SB II - How Not to Freeze to Death in the Woods

So, now that a week and some has passed since spring break, here comes the second installment.

When we left our intrepid explorers, they were not even explorers yet. They had just left Atlanta at around 4:30 pm after winning the sucky bracket (We're the best suckers around) and eating some Wendy's.

We drove to North Carolina, which involved traveling on the worst roads I have driven on, as far as road markings go. We would hit intersections and the highway we were on would turn both left and right, with no other markings. So of course we guessed.

We eventually made it to Fontana Village, which was going to be our entry point into the Great Smokies. I had read that there was a shelter at Fontana Dam, but aside from seeing it on one map, I had no other confirmation it existed, much less that we could stay there. This lack of planning worked out perfectly however, as the shelter did actually exist, and the night was so pleasant that we just slept under the stars anyway.

Monday morning we awoke to lots of birds chirping, the sun rising over the mountains of Appalachia, and an itch to get on the trail. The plan was to hike 13 miles the first day, and stay at the Russell Field Shelter on Monday night. We got on our way at about 9 am, hiked passed our car, hiked to the visitor's center, registered, and crossed Fontana Dam. At about 9:30 we officially entered Great Smoky National Park.

On this part of the Appalachian Trail, the Fontana Dam is located at about 1500 feet above sea level. The first two hours after the Dam consisted of an immediate gain of 2000 feet. An hour into the trip I explained what 'Hot spots' were (the beginning of blisters) and the importance of foot health, which prompted Adam to have some. Well, maybe he had them already and didn't know he should care. Regardless, we stopped and I told Adam how to use Mole skin, except I gave him the wrong directions and ended up making his soon to be blisters worse. (I make an awesome leader.)

We hiked and rested and hiked and rested and hiked some more. Adam, Andrew and Nick were all really tired from the Ultimate tournament, and were pretty down about the trip, until after lunch. Then things got a little flatter, and I promised them a moving walkway like they have in airports for the second day.

We reached Mollie's Ridge shelter at about 5:00pm and it was beginning to get cold and foggy. We had traveled roughly 12 miles at that point, but still had 3 to go to get to Russell Field, so I called a halt and we decided to stay at Mollie's. That night intense rain battered the shelter and woke us up 3 or 4 times. Temperatures dropped from about 45° to some where in the 20s, (and then add in wind chill!). All of the rain ended up freezing on to everything, coating our bear bag (you have to hang all your food from trees so that bears don't come and eat you), the trees, bushes, everything with ice. Due to the cold and fog we discovered in the morning, the early start we had planned did not pan out.

Tuesday we did not get started until 10:30. We cooked breakfast at a Snail's pace, and Adam spent at least 10 hours bandaging his heels (were the blisters were). When we finally got moving, we knocked out 5 miles of trail in just over 2 hours, which was by far the fastest pace we had kept yet. We ate lunch and started on thestretchh from Spence Field shelter to Derrick Knob. This stretch of trail was 6.2 miles of steep ascents and descents, and climbed over Rocky Top and Thunderhead Mountains, both of which were in the 5500 ft range. They offered amazing views, and lots of soreness.

We got to Derrick Knob at 6pm. The sun was starting to set, and with its fall the temperature was dropping quickly. We had nearly 6 more miles to get to our scheduled shelter location at Siler's Bald, but that would put us in at 9:30 or 10pm. To add to our problems, the Derrick Know shelter was full, and there were about a dozen people sitting around outside trying to decide whether to stay or continue. We all decided to stay. While Adam and Nick went to get water, Andrew and I rigged up a wind-block in the lee of the Shelter using a tarp, seven tent stakes, a tree and some rope. We stacked all of our backpacks in one of the openings that the tree made in our little haven, rolled out our pads and sleeping bags, and got in bed by 7:30.

It was really cold. By 3:30am I was wearing all of the clothes I brought. The wind caused the tarp to flap, making noise and also hitting us in the head repeatedly. Nick was wearing socks on his hands to help stay warm. Some time in the night his nose was running so he wiped it with his socks. He eventually discovered that his nose wasn't running, but instead was bleeding! He proceeded to die. Okay that wasn't serious. In the morning we all sat up and said "That was horrible. I don't think I slept at all, but there is something about being in bed for 13.5 hours that makes me not tired anymore. And Nick got a bloody nose because it was so cold! This is ridiculous! Let's turn around and go back."

So that's what we did. We were roughly 23 miles into the park when we turned around and headed back. Wednesday night we stayed at the Russell Field shelter we were supposed to stay at the first night. Thursday we hiked the entire 13 mile stretch to the Fontana Dam in 6.5 hours, setting our new personal land speed record. We reached the visitor's center at 2:30, and then ran around in our boxers for an hour while we took showers. We left Fontana Village at about 3:30 and headed to Louisville.

Totals:
4 days
4 nights
46 miles
1 ice storm
1 sub freezing night under a tarp
2 blisters (both Adam's)
2 optimal ways to kill a bear
1 optimal way to kill a cougar