and those getting a hotel for the night. I began hiking again at 3:45pm with the goal of hiking until I found a decent campsite near a water source. I passed Tom and Evan camping at Swaim Gap, but it was only another mile or so until the next campsite, so I decided to hike on.

I ended up hiking another 3 miles until I reached a tiny but scenic one tent pad camping site just past Rock Top Spring. I had no trouble hanging a bear bag and settled down for a dinner of curry couscous that I had foraged from the hiker box. Altogether, it was a pretty short day but I felt good about all that I had accomplished👍

Couscous curry dinner: brought to you by the Mountain Crossings hiker boxes

Tomorrow I need to organize my first overnight in town. I think I'll spend the night in Hiawassee probably at the Budget Inn which had a $40 hiker deal with free shuttles twice a day to and from the trail at Dick's Creek Gap. I'll keep y'all posted on my overnight plans whenever they come to fruition✌

Up mountain switchbacks
through the emerald tunnels
of Mountain Laurel