Official day 2 AT

It was dark as Evan woke me up. 4am as we had agreed. Up and out of the shelter ahead of the sleeping crowd. We had figured to be at my truck by 1pm. Ready by 4:30 we gathered our supplies hanging from the cables in the trees. It is wise being in bear country to stow your food off the ground and at distance from where you sleep.Appalachian trail safety
Evan had his headlight on and mine was in hand, headband and ratchet mechanism having failed during Friday nights initial walk in. We had at least 3 hours of walking in the dark, caution was the word. Rocks and roots everywhere ready to catch an unsuspecting footfall. All went well until about two hours in I took a tumble. Sleeping pad catching a overhanging rock and down I went. Bruising my knee and scraping my wrist, mostly my ego though. The sky began to lighten and morning hunger pangs began to remind us that we had no breakfast and coffee. Passing a mountain stream we stopped and fixed breakfast and coffee, the day's was beginning to turn colder, hot oatmeal and coffee where really welcome. Later we stopped and a lady hiker approached and we chatted for a few she was from North Carolina and doing some section hiking (breaking the trail into manageable chunks) preparing for a thru hike (doing the entire AT) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appalachian_Trail all approximately 2200 miles of it. Continuing onward we started to notice light sleet and snow at higher elevations. As began our assent of Blood mountain the cold increased and so did the amount of snow/sleet.

As witnessed here, Rhine frost was present showing the direction of the blowing sleet. The snow began to gather on the ground and the real assent began in earnest.

We passed several people on the trail headed south bound with a pleasent hello. Passing the Freeman trail we continued upward. Here we passed a young man who was traveling light and was about to finish his SOBO, he was from Boston, Massachusetts. Passing through an area of Rhododendrons we saw the Blood Mountain Shelter.

This is the oldest shelter on the entire AT, constructed of rock it would be a very cold place to stay. We explored the area for a few minutes and began our decent to Neels Gap. After seemed a very long 2 miles the gap came into view. Entering the store we obtained a cup of coffee and chatted with the salesman. Leaving the store we walked the short distance to my truck and started our journey back to Springer mountain and Evans car. Stopping at the Roadkill Cafe we some BBQ sweet potato fries and a mug of coffee. We drove through Dalonega and up to the parking area. As we approached the parking area the whole area was white with hoar frost.

Exchanging some pleasentries we departed Evan leading the way back home. He stopped a few hundred yards and stated that it appeared his rear brakes were frozen, we investigated and found the left rear was stuck on after some prying we was able to continue our way home.

The end...