Day 4 - Blood Mountain

Last night Adam and I tented right along Lance Creek. Beautiful area. We were also blessed with 75 and sunny. Today was a different story. We awoke to fog rolling through and an eventual rainy, windy hike up Blood Mountain. (as an aside- I remarked how this name reminded me of my childhood, skiing with my grandfather. Long story short, I fell off a rock, skiing in killington, VT and twisted my knee pretty bad. From then on, that rock was known as "blood rock" - name provided by grandpa dean. Was thinking of those times today grandpa!)

Even though we were soggy, we were moving well and blood mtn was the largest we had encountered to date. We crossed the top and descended to neels gap on the other side. Did a total of 7.3 miles today.

At neels gap, there is an outfitter that is very hiker friendly called mountain crossing. They will do a "shakedown" of your pack and guarantee they can lighten the load. They also have a hostel, which adam and I have elected to stay at tonight due to an impending storm approaching as well as an "active bear" in the area. For 15 bucks each, we get a bunk, a hot shower (quite possibly the best in my life) and a roof over our heads. We can also wash our stinky clothes. One of the girls who works in the shop is going into town to get pizzas for those who want...I was all over that. Whole pie for me tonight!!

So all in all, a great day. I'm currently hanging in the common area of the hostel with other thru hikers. Everyone is very friendly and there is a good community here. There's even a radio in here and "cheeseburger in paradise" is playing.

Mmmm. Cheeseburger.