Date: 2016-11-21
To: Newport Road
Miles today: 12.0

My thermometer said 17 degrees. During the night I dreamt about getting up and fixing a hot cocoa and having my hot supper that I missed last night. Black beans and rice makes for a strange breakfast, but it would warm me up inside. When the reality of the morning hit, I knew it was too cold to sit around eating a meal. And my water was frozen solid, making it useless for cooking¢¦or drinking. As I packed up, the cold numbed my toes and fingers. I grabbed a protein bar and an apple out of my food bag and hit the trail. The apple provided me with my only water until I came to a stream. It was very crispy because it was semi-frozen. As I hiked, my toes thawed out and soon I needed to stop to take off some layers because I was too warm. Following the trail became a major challenge because it was often buried under 1 or 2 feet of leaves. Sometimes on the trail I hike for a quarter mile or more without seeing a white blaze, but in this section the blazes seemed to be about 30 yards apart. I appreciated there frequency because it was often the only way to see where the trail headed. I spent a good part of the day wandering in the woods heading from one white blaze to another not knowing if I was actually walking on the trail or not. When hiking the trail you send a good part of your time and attention looking down to watch for rocks and roots. With the trail under a pile of leaves, all of those rocks and roots were hidden from sight. I shuffled through the leaves feeling for obstructions with my feet. Whenever I headed downhill, slipping on the leaves was became an issue. I fell several times. The one consolation was that when I fell, the piles of leaves made for a soft landing. Soon after stopping for a food break, I turned to follow what I thought was the trail, but was actually a small dry creek bed.   I shuffled through the leaves and found a cold pool of water under the leaves. I first noticed it when I felt the cold water coming into my shoe. I knew I needed to do something soon or I was in danger of frostbite. I stopped and took off my wet shoe and sock. The warmth quickly left my toes. I dug a dry sock out of my pack, but my shoe was also wet. I usually carry old, light weight running shoes to use as ¢camp shoes.¢ I had thought about not varying them this time because I knew with the short days I wasn't going to spend a lot of time hanging around camp. As it turned out, the extra shoes were a life saver. I put on a dry sock and a dry shoe. My shoes didn't match, but my feet were dry, so I strapped the wet shoe to my pack, put the wet sock in a side pocket of my pack, and hiked on. Later I pulled it out of the pocket, and the wet sock was frozen solid. I was very glad it was no longer on my foot.The high point of the day in altitude and scenery was the dragon¢s tooth. It provided great views from a rocky precipice. It must be a popular day hike destination. Prior to reaching the Dragon¢s Tooth I met enough hikers to count on one hand over the last two days. Coming down from the Dragon¢s Tooth there were many hikers in small groups and not-so-small groups heading up and down the mountain. The trail was as challenging as any part I had been on the AT. Some of it required climbing along a rock ledge using hands and feet. Some parts had steel rods driven into the rocks to provide steps for climbing up or down the rocks. I was about twenty-four miles along the trail from my car ¢ two days of hiking. Between the cold, my pain from the plantar fasciitis,, and needing to get back to Indiana, I made the decision to look for a ride back to my car and head back to Indiana. I would save the next 24 miles, including McAfee Knob for another day, hopefully a warmer day. On the way down from the Dragon¢s tooth I hiked with a retired Presbyterian minister from Lynchburg, VA. We had a great conversation and when we got to the parking lot, he and his wife offered to give me a ride back to my car. It turned out to be only nine miles by road and was on their way back to Lynchburg. So what would have taken me two days by the trail, took us about 15 minutes by car. Another AT adventure had come to an end. It was the first time my hiking focused on survival. I wouldn't say it was a ¢fun¢ hike, but it was exhilarating. I think the cold by itself wouldn't have been bad, but temperatures in the teens with 30 or more mile per hour winds definitely turned a hike in the woods into a lesson on survival. Would I do it again? You bet! I might bring some warmer socks for sleeping in, and I might think about Gortex hiking shoes, but, while my wet sock stayed frozen, my light-weight, non-Gortex shoes dried out.People often ask me if I hike alone when I do a section hike of the AT. I am never quite sure how to answer. Yes, I hike alone, but I could never do it on my own. I usually get a ride to or from the trail. I get encouragement and other kinds of hep from other hikers. This time I got a ride back to my car from people I had never met, and it saved me two days of hiking. I have had to hitchhike into a town on several occasions, and while we are always warned not to pick up hitchhikers, someone always ignores those safety warnings and picks me up. Also, in terms of support, I wouldn¢t be hiking the AT at all without the support of my wife, who lets us plan vacations around getting to and from the AT. So I think my answer to the question, ¢Do you hike alone?¢ is ¢I hike solo with lots of supports from my family, from my old friends, and from new friends.¢ In fact, that is just another way gat hiking the AT is like life away from the trail. Most worthwhile things that we accomplish in life require a lot of hard work on out part, but we still couldn't accomplish it without the help of those who went before us and those who walk along side of us offering help and encouragement.