Gooch Mountain Shelter to Blood Mountain Shelter

Appalachian Trail, 13.6 miles

Another hard day -- 13.6 miles. In the rain. It rained hard last night but let up a little by about 8 a.m., so that's when I left. Made it here by about 3:30. It's a pretty stone building, built in the thirties by the Civilian Conservation Corps. I hear it's terribly mice-infested -- guess we'll see tonight.

It was very foggy all day today due to the rain, so there's no view at all from this peak. Kind of disappointing, but I'm just glad I made it to the top. Saw a cute little turtle on the trail this morning.

Update from later in the evening: No mice in the shelter, but a bat flew in just as everyone was going to bed! Louie ("Black Cloud") was there; also Keith and two really funny guys from Jacksonville, FL named Carl and Mike. The bat generated quite a bit of excitement till it flew back out the window. Also: no bear cables in this shelter area; not sure why. So we all hung our food from the beams inside the shelter, which seemed questionable to me but since I'm such a bad food-hanger I didn't protest. No animals bothered the food, so I guess this was okay.