Date: 2004-12-20
From: Pass Mountain Hut, Shenandoah National Park, Va.

To: Gravel Springs Hut, Shenandoah National Park, Va.
Miles today: 13.1
Weather: clear sky

13.1 miles todayGravel Springs HutShenandoah National Park, Va.Once again, I'm writing the last three days from memory because it was too cold to have my fingers exposed to type.It's chilly!! It's in the lower single digits as far as I can tell. My thermometer is attached to my backpack and I use my backpack under my legs to sleep on because I only carry a 3/4 Z-Rest for my sleeping pad. Even with the thermometer partly under my sleeping bag, it still read 8 degrees. I forget what time I got up and put my coffee on, but all three of us watched the beautiful sunrise this morning. We looked like three cacoons sitting up in our sleeping bags holding onto our hot drinks to help keep our hands warm. Grassy Ridge got done eating and she packed up before Hippie and I did. She took off at 10:30am and I rolled over in my sleeping bag and almost fell asleep again. If it wasn't for Grassy Ridge out there walking, I think I just might have taken longer, but we decided we better get moving so we could catch up to her. Hippie and I finally got our lazy butts up and started walking at noon. I did eat lunch before we left. Hippie brought some Purdue chicken and made me a wrap with fresh spinach, chicken, Ranch Dressing and something else that I can't think of right now. They were delicious!! It had been very windy overnight and this morning, but the winds were starting to show signs of dying down. It was still only 10 degrees out though. We hiked on and only stopped to take pictures once in a while. We caught up to Grassy Ridge about 3pm and walked the rest of the way fairly close to each other. I did get ahead of both of them for a while and I walked backwards for about 2/10ths of a mile just to see what they would say when they saw my footprints in the virgin snow going the wrong way. They took all the fun out of it. Hippie said that she had her face all wrapped up and only had a sliver of an opening for her eyes to see where she was going. She didn't even notice my tracks were backwards. How am I supposed to have fun when they won't play?? It was getting colder again because the wind picked up where we were at. I checked out my thermometer when my thumbs started going numb...it was 10 degrees at 4pm. It had gotten all the way up to 15 degrees today, but didn't feel that cold when the wind wasn't blowing. We still had another 2 miles to go to the shelter, so I picked up my pace to warm up a little. I got there and unloaded my backpack. When I was done with that, they both showed up and were pretty cold. I took their water bottles and told them I would go to the spring and get water, all they had to do was crawl into their sleeping bags. When I got back, they asked if I was ok because it took me so long. They didn't come check on me!!   I said that I was. I was just thawing out the drinking water that they still had in them that was frozen solid. Hippie made another fantastic meal. She hands me stuff that she wants me to cook or steam and she cooks some of the stuff herself. By the time it's all cooked, she mixes it all together and I have a really good dinner waiting on me!! Life is good!! Another great day on the A.T.