Date: 2013-03-25
From: Muskrat Creek Shelter

To: Deep Gap, NC
Miles today: 4.0
Weather: overcast clouds

Good evening dear readers, My tale left off in my first shelter stay, recovering from being cold and wet the day before, but hoping to be refreshed for the next day. I slept pretty well, though put off going to the privy until absolutely necessary due to the sleet! I was somewhat aware of the dropping temps, but in that half asleep way....otherwise I would have pulled my water in my bag with me. Morning dawned....and SNOW was blanketing the entire area, including our bags in the shelter. People's tents were frozen from the rain the day before, and it was so cold! Someone said it was 12 degrees - we were at 4500 feet. I started thinking of ways out, well aware my tent was frozen in my pack - everything was frozen, our food, most of the water, our shoes, just amazing. Everyone quickly agreed to stick together and hike the 4 miles out to Deep Gap, which has a FS road and parking lot, which made us hope we could get a shuttle out even though none of us had a signal there at the shelter. Starchild got his jetboil going with my full canister, and we managed to boil some hot water. When he offered me coffee, I immediately said "yes please!" even though I haven't even tried coffee in at least 5 years. It was great, it was warm. No, I'm not converting, I'm still a tea drinker under normal circumstances! Some of huddled together for warmth while waiting for the rest to pack up, our penguin huddle! Hiking out, I was worried I was too slow on the uphills for everyone else but a great group stayed with me and reassured me. I was thrilled I got to wear my microspikes, finally they weren't a 1 pound weight in my pack!! A silver lining to everything, right? It was almost too slushy for them, but i feel totally justified carrying them now . The hike out wasn't too hard, despite some tricky switchbacks and not being able to see the rocks under the snow. We were making contingency plans since we got news from at least one source that they couldn't shuttle us that day. At the Gap those of us with signal tried calling whomever we could trying to get rides for the 12 of us. I reached Dave at the Henson Cove B&B in Hiawassee who said he could take out 4 of us. Mat who had come to get his friend Heather and her dog, took some in the back of his pickup (eek, chilly!) and a cab took he rest. We were road walking on the FS to stay warm, and good thing we did because Dave couldn't go up with all of us in the car, he actually had to drive backwards for a while until he could turn around. A few harrowing moments on that twisty turns with a ditch on one side and a drop off on the other! Everyone else wanted to go to Franklin NC, not wanting to go backwards I suppose, but my mentality was slightly different, I only want to stay in Franklin when I get there (or the nearest gap access!) on my own two feet! Dave was nice enough to take the guys to their meetup place, and then me back to the B&B to thaw out, clean up, and sigh in happiness in the warm shower and then warm robe! I know I made the right decision, if only because it allowed me to have dinner with Bunny, a fellow WWBer! We hadn't been able to connect previously, but had a great meal at one of the local Mexican places with wonderful conversation.Whew!   So, considering we had to bail from the mountain I had a good day - in particular, getting to know Starchild on the walk out (hope to catch up to you guys at some point!) and meeting Bunny.