June 8
Bud and Vicki Hogan's 1996 Appalachian Trail Journey
June 8
Double Spring Gap Shelter to Icewater Spring Shelter.......................14.5 miles
We were the first ones up that morning and we went through our morning ritual as quietly as possible. We didn't want anyone calling us "the Christians."
The trail ahead of us was a sea of mist, with a hard, cold wind, blowing. The wind blew rain water off of the tree branches that hit us like pellets of ice. It was wet and extremely cold. I put on my fleece jacket. One of the best purchases that we had made before leaving home. Vicki wore her rain jacket and stayed tolerably warm in it. I, on the other hand, got wet and I was getting a little on the cool side. I finally put on my pathetically cheap and worthless rain gear, both jacket and pants. The pair cost about 5 dollars. That's right $5.00. And we had over paid for them.
We're not sure what sparked the trouble, but we were not getting along with each other today. We were at 6000 feet and there was not many trees to block the wind. It was blowing so hard that it was almost horizontal. We quit trying to skirt the mud puddles and started to walk right in the middle of them. Got to Mount Collins Shelter cut off, it was close to noon. It's 1/2 mile to the shelter from the trail, but we decide to go the extra distance just to have a dry place to eat lunch. There is also a water supply nearby.
We get to the shelter and I collect enough wood and start a fire in the shelters fireplace. It was nice to get warm. We broke the sandwich routine and ate a hot lunch. Just as we were loading up to leave, in comes Leo. He voiced concern about making it through the Smokies with the food that he had available because of the weather slowing him down. He asked if we had any food that we could spare. This is a tremendously difficult request for one hiker to ask of another. Giving up ones food. You have to hike tens of miles and carry everything you are going to use to survive. To ask anyone to give up something that they have carried 40 miles is hard. Vicki and I really didn't mind. Actually he would be doing us a favor to relieve us of some of this weight. We had gotten to each town with at least one full days provisions and sometimes much more. We had plenty to spare. We were able to share a full pack of Liptons noodles and a can of chicken. We were thrilled to be able to help him and us at the same time. Leo was left with some extra food and the warmth of our fire and we left with the warmth of his friendship.
We continued our hike on to Newfound Gap in the rain. By now we were hiking in the worst weather of the trip, just trying to get to the next shelter. At Newfound Gap is a road, a monument to the Rockefellers, who had a lot to do with the Smokies, and a public restroom, unheated. I sure could have used some actual heat. I was getting very cold. The rain gear had been falling apart as I had walked, the pants were now in shreds. I ripped off the remaining plastic and threw them away. I had only the jacket left and it was in pretty bad shape. I would now be at the mercy of the rain.
Only 3 1/2 miles to the shelter. We pushed on, uphill of course, in the rain. Vicki had her crisis, and I was on the verge of having mine. How much colder would it get before we got to the shelter and out of these wet clothes into something warm? We only hiked about 1 mile per hour, this got better as we went on but for right now it would take 3 hours to get to the shelter, and us walking in this cold rain, already soaked to the bone. As we hiked we met several people hiking by in the opposite direction. None of them seemed to be prepared to be out there in this weather. We asked each as they passed by "How much farther?" and we never seemed to get an answer that could be anything close to accurate. We picked over rocks and roots going as fast as we could. Vicki threatened to tell her mother on me, for keeping her out in these terrible hiking conditions. We were over our "upset" and just wanted to get to a shelter.
This was Sunday afternoon, and there was a horde of day hikers at the Shelter. It was so full that we could barely get inside the gate. We didn't even have enough room to take off our packs. We wondered if we were going to have a place to sleep tonight. It was getting late in the afternoon and many of the day hikers realized that if they were going to get back to the gap and to their cars that they had better get started. Before nightfall, there were only about seven of us left in the shelter.
We selected a place to sleep, on the top bunk. What a mistake. The roof leaked. Not bad, but bad enough to get things really wet. We moved to the bottom bunk. There was still plenty of room, and it was a lot dryer. Home at last. A fire in the fire place, dry clothes (a miracle in itself) and hot food. This was great. Neal Andreae (yes, I'm pretty sure about the spelling) aka "Big Smoky" was a trail maintenance worker who was staying at the shelter. He knew the area well and had a walkie-talkie to keep in touch with the ranger station. We felt better now. Get some sleep.
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