Date: 2005-04-02
From: Cable Gap Shelter (tent) 

To: Fontana Inn 
Miles today: 5.5

Day 17 Ok, a little more than a pitter-patter of rain. 6:30pm last eve it started to rain. It poured all night long. Still raining hard in the morning. I pack up everything wet, so I could just head out. Yesterday I though about pushing in to Fontana, but Blazer was hanging out at the shelter. What was one more night? The way Blazer had his packunder his vestibule water started to get in his tent soaking his fleece. We push out in the rain at 7am with 5.5 miles to go and one big hill. Within minutes the rain turned to snow. I couldn¢t feel my fingers and everything else was pretty damn cold. I had popped my blood pressure pills just before I left. One slows your heart and makes things like fingers & toes cold. So my doctor can sleep well knowing my blood pressure is happy while my fingers fell off and I froze solid on the mountain. Another mistake I made was not wearing my rain pants, for that matter my mid-weight top. It was only raining when I left, if I had to do it over again I¢d change those 2 things. I rarely wear rain pants, but being wet then frozen is just no good. As Blazer and I head up into the snow the temp drops to 34° This would be one of my longest 5.5 miles I ever hiked. Not as long as in '99 when Bullfoon and I went over a mountain in a hurricane, but pretty close. For a about 12 hour it was ice being hurled by wind sideways. It would let up here and there. In the end 2 12 hours of hell. Sure some of this was brought on by me going up with shorts and a shell over a tee shirt was silly and I know better. With that said town was just down the hill As we get close to the road we run into Scholar headed south to NOC. She¢s going into what we just came out of wearing sandals. Granted she did have socks on. We tell her it¢s pretty crazy up there and wished her luck. As she leaves Blazer and I look at each other and say sandals? My feet were frozen and I have socks and boots. I could just be a wimp too? I just missed the shuttle as I got to the phone. Blazer headed down to the shelter another mile down the trail. As I wait for the shuttle the rain/sleet pick up and I really got cold. So I crossed over to the bathroom where I found a little heater. Now quite happy in a smelly, bit dirty, but very warm restroom. The shuttle does arrive and I now sit in a cheap, but spacious hotel room. Everything is hanging everywhere trying to dry. It looks as through the weather will clear for a couple days in the Smokies so no zero days here. I saw Scholar in town she turned around. Smart decision but tough to make. This is it for Blazer. He has finished his hike. I think he plans on doing the Smokies in the fall. Hopefully his wife will pick him up at the dam. The weather was actually snow/rain mix. Hope he had a good time with me tagging along. I enjoyed it thoroughly. While the Inn has seen its better days it was like the Taj Mahal compared with earlier in the day. The shower was crazy good. It was like opening up a fire-hose. Threw you right back into the wall. If you look up happiness there will be a picture of this shower. Well its 5pm and it is still raining. I can see snow on the hills behind the hotel. This could lead one to ponder just what is going on up in the Smokies. Most everyone who went up came back down. 40 mph winds with up to 3ft of snow. I talk with Packrat who has hiked the Pacific Crest Trail and the Colorado Trail went up and eventually turned around. Everyone was coming back, no room at the shelter and snow. He said there was at least 8 inches with drifts of 3ft. So I will probably zero tomorrow and figure out what to do. I¢m not ruling out shuttling around and coming back later. Well I¢ll stop crying about my 2hrs of hell as Bag of Cats (who goes by Pacman) and G did 20 miles in the snow. Had dinner with Chill Out, Grey Walrus & Pathfinder. At the table next to us were Brownie, Soulman, Domino, Bearbait, Serenity, Freedom, Scholar, G, Runaway and Pacman. It was good to see everyone. Also saw the Blazin Cajuns, Toolman & Vinee. Met Rawhide, Bassline & Pacrat. Fallout reached the NOC yesterday and was taking a zero.