Haunting the Appalachian Trail

Originally, I had intended to do some hiking on the Appalachian Trail last weekend. But since we had to curtail our original plans I didn't get to do that. We did stop at Neels Gap where the AT crosses the highway. We went into the Wasali Yi Center which has a hostel for hikers and a shop where folk can buy backpacking equipment and various trail supplies (such as food). The Center is the only place on the 2,000-mile Appalachian Trail that passes through a building, going through a breezeway there.


When I was a teenager, I hiked all of the AT that lies within my home state of Georgia. Hiking through Neels Gap as a kid is one of my favorite memories. Not much has changed there, fortunately. The store is more well supplied than it was in the old days, but other than that it was pretty much as I recalled it.

The view from Neels Gap this past weekend.

Photo I took from the top of Blood Mountain (above Neels Gap) in 1975.

And me, age 18, in 1975.