Date: 2004-04-07
From: Lost Mountain Shelter, VA

To: Day 32: 1/2 mile beyond Wise Shelter, VA
Miles today: 17.9
Weather: overcast clouds

On AT Day 32 I got up at 5:20 a.m., took some vitamin I and was on the trail with Shadowman by 7:20 a.m. Very shortly after leaving our camp site the AT began a long steady, but not terribly steep climb of nearly 2,000 feet to go near the summit of Whitetop Mountain. At 5,520 feet, the latter is the second highest mountain in VA and got its name from its large ¢bald.¢ Today this peak was covered by 8 to over 12 inches of snow and ice-cold slush. The latter was a real nuisance as my Gore-Tex boots once again became soaked and my feet soon got extremely cold. Fortunately, since the air temperature rose to the low 50¢s I knew I was in no danger of hypothermia. As I have noted before, the difficulty of hiking in snow versus on a dry or even a muddy or rocky/rooty trail is quite noticeable since you have to lift your foot up higher, plunge it into the snow for stability and your feet slip a bit with each step ¢ all making for much slower travel.Near the top of Whitetop Mountain we ran into two groups of trail maintainers, one going south and one going north and both clearly having a good time with their greatly appreciated volunteer activities. After climbing Whitetop Mountain, we were soon challenged with a deep snowy, but not particularly steep climb much of the way up the 5,729-foot Mount Rogers, the highest in VA. Needless to say that after 12.2 miles we were grateful to take a lunch break at the snow-slush surrounded Thomas Knob Shelter where we met another trail volunteer, who hiked in to check on and if need be repair the solar powered privy ¢ a real source of pride¢¦Tell It Like It Is showed up at the shelter just as Shadowman and I were leaving to hike up to Rhododendron Gap, followed shortly by a slippery squeeze through an ice encrusted ¢cave¢ in which the Thomas Knob Shelter volunteer told us a hiker broke her arm just a few weeks ago, prompting a helicopter rescue. Besides worrying about my bum knee, on the way through this interesting AT challenge, I couldn¢t help but worry that I still remembered the essentials from my recently completed Advanced Wilderness First Aide course.Luckily neither Shadowman nor I was injured and we soon came upon the wide open expanses of the 5,000-foot elevation Wilburn Range and Grayson Highlands, the latter having achieved a certain degree of fame because of ¢the wild ponies¢ that are often seen grazing on its grasses. We did not see any horses on the open range, but when the AT ran directly through a small corral we saw three and we got the true story on these interesting dwarf horses from an official-looking sign. It turns out that these horses are not wild at all, they were in fact introduced to help maintain the openness of the Grayson Highlands grasslands.After Shadowman and I got to the Wise Shelter at 17.4-miles to pick up water for our dinner and breakfast, we had a chance to meet another NOBO AT through hiker, Briar Rabbit. This mid-20¢s bald headed fellow was from Salt Lake City he told us that he and Haiku had enjoyed a moonlit hike the night before and that he might go on another tonight. With clear skies and the full moon we had the night before ¢ and looked like we may have again ¢ the latter sounded pretty good, but I passed up on the opportunity for fear of re-injuring my knee and possibly getting lost (Briar Rabbit admitted that he and Haiku had gotten lost several times on their hike.). After another half mile or so, at around 5:00 p.m., Shadowman and I set up camp on a lovely open grassland that promised ¢ and delivered ¢ a terrific view of the sunset. At least an hour before this scenic close to our day, Briar Rabbit hiked past our camp with what he said was no particular destination in mind ¢ ah the freedom of the AT!