Date: 2004-04-04
From: Iron Mountain Shelter, TN

To: Day 29: US 421 at Low Gap, TN
Miles today: 11.1

As usual I began AT Day 29 at 4:30 a.m., but with the wet sleeping bag and the ¢for me¢ extreme cold, I didn¢t hit the trail until after 7:00 a.m.; nonetheless none of my through hiker buddies were anywhere near ready to leave, so I got the pleasure and challenge of being a trail finder in the heavy snow. Thus for the first three hours or so, I was hiking through unspoiled snow at least eight inches deep with the drifts much deeper and again I had to deal with the nasty challenge of snow-laden Rhododendrons blocking the trail. The latter was actually rather amusing since the first person I encountered on this day was at one of these impasses. The SOBO hiker named Walks Alone, who was using the snow to train for his soon-to-start through hike of the Pacific Crest Trail. After knocking off as much snow as we could I plowed through the bushes and remarked that as tough as this was, it was nothing compared to what he was going to face when he attempts to traverse the 13,000 foot plus Forester Pass in the Sierra¢s. I also told him that I hoped to through hike the PCT next year, so in a sense all of the snow practice I was getting on the this year¢s AT hike would be put to good use.Moving faster now because I could follow and step in Walks Alone¢s footprints I soon passed three high school-aged boys who, to me, looked quite apprehensive standing there on the snow-clogged trail. They said they were fine, so I pushed on, never to see them again. Soon after passing these boys, I was in turn passed by the AT through hikers Walk On and Waterfall who were really moving since they were slackpacking this section. They told me that they were in a rush because they were going to try to make it all the way to Damascus, VA. I told them that that was too far for me with my still-injured leg, besides it would have been a 26-mile day! To be honest, I was really looking forward to dropping out of the snow zone and hiking on solid, if not muddy or at least slushy ground. The slush was in fact a real problem since my feet were soon soaked and getting cold ¢ so much for the miracle fabric Gore-Tex used in the manufacture of my often-submerged boots.When I did finally reached the downhill, I was pleased to discover that I could once again move along fairly fast because the snow softened the downhill pounding. Better yet, when I got to US 421 at Low Gap, I got a real, and to be honest, very welcomed surprise. There in the small parking lot where the AT crosses this highway, was my wife, Hot Chocolate, asleep in our rental car (our truck was still being repaired). I told her that my plan had been to try to make Damascus before noon tomorrow, but the possibility of getting off the trail a day early to take a hot shower and change into dry clothes, and dry out my gear, was a temptation that I simply couldn¢t pass up. Besides, after briefly listening to all of the hassles my wife had been through since my cryptic phone call from the Watauga Lake picnic grounds, I knew that her patience and good humor could only take so much and that I had better reward her with being reasonable for once in my life. So even though it was just past noon and I had gone just 11.1 miles, off we went to visit Damascus have a great lunch and look forward to at least one day off to let my knee recover ¢ and hopefully the weather would improve as well. All in all, a pleasant ending to a rather stressful, but nonetheless exciting week on the AT.