April 7th, 7:59pm EDT - "I'm calling on the 7th, which I think is a Tuesday. We're sitting in a restaurant in Blairsville, Georgia (Ed. - about 15 miles NW of Neels Gap) after Mark and I got snowed off the trail today. We had pretty significant snow, cold and ice out on the trail today, so we did about 4 miles to Neels Gap, which is the 30 mile point. We're pretty much on schedule. This will be a brief update, because the resaturant is noisy, and I can't play my digital recordings here. I don't know how that will work, but I will try to find a quiet spot later to play you my recordings. I have made one for each day that we have been out here - Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday. I think it's Tuesday, right? I hate to say it, but I don't know what day it is. I do know it is the 7th, but that's about all I can tell you right now. If I can't find a quiet spot, the next place you're likely to hear from me is about 4 days from now at mile 67 in Hiawassee, Georgia (Ed. - Hiawassee is on the Georgia/NC border. Hiawassee is a Cherokee name meaning 'meadow')
Things have been going well, other than the fact that we have had an unbelievable range of temperatures. I think on Sunday it actually hit 80 degrees, and then on Monday a brutally cold front came through. We woke up this morning, Tuesday I guess it is, and it was 19 degrees at Woods Hole Shelter (Ed. - 26.6 miles up the trail, 2140.5 to Katahdin - elevation 3600 ft., half mile off the AT) which is where we were camping. It was brutally cold with 40 mph winds, snow and ice. We are in the Goose Creek Cabins (Ed. - 1/2 mile north of Vogel State Park) tonight after hiking to Neels Gap and grabbing the shuttle to town. We avoided the hostels at Neels Gap as they do not have the most savory reputation. They were full anyways - well, we could have had the last two bunks in a twenty bed room, but the cabin was only $7 more than the hostel, so we grabbed that by taking the shuttle to Blairsville. We warmed up, cleaned up and now are in town resupplying and getting dinner. Neels Gap is the 30 mile point, so we are pretty much on schedule.
Other than the ferocious conditions, things are going well. Even with all of our Philmont training, neither Mark or I were prepared to face anything quite like what we've seen here so far with several inches of snow, 20 degrees and 40 mph winds. Mark has had the best line so far on the trip - "we're supposed to be hiking with the spring time, but we're actually hiking with the winter time". That's the best way to describe it so far. We're definitely looking forward to a little bit warmer weather later on this week.
Right now I'm going to stop because it's getting noisy in here. We need to get to the grocery store and pick up some stuff. Talk to you later!" (Ed - no other call came in that day from Bob)
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