I’m happy to be able to write this evening. I took off early with the crew following close behind after breaking camp in the morning. It was 22 degrees and snowing again, and I was breaking trail with 3” to 9” of snow on the ground. Conditions deteriorated as the wind and fog increased and my hands went AWOL. Rather, I lost a bit of feeling, but never all my sensation. The worst part was that I lost my dexterity—my hands got too cold to open hand warmers or even a candy bar. Luckily Rob was behind me and, after opening my hand warmers for me, switched gloves with me for 4 miles until lunch! 2 miles later my hand strength returned enough to manage a candy bar wrapper and I was safe again. It was silly of me and a bit dangerous. If I were alone I wouldn’t have let things deteriorate to that point but I was trying to make time, break trail, take pictures and I just pushed it too far. Thanks Rob!

It’s been great hiking with this crew. We’re not always together but are often supporting, joking and having fun regardless of the conditions.

We descended to within a mile of the southern end of Great Smoky Mountains National Park today. It felt like we hiked out of winter as we left the snow behind us. We passed an absolutely wonderful spot where the sun broke through, the snow stopped and we were treated to a view of snow-free forest only 1,000 feet below us! How our spirits soared!

We’re camping in comfort tonight with Will, a hiker who did a bunch of the trail in ’01. We’ve had a huge fire going in the shelter fireplace tonight and hundreds of feet of clothesline strung like cobweb across the shelter. Shoes and boots are drying near the fire and its 45 degrees in here. Comfy!