Let them eat snow!

After my restful day in Franklin I hit the trail on Saturday with PePa, Brown Sugar and Brian (now Mr.Frodo… his sisters think he has hobbit feet so they gave him a gold ring to carry around his neck to Katahdin!) All four of us had new superfeet insoles and I was sporting my new Keen boots so we took the 11:00 shuttle back to the trailhead and decided to do a short 8 mile day to the next shelter. We got lucky on the hike, it was foggy and misty but we did not run into any rain. My feet felt amazing in my new gear and the terrain was relatively easy, I found myself hiking with a huge smile on my face, feeling a renewed sense of excitement and optimism.

We got to camp fairly early but the shelter was already filled up. Sleeping in the shelters allows you to keep your tent dry in the rain and snow but I prefer the privacy of my tent to a shelter any day. We got set up, made dinner at the picnic table (a shelter luxury) and settled in by the fire. Around 7:00 three men walked in to the area as it started to sprinkle. I said to them in passing “better get those tents set up”! They smiled and walked down the hill. I went into my tent and emerged after a half an hour to see that they had made a shelter out of a piece of lowes tarp using their hiking poles. Their sleeping pads and bags were laid out under this tarp directly on the ground and they were on a hill. This “shelter” would have worked out great on a warm summer day with no rain in the forecast (we were expecting a downpour). It turns out these three were boyscout leaders from Charleston out for a guys weekend without the kids who are “no fun because they are lazy”- their words. The men thought they would get to a nice empty shelter and they brought the tarp as extra wind protection to hang on the open side. They left their tent in the car. Ummmm… Needless to say, they got soaked. It poured all night and everyone was awaken at 6am with a thunder-burst that reverberated through the mountains. (I woke up feeling pure terror-it was great!)

Around 730 I realized the heavy rain had subsided to a light sprinkle so I broke down camp (keeping my wet rainfly in an outside pocket of my bag and my relatively dry tent and footprint inside my bag) put on all my rain gear as well as my gaiters and left camp before most people had finished their breakfast. I hiked alone all day (11 miles) and made it to the shelter before anyone else. I decided to forego the shelter opportunity so that I could practice setting up my wet gear and also because I knew that the rest of my group would not get a spot and I did not want to sleep snugly close next to 5 other people I did not know. It had rained most of the day and was a very inspiring and beautiful hike. The rain left the woods glistening and I stayed warm and dry under my gear, it was also pretty warm out (close to 50) so I was grateful not to be dealing with freezing rain.

Again I got lucky setting up camp, it was around 2:45 and the rain let up for a few hours. I hung my rainfly from two trees as I set up my tent, I then wiped down the fly with my camp towel to get rid of as many of the big water drops as I could. I set up the fly very taught so that any remaining moisture would stay away from the screen on my tent. I then climbed inside and slowly removed all my gear making sure to keep wet things away from clean and dry items. I hung my gaiters by their straps on my hiking poles under my vestibule so they could dry out and I proceeded to cook 2 oatmeals, 2 dinners and eat 2 tortillas with peanut butter from the comfort of my sleeping bag (I had survived the day on one snack bar and 3 snickers minis and was starving!) After cleaning up I retreated to my sleeping bag as the temperatures quickly dropped, I put on headphones and fell asleep around 5:30 PM and pretty much slept through until 8:30 the next morning. (This is what happens at a cold wet camp).

I woke up the next morning snug in my bag but realized it was pretty dark in my tent.. This was because I had been snowed in! PePa let me know that it was “really bad out and getting worse” and that we would all be hiking together to make sure everyone made it through the day okay.. I was fine with this! I quickly packed up and PePa helped me take my tent down. The poles were frozen together so I had to spit/suck on them to get them apart… Not the most pleasant experience! Packing up was freezing but once we got moving I warmed right up, I was very happy that I had the gear to stay warm and dry in all these conditions. The 12 mile trek was pretty exhausting, about half of it was downhill as we dropped from 4600 feet to sea level but again I was working on a snack bar and three snickers for my energy along with about two cups of water (I kept my drinking tube thawed all night but it froze up on the hike) and the handfuls of snow I kept eating. The hike was actually pretty fun despite the exhaustion. I love the snow and it was beautiful as it coated every surface in the mountains. It was fun hiking with the group and I fell three times but did not get hurt… at 3:30 we arrived at our destination, the Nantahala Outdoor Complex (a big river rafting complex that the trail runs through). We grabbed beer and snacks at the general store, threw our things in the bunkhouse and had an amazing and huge dinner at the restaurant that sits above the river. Many of our friends that we have met and continuously ran into over the past couple of weeks took a zero day at the NOC so after dinner we all caught up and hung out in the common room, it was a really fun evening. My parents will be here today (I am writing this at 4am, probably can’t sleep because I slept so much last night!) I am going to take a zero day with them tomorrow then head back into the woods! Should reach the smokies by Friday night, hopefully the snow starts melting before I get there!!