Date: 2007-04-17
From: standing bear hostel, davenport gap

To: elmer's hostel in hot springs
Miles today: 33.4
Weather: clear sky

Let me start by saying that there were hypothermia units sent up into the mountains yesterday and at least one search and rescue mission has been reported. The day before yesterday g-smurf and i had a big day. We hiked from Standing Bear Hostel to Hot Springs, a distance of 33.4 miles! it started out as just a dark, damp morning with low clouds and mist. we left around 8am thinking we'd go about 20 or so miles and see how we felt, as we really wanted to get into town. at about 11 am we came across Apple and his "biggest ugly orange expedition tent that i've ever seen" at brown gap where he was passing out hot cocoa and hot dogs. one each. thanks apple, that ended up being the last food i'd have all day. earlier i had a payday bar, 1/2 a block of sharp cheddar cheese, and 1.5 liters of water. Apple informed us all (maybe 6 people in the tent at that time) that the temp had gone down 10degrees in the last hour and was now 36F. "it's probably snowing on max patch by now." i didn't really have any idea what that meant since i haven't read the guide book or looked at any maps. what it meant was that in about 2 miles we we be on the top of a pretty high bald where we would encounter a massive snowstorm and 65+mph sustained winds. it was easily the worst weather i have ever been exposed to. the person that went up the hill ahead of me and the person directly behind me both got lost on the up on the top of max patch in the white out conditions. the one ahead of me found the trail eventually and made it to the next shelter but the guy after me got lost and was found by a team yesterday, apparently in ok condition. i met up with g-smurf again at roaring fork shelter, about a mile or 2 past max patch. we considered staying there for the night, we had already hiked about 14 miles. we decided that the shelter was too exposed to the winds and that we'd go at least 5 more to the next shelter and decide what to do by then. by the time we got to the next shelter the conditions had deteriorated even more and snow was piling up--maybe 3-4 inches already. we got there and decided that we both felt pretty fresh and that hot springs sounded like a realistic option. it was another 14 miles but if we were willing to do a bit of night hiking we could do it. if we would have stopped at that shelter it would have been an extremely uncomfortable night. the two women in that shelter were the last 2 people we'd see until hot springs.   the standing snow was as high as 6-7 inches in some places(lemon gap for example) and the drifts were easily 24" in some places. the snow actually made descents a little easier but as i'm sure you could imagine the uphills were a bit more tiring. my hands stayed relatively warm for most of the day and i didn't really feel fatigued until just passed the last shelter before town, with just about 3 miles to go. we rolled into town at about 10:15pm, about an hour or so after i had to put my headlamp on. the snow kept the woods nice and bright. thanks to the people at the bridge street inn for opening up your doors to us late at night. showers and heat were quite welcome.i'm gonna head out tomorrow instead of waiting for birdlegs and bad influence. they're back in gattlinsburg and i've somehow gotten about 5-7 days ahead of them. perhaps they'll catch up sometime.i bought new shoes today. i went from a size 11 pair of merrells to a size 12.5 montrails. the sad thing is is that i have a brand new pair of size 11 merrells waiting for me at home in key west, never even taken out of the amazon.com shipping box. dang.i scheduled a massage appt. for myself today at 1:30 so i'd better be going.sorry to all of you i haven't been able to call or get ahold of yet. i like hearing your voicemails though so please don't hesitate to leave my a message if my phone is off.next stop will be irwin, TN on friday. that's 68 miles away and we're planning to do it in 3 days.earlier this week i really wished i could go see the Pirates play. that's a pretty strange thing. why would i have a craving to go see a major league baseball game? i haven't even lived in pittsburgh for years.