Friday, March 21, 2014

Trail Daze: Days 16 - 25

Hullo world! Life on the trail is really busy so we haven't had hardly any time to post. After a long day of hiking, the last thing I want to do is stare at a bright little electronic screen before bed. Usually we just want to stuff our faces and pass out! 

Below is a summary of our most recent adventures. I figure there isn't much point in detailing "First, we left camp. Then, we hiked. Then, we ate..." etc., so here is a highlight reel of sorts of our day to day life. 

Day 16: Nero in Franklin
Not the Roman Emperor, a day where we did nearly zero miles! We did 0.3 miles this day because we ended up needing to spend a lot more time in town doing all the things we should have done on our zero day. We also met a great group of hikers (including Icicle and Quailman) who dubbed Kelley "Cheez-it" because she insisted that we carry 3.5lbs of the cheese flavored snack to get us through the Smoky Mountains! It was a fun-filled night at the Rock House Lodge (the sweet taproom inside of Outdoor 76) and we ended up hitting the trail at Winding Stair Gap around 8:30 that night. Cheez-it couldn't find her headlamp, but we sucked it up and night hiked the 0.3 miles to the closest campsite. Chase fell into a creek and skinned his knee (while wearing the only headlamp), and we pitched camp  on the flattest spot around, which just so happened to be the AT. We were glad we spent the extra day in town with great folks and we definitely second-guessed our decision to camp instead of staying the night in a warm bed.

Day 17: Winding Stair Gap to Wayah Bald Shelter
We woke to a heavy fog and instantly realized we were camping next to a homeless person. The night before we thought another thru-hiker had pitched his tent at the campsite, but upon further inspection, it was definitely a homeless person in a Wal-Mart tent covered in blue tarp material, which was tied off to the fallen trees in the area. No thru-hiker would go to that much trouble. But we weren't ax-murdered, so that was good. We were soon being passed by our comrades from the night before, Chainsaw, Pacman, AppleJacks, Icicle, and Quailman. We hiked through this crazy stuff called hoarfrost, which is basically these 2in long bits of frost that hang off of tree branches horizontally. Aparently it is really rare to encounter the stuff, so we felt very fortunate. We camped just outside the shelter as there were no tentsites big enough for our monstrous Tarptent. It felt very cool to be a part of a hiker group.

Day 18: Wayah Bald Shelter to Wesser Bald Shelter
Wesser Bald fire tower was AWESOME. We could see Cheoah Bald and the beginning of the Smoky's. It was sunny and beautiful so we sat up there with a section hiker, Chainsaw, Icicle, and Quailman for about an hour before heading down the the shelter to camp for the night. Great campsite with the crew! Had a fire and learned all about how a friend of Chainsaw's married his half-sister. Ah, the South! We were all stoked to get to the Nantahala Outdoor Center the next day!

Day 19: Wesser Bald to Grassy Gap
We followed Chainsaw out of camp by about 5 minutes, but he beat us to the NOC by about an hour and a half. As a result, he injured his foot on the steep downhill and was going to take a zero day to try to recover (since then, we heard that he had to get surgury and is off the trail). The Jump-Off was really cool. Sheila did great with all of the steep downhill. Chase had to help her down one section only because I didn't want her jumping down 4ft off of a boulder. We couldn't get our Smoky Mountain thru-hiker passes becasue the NOC's internet was down, but we did have a killer lunch and a Bell's Hopslam! We packed out a couple of beers to have with Quailman and Icicle that night, but they ended up pushing on further. I was content to stay 3.0 mi into the climb out of the NOC, because it was pretty tough going and I was trying to carry a full pack for the first time since Tesnatee Gap. The campsite at Grassy Gap had a sweet rock formation above it, so we took some time to explore the caves for bears (none were found).

Day 20: Grassy Gap to a campsite just before Stecoah Gap
Hard going for the rest of the climb. Cheez-it's calves were burning from exertion and dehydration. The cure for this was to transfer some weight back onto Chase and to have a nice long lunch at Sassafras Gap Shelter. The sun came out in this time and made everything a bit better. The views from Cheoah Bald were breathtaking! To think we were looking at this spot from the Wesser Bald fire tower only two days ago was crazy! We hiked until about sundown and stopped to camp on a little mountain with a view into Stecoah. Sunset was amazing from our campsite.

Day 21: Stecoah Gap to Fontana
We had to get up early and make it 16 miles before 4pm in order to turn Sheila over to the kennel. Our only 16 mile day so far had been into Winding Stair Gap and we got there by 7pm. Naturally, I was stressed. We also had to climb the infamously steep Jacob's Ladder, which I thought was a rock scramble (it's not). We pushed hard and fast and managed to get in by 4:40pm. I was literally running down the mountain, very angry at Chase for this time constraint. We turned Sheila over with many apologies. The only positive thing about being late was that I didn't have time to get emotional. Sheila hopped into the back of the car, laid down, and took a well-deserved nap. We caught the shuttle into the village and planned on getting a room. Icicle's parents were supposed to get them a room at the lodge, and they had told us previously that we could stay with them if we wanted to. I was willing to spend the $90 to get my own private room, but as soon as we walked in the door, Quailman and Icicle handed us the key to the room. We took showers and cooled off. It ended up being a great hiker-reunion kind of night, and I was grateful to be there.

Day 22: Zero in Fontana
Laundry, hot dogs, beer. That's all we did that day. And then at 11pm we scrambled to get our bags ready to leave for the Smoky Mountains in the morning. We are really bad at Zero days. 

Day 23: Fontana to Mollies Ridge Shelter
We left late because we still had a million things to do before being able to leave the lodge. We hiked up to the Fontana Hilton shelter and hung out for a bit before setting off with Icicle and Quailman to begin our Smoky Mountain adventure. Actual bathrooms and showers are the only thing that make this shelter a "Hilton," which should show you how low hiker standards are. We spent an hour going over Fontana Dam, leading me to name our little group "The Lolly-Gaggers" for lolly-gagging about. We made it up the shelter around 8pm. There were a bunch of kids from the University of South Florida on a Spring Break backpacking trip, which was kind of surreal. We were just happy there was room in the shelter. 

Day 24: Mollies Ridge to Derrick Knob Shelter
Had a lovely lunch break at Spencer's Field which I can only describe as a meadow of tall grass. I'm sure it's beautiful in the summer, but it was still breathtaking in the winter.The hike up to Rocky Top felt like a desert. I probably should have put sunscreen on. The views were spectacular! We were fortunate to have such a good weather introduction to the Smoky's, but our luck would soon turn. 

Day 25: Derrick Knob to Double Spring Shelter
Woke up to wet weather! No sleep in a tin-roof shelter when the rain is pelting down! We hiked through it to the next shelter, Siler's Bald Shelter, and just so happened to have enough service to check the weather. Holy Winter Storm Batman! The forecast called for 10 degrees that night with windchill of -13 degrees on top of Clingman's Dome the next day, which we were supposed to summit on this day. Icicle and I were totally spooked by the weather forecast and once the group decided to hole up at the next shelter, we booked it the 2 miles in 30 minutes. So there would be 6 of us in the shelter; Pacman, TOG, Icicle, Quailman, Chase and I. We gathered firewood to last us through the cold evening, and made a plan to try and keep extra warm. We strung up our tents across the opening of the lower bunk in order to retain our heat a little better. All of our gear was wet, so we strung up a laundry line while Pacman stoked the fire. It started to sleet not long after we got in, and the northerners made sure that we Floridians knew the difference between the types of wintry mix. Chase and I were excited about snow! Some section hikers came in around 6pm and we welcomed them gladly into our warm bunk. Quailman and Icicle read The Hobbit aloud while we snuggled in our bags and Pacman kept the fire going for a few more hours. The temperature was dropping quickly, but it was a balmy 25 degrees in our tent-barricaded bunk filled with the heat of 8 bodies. Would we survive???? Tune in next week to find out! ;)

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