Date: 2008-04-16
From: Newfound Gap

To: Pecks Corner Shelter, NC
Miles today: 7.4
Weather: clear sky

I started this morning by listening to a worried voice mail from my mom and then calling her to assure here that I wasn't going into 5" of snow with big holes in my boots and that I wasn't actually carrying 84 pounds of food in my pack.Crabby and I came back from a quick breakfast and asked the receptionist how she was doing. She said, "Gittin' 'er done." Sweet.I called yesterday to arrange a ride to Newfound Gap for the three of us. The shuttle from A Walk in the Woods picked us up around 8:45 and dropped us at Newfound Gap a half hour later. The driver gave us a pretty informative narration during the ride to the gap.The three mile hike to Icewater Spring Shelter was very different this time. The 5" of snow and ice made it a little tricky, but once I put my YakTrax on I was good to go.Here's where things got interesting today...I stopped at Icewater Spring to get water. Crabby caught up to me after a few minutes. I was waiting for my water to finish filtering, so he moved on and I said I'd wait for New Song to make sure she was with us. After ~20 minutes, I started to get a little worried that maybe she had slipped on ice or something, so I left my pack and backtracked to find her. I passed a few different groups of people headed up the AT and asked about her, but no one had seen her. The AT had taken a 90 degree right turn before the shelter, and continuing straight instead of turning right would lead you to a shelter and then to Le Conte, where there are cabins and a lodge. I immediately knew what had happened when I reached the intersection.New Song is notorious for going the wrong way...coming out of the elevator in a hotel, leaving a restaurant, or on the AT...she goes the wrong way almost every time. So since no one coming up the AT had seen her, I was pretty sure she had taken the Boulevard Trail toward Le Conte.I started down that trail, shouting her name as I walked. It's a less traveled trail, so there was still a lot of snow and my feet started getting wet. I probably walked 2 miles following her footprints and screaming her name as loud as I could. No sign of her. I started thinking about how I didn't have food, water, warm clothes, shelter, or a cell phone with me since I had left my pack back at the spring...kind of stupid to be down a side trail without all those things. I finally turned around reluctantly. After a while, I saw 4 people headed down the trail and planning to go all the way to Le Conte. They said they'd watch for her and give her some guidance when they saw her. I'm not too worried about her because there's a shelter on the trail and the 4 people I saw were going to watch out for her, but I really hope she's okay. I put a bunch of this story in the shelter register, so hopefully she'll reach this shelter tomorrow and see that we've moved on. I really didn't want to turn back when I was looking for her, but I felt better about it after talking to the people who were headed her way on the trail.The AT got pretty messy today. Once it warmed up, the snow started melting and the trail turned into puddles of mud and slush. The incredible views made up for it, though. I ate lunch at Charlie's Bunion...what an awesome place.It's a little chilly tonight, but apparently a lot warmer than it's been at the shelters the past 2 nights. We heard some pretty rough stories today from people who stayed in the mountains during the snow. Pretty much everyone said they would have gone into town if they had been given a choice. We were fortunate to have the choice. I heard it got down to 5 degrees at night. Crazy. I guess it makes me feel better about spending (wasting) 3 nights in Gatlinburg.After my search for New Song, there was only time to get to Pecks Corner Shelter tonight.I had a Zagnut today. I had forgotten how good they are. Do yourself a favor and go get one. Seriously, go.I tried to call Tara, but we're down in a sort of deep valley and there's no cell signal. The plan for tomorrow is to go 12.9 miles (plus .5 miles to get back to the AT from the shelter) to Cosby Knob Shelter, leaving us with 10 miles to get out of the Smokies (finally!) and to the Standing Bear Hostel on Friday, when it's supposed to rain and maybe thunderstorm. After that, it's 3 days to Hot Springs. Thanks to some phone calls from the Happy Hiker in Gatlinburg, the outfitter in Hot Springs has ordered a new pair of boots for me and will be sending mine back to Montrail under warranty.That cat still haunts my Trail Journals guestbook and laughs at my every misfortune.