Date: 2007-04-15
From: TriCorner Knob Shelter

To: Standing Bear Hostel
Miles today: 15.7
Weather: heavy intensity rain

April 15, Finally Out of the Smokies!It was actually pretty warm in the shelter last night. But I was up from about 2-3 a.m. thinking I could hear a bear rummaging around. I managed to fall back asleep and I finally got up at 7:30. It was pretty warm - somewhere around 42 degrees, I think.I ate my breakfast of peaches and cream oatmeal, a chocolate and peanut butter Zone protein bar, and some Earl Grey. Then, I tried to prolong it as much as possible but I changed into my damp clothes. I cannot stress enough how unpleasant it is to put wet clothes on when it's cold outside.We got hiking and we both had the same thing in mind - we would try our hardest to hike all the way out of the Smokies today. The forecast called for 2-4 inches of snow in the evening and we wanted to be in the clear on that. The ridgerunner we ran into said the snow was only expected above 2,000 feet so if we could get to the last shelter, we should be okay.Anyway, on we went. The trail was literally a stream all morning from the thunderstorm the night before. My feet were soaked. I tried as best I could to stay out of the water but I had no luck. My hands were so cold I put hand warmers on and they helped for a bit but hand warmers don't stay very warm when they get damp. I ended up hiking without poles for a long time just so I could fidget with my hands to warm them up.The snow started really coming down as we stopped at Cosby Knob Shelter for lunch and I knew I needed to get warm and dry off if we were going back out there. My hands were cold and my feet were soaked. I heated up some Ramen noodles and Earl Grey and had two peanut butter tortillas. I aired out my feet over Certain's stove - they looked pretty bad from soaking in my boots. I added my fleece jacket to my hiking uniform. We met Hartly Houndog there, nice guy - just needed to warm up. He came in shaking and couldn't even get his own gloves off or jacket. We gave him some hand warmers and shared an alcohol stove to warm out our hands and feet. It was darn cold out! Certain told me later that it was 24 degrees (not factoring in the wind) at that point - I had been too scared to look.While we were in the shelter, it snowed about two inches. Everthing was white. Certain has really great before and after photos that will be up in her journal shortly. We had already hiked seven miles and we had about seven to go to the next shelter. I called Standing Bear Farm hostel to see if we could hike in there and they said they had plenty of space. So, on we went.We were trying to stop as little as possible and as fast as we could. We were planning to do ten more miles right to the hostel so we had lots of hiking in front of us. For the most part, the weather cooperated. At times, we were pelted in the face by tiny ice pellets but it was otherwise fairly calm. The hardest part was trying to decide where to step since everything was covered in snow. My feet continued to get soaked in unexpected puddles. I burned through one set of hand warmers and put in another set - I believe they saved me today. Thank you, Hand Warmer Makers.The terrain was not hard so we had that on our side. Only one big climb left and then it was all down hill.The woods looked beautiful but I was too worried to stop and appreciate it. I wish I had taken better photos to share but I just had my nose to the grindstone for the rest of the day. Everything was white - everything! When you dream of a white Christmas, this is what those dreams look like. Thank goodness everything Certain was wearing was blaze orange - I could find her easily.I was worried though. We had so much hiking ahead of us that I knew there was time for anything to happen. At one point, I heard a helicopter and I just knew in my head it was a rescue so that freaked me out even more. At one point, we had to scrape snow off of the signs on the trail to read them - so much snow.We got to Davenport Gap Shelter at 6:15 p.m. with three miles to go to get to the hostel. It was all uphill so we knew we couldn't make it before dark and we didn't want to be in that weather in the dark. We called the hostel when we got to the shelter to see if they could shuttle us. They could! At the shelter, we ran into Tony from DC. He had a beautiful fire going inside the shelter so we dried out our gloves and he decided to come along with us to the hostel. We found out later that Turtle Foot and Wine?Oh! had built it for him earlier and he took the credit - what a funny guy!Tony packed up and we pretty much ran the .9 miles to the road crossing. We were officially out of the Smokies! Our ride did not show up on time and we were fairly worried after about 30 minutes of freezing our arses off. Luckily, he came. We had some nice coversation and jokes with Tony while we waited. Certain was freezing though and I wasn't too far behind. The only thing holding me together, again, were my hand warmers. Thank you, Hand Warmer Makers!Curtis from Standing Bear Hostel finally came and we all barrelled into his van. Luckily, he had the heat cranked up full blast. He took us back to the hostel and plopped us down in front of the furnace to warm up while he tried to find a place for us to stay. Certain and I weren't in the best mood by that point because we just wanted warmth and, as it turned out, the cabin did not have heat and the bunkhouse was only warm if you stood in front of the furnace. We had hiked 15 miles with the hope of heat getting us through so when we found out there would be no heat, we weren't pleased. We bounced around for the next half hour trying to warm up while they found us space. Finally, we heard by word of mouth that we would be in the cabin. We put our gear up in the cabin loft and then I made pizza. After that, it was pretty much lights out for me. I bundled up in my sleeping bag and threw some blankets on me for extra cover.It truly was a trying day. We were caught in a thunderstorm last night and a snowstorm today. It was hard to stay warm and I get freaked out easily when dealing with the cold. But, Certain and I kept checking on each other to make sure everything was okay and, thankfully, we made it through safely. And, despite being frustrated about not having heat, I am just happy to have four walls and a roof right now.- Sound of someone talking outside, Certain breathing, water running in a stream.Post Trail Thoughts:Brr. This makes me cold just thinking about it. Looking back, the smart thing to do would have been to stay put. We should not have hiked in that - we couldn't even see each others' tracks. But, we wanted OUT so badly. It was a mentally exhausting day because we were both totally worried.I wish I could better remember what the trail looked like that day. It saddens me that I didn't get many pictures of it. Alas, my fear won over my desire to keep moving and not mess with the camera. I know it was beautiful though. Beautiful and scary.