Day 3: After a cold, rainy night sleep. I woke up around 6am, watered the leaves, and then snuggle back into my warm, 15 degree, down sleeping bag. I love my bag. I just lied there, dozing in and out of sleep for an hour. Finally got up around 8:30am and start deflating my thermarest sleeping pad, rolled up my sleeping bag, and packed up my pack. I dreaded putting on my cold wet hiking clothes. I knew today would be a tough day. We were climbing the highest peak in Georgia today, Blood Mountain (4,461), and it was a freaking 27 degrees outside, (see my gloved hand checking out my thermometer). But on the bright side, it was not raining, just cloudy. I climbed out my warm tent and see that most people are out and about making breakfast. I chit chat for a bit, eat a cliff bar, drink 1/2 liter of water and finally changed into my cold clothes and pack my tent. I leave my fleece b/c its just too cold to hike without it on. It's 9:30am and Leslie is ready to go too, so we start our ascend
from Jarrads Gap (3,250) towards Blood Mountain (4,461). We start up Gaddis Mt. (3,540) descend down to Horsebone Gap (3,450), climb up Turkey Stamp Mt. (3,770), and down to Bird Gap (3,650) all within 2 miles. We ascend the western side of Blood Mt. and reach Slaughter Gap (3,800). I look to the right, and that's when I see them. Stairs, stairs, and more rock stairs going up, up, and more up. I take a small break and eat some gorp at 
the bottom of the stairs, b/c I know what's in store for me. The next mile will be a steep climb to the top of Blood Mt. (4,461). I start the ascent and it's switch back, after switch back of stone stairs and steep graded trail. All of the sudden it starts to rain. I have to decide, do I take off my warm fleece to keep it dry or leave it on and stay warm til its soaked? Well, I take it off and the wind is whipping thru me like crazy,(remember my clothes are still wet from yesterdays hike in the rain.) I decide to just hike faster uphill to warm myself up. THEN it starts to hail!!! NO JOKE. I'm in short sleeves, my arms are freezing, and hail the size of bb's are start beating down from the sky and stinging my arms. I am physically shaking from the cold, I am in pain from the hail, and I am about to loose it when I see the little stone structure on top of Blood Mt. I made it! I run inside, pull out my fleece and try to get warm. I wait out the hail for 35 minutes, knowing I need to keep moving in order to stay warm. Once it has stopped, I venture back out onto the AT. NO VIEW on top of Blood Mt. Oh well.... it just wasn't meant to be. My only goal is to get down the mountain, and back to Neels Gap and the hiker hostel as fast as
possible so i can get warm. Fantasies of hot chocolate propel my feet forward. The backside of Blood Mt. is no joke. It is 2 miles of steep, bald rock with narrow stone stairs, that are hazardous when wet. Thank goodness for my trek poles, b/c I almost ate it like 4 times. My foot would slide on the slick rock surface and I would loose my balance for a quick second until my poles steadied me. Well, it started to hail again! I didn't care, I left my fleece on and just decided to deal
with a wet fleece later on. I make it down the Mt. so fast that I didn't realize I was so out of breath until I came to Flatrock Gap (3,452). I check my little trail description data and see I have just 1 mile left to get to the hostel. So I stop to eat a quick snack. I pull out a wheat tortilla, a single serving of cream cheese and smear it on, layer it with pepperoni, roll it up and munch away. I also pull out a single serving of cheddar cheese and eat that as well. I had no idea how hungry I was! It's still really cold (thermometer says 37 degrees) so I hurry. As I pack up my food bag I notice a cool looking rock. I check my trail data again and see that I'm at "Balanced Rock" in Flatrock Gap (3,452). I snap a cool picture and continue fantasizing about that hot chocolate. I get back on the AT towards Neels Gap (3,125). I was there in record time, I think it took me like 15 minutes to do that last mile. As I rounded the last bit of trail, I could see the hiker hostel. I almost started crying with anticipation. I have never been so glad to see a building in my life. Then it hit me. This is what it mus
t feel like for northbound thru-hikers to come to this exact point on the trail and see the first hiker hostel on the AT after hiking the first 30 miles of the AT. Wow, I totally get it. I entered the warm hostel where Pirate greeted me with a huge smile a fresh pot of hot coffee. I threw down my bag, quickly changed into a dry shirt and my warm down vest. I pulled out raspberry hot chocolate and took up Pirate on his offer of a hot cup of coffee. Once I got the mug, I just poured my cocoa powder into the coffee and wow, it was the best tasting cup of coffee/hot chocolate ever! I was the second person to make it to the hiker hostel. Leslie got here about 20 minutes a
go. It's only 1:30, but I feel like I've been hiking all day! At this point I have decided that two days on the cold, wet, rainy AT were enough for me. I would wait for the others to arrive and see what they wanted to do, but I knew I had had enough. Well, I had to wait 4 hours for the rest of the group to show up. Seems as if a group 6 of them never even made it up Blood Mountain. The hail made it too treacherous and scary for them so they opted for the bail out trail. They were at the base of Blood Mountain when it started to hail on them and decided it was just to much. Well, everyone had pretty much the same idea as I did. The consensus was a good cheeseburger and our own warm beds tonight. So we all packed up, drove down the mountain to Turners Cafe, had an awesome cheeseburger and fries and I drove my happy warm self back home
to boo and my dogs. :) All in all it was a great trip. Even the rain, cold, and hail were good learning experiences for me. It gave me a taste of what the AT could really be like. I was glad I had a chance to live like a thru hiker for a brief time. It was so surreal to meet some real southbound thru-hikers and lastly, I realized that I COULD do it. I made it over that mountain thru rain, hail, cold temps, (and someone said snow flurries.) Til my next adventure, GET OUTDOORS!
from Jarrads Gap (3,250) towards Blood Mountain (4,461). We start up Gaddis Mt. (3,540) descend down to Horsebone Gap (3,450), climb up Turkey Stamp Mt. (3,770), and down to Bird Gap (3,650) all within 2 miles. We ascend the western side of Blood Mt. and reach Slaughter Gap (3,800). I look to the right, and that's when I see them. Stairs, stairs, and more rock stairs going up, up, and more up. I take a small break and eat some gorp at 
the bottom of the stairs, b/c I know what's in store for me. The next mile will be a steep climb to the top of Blood Mt. (4,461). I start the ascent and it's switch back, after switch back of stone stairs and steep graded trail. All of the sudden it starts to rain. I have to decide, do I take off my warm fleece to keep it dry or leave it on and stay warm til its soaked? Well, I take it off and the wind is whipping thru me like crazy,(remember my clothes are still wet from yesterdays hike in the rain.) I decide to just hike faster uphill to warm myself up. THEN it starts to hail!!! NO JOKE. I'm in short sleeves, my arms are freezing, and hail the size of bb's are start beating down from the sky and stinging my arms. I am physically shaking from the cold, I am in pain from the hail, and I am about to loose it when I see the little stone structure on top of Blood Mt. I made it! I run inside, pull out my fleece and try to get warm. I wait out the hail for 35 minutes, knowing I need to keep moving in order to stay warm. Once it has stopped, I venture back out onto the AT. NO VIEW on top of Blood Mt. Oh well.... it just wasn't meant to be. My only goal is to get down the mountain, and back to Neels Gap and the hiker hostel as fast as
possible so i can get warm. Fantasies of hot chocolate propel my feet forward. The backside of Blood Mt. is no joke. It is 2 miles of steep, bald rock with narrow stone stairs, that are hazardous when wet. Thank goodness for my trek poles, b/c I almost ate it like 4 times. My foot would slide on the slick rock surface and I would loose my balance for a quick second until my poles steadied me. Well, it started to hail again! I didn't care, I left my fleece on and just decided to deal
with a wet fleece later on. I make it down the Mt. so fast that I didn't realize I was so out of breath until I came to Flatrock Gap (3,452). I check my little trail description data and see I have just 1 mile left to get to the hostel. So I stop to eat a quick snack. I pull out a wheat tortilla, a single serving of cream cheese and smear it on, layer it with pepperoni, roll it up and munch away. I also pull out a single serving of cheddar cheese and eat that as well. I had no idea how hungry I was! It's still really cold (thermometer says 37 degrees) so I hurry. As I pack up my food bag I notice a cool looking rock. I check my trail data again and see that I'm at "Balanced Rock" in Flatrock Gap (3,452). I snap a cool picture and continue fantasizing about that hot chocolate. I get back on the AT towards Neels Gap (3,125). I was there in record time, I think it took me like 15 minutes to do that last mile. As I rounded the last bit of trail, I could see the hiker hostel. I almost started crying with anticipation. I have never been so glad to see a building in my life. Then it hit me. This is what it mus
t feel like for northbound thru-hikers to come to this exact point on the trail and see the first hiker hostel on the AT after hiking the first 30 miles of the AT. Wow, I totally get it. I entered the warm hostel where Pirate greeted me with a huge smile a fresh pot of hot coffee. I threw down my bag, quickly changed into a dry shirt and my warm down vest. I pulled out raspberry hot chocolate and took up Pirate on his offer of a hot cup of coffee. Once I got the mug, I just poured my cocoa powder into the coffee and wow, it was the best tasting cup of coffee/hot chocolate ever! I was the second person to make it to the hiker hostel. Leslie got here about 20 minutes a
go. It's only 1:30, but I feel like I've been hiking all day! At this point I have decided that two days on the cold, wet, rainy AT were enough for me. I would wait for the others to arrive and see what they wanted to do, but I knew I had had enough. Well, I had to wait 4 hours for the rest of the group to show up. Seems as if a group 6 of them never even made it up Blood Mountain. The hail made it too treacherous and scary for them so they opted for the bail out trail. They were at the base of Blood Mountain when it started to hail on them and decided it was just to much. Well, everyone had pretty much the same idea as I did. The consensus was a good cheeseburger and our own warm beds tonight. So we all packed up, drove down the mountain to Turners Cafe, had an awesome cheeseburger and fries and I drove my happy warm self back home
to boo and my dogs. :) All in all it was a great trip. Even the rain, cold, and hail were good learning experiences for me. It gave me a taste of what the AT could really be like. I was glad I had a chance to live like a thru hiker for a brief time. It was so surreal to meet some real southbound thru-hikers and lastly, I realized that I COULD do it. I made it over that mountain thru rain, hail, cold temps, (and someone said snow flurries.) Til my next adventure, GET OUTDOORS!
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