Date: 2007-04-16
From: Vandeventer Shelter

To: Abingdon Gap Shelter
Miles today: 22.7
Weather: clear sky

This morning was rough, but then that was kinda expected after dealing with a blizzard blowing right into the shelter last night. Mr. Ed was shivering so badly all of us could hear his teeth chattering, and we were a bit worried for him. But he was, as always, the first one out of the shelter and on the trail, pumping the blood through his arteries and warming him up.It was a beautiful day - sunny, clear skies made hiking through snow drifts tolerable - it must have snowed at least 6 inches last night. Crazy. The weather report at Kincora had said snow flurries, not "snow blizzard." Oh well. Such is life on the trail.I didn't even bother folding everything up - I just shoved it in my pack - somehow it all worked out, and by 9:15 Widowmaker and I were on the trail. It was rough - hiking in the snow sucks. Knee-high drifts hid the trail pretty well, but luckily we were able to just follow Mr. Ed's footprints and after a few hours of continuous, steady hiking, we made it to the Iron Mountain Shelter 6.8 miles away. One thing in our favor was the actual terrain itself - it was very easy, if there hadn't been any bad weather in the last few days, Widowmaker and I would have flown through those 50 miles in 2 days easily.After lunching at Iron Mountain, we headed toward the next shelter, Double Springs, 8 miles along. Easy peasy Japanesy - though yeah, shitload of snow melting and plopping on our and a lot of wind, especially at this exposed field. Anyway, we all ate our typical hiker concoctions, engaged in our typical hiker talk that was full of "earthy language," as WingFoot so eloquently put in his book, and everyone began to settle down for the night.Not me. It was still 18 miles to Damascus and I really didn't feel like hiking that tomorrow. The Abingdon Shelter was 8 miles away, so I said "see ya later" to everyone and huffed it to the next shelter.I left Double Springs at about 10 past 6 o' clock. If I'm lucky, I'll get to Abingdon Gap before 10:00 pm.Night hiking is a unique experience - I enjoy doing it, but I prefer to do it with other hikers. Hiking alone at night in the snow drifts is dangerous business, and there were a few instances when I thought I had lost the trail, but this just proved to be the work of lazy trail maintenance, for after 2-3 minutes I'd spot a white blaze and I'd be filled with a renewed spirit.I strolled into camp at 9:30. One other hiker was in a sleeping bag, so there was plenty of room in the shelter, which looked like it had a new floor."Is that a hiker?" the person in the sleeping bag asked."Yeah, it's Katter-Pilllar," I replied."Oh, hi Katter-Pilllar! It's Wirenut."Awesome. While I set up my pad and bag, he and I talked for a long while. He told me how he survived that snow storm after Kincora - he and another hiker, Otto, managed to snag a ride into town and sleep in a warm house for free - while me and Widowmaker and Stoneage and Clay and Mr. Ed froze. Oh well, but good for him.Wirenut is a really cool guy, and we ended up talking for over an hour before we fell asleep. I heard the shelter mice moving about a bit, but nothing too serious. A hiker named Duckwalk (a.k.a. Dammit Man) had written a few days earlier in the registry how he had awoken to a mouse nibbling on his hair, so I bundled myself well into my sleeping bag and had no problems.Oh, and before I forget! I gave someone a trail name to-day. Last night poor Clay had the shits real bad, and he had to get up and go out in the freezing cold, knee-high snow and do his business 3 times. I suggested his name be Triple Deuce, and after some consideration, he decided to make it official. Sweet. I gotta admit, it's a good trail name. Better than mine, certainly.