Date: 2016-04-10
From: Devil Fork Gap

To: Allen Gap
Miles today: 20.4
Weather: overcast clouds

I¢ve been working hard to get a couple paragraphs down every day early enough so that I can still get a good night¢s sleep. As I think about it, one of the drawbacks of slack-packing the way we do is that it¢s harder to find time to get the TJ writing done. When we were backpacking and stayed in shelters or tented every night, I had more time. Especially early in the year when it got dark around 6:30 and it was too cold to sit outside for very long. Now, when we finish hiking, we have a shuttle ride (or take our car) to wherever we¢re staying, shower, do the laundry, get something to eat, and frequently we spend some time talking to our hosts. So now, it¢s 10:30, I¢m just starting to write and I need to be in bed so that I¢m ready to get up at 5:00 or 6:00 in the morning.What about today¢s hike? It was long for us, we did 20.4 miles and we kept a pretty good pace. That¢s the longest so far this year and we¢re both pretty beat. Our biggest concern this morning was the cold. The temp really took a nosedive last night and dropped into the 20s in some places around us. The apple orchards were in jeopardy and I haven¢t heard how much damage they sustained. In Hot Springs it was expected to hit freezing or below, although it was still around 35 to 37 when we woke up at 5. The wind was very low and not a factor. So we put on a lot of layers. Our shuttle driver, Dan, led us to Allen Gap where we parked our car and then he took us to Devil Fork Gap where we started to hike SoBo back to our car. Fortunately, we had a 5 to 7 mile uphill climb at the start, so we really warmed up quickly. Then my problem was thermal control, since I was already sweating underneath, so I had to peel off layers carefully so that I didn¢t get chilled from the damp layers. It¢s a long story, but it all worked out.As we climbed we went through areas where it was above freezing, then followed by a much colder area. As we neared the top of Big Butt Mountain, there was some residual snow cover from yesterday¢s storms. It was mostly in the shadows and we didn¢t see much more after we passed that peak. We passed through a couple of balds/meadows and I took a number of pictures since one in particular was quite striking. Later in the hike we crossed over Firescald, an exposed ridge line that is very rocky. In some places the ridge line is very narrow and totally exposed on both sides. I can only imagine what it must have been like yesterday when the winds were 25+ mph sustained and gusting to 40 or more. There is actually a ¢bad weather¢ trail that passes below and around the ridge because it is so dangerous in bad weather. But when we hiked it later today, it was quite nice and climbing through the 50¢s into the 60¢s. The sky was clear and we had great visibility for miles and miles. I tried to capture how daunting some of the rocks are in photos, but my pics don¢t do them justice. Also, after doing Mew Hampshire and Maine, the rocks don¢t seem to be so difficult.Most of the hike was either through open forest trails, or through dense rhododendron groves. In the beginning, the rhodos felt great because they tended to hold some warmth and blocked any wind that showed up. Later in the day they felt great because they blocked the sun and were refreshingly cool. Overall, the hike was mostly very long uphill climbs or downhill descents. We packed our gear this morning and said goodbye to Hot Springs as we headed out to our hike. After we finished, we drove from Allen Gap to Erwin, TN where we¢ll stay for the next 4 days. We have come back to the Cantarrosa Farm where we stayed last year for the first time. Cantarrossa is one of our favorite places and I¢ll say more about it tomorrow. Peggy and Mike are terrific hosts and we absolutely love staying here. So I¢m going to quit now. The extreme cold weather seems to be behind us now and the only problem on the horizon now is rain on Tuesday. Usually not fun, but more manageable.