Date: 2013-02-04
From: Hogback Ridge Shelter

To: Bald Mountain Shelter
Miles today: 10.1
Weather: overcast clouds

Yesterday and the day before were brutal. My cheery, blue skied, sunny, fluffy snowed winter dream quickly shifted to an angry skied, foggy and freezing winter nightmare. Fog, hail, strong winds and thick, wet snow. I've been anticipating it; I knew those days would come. At higher altitudes I've been seeing 20 inches with drifts up to 30 inches.Saturday I got a very late start and was only able to hike a meager 5.9 miles to Flint Mountain Shelter. My distances are limited to the shelter placements now that I realize the limits of my tent. I've just been setting up my tent in the shelters with the entrances left open to avoid another broken zipper :-o. Right now it merely provides a little warmth, but I'm looking forward to real camping again once the temps rise above freezing. I enjoyed a nice fire, my first in a couple weeks. I took advantage of its heat and dried all my gear. Everything smells like smoke, but everything is dry I got an early start yesterday morning with the intention of hiking 18.9 miles. Ha, right. I hiked from 7:30am to 4:30pm and used every bit of strength I could muster. 8.8 miles. I've never before worked so hard for 8.8 miles. The white blazes for the last 30 miles or so are old and faded. They often blend in with the yellowy greenish moss on the trees. And they seem to be very sporadic. You may have 15 blazes one mile and 4 the next. Factor in several days of snow spattered against the sides of trees and dense fog and you have yesterday. Staying on the trail was a true test of mental stamina and patience. I lost the trail several times and had to retrace my steps while scanning the forest like a hawk for the faintest hint of a white blaze, sometimes 75 yards away.I'm not too proud to admit that the weather scared me yesterday. Around 1pm I found myself on the very peak of Lick Rock and hopelessly lost. The white blazes stopped, as did any and every hint of the trail. The wind was extremely strong - I'd guess 40mph gusts with a steady icy snow and heavy fog. It was well below freezing, probably 20 degrees. I was also almost out of water. A perfectly dangerous scenario. I spent an hour walking hundreds of yards on everything that resembled a trail, periodically turning around to see if I could find any SOBO white blazes. Nothing. Flustered and a little worried (I know, I know, worrying gets you nowhere), I returned to the last white blaze I could find. I then noticed a very crude shelter that some blessed person had thrown together against two trees. I took cover behind it just as it started to hail.I threw on my heavy layers and sat down behind my pack, trying to find refuge from the hideous weather, and I suddenly felt drained of all energy. My eyelids were so heavy I could have instantly fallen asleep, but instinct told me that my lack of energy was not sleep deprivation but lack of food and water. So I devoured 4 packs of peanut butter crackers and began eating snow to save the mere 4 oz. of water I had remaining. I sat there for about 20 minutes with my hands in my armpits praying and collecting my thoughts. I contemplated rigging up a makeshift bivy with my tarp and riding out the storm until the morning. I realized that these were the types of conditions that kill people. Just then the fog lifted a little so I decided to look for the trail one last time. If I didn't find it I decided I would make the best shelter I could and ride out the storm. Praise God that my eye landed on a fallen log with a section cut out of it down the hill to my left. Even though it was almost completely buried in a drift I could tell that this was likely part of the trail. I ran to it and then scanned every tree within eyesight. Sure enough, about 75 yards away was a very faint, very discolored white blaze. I ran to it to make sure it wasn't moss or dirty snow and let out a victorious whoop when it was in fact a white blaze. I ran back up the hill, grabbed my pack, cursed the mountain, thanked God, and continued my hike to make it to Hogback Ridge shelter before dark. Those were the longest 90 minutes of my life, and I'm very glad that mountain is behind me.TODAY, however, was lovely My long lost friend, the sun, decided to come out and play, and I don't think the temps ever fell below freezing. I had an easy downhill morning to Sam's Gap. I needed to get to the store for a small food resupply since my pace has been slowed so much by the weather. I'd been dreading the potential 6.6 mile round trip walk to and from the store, but thanks to perfect timing and the generosity of two very nice people and their handy automobiles, I was there and back in a quick 45 minutes. God is good!Today's hike, though physically straining, was beautiful. The sun was out all day and it never snowed. Speaking of sun, at one point I noticed a huge rainbow ring around the sun! Yes, a rainbow in a perfect circle around the sun. No, I'm not crazy. I tried to take a picture but I don't know if it turned out alright or not. The views from Big Bald were phenomenal. A 360 view of the snow covered mountains. And I saw a herd of deer Coming down from the bald I was delighted and a little jealous to see snowshoe and cross country ski tracks. I was happy to know that other people were out there enjoying the winter bliss. Tonight I'm at Bald Mountain Shelter, which is very clean and friendly feeling. I'll hike a reasonable 10.6 tomorrow to No Business Knob Shelter and then hit Erwin on Wednesday afternoon. Going to ship some more stuff home and do a gear exchange. Let's see if we can't get my base weight to 25 lbs...Thanks for reading my novel