Date: 2005-04-02
From: Nolichucky River (Erwin, TN)

To: Beauty Spot Gap (Erwin, TN)
Miles today: 10.8
Weather: moderate rain

start: Erwin, TNfinish: Erwin, TN miles: 11.8day: 26I didn't get very much sleep last night.  It stormed outside and Miss Janet has this collection of wind chimes that was going nuts in the wind.In the morning it was still pouring rain.  This rain that we were supposed to get yesterday was coming on strong now.  All the hikers helped cook, eat, and clean up breakfast.  After that, we started watching Meet The Parents - one of my favorite movies.  Pretty soon our shuttle to the trail was leaving, so we got in the van, going to the dump along the way.  After dumping the garbage it became clear that it was a very miserable day.  It was in the 30s and sleeting, with pretty strong winds.So we talked ourselves into coming back to the house, either to hike tomorrow, or perhaps later today if it cleared up.  People at the house thought it was pretty funny that we were back so soon.About an hour later, another shuttle was leaving, and I could tell Goldilocks wanted to hike, as did Running Moon and Jukebox, Alex and Max, Broken Spirit and Johnny Blaze.  I was pretty comfortable, but figured what the heck, we can't always be wussy and wait for good weather...  So off we went for our second attempt.By the way, let it be formally known that Jukebox is the NEW trail name of the artist formerly known as Sabotage.  This is great name because of Jukebox's ability to sing a huge repertoire of songs, especially folk, being given just the first line.Well, the weather hadn't improved.  It was really wintry and nasty.  We got dropped off on the far side of the big metal bridge across the Nolichucky River, so some of us had to walk back and recross the bridge on foot, as we hadn't done that section yet. Johnny Blaze was actually running across, it was so cold and windy.We started hiking, with the Colorado brothers (Alex and Max) leading the way.  The rain turned to snow pretty quickly, probably around 2500 feet.  Our plan was to go over 5180 foot Unaka Mountain today.  Hmmm.We got to the first shelter, about 4 miles in, in very good time.  By this time we were walking in a winter wonderland - snow everywhere, on trees, ground, falling from the sky.Someone had left some of their excess food there, so we all ate some - I had some pop tarts.  Six of us moved on (Max, Alex, Goldilocks, Me, Running Moon, Jukebox), while Broken Spirit waited in the shelter (I believe) for the rest of Team Vanity.  I didn't see Johnny Blaze - he hadn't made it to the shelter yet.We hiked on through worsening conditions.  It was a blizzard, with constant heavy snow and strong gusting winds.  We were soaking wet from our exertion and the wet snow.  The snow was coming down so fast that Goldilocks' footprints were partly obliterated, and he was only a minute or two ahead of me.The roughest was going over Beauty Spot.  It was scary.  50 mile an hour gusts blowing us off the trail, and very low visibility.  Wind chills felt well below zero and snow was a foot and a half deep.Goldilocks and I were still walking in our shorts, as our legs just don't get that cold while our hands in their soaking wet gloves were so cold that we couldn't use the fingers.Shortly after Beauty Spot I came to a forest road where Alex and Max had just spent the last ten minutes looking unsuccessfully for the trail.  When all six of us had arrived we searched for trail a bit, but it was quickly decided that we needed to keep walking, as that was the only thing keeping us warm, and that Unaka was out.  It was unsafe to be out here, and we started walking the nine mile gravel road back to Erwin, hoping that a car would come along in the storm.I was getting pretty worried at this point.  I felt better that we were staying together, and heading down, but realized that it was already 4 pm and the temperature would be dropping soon.  If we needed to bivy, and it appeared that we would, then we'd have to be extremely efficient with our frozen hands and minds, so that we could set up and get into sleeping bags before we got too much colder.  This is definitely the closest to hypothermia I've ever been.  Judgement still seemed OK (even in hindsight), but I was starting to shiver uncontrollably and was aware that if anything else happened, like getting lost in the white, that I might not have the mental and physical energy to deal with it.  A contributing factor to all this was that we hadn't had anything to eat for the last eight miles, as it was too cold to even stop and get food out of a pack. Jukebox gave me a power bar of some kind that he had in his pocket, and I scarfed it down.After walking for about a mile on the road we saw a pickup truck heading towards us.  We all walked right in the middle of the road and stopped it.  We urgently asked several times if there was any way they could turn around and take us into town.  After a bit of confusion they told us to all climb in back.  We arranged ourselves to try to stay warm on the ride, but it was still the coldest ride ever.  We were joking at that point, though, because we knew we were safe.  Many thanks to those nice people for the ride.  They wouldn't even take gas money.On arriving back at Miss Janet's, it took a very long to warm up, even with a cup of tea, removing wet clothes, and running hands under warm water.We hadn't been back long when Miss Janet called, asking for me.  She had got the shuttle van badly stuck in the snow up around Carver's Gap, near huge Roan Mountain, trying to drop off Night Lion earlier in the day.  They had sat there most of the day waiting until someone finally helped them get the van off the road and gave them a ride to a restaurant.  I used Okie's pickup (I think), to go pick them up.  It was about an hour drive each way.  I was still very cold and blasted the heat the whole way there and back.  Miss Janet will have to get back out there tomorrow after the plow has come to get her van.Now it's late, we've eaten pizza for dinner, watched movies, and it's still raining, which means more snow on Unaka and Roan.  We're waiting it out in Erwin tomorrow.  We've got reservations at the Best Southern motel for tomorrow night.Going to sleep hoping that Johnny Blaze and Team Vanity are all right - hopefully they stayed in that first shelter out of town.