Springer Mtn, GA to Fontana Dam, NC

Day 6, Sunday, May 28

Neels Gap, GA to Low Gap Shelter, 10.6 miles

I wake up at 5:53 AM. A few minutes later I hear a great rustling of wings and flapping. I figure one of the ducks has attacked Billy sleeping on the porch. He makes a duck call of his own a few minutes later and I answer with one of my own. Only mine sounds more like a goose. Maybe that's where the goose in Goose Creek comes from now. Billy shows up at the door a minute later. "I think I'll sleep the rest of the night in here," he says. The air is very heavy this morning. Breezy, low clouds. Looks like it is going to rain any minute. Going to be a lovely day!

I shower and pack and walk down the hill to the office by 7:20 AM. Keith doesn't open until 8 AM, but that'll give me a few minutes of solitude while I wait. I've tried a new approach to blister protection this morning and I can't wait to try it out.

The mallards are fighting in the pond and the first kids of the campground are already riding on the muddy streets of the campground. Rain begins to fall at 7:45 AM. Keith opens at 8 AM sharp. We settle our accounts and wait for the shuttle. I tell Keith that I heard someone call him Dr. Bailey last night. He says that he used to be a pharmacist. He owned a drug store in Covington before selling it 15 years ago and moving to the mountains.

Gary drives us up the mountain in the white van. All I smell are gas fumes. I wonder if the van has a leak. Gary says he thinks he has enough gas to get us up to the top. I guess he can coast back down. We arrive at 8:40 AM. A couple of hikers are headed up the trail from the Center. I fill my water bottles and take a few pictures while we wait for Jeff and Dorothy Hansen to open. I call home and talk to the answering machine again. Jeff, Dorothy, daughter Jamie, and son are a few minutes late and show up a little after 9 AM. As soon as they open, I tape my package and address it to mail home. It weighs seven pounds. That should help some. I buy a Milky Way candy bar and Coke, my first of the trip. I'm heading for the trail at 9:20 AM. The trail actually passes under an arch of the Walasi Center, between the main building and the hostel that is closed.

My pack feels lighter, my legs stronger, and surprisingly although my feet still hurt, they're better. I head up the hill out of Neels Gap. At 9:40 AM it starts to drop rain. By 10 AM it's raining enough to get wet and make the rocks on the trail slick. Over the next hour I get rained on a few times. I stop once to rest my shoulders and once to rest my feet before taking a real break at 11:10 AM. A real break is when I shed my pack and or boots and write for a few minutes. I'm on top of something in a clearing (Wolf Laurel Top) overlooking the mountains below. I've hiked 3.4 miles so far. The sky is breaking and the sun is trying to peek through. The temperature is a little warmer and bugs are more active today. So far, they haven't been bad. The rain has kept them at bay. My pace is getting better and my feet are hanging tough this morning. Ten minutes later, I'm ready to move on.

At noon I stop for a brief rest on top of Cow Rock Mountain, elevation 3,842 feet. Eight-tenths of a mile to the highway below. I plan a longer stop there at Tesnatee Gap. At 12:30 PM I reach the gap and stop and rest for thirty minutes. I've covered 5.5 miles. At the gap I meet a scout troop from Lutz, Florida headed north. They started at Neels Gap yesterday and camped near Bull Gap. They got caught in the storm last night. One of the leaders has decided to stop while the rest go on. He's called their support group staying in Bryson City, NC with a cell phone to come pick him up. He said the only mountain they have in Florida is Space Mountain (Disney World). Nothing in Florida has prepared them for the AT.

I have to admit. The climb out of Tesnatee Gap is one of the toughest so far. Probably a good thing he quit. It doesn't take long for me to reach one of the scouts who has also decided to quit. He is a large kid, overweight and can't breathe. Another of the scout leaders begins to help him back down the mountain to wait for support. They had originally planned a five-day hike to Standing Indian Mountain. Attrition is mounting up. I catch the rest of the troop in another few minutes of climbing. The leaders are resting; the boys are playing on the rocks. I cruise past. I reach Hog-Pen Gap at 1:45 PM. I check out the spring, but decide to pass. It doesn't look all that appealing.

I cross the highway, turn left, and look for where the trail reenters the woods. The next couple of miles are some of the easiest we've had. Nearly level, wide sandy trail. Although the trail is good, I find myself walking a slower pace this afternoon. My feet and left leg are getting tired. I think I strained my left knee on the climbout from Tesnatee. I finally stop just short of Low Gap Shelter at 3:15 PM for a break. So far today I've done pretty well. But I'm getting tired. Come on shelter. Get here quick.

I don't think I've seen so much poison ivy and poison oak as I have the last four days. It is everywhere. This part of the trail is a little overgrown. The poison ivy and poison oak is growing right up to the trailside. It's tough to walk without brushing against it on one side or the other. Hope that doesn't turn into a problem.

I find the sign to Low Gap Shelter at 4:05 PM and the shelter itself at 4:15 PM. David "Mule-boy" Richards and Brian "Cypress" Costa are already there. They are the two hikers I saw this morning at Neels Gap leaving the Walasi-Yi Center. They blazed here with "Cypress" getting here soon after 1 PM, and "Mule-boy" getting here after 2 PM. What a pace! I feel fortunate to even do 10.6 miles and get here at all considering how my feet felt yesterday. The half-day rest yesterday was exactly what I needed. That and a roll of medical tape to cover everything up with.

I begin to set up camp. I go to the spring and try out my water filter with the new cartridge and lubricated o-rings. It works like a champ. Wish I had figured that out earlier.

"Mule-boy" is headed to near Lynchburg (James River). He started a southbound thru-hike last year from Maine and came off the trail in Virginia with a stress fracture in a vertebra in his back. He's headed north this year to finish his hike.

Aaron rolls in shortly after 5 PM. He's wearing a pair of too small flip-flops he found under my bed at Goose Creek. Someone must have left them before I stayed there. Billy shows up barefooted at 5:30 PM. He said God told him to hike barefooted. OK...Monty and Lydia stop at the top of the hill near the trail to camp. They walk down a few minutes later.

It turns out that I've written more in this journal than I originally thought I would. Good thing I brought the paper.

Aaron has written and recorded a song today with the tapes Monty gave him. It's called "Climbing Up The Mountain." It's isn't quite ready for Top 40, but it is pretty funny.

I walk down to the creek and wash my legs off, in case there is some poison ivy and poison oak on me. We cook supper. Tuna Helper...too messy, and you have to dispose of the tuna can as well. I end up with heartburn all night. I'll stick to Lipton from here on out.

A man walks down to the shelter while we are eating supper and sits down to talk a while. He is camping at the top of the hill. He is 62 years old and thru-hiked in '93, after he retired from the Post Office. His trailname? The "Mailman" of course.

Low Gap Shelter sits under the eastern ridge of Low Gap. The wind is brisk across the gap, but only hits the tops of the trees where we are down the slope. As we eat supper, rain begins to fall. As the rain begins, the wind shear creates a swirling effect. As you look up through the trees, through the open spot above the shelter, the sky looks like an angry swarm of bees. I've never seen anything like it. I guess it's the sunlight reflecting off the raindrops that are caught in the swirling wind. It rains for thirty minutes or so and quits.

Since we are now in bear country, we hang our food bags outside the shelter. I hang mine off the back of the shelter eight feet off the ground. I hope that is far enough away, but with the threat of rain, I don't want everything to get wet. I need to get a dry bag for food.

I walk up the hill to say goodnight to Monty and Lydia. On the way I pass a family from Mississippi. They are introducing their 10 and 12 year old boys to the trail. The boys are trying to build a campfire using those awful waterproof matches that everyone buys and don't work. They don't strike. Amazing how many of those things are sold each year and they don't even work. We all laugh about it. The Dad says it's giving the boys something to do.

I walk further up the hill. All of the campsites are full. Quite a crowd at Low Gap this evening. The Boy Scout Troop came in after 6 PM, and they are already in bed. They've had a hard day.

Camping beside Monty and Lydia are a group that I call the "Marietta Cowboys". They're from Marietta, GA, all over 55 or 60 and have snazzy gear. Their Platypuses are filled with wine. This is the group the "Mailman" is with. They are hiking from Unicoi Gap to Neels Gap over the Memorial Day weekend. Hope I can still get out and do this when I turn sixty. One of the ladies shows me her tablet stove. Weight 4 ounces. Wow. One tablets burns ten to twelve minutes, plenty long enough to boil water.

The sun is setting as I make my way back down the hill. The family from Mississippi now has a nice campfire going. Dad must have helped. It's dark before 9 PM since we are below the gap. There are five of us in the shelter tonight. "Mule-boy", "Cypress", Aaron, Billy, and me.

I don't think I drank enough water today. I'll have to do better tomorrow. The weather has been very mild though, and today wasn't all that bad to hike. We're all in bed by 9:20 PM, snoring soon follows. I awake around 11 PM with heartburn. Definitely no more tuna helper. What was I thinking? I struggle for almost two hours with heartburn. My Tagement and Rolaids are outside hung in my food bag. I don't want to get up and put on my boots to get it though. I won't make that mistake either way again. I'll have no more Tuna Helper, and I'll keep some Rolaids and Tagement in my pocket at night.

I wake up sometime in the middle of the night hearing a rustle behind the shelter. It sounds like something is after my food bag hanging off the back of the shelter. A raccoon or maybe even a bear. The rustle gets louder and my heart starts beating faster. The sound is too large for a raccoon. The rustling gets louder and then it's right in front of the shelter. My heart hits a new gear. It's coming toward the shelter and me. It turns out to be Billy! He crawled out of the shelter to pee and I must not have heard him leave. After a few minutes, I fall back asleep. Definitely no more tuna helper!

The wind blows and gusts in great long cycles over the gap above us all night. It sounds like the ocean is in the trees above us. It's a cool night weatherwise. Low fifties.