Melissa gave me a brief call when they checked in at Neels Gap in Blairsville, Ga. Neels Gap is the first peak of 'Georgia 6 Gaps'. The others are Jacks Gap, Unicoi Gap, Hogpen Gap, Wolf Pen Gap, and Woody Gap. The peaks are between 1500 to 2000 feet in elevation and drop per peak. Click the link to see a side view of the 6 Gap section. As I can, I'll put reference links into the blog.
There is a hostel here so they will be able to clean clothes, take a shower and get a little trail dust cleaned off. Neels Gap is at mile 30.6 NoBo. There is a full service outfitter there Mountain Crossings at Walasi-Yi. No dogs allowed in the hostel so Melissa and Jordan will spend another night curled up next to each other.
There is another member of the hiking crew I was unaware of. Dennis Y-Knot (the original) has been with them since Springer mountain. Pete has settled in on Tailwind as his trail name. Hollywood alternates between calling Jordan Tripwire and As#%ole. I imagine that name is dependent on how tired she is and how much chaos J-dog is getting into.
Jordan is doing the best of the group as far as the feet go. But then again he has twice the feet to work with. :-) His collar broke early on. No more skull and crossbones. He's graduated to a lighter weight cloth collar. It's better for him because, just like the people he's escorting, every ounce counts. He has some hot spots on his shoulders from the pack. As he gets used to carrying his pack the problems should be less. Melissa is going to try some mole-skin on the pack side to see if it may help. Jordan's pack weighs 9 pounds at this stage.
I asked if she had any stories to tell about our four legged hero. He learned the limit of being in a pack pretty early. He's only run off the trail to chase a squirrel once. He got caught up and soon realized carrying a pack is a job that requires a modicum of concentration. His habit now is to be the Jordan we are all familiar with when he's out of his pack hanging around camp. But once his pack is on, he settles down to the task of walking right with the group never straying too far. He has become the camp alarm system. Every time they've set camp, when they settle in for the night, if anyone gets up and moves around Jordan barks an alert to his mom sleeping right beside him. He's taken on the responsibility of being her guardian quite well.
Today was a light day as far as miles traveled goes. They put 8 miles on the trail. Melissa and Christine have blisters on their blisters and need to have a couple short days to toughen the tootsies up. Melissa thinks I can cut back on the food amount and increase the number of shipments. Jordan can carry 6 days worth of food in his pack and that will leave more weight available for water on Melissa's back.
A little more A.T. info for you from the guide. I'll use these terms in future posts. Mile marks are listed in NoBo and SoBo mile numbers. NoBo means North Bound and SoBo is, obviously, South Bound. The first shipment waiting for them at Fontana Dam is mile 162.5 NoBo. So there is a long way to go until that first drop is reached.
So as day four closes on our intrepid hikers, we find spirits still high, feet sore and blistered. A nice refreshing shower, stock up on essentials, and back out on the trail in the AM.
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