Blood Mountain

After about 8 miles of hiking we finally reach the top of Blood Mountain which actually has a very old hiker shelter built on top of it.  It is probably one of the spookiest buildings I have ever seen.  It didn't help that the clouds had moved in on us (we were at 4,400 feet) and provided an eerie ambiance to being up there.  I'm sure the views are spectacular on a clear day, but we couldn't see much at all due to the cloud cover.

Several other hikers are at the shelter area resting and swapping tales from the trail.  Another interesting hiker that we met was named "Scope".  I was wondering to myself why he had the trail name of Scope.  Was he a proctologist or did he have a thing for really fresh breath?  Turns out I was wrong on both accounts... his family makes rifle scopes for a living.  The interesting thing about Scope was that he was hiking in a Scottish kilt.  That normally would be acceptable, but Scope didn't have an ounce of Scottish in him.  I guess he just thought it would be cool to hike in a kilt.  I'll be curious to see how long that experiment lasts.  We also heard that there has been some recent "bear activity" at this shelter with some hikers reporting that a bear actually tried to get in the shelter one night.  The open windows of the shelter have several loose boards and rocks piled up in them as if someone had placed them there to act as a deterrent for a bear to get in them.  My personal thoughts are that if you are crazy enough to spend the night in that creepy old shelter you get whatever is coming to you. 

The mountain is actually named after a very bloody battle between two rival Indian tribes in the late 1600's.  After seeing the shelter and hearing tales of the bear activity, I have my own hypothesis on why it is called Blood Mountain.  After a short break we pack up and head out again.