Appalachian Trail 2019, Day 4: Lance Creek to Neel Gap

Day four was the one I'd been looking forward to since I started planning this section hike - a climb over Blood Mountain and down into Neel Gap, where a resupply, a frozen pizza, and a cabin with a real shower were all waiting for me. It's only about seven or eight miles, but Blood Mountain is the tallest point on the Georgia AT, and I had some unfinished business with this stretch of trail from a few years back. Watch the video below, then read on for how the day actually went.

An Early Start and a Web-Covered Head

After a quieter, more chill night at camp, I laid down around 7pm and woke up at 7am, had my tent broken down, and was on the trail by 7:40 - pretty proud of myself for getting out that early. The tradeoff for being first on the trail was catching every spider web strung across the path overnight. I tried clearing them with my trekking poles whenever I spotted one, but most of the time I was too late, and ended up wearing a fair number of them draped over my head for the day.

The Detour at Slaughter Creek

With a lighter pack and a lot less food than when I started, I decided Blood Mountain was doable, elevation and all - it climbs from around 3,000 feet up to 4,400 feet. Right before the mountain, near what's called Slaughter Creek, a group of hikers I'd camped with the night before mentioned a side trail that skirts around Blood Mountain instead of going over it. I wanted to experience the harder route instead - that's kind of the whole point of being out here, doing the stuff that's genuinely difficult.

Getting Lost at Slaughter Gap, Dagger and All

Passing through the area brought back a story from years earlier, when my wife and I attempted a day hike from Neel Gap back to Vogel State Park while staying at a cabin there with family. My wife was a couple months pregnant at the time, and my father-in-law insisted I strap on a ten-inch knife before we left - I remember shrugging it off before finally giving in. Sure enough, we took a wrong turn at Slaughter Gap and ended up three or four miles off course, heading toward Lake Winfield Scott instead of Vogel. This was before everyone carried a cell phone, so we hitched a ride in the back of a fisherman's truck to a little mom-and-pop store, dagger still on my hip, while people peeked out from behind the corners trying to figure out what they were looking at. The shop owner's daughter ended up driving us the rest of the way down the mountain in an old retired cop car - doors locked from the inside - flying down the road fast enough to make my wife carsick. We made it back to Vogel eventually, thanks to a chain of strangers who helped us out. I was hoping to spot the exact wrong turn we'd made all those years ago, but it didn't look like it was there anymore.

Topping Out on Blood Mountain

From there it was on up to the summit - over 4,400 feet, the highest point on the Georgia section of the AT. The old Blood Mountain shelter sits right at the top, built in 1934, and word on the trail is it leaks in the corners when it rains. The last time I'd been up there with my wife, it had been cloudy and we couldn't see much of anything, so it was a great feeling to finally get a clear day on top of Blood Mountain.

Down to Neel Gap and Civilization

The descent down the other side is about two and a half miles, and you start hearing cars from the highway well before you see them - a sound that means one thing after days in the woods: Neel Gap and Mountain Crossings are close. I'd gotten to know a few different groups of hikers along the trail by this point, not well, but enough for some good camaraderie passing each other throughout the day, and everyone had been talking about the same thing: the frozen Red Baron pizzas waiting at Mountain Crossings. You grab one out of the fridge, hand it off, and about ten minutes later they call your name and it's ready on the patio. Paired with a cold soda, it was one of the better meals I've had in my life. I also used the stop to resupply, and now that I had a better handle on my actual nutrition needs, I was able to buy noticeably less food than I'd started the trail with.

A Night at Blood Mountain Cabins

I splurged on a night at Blood Mountain Cabins in Neel Gap, and it did not disappoint - satellite TV, a full kitchen and dining area, a bathroom with a real shower, a bedroom downstairs, an upstairs loft, and a nice deck out back with patio chairs and a grill. I handed off everything except my rain gear and cold-weather layers for the cabin staff to wash, took a proper shower, and settled in for a queen-size bed all to myself. Dinner was a microwaved frozen Angus cheeseburger with a bag of chips and another soda - simple, but exactly what I needed after a banner day on the trail. With eleven miles planned for tomorrow and a full night of real rest ahead of me, I wasn't worried one bit.