Date: 2023-03-31
From: MM 669

To: MM 682 Sarver Hollow Shelter
Miles today: 13.0

Day 20 13 mi MM682At Sarver Hollow Shelter. It's one of those good news/bad news shelters. It's pretty new, very large with a roofed deck on front. That's the good. The bad: it's 0.4 miles off the trail straight down. I hate walking that far to get to a shelter. And tomorrow it will be 0.4 straight back up. And these miles don't count in the totals either. Blah!So why choose here? Very good question! I actually made a mistake - yes, you heard it here first. I had lunch in a shelter about 6 miles back and should have stayed there. Rain was in the forecast but less than a quarter of an inch. Not too bad so I decided to keep going. It started off and on drizzle as soon as I started which is what I was expecting.  But the intensity kept increasing. After a couple of hours it was a full on rain storm.  And I still had to go up a 1000' hill. The climb was on very slick clay, standing water and rock stairs. Not a very inviting combination. As I got about half way up, I actually ended up in the clouds. Visibility was about 100 feet. Did I mention the wind?  Oh it was blowing 40 mph at the top. Temperature was in the low 50s so it was getting cold and I was soaked in places I didn't even know I had. Yes I was wearing rain gear but those rains go through everything eventually.Walking along the top I passed by dozens of rock piles about 6-8 feet high and in diameter.  To me they looked like burial mounds.  I began to wonder if maybe that's where they put dumb AT hikers they found frozen on the mountain! Well, I wasn't really in danger of freezing. But those conditions are prime for hypothermia. So I kept moving to keep my body temperature up - I felt like stopping to eat or drink would be a mistake. I finally got to the side trail for the shelter at 6:00 pm - 5 hours to cover 7 miles. It was brutal. Took another 30 minutes to descend the 0.4 mile to the shelter. I had been planning my course of action for the last hour. As soon as I got under roof, I dumped my pack, blew up my air mattress and set up the quilt. I stripped naked - some scenes are graphic:-) - and used my towel to get as dry as possible. Then quick into my sleep clothes which are always double bagged so they are dry f or this very situation. St this point, I expected to be shivering and would need to climb in bed to get warm. But I wasn't too bad surprisingly. Not warm or hot - that's the first symptom of hypothermia. So I actually grabbed a couple of candy bars to eat for the calories. I wasn't going out in the rain to get enough water to cook with. I had enough to drink - that would do.Then I spread out all my stuff to let it drip dry as much as possible. Under the quilt at about 8:00. My last thought was "it's okay to use the whole shelter - nobody is coming down here this late at night."Well......At 9:15 I hear two guys coming up to the shelter from down! the hill. They come on to the deck and they are in camouflage. What????¢¦Turns out they are cadets from VMI. They had evacuated one of their group with a sprained ankle and were supposed to rendezvous with the other 15 at the shelter. The other group was on the AT but couldn't find the side trail for the shelter. Fortunately both groups had radios and could communicate.  With their maps and the landmarks I had seen on the way in, we were able to figure out where they were and the two leaders went up and brought them in. I gathered my stuff back into a reasonable area and at about 2200 hours (we were now an operating military group) the whole group of 17 showed up. They strung some tarps around the deck to block the wind and rain - still had both - no signs of slowing down. Then broke out their sleep gear and good - MREs of course! Believe it or not, within an hour all were fed and sleeping. Very well organized and disciplined group of you no people. It was one of the most interesting days on the trail I have ever had. What, in the afternoon had seemed a disaster, turned out to be very rewarding.(Photo is the cadets the following morning)