I knew today was going to be tough, but it turned out to be even harder than that. Goat & I hiked up Rocky Top (you know, the Tennessee Fight Song - Good Old Rocky Top, Rocky Top Tennessee? Yeah, that Rocky Top). Great views. I was taking pictures when AppleButter showed up - she is from Tennessee and had the actual song on her phone, so we listened and sang. It was so cool!
Also saw my favorite section hiker ever, who was out hiking with her father. Goat gave her the trail name "Emily Post" because she is so nice and polite. I shortened it to Post. She got to the top of Rocky Top as we were leaving. I can't imagine being out in this weather section hiking, but they seem to be having a good time and aren't too overwhelmed at all the stinky thru hikers in the shelters.
Then we climbed up Thunderbird without too much trouble and I thought the hardest part of the day was over...the hike was going pretty awesome so far. (Except, of course, that my right ankle was still panging with each step, and my right knee was complaining too). Then it started to snow, and it turned from a hard hike into a pretty difficult hike. The snowpacked trail was topped with ice, and fresh snow on top of that made it literally one step forward, slide half a step back
Instead of fighting the snow and the trail, I just tried to embrace the part of me that loves to be outside and play in the snow. I tried to remember how I felt, pre-hike, in January when it snowed and AWE & I were both off work. I was so excited - we went out and hiked, and had a mini snowball fight, and had a great time playing in the snow. So I tried to play in the snow as I hiked. On the downhill sections I stopped trying to fight gravity, and just started skiing down the trail with my big wet boots and my hiker poles! I was pretty good.
We finally made it to the shelter, there was room inside for me. We had 29 people in a capacity-12 shelter...very tight quarters. The hiker tv was even MORE entertaining - a dude was stuffing the fire full of twigs and sticks and didn't stop until the entire fireplace was chock full of wood. (Then an ember fell into my wet boot sitting in front of the fireplace - lucky for me the boot was so incredibly wet it didn't even scorch anything!)
My knee still hurts. But my ankle is getting better.
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