Left Lance Creek campsite, crossed ultimately up and over the dreaded Blood Mountain and moved on to the famous Neel Gap site for the night. Considering the mountain, the biggest for us yet, this was a decent day for me. My legs are a little better. What was I whining about all that time? Anyway, I chugged along and got to Neel Gap. Forgot to tell you: all of the Trail so far is up and down Georgia mountains . . .real elevation changes constantly it seems.
This (Neel Gap) is historically a significant landmark for Thru-Hikers to get to for two main reasons:
1.) several facilities are set up to cater to the Thru-Hiker who has just had his first whole week of body shock-and-awe, and 2.) many people quit here as it is on a major road that people can use to bail out of the whole thing: see ‘The Tree’.
I took advantage of the facilities. Got a neck massage from physical therapy students set up under a tent, talked to a physical therapist about my quads for a long time (you’ll be good- looks like some good ole’ bilateral overuse pain), poked around the store, resupplied.
Hung out at a fire that night with about 8 guys who were moving on the next morning. It was a UN assembly again. We told jokes, measured dicks, some guys had beer, and we all felt like leaving Neel Gap in the morning and heading North was when the real Appalachian Trail begins! When does this goddamned thing start? At the fire I was with Sponge-Bob, Echo, Tree-Hugger, Night Walker, Scarecrow, etc . . . you see, some guys are already getting their Trail names. I don’t have one yet. . . plenty of time for that. Funny stories behind the names. (i.e. One of the guys got called a tree hugger in two separate incidents the same day, and by coincidence is an arborist, and so got the name Tree-Hugger. Perfect! You should hear him tell the story. Meeting some really cool guys out here.)
Penultimate 