Date: 2022-11-13
From: Jones Meadow

To: Tanyard Gap
Miles today: 17.3
Weather: overcast clouds

We awoke to a meadow encased in rime ice and cloud. The temperature was 21 degrees. The temperature had dropped below freezing last night before the rain turned to sleet and snow and had created a layer of ice on both tents. Iwas worried that the weight of the ice along with the gusty wind might pull a stake out of the ground and leave the tent on top of us. The Triplex depends on 6 well-placed stakes to hold it up. With all this on my mind, I had gotten out of the tent about 2:00 to scrape ice from the Triplex. A light, dry sleet was falling and I was able - with the help of the plastic top from the snack bin - to get the ice off the tent and re-tighten the guy lines. When I tried to do the same to the Copper Spur, Fish and North Star protested that I was knocking ice on the inside of the tent onto them. I left their tent "unscraped". When I got out of the tent this morning at 6:30, the the Copper Spur was frozen closed with a thick sheet of ice.I started the van and got into the backseat where I set up the JetBoil. I had water boiling in 10 minutes and had started to line breakfast choices up inside the van. I helped Fish out of the ice-domed tent and he joined me in the van. By 7:30, all 5 of us were inside the van enjoying the warmth. The sun rose a little after 7:00 but was hidden behind the thick veil of clouds. The trail crew got packs ready and we drove them down the gravel road about 200 yards to a side-trail that led back to the AT. They would head for Tanyard Gap today.Baxter and I returned to the campsite and packed up: sleeping bags, sleeping pads, pillows, errant clothes, tents, and poles. Dante never mentions frozen tent poles when describing the 3rd circle of hell but I'm certain it's because their presence is an obvious fact. The aluminum tent poles to the Copper Spur were murder on my hands. I returned to the van twice to rewarm them in the short time it took to strike the tent and collapse the poles. The rain fly, still encased in ice, was another challenge. Baxter and I ended up making a pile of groundsheets, rainfly, and tent bodies in the back of the van.We left Jones Meadow and headed for lower ground. After a short drive down the mountainside the ice disappeared though the temperature remained in the low 20s. Baxter and I parked the van on Log Cabin Road, 6 miles south on the trail and 2000 feet lower. I spread out all of the tent fabrics and broke up most of the ice still caked on the rain fly. Baxter and I talked with a local out walking his dog who was interested in our ice-covered van. The trail crew showed up about 11:00 and took a warm break in the van for a moment. The temperature still had not gotten into the 30s.We parted ways with the trail crew and headed towards Hot Springs. I had called Laughing Heart Hostel and gotten us 2 rooms for the night. We checked in at the hostel and lounged for awhile. The trail crew wasn't due into Tanyard Gap until about 4:30. The Moore family was planning on arriving in Hot Springs around 2:00. The 5 Moores came to the hostel right on time. We have only a handful of families where everyone is friends with everyone. The Moores are one of our favorites! Emma, Clare, Gus, and Baxter got into a game of Uno while Doug, Naomi, and I walked into town to visit the outfitter and the post office. I was expecting a package in both places. It was good to catch up with friends and debrief our trail experience with them a bit. The outfitter had a letter for us and Joni's down pants were waiting at the Hot Springs post office (thanks Mr Nomad!).We all loaded up the vehicles about 4:00 and headed to Tanyard Gap to meet the trail crew. They had hiked a long day through tough terrain and in temperatures that may never have gotten above freezing. The greeting of friends put much of the day's troubles to rest. We returned to the hostel and dumped packs and gear and headed into town to Vinyl Pies, a pizza place on main street.We got a visit at Vinyl Pies from a second family from the group of "families where everyone is friends with everyone". The four of the five Schnitzers arrived for dinner making our group 14 strong. We all laughed and cut up until it got late (8:00pm) and we all said our goodbyes and headed home.