Saturday, March 17, 2007

3/16 Foggy wonderland

3/16/2007
14.8 miles hiked today, 60.3 miles N
At Deer Gap

Today, well it sucks souls out, breaks spirits, and make you wonder if you packed enough layers. It started at about 60 degrees and at the time of this writing(8:30) the sun has just about disappeared and the temp is already at 34F. The last time I saw farther than 70' was at 10:30 this morn.


It has been windy and steadily colder all day but some how I am doing OK. I still have some dry layers to put on and may bag is mostly dry from last night..
Oh that. Last night the shelter ran out of space in the loft so I had to sleep out on the porch. Well around 3 AM I awoke to water on my face. The wind blew the rain into the porch covering me with a layer of rain. I managed to find a dry patch in the shelter and dried it out with my body heat pretty good over next few hours.
Anyhow today was one of those where one just puts the feet in front of each other as on a endless treadmill. I never could see when I was near a peak or gap so when I came upon them it was surprise. I took some photos and if the come out they should look like scenes from spooky graveyard or forest.

One thing I did manage to see was a bigger version of the newt I saw the day before. It was maybe 2 inches long and was sitting on a rock on the trail trying to warm itself despite the cloudy weather.

I managed to get to Deer Gap Shelter by 6PM. Insteed of my regular one pot of hot water for dinner I made three to stay warm. The wind really pulled the heat out of me and I retired to inside the shelter to seascape. I was lucky and got a spot in the attic where the temp stayed just above freezing were as the first floor was at 24 degrees in morning.

The next day my water bottles and wet clothes froze solid and the ground had that satisfying crunch of frost breaking.

Along the trail there was sprouts of frost that grew to 3 or inches overnight. It has to seen to believed so I took some photos. I hiked into Dick's Creek Gap to head into Hiawassee for a shower, laundry, and resupply.

2 comments:

Jem said...

I'm enjoying your blog. Already looking forward to seeing pictures.
What do you think about as you go?

James N. said...

Did you stay at Cloud9 shelter?