Date: 2015-04-04
From: Russell Field Shelter

To: Derrick Knob Shelter
Miles today: 9.2
Weather: scattered clouds

Oh my goodness, what a night. First there was crazy snoring from the guy next to me that reverberated through the floor of the shelter. Then the storm hit. Insane wind, rain, thunder and lightening all night long. I was pretty thankful I was jn the shelter. That storm was dangerous. Since neither of us slept that great we were up and out of the shelter fairly early. It had stopped raining but it was still very cold, foggy and misty. But it was suppose to burn off sometime in the afternoon. Thankfully we didn't have to pack up wet tents! We had a short day today since we had such a long day testerday. We were hoping to get to the shelter fairly early to relax. We had some amazing views of fog the whole morning, so that was great. It was so cold there was ice all over the trees. At one point, wother the wind, we were walking through ice showers. It was pretty awesome. But cold. On the way we met up with Proudfoot and Samson. We didn't think we would see them again since they were doing 15-20 miles a day. It was about 10300 am and they were helping some section hikers into a sleeping bag in the middle of the trail. These guys had been out in the storm all night long. They were hyperthermic. We helped get the guys bundled up. Proudfoot had already called the park rangers and they were saddling up the horses to come up. They said could take a few hours. We pushed on after a bit, not much else for us to do. Eventually, the sun came out but it was still bitter cold. We made it to the shelter at about 130. There were 2 other guys there already and they had been running the fire all day. All the shelters in the smokies have fire places inside and tarps over the front, thank god. We picked our spots and then relaxed. We chatted with Poofy and the other guy who's name escapes me. But we've seen him before. We collected firewood and I read a book. It was nice. People trickled in a bit later. Britches and Hoff showed up. They shared the bottom bunk with us along with the ridgerunner and another guy named sketch. The bottom bunk is good and bad. Good because you don't have to climb up, bad because dirt falls on you from the top bunk when people move around. It was much more comfortable staying in the shelter that night because we knew most of the hikers that came in. Plus they were all thru hikers and it's just more comfortable with them. We're all in it together even if we don't know each other...it's like family you haven't seen in a while. There's some familiarity.The ridgerunner had a radio so we were able to follow the drama of the hyperthermic people. I guess they were section hikers that came into the shelter the night before, wet...and they decided to push the next 6 miles to the next shelter instead of staying at that shelter where they had reservations. They obviously didn't make it to the next shelter. It took hours for the park rangers to get up there with the horses. One of the guys was in his 60s and over 300 pounds. Took forever to get him on the horse. Then they had to get a helicopter to take him out. The helicopter didn't get there till 630 at night. That guy is lucky. All freaking day it took for the rescue to get there. People just have no clue...no respect for the mountian. The shelter filled up fast and people had to tent . We were warm and cozy in the shelter. Much nicer with people we knew.