Date: 2006-10-11
From: watauga shelter

To: iron mtn. shelter
Miles today: 13.6

NOTE: CONCERNING THE FOLLOWING 3 TRANSCRIPTIONS (days 37, 38 and 39 of 2003)....these were all actually written originally as one entry on day 39 when we finally got into damascus after hiking for 3 days through the snow......because of the length of the entry, i have decided to divide its contents into 3 segments, each of which relates a portion of our ¢snowy adventure¢......i begin here with what was originally journaled on ¢tuesday, april 1st¢ , but is now labeled below as ¢march 30¢ per the time of its actual occurrence.....======2003======Lord¢s Day, march 30, day 37 (written from damascus april 1)i haven¢t written in 3 days because a snow storm blasted us!.....let me see if i can catch us up here : we were last seen taking the rainy afternoon off at the watauga lake shelter, listening to the ¢symphony¢ on the tin roof ......we met 2 new friends there : ben and walk-on, who came in later that evening.....we chatted a while and then drifted off to sleep for the night.....when i woke at about 5 to go out to my ¢cat hole¢, it was snowing!....there was about an inch or two on the ground... a wet, heavy snow weighting down all the rhodys so that i got a little confused about finding my path to the hole.....but after wandering around a few minutes i finally found it (thank heaven!...i was getting¢ pretty ¢desperate¢ thanks to my well-regulated hiker plumbing!)......with the job accomplished, i excitedly came back to the shelter, snuggled in beside killeen and whispered, ¢it snowed!¢....i really thought this little spring snow was probably just finishing up because everyone we had talked to had said they had heard predictions of ¢flurries, changing to rain¢.....so we saw no reason not to get on up and out.....we raised our umbrellas and enjoyed a lovely morning of snow....it was beautiful!.....sticking to every leaf and twig!.... ¢ha!¢ i thought... ¢bob said that even if it did snow, it wouldn¢t stick because the ground was too warm......it¢ll probably all be gone, though, by this afternoon when the sun comes out¢.....but the sun didn¢t come out....in fact, i don¢t think i¢ve ever seen a closer, smoother, heavier snowy sky than we saw that morning.....by the time we got to the dam, i told killeen, ¢i think we may be in for a snow event here!¢...(he didn¢t say so, but i know he must¢ve been thinkin¢, ¢duh....do ya think so?¢).....it soon began to get more difficult for us to maneuver....the hardest part was gettin¢ through the rhodys and pines which now, weighted with heavy snow, hung low over the trail.....it was hard on our ¢brollies¢...in fact, by the time we reached the road, my umbrella had collapsed (which was PRETTY discouraging).....in reality, we BOTH got a bit grouchy for a while, because the situation seemed to be getting serious......after an attitude adjustment, however, (and a change of gear to accommodate walking in the wet snow without our umbrellas), we headed on....what else could we do?....it was odd, walkin¢ through the wintry mornin¢ and seein¢ hints of springtime in the snow....like the yellow blossoms of spicebush peeking out from under their white blankets on low-hanging limbs...i occasionally just HAD to stop to observe (or take a picture), which didn¢t seem to help paw-ee¢s growing ¢edginess¢....i didn¢t know it at the time, but he was really beginning to become concerned for our safety......i, on the other hand, didn¢t yet have a clue!....we hiked on.......it snowed and snowed all day, getting colder....WE began to get cold.....but we had 14 miles to the iron mtn. shelter we had to accomplish, so we kept trudgin¢ through.....we were surprised to actually arrive by about 4:30......we were also surprised to see the shelter FULL! (7 people already in the 6-man space!)....all of our ¢kincora friends¢ were there, plus good ol¢ lex luther and his girlfriend, holly....the group ¢made room¢ for us, though, so we didn¢t have to sleep on the snow......killeen and i basically piled up on ONE mat instead of our usual two......we were packed like sardines in that shelter!....very close indeed!....i was happy to enjoy the presence of one other woman!....paw and i were really frozen from our cold, wet hike and it was difficult getting out of our wet clothes and cooking, etc. with so many people jammed into such a small space.....we managed to get changed and dry, though, and we got under our quilt for a while and ¢knick-knacked¢ on whatever leftover¢ lunch¢ food we could scrounge out of our packs......it wasn¢t long before i was warm enough to get up and out to cook our dinner....i ¢hydrated¢* it on the spot, since we hadn¢t stopped all day to take time to do anything like that......every ¢resting spot¢ was cold and wet, all covered in snow .....we snacked as we hiked, pausing only for the necessary ¢pit stops¢ (where i was learnin¢ the ¢P.O.P.¢ [pack-on-potty] pretty darn good!).... anyway.....we felt much better after we ate a good, warm supper....and stitch, (what a great guy!...always helpin¢ and servin¢ others any way he could), hung his tarp across the front of the shelter for a shield from the wind!....the rest of the evening included everybody telling their best (and worst!) jokes, just tryin¢ to make the most of a kind of a bad situation.....lex was still talkin¢ about robbing a bank (and/or all of us headin¢ out to las vegas to ¢christen¢ a swimming pool.....or some other nonsense such as he was prone to suggest).....and nasty was pulling from his repertoire of bad toilet jokes.....we all ended up getting¢ the giggles like a bunch of 3rd grade girls....firewood and i both got unreasonably cracked up when nasty asked, ¢why did the monkey fall out of the tree?¢ (answer ¢because he was dead!¢.....of course, this wasn¢t FUNNY in the least....but for some reason, THEN, it seemed HILARIOUS....guess it was ¢nervous hilarity¢.....later on when i woke up in the middle of the night, i thought about the ¢dead monkey joke¢ and once again got the giggles while everyone else snored......======2006====== monday, march 20, day 37   (no entry)*NOTES/ OBSERVATIONS/COMPARISONS* ¢hydrated¢ our meal on the spot.......in ¢03 i would often add water early in the day to the ziplock bag that contain our dehydrated evening meal (homemade).....but i learned that for most meals i didn¢t really have to do that (even though in processing we left our dehydrated meals sort of ¢chunky¢ instead of grinding them up in the blender.....more palatable that way and more similar to the real dish as it might be served at home).....but i still occasionally rehydrated during the day, (even this year,2006) for some items (such as those containing pinto beans) since they just seemed better.....i never had a leak to occur and adding water really didn¢t add all that much extra weight, so i was happy to do it for the increase in the quality of the food.....i was careful not to rehydrate too early, however, if the weather was extremely warm (which it hardly ever was, especially in ¢03 when it rained so much)....we didn¢t want to encounter spoilage...............one neat thing we did in ¢06 for a cool lunch treat was this: i carried a small ziplock with re-packaged ramen ( i added dehydrated greens, peas, and tofu crumbles, and only HALF the salty seasoning packet)....and then, in the morning before heading out, i¢d add a little water and then pop the bag into the front pocket i had added to the hip belt on my pack.....when we were ready for a break, we got out this now-moist-ramen and enjoyed a delicious (albeit a little messy to eat) ¢pasta salad¢....it was really a nice change from the usually DRY (or sweet) trail fare......