Day 29: Peck's Corner Shelter to Cosby Knob Shelter

12.9 miles (+.5 miles from the shelter)

Actually got up and moving at the same time as OWL today. Woohoo!

The Peck's Corner shelter is .5 miles off the trail, so I had a little warm up hike before the hike for the day began. The hike was pretty tough at first - for the first 6 miles. Very slick and icy. Old goat had a very spectacular fall. He slipped on an ice-covered rock, onto ice-covered trail, then started slipping off the mountain. He would have fallen off the mountain except that he hung onto a little tiny 6" tree, did a complete 360, and sat down. Awesome and scary at the same time. If he didn't already have a trail name, he would have been Pole Dancer for sure.

Once the trail dropped below 4000 feet, the ice and snow disappeared. It was amazing to be hiking on DIRT again!

Met a loud mouthed section hiker, "Trail Boss", with three kids of varying age. Talked to me FOREVER and slowed down my hustle to the shelter. (It's important to get to the shelter ASAP - slots are first come first serve, and there are only 4 slots for thru hikers). Finally two other hikers came up and tried to pass us, so he started talking to them and I took off. Got to the shelter about 4:30 and was #3 in the shelter, so set up. Very nice to be there.

Trail Boss was sort of an asshole all night. Got to the shelter about 6:30pm and announced "we have reservations so some of you guys are going to have to get out". (Keep in mind, there were only 5 thru hikers in the shelter at the time because we knew they were coming). Really a jerk about it even though there was plenty of room.

HAHA an older thru hiker (who I am not going to name) just asked OWL if I was her son! HAHA. OWL said "who? No SHE is only 10 years younger than I am"....

Also I was changing into my sleeping clothes, but kept my balaclava on, and OWL says "now I know what a naked ninja looks like!".

Finished off the scotch. That helps. :)

Day 28: Newfound Gap to Peck's Corner Shelter

10.8 miles
An absolutely beautiful day outside. The trail was really icy in spots (this part of the trail was the one part that Carl the ridgerunner said that crampons would be helpful). I tried to buy some crampons in town, but couldn't find any. So I just took it slow.

A mile or so into the hike I came upon 3 older women putting on crampons. One asked if I was a thru hiker, and when I said yes she said "put your hand into my backpack and get a treat". She was carrying two bags of clementines! So I put one in my pocket for later. She was out with her friends for her birthday, and had section hiked most of the Appalachian Trail in Georgia, NC, and TN. Her trail name was "Hey Jude", so of course I had the song stuck in my head for most of the day. (I have had much worse songs stuck in my head on days when the trail music gods were angry with me - like the chorus to Justin Beiber's "Baby Baby").

It was a great day. The sun was beautiful - and it made the trail a little muddy - but it was great that the sun was shining. We all hiked together the entire day. Saw "Charles' Bunion" and funny signs and had some really fantastic views of the Smokies. Overall, a really great day.

When we got to the shelter there were 2 dads and 2 kids who were trying to climb the highest 40 peaks in the southeast. Neat kids. Super inquisitive about the SteriPen (which is my favorite thing ever). It was unfortunate that my SteriPen ran out of battery right as I was showing him how it worked, but that's part of hiking...unexpected adventures.

Day 24: Spence Field Shelter to Derrick Knob Shelter

6.5 miles

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.