4/9 Thawing out

9.9 miles hiked today, 385 miles N
Apple House Shelter

After last night we elected to stay in our sleeping bags a little late not getting out until 9 am. With temps in the low teens last night I had to wake to nature's call. That gave me a tough decsion to make. My shoes were wet and wraped in a trashbag and my socks were dry. I decided to go barefoot and that worked out great. The ground was frozen solid and the snow was so cold it didn't appear to melt under foot in the few seconds I was on it. I went behind the shelter where the snow was blown clear and discovered that the wind was howling. The shelter, it turns out, was perfectly angled to complete shield us from the wind.
Anyhow back to waking up. We got up to 23 degrees but strangly we were pretty warm. The shelter was trashed in the day light with partially eaten mountain house meals all over and bits and pieces of packages. I picked up what I could ad packed it out.
McGyver had left his boots out and they were frozen which were not much fun to put on.
In adjusting my poles for hiking I discovered they were broken. The tip on one pole had snapped off last night and on the other the locking machanism broke just like on the orginal poles. I think they don't like freezing temps. I will swap them out again in a couple weeks when I decide what I want to replace them with and the temps stay above 30.
The hike out of Stan Murry was mostly downhill and trougha lot of snow. That brought us near one of the most unique shelters. It is a huge old barn that they convereted for hiker use. It is two stories with cooking space below and room above enough for at least 40-60 hikers. The only problem was the shelter was very breezy with gaps in the walls and floor. I am glad we didn't end up here as it would have been fridged. The barn was on the top of a long and wide valley which was breath taking! We spent a half hour to hour snacking, thawing McGyver's water filter, and enjoying the view. The snow seems to have really dampered most thru hikers as we saw many fewer thru-hikers than normal. Last night the was a huge night at the barn but it seems they all left the trail as I saw none of them.
On the way out of the barn I came across what I think was a mole. It was about 4 inches long with longish claws and a pointed pink nose nose. I got a couple bad photos but within 30 seconds it had burrowed out of sight. After that we went up Little Hump which was a great high view. We sat behind some rocks to duck the wind and eat a snack. The up to Big Hump witch also offered an astonishing great view. I know this has grown old but you just can't imagine how aswome the views from the top of the Humps are with the balds rolling off into the distance all ringed by a jaged outline of peaks. We spent near an hour on the top laying down to duck the wind and relaxing in the sun. Invisable Man came by and said hi before pushing off. Coming back down the northside we ran into snow but fortunatly the trail was broken and most of the snow melted. Afer that it was an easy rolling downhill into the Shelter.
There we saw Invisable Man and started setting up. As darkness set in Bacon arrive too. Then a hunter came by and we all learned a lot about turkey and deer.