(2/29) Snow Drifts and Clear Skies

     Last night was our coldest night on the trail yet. We don’t have an exact measurement but I would guess that it hit the high teens. I didn’t sleep well but I still probably got 4 to 5 hours. It is strange sleeping out here because we go to bed when the sun goes down, and we get out just before the sun comes up. But for this time of year, that means we are in our sleeping bags for about 11 hours. This gives a lot of rest but we are unable to sleep the whole time. 

     We woke up a little later today, hoping it would warm up. Despite only getting on the trail at 8:30 am, we were the first set of footprints in the new snow. Breaking trail was not easy, especially since some snow drifts were as much as two feet deep. Nonetheless we made decent time for the first couple hours of the day. 

     Vermont was on the trail a little after us, but he passed us pretty quickly. We expected he would stay at a shelter slightly before the camp ground we were aiming for. (And he did, as far as we are aware).

     The goal was to hit 16 miles over the course of the day. This would put us at mile 97.2 on the AT. Hiking that far in 2-4 inches of fresh snow is not easy, as it hides the details of the trail making it very easy to trip over a root or rock.

    It was another beautiful day of hiking. We started the morning by ascending our highest peak yet: Standing Indian Mt which gets well over 5000 feet above sea level. The sky was clear and we had remarkable views from the summit. The trail ran a beautiful ridge for just over a quarter mile.

     While we were on Standing Indian we ran into a couple of through hikers who had been hiking together since the first day. One shared that he was pretty down and thinking about quitting. The other hiker, who told us that she had just graduated from Messiah College, was a little more positive but was not thrilled at the idea of her new friend quitting.

     After Standing Indian, most of the rest of the day was down hill. On the way down we hit an excellent lookout point just off the trail where we could see miles of mountains. Despite hiking our longest mileage yet, we got to camp around 4 pm and were able to set up, eat, and get in bed before dark.

     Tomorrow we are going to cross over the 100 mile mark on the AT, which is probably our last major landmark before hitting the Smoky Mountains. We are trying to hike 20 mile days both tomorrow and the day after to get into the NOC resupply for a zero (day with no hiking) during some bad weather on Wednesday.

     Generally NC has been just gradually more difficult than GA, but I think we are getting stronger faster than the trail is getting more difficult.

Goodnight.

Walker