A long hard day, climbing uphill in the snow and slush. We needed to get to Spence in order to summit Rocky Top & Thunderhead tomorrow morning with fresh legs. Got to the shelter and it was pretty packed. OWL & Streak made room on the top shelf for Goat & I, and I was relieved to have a place inside to sleep.
The shelters in the Smokies have fireplaces, and there was a great fire going. Everyone took off their socks and hung them in front of the fire (or on sticks, like you would use to roast hot dogs). I put my wet shoes in front of the fire, too. There is a phenomenon in the shelters called "hiker tv" which means that if anyone is doing anything in the shelter, everyone is watching. So there were people crowded around the fireplace, on sock rotation duty and fire stoking duty and the guy was hanging his hammock...it was very entertaining hiker tv. And all was well until my socks caught on fire! My normal sock routine is - thin wool compression socks, silk liner socks, thin wool socks on top. So I had a pair of compression socks & a pair of thin wool socks catch on fire. The wool socks were totally destroyed. The compression socks were...mostly destroyed but still had the bottoms intact. Since there aren't any trash cans (and burning socks smell TERRIBLE), I had to pack out the trash. Ugh.
No comments:
Post a Comment