Date: 2003-04-10
From: Jerry Cabin Shelter

To: Miss Janet's
Miles today: 17.1

We (Virginia Creeper, Badger, Animal, and I) woke up to a little suprise today; it's a winter wonder land outside! About an inch of snow is on the ground and it's still coming down (and fast too!) I was the last person out of the shelter, mostly because I wanted to have a nice, big, hot breakfast (in my sleeping bag) before heading out and the other guys were content to munch on some cold food. The first few miles of walking in the snow were pretty fun, but then everything that I had dried out last night became undry and cold whenever I stopped. After a couple miles, I cought up with and passed Virginia Creeper and Badger in a boulder field (those are really interesting when they are covered in ice and a layer of snow...) then cruised on to Flint Mtn. Shelter for lunch. A couple of guys were still in the shelter, I think they might be staying there all day. I don't remember their names right now, kind of had a two-track mind at the time; eat and walk. A few miles passed the shelter, I crossed North Carolina route 212, and just about decided to hitch in from there. I decided to continue on to Sam's Gap because it would be easier to get back on there, and there was plenty of daylight left. Just after I had walked across the road, a car pulled up and the driver honks the horn, rolls down her window and yells in a thick country accent "This road get me to Asheville?" I informed her that I had no idea and wasn't from the area, then she looks at me like I'm some crazy idiot (could be right..) and drives off. For some reason, that struck me as being pretty strange and occupied my thoughts for another hour or so. Maybe she thought locals liked to walk around in the snow all day with a big pack on? Anyhow, the trail then went uphill for quite a while through some woods where trees were breaking apart and falling under the weight of the (still falling) snow, so I hurried on through to avoid any potential gravity-induced injuries. Eventually, I got to Hogback Ridge Shelter and stopped in for a snack. Everyone who had been ahead of me on that section had decided to stay there, so I had to blaze my own trail through 8"-18" of snow the rest of the way to the gap (I had been following footprints until that point.) It turned out to be pretty easy to follow the AT, I had expected it to be a challenge, but there were only a couple places where I had to put any real effort into figuring out where the trail went. I got a little scared near the end when I couldn't hear traffic and I figured I wasn't too far from the road, thought it might be closed and I would have to camp in the snow. The road turned out to be open, maybe the snow was dampening the sound so I couldn't hear it from as far away as usual. A really nice trucker gave me a ride all the way to Miss. Janet's driveway, which was about a 20 minute drive away from the gap. The hostel was pretty full, but Miss Janet always has room for one more hiker so I got to stay. Sandals (I think that's his name...) and I went in 50/50 on a 2 medium pizza and 2L drink for $11 deal, we each ate an entire medium deep-dish pizza in one sitting, then had a fair quantity of cookies and bananabread for desert, maybe that hiker appetite is kicking in? I'm going to hang around here for a couple days to let my knee heal up a bit more (the snow wasn't too nice on it) and wait for some of the snow and nasty weather to clear up before hitting the trail again. That's all for now!