Day 1: Woody Gap to Neels Gap

Since owl & I had already finished the trail from amicaloa falls to woody gap in December, we decided to start our slackpack at woody gap. We left Alabama early in the morning, and arrived around 11am to blowing snow and howling winds. A group of hikers were huddled near the small stone outhouse building, and while we were getting ready most of the hikers got into a van and headed towards town. But not us! We were ready to hike, even if the windchill was in the low double digits.

We donned our rain gear (moderately wind proof) and balaclavas and set off. The wind was unbelievable. But once we got out of the gap, the wind started blowing above us. It was still howling and whistling but since it wasn't directly hitting us, the hike became very meditative.

Our water reservoir hoses froze almost immediately, and we spent some time trying to devise ways to keep them warm. Eventually we gave up and after breaking up the ice in the hose and sucking like hell to get the water through, we would blow the water back into the reservoir to keep the hose ice-free. This worked pretty well.

The snow and wind slowed us down significantly, and I spent part of the hike thinking about bailout scenarios (like, we could put on all our clothes, get in our bags, and huddle up in one tent in that little cave). Kinda scary but I would rather be thinking about it and not need it than the reverse.

By the time we got to Blood Mountain we were pretty wiped. The blood mountain shelter is super creepy - completely made of stone and by itself on top of the mountain. The once existent fireplace is blocked off with stone, and there was an inch of snow on the stone cold (ha ha) floor.

We had 1.5 miles downhill to go, and 1.5 hrs before dark. That sounds like a lot of time, but we knew it would be close. The trail down the mountain is about 1/3 slick rock (covered with snow and ice), 1/3 normal trail (covered with snow and ice), and 1/3 rock steps (covered with snow and ice). Several times I sat down and slid, using my hiking poles for navigation. It was cold but it felt far less treacherous than navigating the ice.

Sunset was really cool, the colors of the sunset were reflected in the snow covered landscape. So first it was orange, then yellow, then red. It was really pretty but we had other priorities besides photography. We kept on trucking, headlamps on, and arrived at the parking lot just as it got dark. Awe and a. were there, ready to whisk us away to beer, pizza, and a hot bath.