Date: 2005-04-07
From: Blue Mountain Shelter

To: Tray Mountain Shelter
Miles today: 7.7
Weather: moderate rain

Still sick today and it is raining. Fortunately the rain stopped when Sheera and I started hiking. The hike down into Unicoi Gap was uneventful but the climb out brought back memories of 2001.    In 2001 I was climbing out of Unicoi Gap after a stay in Helen, and was planning to meet my friends Pacman, Ladybug, and Terrapin at the Tray Mountain Shelter. The weather when I started was light rain and temperatures between 50-60 deg F. I was wearing my rain jacket but not my rain pants since it was only a light rain and rain gear always made me just sweat more than provide protection from rain. As I climbed Rocky Mountain the rain became a freezing downpour and the winds picked up to around 30 mph. The shorts I was hiking in became saturated and passed the cold rainwater up to my shirt, making the rain jacket almost pointless. I knew I needed to put on my rain pants but figured I would just get my whole pack wet if I stopped. I planned on just hiking the shelter and drying out there.    After climbing over Rocky Mountain I entered the Cheese Factory campsite and realized that my thought process was slow and confused. I was beginning to shiver and I was alone. Just past the Cheese Factory, almost to Tray Gap, I realized the severity of my situation. I was alone and entering the beginning stages of hypothermia. The stage where you had to act quick to save yourself when no one was available to render aid if you entered the later stages. I stopped, dropped my pack, setup my tent, got in my sleeping bag, stripped off my wet clothes, put on my thermals, and boiled water on my stove through the vestibule of my tent. After a cup of hot chocolate and at least half an hour in my bag, I resumed my hike. However, with the poor decisionmaking ability that comes with hypothermia I decided to walk over four miles, back over Rocky Mountain, back to Unicoi Gap, and back into the strangely out of place Bush Gardens' style Bavarian Village of Helen, Georgia. That ended my 2001 hike and I have regretted it ever since. Today was a big day for me. A day to conquer my own personal demons that roam the heights of Rocky Mountain and wander through the meadows of the Cheese Factory site.    Now four years later and I am again climbing Rocky Mountain. Once again there is freezing rain with winds gusting over 30 mph, but this time I am wearing my full rain gear. I guess it was fitting that I have the same weather to conquer as I made my back up this same mountain where my "nothing can hurt me" attitude and lack of experience with East Coast hiking almost cost me my life. I was now much more experienced and I knew that I was prepared, but it was still an emotional experience that brought back all the memories of 2001. Having Sheera with me allowed me to concentrate on looking after her. I didn't realize it but Sheera later told me that I kept asking her if she was warm and if she was ok.    Now I am finally on top of Tray Mountain. There is a thunderstorm raging outside my bivy and I am trying to dry my clothes by wearing them while lying in my sleeping bag. My bivy is a piece of junk. It is letting all the water through and has been about as effective as a large piece of paper would be at stopping rain. My bag is soaked but since it is synthetic it is ok. I am counting the time between the lightning flash and the thunder to see if the storm is getting closer or farther away. I had to set up my bivy under the overhang of the shelter because three guys from upstate NY have no idea about trail ethics, namely the one about how "there is always room in the shelter." There was plenty of room for two more people to comfortably fit in the shelter but Mad Cow and Kung Fu refused to move and I was too weak and tired to argue. This cold is really kicking my butt. Thankfully I brought some sudafed. So even though I am sick and it is raining, I am forced to deal with the elements because of a defective Black Diamond product and a bunch of ignorant peak baggers from upstate New York. But you know what, I am here. I am on Tray Mountain. I conquered my demons, relived my experience with hypothermia, and I won. I am soaking wet. I am cold. I am sick. But most of all, I am happy.