Date: 2019-04-15
From: Silers Bald shelter

To: Russell Field shelter
Miles today: 14.6
Weather: overcast clouds

I slept intermittently as I often do in shelters. It was a pretty quiet night snoring wise for such a full shelter. My internal alarm clock woke me at 6 and I went out to pee. I was shocked when I pulled back the corner of the tarp and saw everything frozen. On the way back in I looked at my skirt and socks that were hanging out to dry and found them frozen solid. Absolutely stand on their own solid. There was no was that skirt was going to sit on my hips and it I had to guess at the temperature I'd say 28° with a stiff unrelenting wind now from the East. Fabulous. This should be fun. In all seriousness I whispered to Michael that we'd wait for daylight to get up and I laid back in my bed on the floor to think about our safety and the situation. I don't want to die out here and certainly don't want to risk someone else by making a poor decision. It wasn't raining but it was very windy and below freezing. I remembered Michael said the forecast was for it to clear during the day. With the impression that we'd have no more precipitation I decided I'd hike in my dry sleeping clothes and I discussed this with Michael when we got up. We were in agreement. Hiking in wet clothes, even if I could thaw my skirt out would be a potential death sentence the hypothermia way. I took our food bags off the cables which took extra effort because of the buildup of rime ice on the cables. After breakfast in the shelter and Michael fetching water for us both we were packed and hiking out around 8:30 or so. The wind was blowing but the rime ice was beautiful and we both chose to see the beauty despite the difficulty of being cold. Our boots were frozen and I couldn't lace mine well as a result and my feet were very cold despite the fact that I put on dry socks which were by the way almost instantly wet. We met a nobo hiker who asked us to stop at Derick Knob shelter and ask another nobo to bring the Sawyer filter left behind to the Silers Bald shelter and so we did. For miles we hiked layered. I wore my raincoat under my puffy for a while because it was so cold and windy but as we began climbing I shed my outer layer. We climbed Thunderhead Mt while being tortured by windblown ice coming off the trees and pelting us in the head, face and neck. As the day progressed the sun shone through a bit longer each time it forced it's way through the clouds. By the time we reached the summit of Rocky Top mountain it was steadily shining but had yet to melt the white topped trees and the contrast over the mountains of brown and white was beautiful. We'd met a nobo hiker named Stretch on the climb up and he'd found a tent. The group of women relaxing on the grassy bald between Thunderhead and Rocky Top asked if we'd seen a tent rainfly and thus I put them in touch with Stretch. It's too much of a coincidence to think it's not the item Stretch found. It was glorious in the sunshine there on that little knoll and the best part of the day so far. We went ahead to the summit of Rocky Top for an even more fulfilling view. The sun was out fully now and we had shed some layers. We sat on the side of the trail in some grass and had lunch before tying our wet clothes to our packs so they could dry as we hiked. When we reached Spence Field shelter Michael was in need of the privy and water but the side trail was .2 to the shelter and another .1 to water. He dropped his pack and ran while I sat at the corner and snacked. I didn't stay long before tackling the final 2.9 miles to Russell Field shelter. That section of the trail turned out to be the best section all day with fairly level and smooth trail filled with rhododendron tunnels and pure joy. I arrived at Russell Field to find one space empty and announced that we had 2 reservations as section hikers. I know I fibbed but last night was ridiculous and as soon as I spoke it a hiker around my age jumped right up and was very happy to volunteer to tent, which was his preference. Everyone was happy and I took my spot just as Michael popped in exclaiming how much he had also enjoyed that last section of trail. We made our beds, and made dinner out in the cold but sunny area out front and discussed eating inside the shelter before being scorned by a young male hiker. Ultimately we went around the side of the shelter where the wind was blocked and ate there before Michael hung our bags and we crawled into our beds. He got up twice to retrieve things from his hung bag having forgotten to make sure he had everything he needed. I've done that too, very annoying. We were both concerned about the fires being built in the fireplace inside and the ring outside but everyone was respectful of hiker midnight and as the sun slipped away so did the chatter. I hope tonight is not as cold and I'm happy our plan worked well, our clothes were still dry and now our previously frozen hiking clothes were also dry. But boy do our boots stink!