Day 2 Relaxing 14 Miles

Writing from my tent, at a tent site on the side of Blood Mountain, the highest part of the AT in Georgia. 

Today was a lot more laid back than yesterday. It rained on and off through the night, which was actually quite soothing. Our campsite was next to a small mountain stream called Justice Creek. Between the sound of the stream, the gentle rain falling on my tent, and the cool but not cold weather I had fantastic sleep. I managed my water consumption better, so I only had to get out of my tent twice. Luckily both times were during gaps in the rain. Apart from that and waking up to distant thunderstorms in the middle of the night, I slept through from 9:30pm to 7am. I needed the rest and very much enjoyed it.

Once we got up and moving we packed up and hiked through light rain for about an hour. Soon the rain dissipated into fog. A foggy day makes the woods feel eerie and quiet. 

We summited Ramrock Mountain shortly after the skies cleared.

We walked on ridges for most of the rest of the morning, enjoying the cool wind and the sunshine. 

About 7.5 miles into the day we hit Big Cedar Ledges, a viewpoint where we had excellent weather and stopped for a snack.

From there the final 6.5 mile push to camp was pretty straightforward. We had some great trail magic from a guy who goes by Big Sky. Hikers don’t often use their real names, instead going by a pseudonyms that they earn as part of their hike. For most people it is a defining characteristic or story that sets them apart. Big Sky got his name because he is from West Texas, which apparently is nicknamed the Big Sky Country of Texas. None of us have trail names yet. I was sort of given a trail name at birth. Anyway, Big Sky actually hiked the whole trail the same year that Tyler and I attempted, in 2020. 

Hearing Big Sky talk about finishing it that year made me second guess our decision to get off trail last time. As we were hiking I thought more about it and concluded that we made the best decision we could given the information we had at the time. I don’t think I would do it differently if I had it to do over again. I dislike that we quiet, and I hate knowing what quitting feels like. But I appreciate that we were able to hike the section that we did and that we are able to be back out here now, hiking it again. I’m certainly more determined than ever to make it all the way to Khatadin.

Anyway, after eating a late trail magic breakfast, we began working our way up the first 4,000+ foot mountain on the AT, Blood Mountain. We hiked half way up and got to our planned campsite, a tent site just past Slaugter Creek, about a mile from the summit of Blood Mountain. We got here around 3:45. It was awesome to have a few hours to relax, stretch, and watch the sunset. 

Weather looks good for tonight, it’s a little windy up here and it will probably get down to around 30 degrees Fahrenheit, but we all have down sleeping bags that will keep us warm down below 20 degrees. We will be plenty warm at 30. 

We are set up very well to get up tomorrow, summit, then drop down to Neels Gap where we will pick up our first resupply. Neels gap has an excellent outfitter but doesn’t have a ton of food options, so we all mailed ourselves a package with food for the next couple days. 

I’m looking forward to potentially taking a shower at Neels Gap tomorrow. 

For those interested, I updated day 0 and 1 logs with pictures since we have great reception up here on the mountain. 

Goodnight,

Walker 

If you want to follow Tyler or Spencer, here are their logs as well:

Tyler: https://tylerat2024.blogspot.com/?m=1

Spencer: https://www.instagram.com/baxter.bound?utm_source=qr&igsh=MWx4MzRqa3M4dGk3Mw==