Date: 2004-10-16
From: Wise Shelter

To: VA 58 into Damascus
Miles today: 16.2
Weather: light rain

Happy Birthday Spice Weasel where ever you are! She turns 23 today. I guess she is a few days back? It is freakin' cold this morning. The wind howled all night. I got very little sleep because the wind kept gusting thru the shelter. Everything is damp too. Flounder is first out with maybe a 10 minute head start on me. Within minutes I feel and see sleet or ice crystals pelting my face. Almost excited to see our first snow of the trip! I also see a few "wild" ponies too. They let me get real close to them. They are precious. One has a super long, beautiful mane. Soon, as I got more exposed (beyond the trees), the wind blew harder and the sleet became snow. AND, soon after that it was no fun anymore. 30-40 mph winds with gusts to 60 mph and snowing so hard I couldn't see at times. The small trees/bushes became laden with ice and snow began accumulating on the rocks/ground covering up the blazes and making the trail slippery. I got lost once but retraced my steps and got back on the trail. The ice/snow stung the side of my face right through the hood of my jacket. My feet and hands (no gloves) became very cold...to the point that I was beginning to worry about them. I was worried about Flounder too, as I was unable to catch her. Eventually, Tink and Voice, both freezing also, catch up and pass me. There hiking poles paying off big time now. I try keeping up but can't. I follow their foot prints 'til they fill in with snow. Ice began to blow off the few trees there were in big chunks making hiking even more scary. I saw more wild ponies as I neared Thomas Knob Shelter but had a hard time trying to take pictures with my frozen hands. I was just praying Flounder would be at the shelter because I couldn't imagine trying to find her up here in these bizzard conditions. My prayers were answered as I entered Thomas Knob Shelter. Everyone was there except Loot. Flounder and Tink had crawled into their bags to get warm. Everything Voice had was soaked and we stood there shivering violetly. Snow was caked on Leo too. There was a small abandoned puppy in the shelter as well. We waited for Loot for what seemed like an hour, trying to warm up. Some other people filed in to take refuge (no one expected this)and the floor of the shelter became a sloppy mess. A group of three college girls agreed to take the shaking puppy with them when they leave. That was very kind of them. Loot finally arrives about the same time as a large church youth group. Several kids are really cold and Loot gets them up stairs and tells them to get out of their wet clothes and into their bags to warm up. Loot and Voice say we have to get off the mountain and down to a lower elevation where it's warmer and more sheltered with trees. It's painful to put those frozen shoes and wet clothes back on but we do and start moving. I stuck stinky socks over my hands hoping to warm them but they quickly became soaked. Once back in the trees though, the wind subsides and the snow on the trail becomes slush and mud. We slowly start to warm up. I pray everyone else up there gets off the mountain as well. Several miles down the trail you would not even think it was the same day. The weather was much warmer and the sun even came out. At VA 58 we look back up on the mountain and it is capped in white. I'm, glad we didn't stay up there. Although Flounder and I were OK, everything Voice and Tink had was wet. So, we all decide to hitch into Damascus to warm-up and dry out. We'll slack the section between VA58 and Damascus tomorrow. We get a quick ride with Mount Rogers Outfitters. Tink, Voice and Loot all stay at the MRO hostel while we stay at the Hiker Inn, a four person bunk house. It's not your average bunk house but more like a hotel room...very clean and neat. We share it with a very nice day hiker, Eric. We tried to get in at the Lazy Fox B&B that Flippy '04 had told us about but it was full. Ginny, the owner, said she would have room for us tomorrow if we wished to stay there. After showering, we all met at the pizza place. Eco, Bojangos, Crunchy and Creamy, who has just returned to the trail, is there as well. We found out what had happened to Crunchy. Apparently he decided to road walk the past 50 miles or so for some reason. Maybe because he got behind Eco and Bojangos? It was good to see them all and the pizza was great!