Date: 2004-04-01
From: US 19E at Elk Park, NC

To: Day 26: near Moreland Gap Shelter, TN
Miles today: 13.6
Weather: light snow

The drive from our Roan Mountain State Park campsite to the AT trailhead at Elk Park on US 19E only took a few minutes, but I still didn¢t get going on AT Day 26 until about 8:20 a.m. in very cool, misty weather. The ice on the trees in the near-by hills was an ominous warning of what was to come. Within the first mile, the AT gained altitude steadily and the scenery turned to snow and ice. It was often hard to see the scenery, let alone find the trail or see the white blazes because of the poor visibility. I was pleased that the local deer clearly knew where the trail was even if I didn¢t since I often found myself looking for and following the deer (and lots of other animal) tracks when I couldn¢t find the trail. Within an hour or so it started to drizzle and soon it started to snow and snow and snow.Even though the trail wasn¢t all that tough, the snow and poor visibility made the going surprising slow. I re-evaluated my now clearly unrealistic distance goals and decided to go for the shelter at Moreland Gap, but by around 5:30 p.m., it started to get dark and in the heavy snow (both on the ground and coming down), I decided to stop at 13.6 miles and set up my new REI Quarter Dome three season tent as quickly as I could before hypothermia (and panic) set in. This was a first for me. I never realized how tough it was to work quickly wearing Gore-Tex mittens (to keep my hands and gloves from getting wetter than they already were), all the time vainly trying to keep the snow out of the tent before it was fully sealed-up. As soon as I got the tent secure, I threw everything from my pack in the tent, covered my pack with its waterproof cover and then dived into the tent myself. In the tent, I then went about my usual set-up with my 15-?? degree ¢convertible¢ down sleeping bag and air sleeping pad, after which I quickly got out of my wet Gore-Tex pants, put on thermal underwear pants and got into the sleeping bag to start warming my legs and drying my wet socks. I then removed my wet shirt and put on a thermal undershirt and my soft shell jacket.Now that I was convinced I wouldn¢t go into hypothermia shock, I went about making my dinner while sitting in the sleeping bag. When I went to put the white gas stove just outside the vestibule, I discovered that my tent was getting buried in snow. So I decided to shake the sides of the tent to remove the snow before it began to sag and possibly collapse (in retrospect probably an unrealistic concern), then I discovered I was creating snow showers in the tent! This naive mistake prompted me to retrieve a small towel to wipe up the snow before it melted making the insides of the tent a wet mess. Cooking dinner on the snow was interesting since the stove slowly sank as the snow melted. After making dinner, I ate it in my sleeping bag, and I was confident that everything was going to be fine.Every once in while during the long night I shook the sides of the tent, each time making sure the vestibule doors were closed so it wouldn¢t rain snow in the tent. What I didn¢t understand was that these snow removals were slowly entombing the tent, cutting off all air circulation. Luckily I had a roof vent open so I didn¢t suffocate, but I forgot about the problem of water condensation on the insides of the tent and on my sleeping bag and everything else. In the morning I had quite a clean-up job before I made breakfast from my sleeping bag just like I made dinner the night before. Then came the challenge of packing everything up without getting more snow inside my pack, inside the tent, etc. All in all for this Florida retiree, I sure found that snow camping can be an ¢interesting¢ learning experience.