Date: 2007-12-17
From: Hawk Mtn. Shelter

To: Home
Miles today: 7.6
Weather: overcast clouds

Last night was the second coldest night I have had on the trail. My efforts to stay warm helped to keep me warm all through the night, however; I didn't sleep very much. As I laid there you could just feel the cold air trying to make its way underneath my quilt. The boiling water did cool off by 2 in the morning and from then on was just in the fleece bag with me so that it would not freeze. My platypus sprung a leak last somewhere last night so it is now frozen solid as I could not sleep with it in my bag. I did forget my chocolate bars in my food bag before going to sleep and didn't feel like walking out side and taking my food bag out of the trees to get to the bars. Having some chocolate once you start cooling down gives your body more fuel to burn. It turned out to be fine that I didn't eat them at night as my breakfast bars were frozen this morning. After packing I had my chocolate and started walking to warm up. I was moving at a fast pace and was able to slow down a little later as I got my blood flowing. My beard froze once again and the wind in some parts just went right through you.After an hour and a half I took my first break and went to visit a waterfall. It was nice seeing a large amount of water flowing down over rocks. In an area that has suffered such drought I didn't know if I should expect water or not. While stopped I was finaly able to eat my breakfast bar, which I had thawing out in my jacket pocket. The thermometer on my compass read 12 degrees. All the Rhododendron leaves were also completely closed meaning it was 25degrees or less. Only those in the sun had started to uncurl. Next thing I know I was rounding a turn and a Forest Road was coming into view. This was the point in which my parents would be meeting me. Farsang and His dad were also coming up to visit. After hello's I had some snacks and made up some hot coco in the parking lot. We got a hold of Farsang and they decided they would meet us at the State Park so my parents and I took off to the summit of Springer Mountain, the last 0.9mi.Those 0.9 mile were some of teh easiest I can recall recently. The trail was in the sun which helped out a lot in staying warm. It was a beautiful day with veiws to the west being unobstructed. After signing the register and getting some finishing pictures we eventually started making our way back down. We saw no other SOBO's coming up or on the top. The car ride to the State Park seemed to take forever. Once there I had a great reunion with Farsang whom I became great friends with and hike about 500+ miles with before hurting my knee. His dad was also there who I had met while coming down Katahdin the day we started. Best of all he came with gifts of Powdered Doughnuts!!! The whole bag would be gone before I got home. After introducing the parents and taking pictures I headed inside to sign the register in the State Park Office. I signed as number 28. Now the only thing left to do was to eat! We all headed over to a nearby town where a Ryans Steakhouse was located. Two hours later we were content with the amount we had eaten. It was great having Farsang come back down. We talked about some great times on the trail and caught up on what happened while we hiked alone. I'm look forward to getting out and hiking again with him in the future. My parents and I now had a 6 hour drive ahead of us.-Snack Time