Date: 2010-03-13
From: Cheese Factory Site

To: Addis Gap
Miles today: 6.6

My alarm went off a four a.m. I swear I had it turned off yesterday morning in the motel. What gives?I slept for a couple more hours. I could hear that it wasn't raining inside, but it was hard to make the transition from warm and dry to cold and wet.It was a day of contrasts - warm, cold, sunny, cloudy, hail, snow, and rain. Rain gear on, rain gear off. Umbrella up, umbrella down. Even the trail itself. The section I hiked today boasted the iciest stretch, the muddiest stretch and the most blow downs I had seen to date.I got out at about 7:40. It took me an hour and a half to break camp, without eating. I wasn't hurrying. The sun broke through in the morning for awhile. I stopped at Tray Mountain Shelter for breakfast and water. Just as I got there it started to rain. I met three other hikers just heading out after spending the night there.I put on my rain gear and the umbrella. Pretty much as soon as I started walking the rain stopped. I kept the umbrella up for awhile, but it was hard to get it around the blowdowns. At one point I was going over a smal tree trunk, squatting down to get under the branches with the umbrella collapsed over my head. My right foot started to slip and I couldn't lift my left hiking pole out of the ground. It was stuck under the umbrella. I couldn't get my hand out of the loop without putting my weight on the slipping foot. Laughing at myself, I finally had to let the right foot slide down. Luckily, it didn't have far to go. Afterwards, I thought how glad I was that nobody gets to see all the dumb things I do out here. I don't even want to know what that one looked like.Early in the afternoon, the sun was out and it started to hail. By the time I got the pack off, the umbrella out and the pack back on, it had stopped. I played around with the umbrella for awhile, testing different positions. I even put it through the front strap and down my sports bra. That worked pretty well, actually, except for the part where the handle was hitting me in the side of the head.I took a break at about two. It was still sunny and I could see the storm moving towards me, fast. Fifteen minutes later the mountain was completely socked in. It hailed for awhile, then it snowed. I got to Addis Gap a little before 4:30 and by then the wind was blowing and it had started to rain. I was planning to go two more miles to the shelter, up about 800 feet and then down aobut 800 feet, but it was getting cold, so I stopped. I thought it might get even colder and windier when I gained elevation. Highway was there setting up his tent as I arrived.I took my boots off before I got in the tent because they were so muddy. Then I remembered the food bag. I ate, changed my clothes, blew up the air mattress, etc. I thought maybe I would leave the food bag in the tent. I've only done that once before. I thought about Lula, one of her first nights out in 2007. She was so tired that she left her food bag in the tent. She kept it by the door and decided that if the bear came she would just toss it outside.I wasn't comfortable leaving the bag in the tent with me and when I heard the rain let up a little later I decided to go out and hang it, which I did. It was better to get it over with than to worry about it all night. It took me an hour to completely warm up, under the sleeping bag, reading. The fleece socks I bought at Neel's Gap are great! I haven't had to use a foot warmer since I bought them.