- 01/26 Fr Muskrat Creek Shelter 11.8
- 01/27 Sa Carter Gap Shelter 12.5
- 01/28 Su Chica & Sunset’s 15.9
- 01/29 Mo Chica & Sunset’s, Franklin ZERO
- 01/30 Tu Cold Spring Shelter 15.8
- 01/31 We NOC 11.5
- 02/01 Th Stecoah Wolf Creek 13.9
- 02/02 Fr Fontana Hilton Bathroom 15.2
Miles to date: 2381.4
I entered NC on a bright, sunny, warm day. That was the weather high point because it deteriorated from there. The second day was continuous rain. I originally planned to hike further than Carter Gap Shelter, but I made the mistake of stepping out of the rain. Fog, who I’d met at Around the Bend Hostel was already there with the same intention of moving on.
The longer we talked, the harder it rained. We both gave up on the idea of progress. 6p is a great bed time on a rainy day. I didn’t think I was sleeping but I rolled over and Fog was standing over me dripping water. “How did you get so wet?” “From walking in the rain!” It wasn’t Fog, it was another hiker.
Night Shift is the third hiker I’ve met this year who is attempting the “calendar year triple crown” (that’s thru-hiking the AT, PCT, and CDT all in one year—7800 miles total). I’m only hiking 5000 miles in 15 months.
Overnight, the rain turned to snow and the wind picked up significantly. No surprise that we were all slow getting going in the morning. I was already planning on staying at a hostel for the night and I told Night Shift about it. He decided to “waste” a day and only hike 16 miles—he’s averaging 25/day for now but will have to increase that over time.
I make a couple of hot water bottles every night in cold weather. A 1 liter to sleep with and a 1/2 liter to put in an insulated lunch box to keep my fuel, electronics, and water filter from freezing. On cold days, like today, I reheat the 1/2 liter bottle and carry it under my coat to keep my core temperature up and to quickly warm my hands when they get cold. I kind of panic if I lose feeling in my hands. I only mention this because of an incident with my 1/2 liter bottle.
Night Shift decided to walk slow so we could share the ride into the hostel. Even with him taking his time and stopping for me to catch up, he still beat me to the trailhead by a good 15 minutes. I was so relieved when I got there and saw the waiting car that I started undoing my pack so I could throw it in and get warm.
When I started to pack up to leave after my zero in Franklin, I couldn’t find my 1/2 liter bottle. I looked all over the apartment, checked the car, even looked outside for it, but it was gone. When we got back to the trailhead, we checked on the trail to see if I had dropped it there.
It was another cold day and I really would have liked it full of boiling water between my coats. I ran into another “section hiker” (just out for a week) and he told me he had stayed with Fog last night and he was only about an hour ahead of me. I normally don’t like to share shelters, but when conditions are this bad, I don’t mind sharing the misery.
When I arrived at Cold Spring Shelter, Fog was already there and asked me if I had lost anything. He went into the outfitter to buy his own Nalgene bottle and a worker asked him if he had lost one. Fog said he hadn’t, but he knew a guy who had a blue half liter bottle that might have gotten lost. The guy ran home to grab the bottle he had found near the trailhead the day before. Fog presented me with my bottle already filled with hot water. The trail provides!
Fog and I walked around each other for the 3 days and stayed in the NOC and the Fontana bathroom together. It was starting to warm up by the time we made it to the Fontana Dam, but I had talked up how nice and warm the floor of the bathroom was that he decided to carve out his spot near the heater.
When I had come out of the Smokies in early January, I had had 6 full days where the temperature never got above freezing. I needed relief even if it meant sleeping on a pee dripped on floor next to a toilet (as long as it was heated). It was the first night I had been able to get up to perform my “old man perimeter check” without freezing my ass off. That bathroom will always have a special place in my heart.
EFG