Stan Murray Shelter
They need wet, friction, and heat. Prevent any one of the three and you won't get a blister. The reason I bring this up is my feet have grown and my shoes are too small. As a result there is a lot of pressure and rubbing. The snow had seen to keeping my feet wet for two days too. However my feet have been freezing as well so no blisters. Given the brutal conditions I hiked in this was one of the nice side effects. I woke at the Greasy Creek Friendly. Last night was spent watching movies and hang out with Invisable Man, Bacon, and Elsy(SP?). After getting up I took a shower, drank some instant water, checked on my shoes and socks drying from yesterday, and made the dinner I didn't eat last night.
The dinner turned out way too salty to the point of turning my stomach for a couple of hours. Glad I didn't have to deal with this in a cold shelter! I dumped out all the seasoning and cheese I could and added a block of plain ramen to dilute.
Breakfast seemed to take forever and then I had to improvise gaiters. I have mesh shoes and my feet were wet and cold all day from the snowmelting into them so barrowed some fabric and safty pins ti
o close up the mesh best I could. In then end McGyver and I got to the trail at 1PM.
The hiking was hard going pushing our way through the snow up hill towards on of the highest peaks on the trail, Mount Roan at 6200'.
The long climb warmed me considerably so I decided to remove my thermal tights. That was proably a por choice because when I got to the top I chilled quickly. The last part of the climb entered a dense pine forest with the trail winding nibbly through the low hanging snow ladden branches, each threating to dump snow down the back of a hiker who is unlucky enough to knock the branch with their backpack. The branches looked like they belonged on the cover of a travel magazine inviting someone to a wintery getaway.
At the top it was windy and chilly. We spent 10-15 minutes relaxing, taking in the clear and expansive view, and eating before I started to chill and we moved on.
Our miles were slow due to the snow and we had to really make a push to get to the next shelter before dark. I stoped for a bathroom break and McGyver kept going thinking I would catch up. I finished and started after him. Shortly I got to a turn where there was a fork and the AT made a sharp left turn. I looked in the snow and it looked like McGyver had gone straight but I couldn't be sure. I shouted his name out a few times to the wind. I decided he would notice he had missed the turn, back up and correct. I hiked slowly and gave him a chace to catch up. As I hiked I looked in the snow for evidence of his passing but the prints were always headed in the wrong direction. Then there was a secion where someone had pulled a sled through. If he had crossed there would be foot steps but I saw only clear. After about 15 minutes I popped out into Carver Gap and the blacktop road there. I decided to wait for McGyver here and sure enough about a minute later he came through but not !
from the trail, he came from the road! He had hiked the trail he was on until it dumped out into the road and yellow blazed to me. We hiked up the otherside of the gap to the top of a stunning bald where we could survey all we had come through and where we would tread soon. On the way up the trail was mostly clear and passable but the north side was completely different. Snow drifts were over our knees at many points and our post holeing slowed us way way down. At one point the drifts were over our waist and we had to crawl on hands and knees using the trecking poles in each hand to keep them above snow. Then into the gap before Jane bald and up the south face which was free of snow from sun exposure. At this time it was 7:30 and the sun was settng fast. Then McGyver realized he was missing his camera. He decided to slackpack back and look for it. I waited for him on top of Jane Bald. I put on my rain gear and started doing streches, jumping jacks, and push-ups to keep war!
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