Date: 2018-11-17
From: Old McQueen's Knob Shelter, TN

To: Big Laurel Branch Wilderness
Miles today: 23.0
Weather: broken clouds

Ice kept falling all night but nothing damaged the tent. I got my coffee going and got warmed up. I dreaded putting on my cold wet shoes but did using plastic bags to try to keep my dry socks dry. On the trail at 5:11. What a beautiful sight. Stars filled the sky. A planet to the east shone brightly. To the west hundreds of lights of an unknown town. The snow reflected my headlamp, looking like thousands of blinking white Christmas lights as I walked along. At one point I looked at the ground and saw I was following a small bear's tracks. Later I followed bobcat tracks. My tracks were the only human tracks. At Double Springs Shelter I stopped for water. Just after I left a hiker came up the trail. When the sun came up all the ice and snow started melting again. I was hoping it all would melt today. Crossing the fields at the old Osborne Farm was warm. The trail was muddy though most of the snow was gone. At a gate two hunters came up the trail. A short time later an elderly couple walked up the stone path. All seemed to be going very well until the climb up High Point. For miles branches and treetops were on the ground from the recent ice storms. The trail at times was like walking through crushed ice of various sizes that had fallen off the trees. Travel was slow due to these obstacles. At Iron Mountain Shelter three men were just leaving. I've been following their tracks since the Osbourne Farm. It wasn't long before I passed two of them, a father and a son in his 20's. The lead guy was cruising thru hiker speed. When I finally caught him we talked. He is a weekend hiker and the other two are his friends having worked with the father. I continued while he waited for the others to catch up. The trail still was hard to walk almost all the way to Vandeventer Shelter. I got there about 5:15. A guy was in the shelter making coffee using melted snow. He could not locate the trail to the spring.The three guys came in shortly behind me. We all were going to the next spring in 1.7 miles. I headed up the trail and quickly saw the blue blaze trail to the spring for the shelter. I went back and told the guy staying there, then continued. It was getting dark but what a beautiful night! The white moon to my left and the orange sunset a bit to my right. Glorious! I stopped where I thought the spring was that I was going to camp at but was wrong. The lead guy of the group of three came by and I followed him. He said he knew where it was. When the trail dipped down into Rhododendron thickets it was almost dark then the trail would come up and there was the moon and sunset again. This was repeated many times. I was enjoying this beautiful evening hike. The guy was using his headlamp but I wasn't. We talked as he searched for the spring. He said his tired friends will be mad that he continued so far after the shelter. Finally about 6:30 we found the spring. I was preparing to have a waterless night or continue 3+ miles further to a stream. I was happy to stop. I turned on my headlamp and found a place to tent. Shortly the other two guys came in using their headlamps. All three of them had hammocks to set up. A good day though discouraged at times in the afternoon. Then a fun evening adventure with a stranger looking for the spring in the dark. Tomorrow a blitz into Hampton, Tennessee for a resupply. After that the next town stop is Erwin, Tennessee, perhaps on Thanksgiving.