We awoke to two inches of snow. It just warmed my heart. I love snow! Mo and Sunshine were not so happy to see it. By the way, Fowler picked up the nickname Sunshine and I picked up the name Skipper. We also gave Moritz the name Moejoe (probably just temporary though). We hiked 8 miles to Gooch Mtn shelter with Steve. At the shelter we met Chuck, an ex-army grunt. Steve, who is a seasoned hiker, kept talking about how he would always lose a ton of upper body strength. To counter this he did some outdoor weight lifting and I decided to join him. We used rocks and logs to exercise our chest, back, shoulders, biceps and triceps. We also did push ups and pull ups off of the shelter. I am no longer worried about losing all my weight by the end of the trail.
The next day was brutal. Not surprisingly I received a new nickname "Slave Driver." We hiked 15.5 miles over 4 mountains the biggest being Blood Mtn. According to lore, a battle between the Creek and Cherokee left so many dead that the ground was covered in blood hence the name. The top of Blood Mtn was full of multiple world class views. Pure awesomeness! At the top we met a group of 5-7 young college punks who clearly were not prepared for the outdoors. First, they were drinking straight from the stream. If you fail to purify your water you are at high risk of contracting guardia or some other bacteria/parasitic/viral disease. I had dysentery in Iraq and it was not a fun time. Second, they wore non-wicking clothes like cotton jeans. When cotton gets wet it does not dry and in the cold weather, you are pretty much screwed. Hello hypothermia. Anyway, the reason we hiked 15.5 miles instead of the planned 10 was to stay at the Neels Gap Hostel. The hostel was run by a man named Pirate (seriously his name was pirate). You definitely meet some interesting people on the AT. It cost $16.25 for the night. Pirate made us "15 bean soup" and cornbread. Mmmmm! It was delicious. Pirate actually hiked the AT no less than 10 times!! We also met up with David (from day one). Pretty cool guy. The hostel was cozy. Sleep was good.
P.S. I almost forgot. We met two old men on the trail. One who served in the USMC in the 1970's. He gave us an apple and a P&J sandwich. AMERICA!!
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