Days 1 to 3 Springer Mountain to Neel Gap

Day 1: Springer Mountain to Hawk Mountain Shelter

• 8+1 miles
• 27,000 steps

After a goodnights sleep and breakfast at Hiker Hostel I decided to skip the 8 mile aproach trail up Springer Mountain and instead was shuttled up to a carpark about a mile below the peak (the +1 above).

A further 8 miles of ips and downs brought me to Hawk Mountsin Shelter, a surprisingly busy place to spend the night, also my first attempt at pitching my tent.

Day 2: Woody Gap

• 12.5 miles
• 35,500 steps

A reasonably early start meant the planned 8 miles to Goovh Mountain Shelter were over by about 12:30, so I pushed on for an extra 5ish miles to Woody Gap, were 5 of us found a nice sheltered spot to camp. On the way I stumbled scross my first instance of trail magic, some guys who’d thru-hiked before were handing out beer at Gooch Gap - a much welcomed break from walking.

Day 3: Neels Gap

• 11 miles
• 34,500 steps

Neels Gap has hot food, showers and laundry, and luckily for me, one of the guys I camped with at Woody Gap got here nice and early and bagged us the last cabin :) A fairly hard 11 miles to get here, Blood Mountain at 4,457 foot stood in the way.

Day 4 Preview: Nothing

I’m taking a day off, I slipped over on Saturday lunchtime and pulled a muscle in my knee, so taking a day off to let it res