Date: 2010-12-05
To: View Entry
Miles today: 70.0

¢Never give in, never give in, never; never; never; never - in nothing, great or small, large or petty - never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense¢               Winston ChurchillWell I made it through the Smokies. Yep, gave them things a big ol' kick in the rear end. That was a lie. I barely made it through the Smokies and I am still pinching myself to see if I'm really alive. We left from Standing Bear hostel around 8 to start our accent up the mountain. by 8:30 we were hiking in a terrential downpour which continued all the way up the mountain. This turned the trail into a river, which is nice because I was hoping for a nice little aqua blaze up a 6000 foot mountain. We layed up at about 13 miles instead of the original 18 we had planned on because the weather. Also, the winter is in full affect at 6000 feet. Boy is it ever. In the Smokie mountains right now.....its the freakin north pole.That night we fell asleep to a crisp cold in mostly wet gear. If there is one thing worse than getting out of your sleeping bag on a cold morning, it is putting on cold wet clothes.We woke up to pleasant surprise. SNOW! Oh how delightful and fitting since it was the first day of December. Christmasy if you will. Well after about 12 steps up the mountain it lost its Christmasy appeal and I cursed it to hell. It made for a slippery cold 20 miles that day. Lucky for us the worst was still to come. That night at over 6000 feet of elevation we slept in temperatures in the low teens with wind gusts over 50mph. Luckily the shelters in the smokies have tarps covering them to minimize some wind chill. The next day it was just cold. I don't know what the temps were but my nose seriously considered falling off my face. Now remember all the rain and snow? Yeah, well it turned to solid ice. I don't mean icy spots, I mean a solid sheet of ice over miles and miles of ridgeline trail with no way around us. So you wanna know what I did? I ice skated. Its all I could do really. I fell an awful lot and I'm sure my butt and hips wont be forgiving me any time soon.Most of the boys were pushing some ridiculous amount of miles wanting to get out of the smokies to meet Addisons friend yesterday. Geo is the slowest of us, and he wasn't willing to push big miles and hike hours in the dark over ice. He even considered getting off at one of the visitors centers and going to Gatlinburg to regroup. I convinced him to stay on, and that we would hike together for now on. I opted to stay with Geo. Nobody should hike through the Smokies alone in these conditions. In the Army we live by the code "Leave no man behind". We would rather risk the lives of a whole platoon to recover a fallen comrade than let him fall into the hands of the enemy. Well I wasn't leaving Geo behind. If I found out next week that he broke a leg in the Smokies and died of hypothermia, what wouldnt I give to go back a week and stick with him? Anyway, we took an extra day even though it might mean losing the rest of the boys for the rest of the hike. As it turns out they took a day off down here in Fontana Dam anyway.The Smokies themselves? Breath taking is all I can say. Mostly reasonable trail that could be traversed by someone in reasonable descent shape with rewarding views you just wouldnt believe. Unfortunately the cold killed my camera battery so I may have trouble believing it in the future as well. I will however be hiking the Smokies again....in the middle of summer of course.I'm in Fontana Dam village. This is the nicest place i've been on the trail, and they have a very reasonable hiker rate which geo and I split. It's a little resort town that offers cabins, a main lodge and all sorts of entertainment. I'm in the lobby of the lodge which is decorated for Christmas and boasts a huge fireplace. It smells like Christmas, looks like Christmas, and they even have subtle Christmas music playing overhead. It is quaint and homey, and a perfect place to crash after the last several nights. We enjoyed a couple of pricey meals at the bistro and will be heading out tomorrow.We are watching a winter storm closely that is supposed to dump some snow tonight. They are expecting 4-5 inches down here, but the guy here told us that could mean a foot when we climb back to elevation tomorrow. I don't think any of us ever considered that an early winter storm could stop our thru-hikes dead their tracks. We are just gonna pray that doesn't happen. That can't happen....we are sooooo close!! I mean 8 or 9 days close, and quicker if we wanted to abuse ourselves a bit.Anyway, happy to be out of the rain for the night and keeping warm in the mountains with thoughts of home and the holiday to come.I'm counting on my feet....don't fail me now. I said feet don't fail me now.