Date: 2010-03-28
From: Beech Gap

To: Winding Stair Gap
Miles today: 19.1
Weather: moderate rain

After hearing from the ATC fellow that there would be rain on Sunday, I decided that after the Sabbath on Saturday evening, I was going to pack up and try to make it to Winding Stair Gap and Franklin, NC, before the rain started. If not I would have to hike in wet cold shoes for the next two days and may have worse sleeping arrangements due to the overcrowding on the trail and bad weather at this time of year. So, at 8pm, yes, a night hike, I headed out with a head lamp that was not meant for hiking, see my gear list for the little e-lite that uses watch batteries. The skies were clear, the moon was almost full and the temperature was 35 degrees. Then at 8:45pm the clouds started to roll in. I hiked past Carter Gap Shelter. Further up the trail I could see the lights of Franklin in the valley from where I was on the mountain. I hiked past a big white tent where it looked like they had been giving away free food during the day. I climbed Albert Mountain, took my pack off and looked at the thermometer, 35 degrees still, but the clouds had now come down on the mountain and I could no longer see the city lights. I hiked on down to Big Spring Shelter where I stopped to get more water. The clouds had come down so low at this point that I could only see about six feet in front of me. It was like being in a cold room on a hot humid day and then to walk outside with glasses on and the glasses fog up. Several times I reached up to feel my face to see if I was wearing my glasses. It was just the reflected light from my head lamp off of the fog-like clouds around me. By this time I was so tired I was almost staggering down the trail. I stopped and changed the batteries in my head lamp. Even though I had been on this trail before nothing looked familiar, then I saw the sign for Glassmine Gap. I had just been there and had eaten lunch less than a month ago. I hiked on down the trail not being able to see hardly anything or to even know if I was on the trail, but every now and then I would see a white paint stripe on the tree (this is how we follow the trail, they are called blazes) but I could not even see these until I was about eight feet from them. Then the thing that I was trying to get away from happened, it started raining. With all this do you think I was worried or scared, NO, because I know that He that is in me and takes care of me is greater than anything in this world. I hiked past Rock Gap Shelter but did not see it, only the blue blazes on the tree that show where the trail is leading to it. I hiked on down to Wallace Gap and then up the last big hill before Winding Stair Gap. I was so tired by now that sometimes when the wind would blow hard I would just stop and turn my back to it and hang my head just to keep the cold rain out of my face. Leaning on my hiking poles, sometime it would feel like I had dozed off for just a second while standing there. Then it started to get lighter. By the time I had made it out to Winding Stair Gap it was 8am on Sunday morning. I stood there for a while waiting to hitch a ride into Franklin. I started cooling off with my wet gloves making my hands getting colder all the time. Finally a fellow in a four-wheel-drive Toyota pick-up truck stopped to give me a ride. I thanked him for stopping and asked him what had him out so early on a Sunday morning and he said he ran out of coffee and was going to the store. He gave me a ride all the way to my hotel. I checked in, took a long hot bath, ate some sardines for protein and muscle repair, and went to bed untill 3pm in the afternoon. Praise Yahweh for getting me through that night without getting lost, slipping, or falling off the side of the mountain. It rained on and off all day today and I'm glad I'm not still out on the trail for the next two days, cold and soaked to the bone. My longest miles so far and my knees, feet, and my Heavenly Father carried me all the way.