Date: 2016-03-21
From: Pecks Corner Shelter

To: Anywhere but the Smokies
Miles today: 21.0
Weather: scattered clouds

Well when I woke up this morning there was 6" of snow all around me. I'll have to admit that I contemplated just sitting around all day and waiting for it to melt. Then I realized that I was 6000' up in the mountains, and this was probably going to take a few days. I also couldn't help but hear Alpine's voice ringing in my ears, "The one that makes it to Maine is the one that gets up every morning and hikes no matter what the weather."So, I took a deep breath, threw my sleeping bag off of me and went to work. I did a pretty decent job of keeping my gear out of the snow. But my hands were cold and the dexterity wasn't 100% there. I sat there on the ground, under my awning like a kid at a beach surrounded my sand piles. Except it was the polar opposite, pun intended. I threw on the Beach Boys over my phone just because it was too ironic not to do. There was a moment where I was completely disheartened by the fact that it was miserable out. But I stopped for a second and told myself to just do what I knew I had to do, pack up and get hiking. It's hard sometimes to simplify things out here, but that's ultimately what it comes down to. You know you have to do it, even if it's a challenge. This is what I wanted and I just had to work through it.I took a step away from the misery for a second and realized that this was completely beautiful. I was spoiled this winter back home with a lack of snow, and this seemed to make up for it. All of a sudden, I realized that I'm a New England boy and this is my bread and butter. Cold weather and snow is what we do.After I packed everything up, I headed down to the shelter to grab some water and cook breakfast. I had felt completely alone in my hour it took to get everything ready. But as I walked down, I found that there were about 8 hikers holed up in the shelter complaining about the cold and snow. Since I had already mentally moved past this stage in the morning, I decided that it was time to move out. On my way out, I gave some reassurance to my fellow hikers, and urged them to, "Think warm thoughts."As soon as I got to hiking and set up my layers for the climbing and windy ridges, I was in heaven. The clouds had moved off the mountains giving way to a completely frosted landscape. The snow was clinging to every twig and every needle on every fir. It highlighted all there was to see.I soon passed groups of hikers that had left well before me. I pushed on harder and harder, but the progress was slow due to the thick layer of snow. Every step forward was countered with the slightest slide of reverse progress. It took me about 2 and a half hours to make it to the first shelter that was 4.7 miles away. On my way there, I had toyed around with the idea of finishing the Smokies completely today. That would entail 20 miles of hiking through the deep snow and inevitable slush as the day warmed. When I got to the shelter for lunch, I ran into Tesla and Rash. They were the two younger guys I had met in the shuttle on the way to Fontana. I bounced the idea of a 20 miler to them, which would mean hiking through the night a little ways. They said they were already thinking about it so we planned to meet up at the next shelter and hike through the night. For some reason, many hikers are turned off by night hiking. We were 2 days out from a full moon, and with all of the snow cover, it would still stay light out once the sun dropped. I knew it was a smart move because the temperature was going to be about 25-30° warmer once we dropped the 4500' out of the Smokies. Tesla and Rash were there waiting at the Cosby Knob Shelter along with the entire group that had left Pecks Corner this morning. They all said we were nuts for pushing that hard after such a big day. I figured they were nuts for wanting to stay another night on these cold and slushy mountains. I ate a quick dinner, donned my Petzl headlamp, and made for the trail. We had another 7.9 miles to get out of the Smokies. These kids were hiking hard. At this pace I figured that we'd make it down by 9:30. After we worked over the 2 climbs there was a very, very steady descent into the valley below. We stopped at a little rock outcrop for a photo op at sunset.After a couple hours of knee busting descending, we saw the National Forest boundary. We all high fived and realized we still needed to find a place to stealth camp for the night. About a mile up the trail, there was a a little spot that was sufficient to our needs. We threw up the bear bags, set up camp and reveled in the 50° weather we were dozing off in. "Those poor bastards up on the mountain" was all that ran through my head as I nodded off.