Date: 2013-05-08
From: Icewater Shelter

To: Tricorner Knob Shelter
Miles today: 12.6
Weather: moderate rain

Day 10: Icewater Spring Shelter to Tricorner Knob¢The advantage of a bad memory is that one enjoys several times the same good things for the first time.¢ (F. Nietzsche)"You can see a lot by just looking." (Yogi Berra) ¢Only those who take leisurely what the people of the world are busy about can be busy about what the people of the world take leisurely. There is nothing that a man enjoys more than leisure, and this does not mean that one simply does nothing during that time. Leisure enables one to read, to travel to famous places, to form beneficial friendships, to drink wine and to write books. What greater pleasures can there be in the world than these?¢ (Lin Yutang) It started raining again. I woke up and found that the shelter was not full at all as the Park Ranger had warned us yesterday, in fact I was quite chilly from the lack of body heat associated with a well-packed-in shelter. Here at the shelter, in addition to the folks I already knew, were some new faces: Smokebreak, Big Foot, Crispin, Stops-a-lot, and I think Corey. Interestingly, even in a small group of hikers, packed in to a small shelter, I don¢t always meet everyone (or remember their names). I suppose the ¢forgetting¢ thing might just be another manifestation of AT Alzheimer¢s, a disease that strikes hikers in significant numbers. I discovered this disease years ago on a section hike when I started to notice that I would study a map or read about a trail section that I was about to hike and then promptly (within say 15 minutes) forget everything that I saw. It didn¢t matter how many times I reviewed the material either it just didn¢t stick. At first I thought this was just me (hell I am getting older) but over the years I¢ve listened to other hikers (younger than me) share an exasperation over the phenomenon. In addition to map forgetfulness, you have weather forgetfulness too- though this just may be a coping mechanism; in this case you either completely forget the crappy weather that you had just a day or two ago OR that weather seems like something that happened in the long-distant past. I don¢t believe there is a cure for this disease but fortunately it doesn¢t seem to be deadly or communicable. Day 10- Trees & the Trail I slept well- about 10 hours but waking to the sound of rain on the roof and hitting the ground outside made me unhappy, another day of soggy clothes. I tried to delay our departure by having a leisurely breakfast, some hot coffee, and then screwing around; but by 9:15 we set out with the hope that things would clear. While the weather didn¢t ¢clear¢ completely, the rain stopped for a number of hours and we had nominal wind. Once in a while we¢d be walking along a ridge and lured into optimism. It looked as if the sun would burn through but then it would give up surrendering back into overwhelming fog. We spent most of the day above 5,500¢ and the higher we were, the more intense the fog was. It became a joke: ¢What a great view¢; ¢Wow, the Smokys are just beautiful¢; ¢Wait I need a picture of this¢. To think about it another way though, the fog focused our view on the close-in beauty of the woods: the mossy forest floor around us, unique rock formations, and the beauty of un-leafed trees silhouetted against the fog-white backdrop. The trail often re-teaches lessons that I¢ve learned and then forgotten. This weather teaches me that I don¢t always have to be looking so far out or ahead; it is important to fully appreciate what is near too, be fully present in your immediate surroundings. How frequently, even now in my 40s, I look ¢ahead¢ to some destination or objective and forget about the joy and beauty associated with the journey. I suppose the trick will always remain ¢balance¢- without the destination, any road will get you there, but there¢s no need to focus on the destination so much you miss how you arrived there.It seemed to be another slow day for us but slow days allow for interesting conversation topics. Today we discussed favorite music, our jobs, consulting, relationships (good and bad) and love. I¢m always amazed by how open nearly complete strangers are with one another on the AT but perhaps the miles traveled forges a kind of intense familiarity that makes it easy to chat about almost anything. Perhaps it is that the trail attracts the kind of people who like to talk openly. Maybe it is as Coach (a therapist) said a few nights ago, ¢Some people I only see one time, they just want to tell their secrets and then I don¢t hear from them again¢. Whatever the reason, I¢ve had the pleasure of taking part in very enlightening conversations with people from a variety of walks of life and with expansive experiences. Many of these conversations leave me with something to think about which is good exercise for the mind and soul. This too, is a gift of the trail that I cherish. There are a few friendships in my life that were born on the trail, some over as little as a shared shelter years ago and those remain very dear to me today. We stopped for lunch at Pecks Corner Shelter turn-off. Neither Rider nor I wanted to walk the .5 mile down to the shelter so we ate right on the trail (FYI, hikers are sometimes the laziest people when it comes to walking ¢additional miles¢ off trail). While eating my peanut butter crackers, a number of people came up from the shelter and then Crispin showed up having been only slightly behind us for the last 2 miles. We sat, talked, ate and got up to move again as the rain started for the umpteenth time today, not a heavy rain but annoying nonetheless. The afternoon hike was more of the same with ridgelines, fog and varying degrees of muddiness. From Pecks Corner at ~5,300¢, we climbed 600¢ then dropped ~400; climbed another 500¢ to Mount Sequoyah, dropped 200¢, climbed 400¢ and dropped 300¢ for a final approach to Tricorner Knob Shelter. About 3/4 of a mile from this shelter the skies opened up with a merciless downpour- soaked yet again! This time I could feel the water run down the channel created between my jacket and the backpack and it was COLD! I arrived at Tricorner to find an already quite full shelter housing a mix of thru-hikers, and a group of section-hiking women. I would also meet Phoenix, a 70-something y.o. woman who was hiking the trail and was an interesting, feisty lady. I was again reunited with Frodo and Thumper whom I had not stayed with since before I went into Gatlinburg. So fire and music were part of the evening! Dinner was dehydrated burger and veggies in a Kimchi-flavored ramen (YUMMMMM!). The shelter is a giant clothes- and gear-line with everyone¢s stuff hanging everywhere to dry. I turn in early for me (8 PM) because the rain is just coming in buckets and it¢s chilly out of my bag. The rain strikes the roof so hard that I can barely hear the laughter at the card game or Thumper playing his Mandolin a short 20¢ away. The rain brought with it thunder and then some lightning and it was then that I met Corey. We were both on the second level and a body apart in the sleeping area. He introduced himself and when the thunder cracked through the air, he quickly pulled his sleeping bag over his head until it passed. He admitted that he hated thunderstorms and joked that ¢cowering in his sleeping bag¢ was not a way he dreamed of meeting women. Lol! We had a nice conversation; he wants to go into the Air Force so we talked about the military. He told me he was taking a zero day or two in Hot Springs (my destination) and his girlfriend was meeting him there. We talked about how ¢lovely¢ the Smokys have been and how we both wanted out. There was, in fact, a general consensus amongst the whole group that we needed to get out. We joked that there was likely some visual cue that you were departing GSMNP like a weather-wall that separated the rainy, darkness from the beautiful, warm sunshiny outdoors. Perhaps, cartoon-style, you could stand with your left side in the rain and your right in the clear!?! If I was to ¢get out¢, I would need to do really big miles- something I had not been doing since I got on the trail. 16 miles could bring us to a campsite just outside of the park. Another 2+ miles would bring us to a popular hostel: Standing Bear Farm. I wasn¢t sure what was possible and I didn¢t want Rider to feel compelled to push given he said his feet were usually only good for 10-12 miles. It is something to sleep on.Goodnight from a very wet and stormy 5,900¢+ altitude on GSMNP, at least I am dry and warm here with my ~20 of my closest friends!More photos for day 10 of the trip can be seen at: 2000Miler_Day10