I could tell you that it was a long night, but that would be an understatement. I am quite sure I did not sleep for more than a few minutes. My toes and body took turns being the coldest parts of me, and I did a lot of squirming inside my bag to generate a little heat throughout the night. My sleeping bag was cinched down so that just a small hole was left, and I stayed well below the surface. Anytime the air hit my face, cold chills would roll through my body. I heard Kara get out of her tent a couple times during the night to use the bathroom, and I thought to myself that nothing could make me get out of my bag before I had to get going in the morning!
Finally, before daylight, I heard voices. We were all awake in our tents, stiff and tired from the long night. Misty and Chelsea had been in contact with our shuttle driver, Paul, and had come up with a plan to get us back to the hostel. Originally, we had planned to hike the two miles back to Grayson Highlands, but after climbing up through all of that ice, we didn't know how we'd be able to hike back down through it. Plus, the winter storm that was predicted to arrive on Wednesday had been bumped up and was now going to be arriving Tuesday evening. This was the deciding factor in not staying out on trail another night. We decided instead to head further south, five miles to Elk Garden, to be picked up.
The last thing I wanted to do was get out of my sleeping bag. I tried to pack up as much of my gear as I could without uncovering myself, and I didn't want to even try to make coffee. I'd put one thing away and then warm up my fingers. Then I'd put something else away and again warm up my fingers. The wind had died down, but it was downright cold. COLD, cold. From what I could hear from inside my tent, everyone was struggling the same way I was. Eventually, there was nothing left to do but get out of my tent and pack it up. When I tried to remove my tent stakes, I found that they were frozen into the ground. Great! I kicked each stake a few times with my frozen-toed shoes and managed to pull out my stakes with the help of some paracord. Misty and Chelsea didn't have as much luck getting their stakes out. I helped them with a few but I think we ended up leaving three stakes there, frozen into the ground.
Once all of my gear was packed away, I passed the time waiting for the others to finish up by jogging around the campsite and jumping in place. I'm sure I looked ridiculous, but I didn't care. I desperately needed to warm up my core and fingers and toes. Despite the cold, I was still happy to be out among the trees in this beautiful place.
We were all packed and ready by 8am, and we wished those three lonely tent stakes farewell. We had survived 12 hours in our tents at minus ten degrees, and now we had four hours to hike the next five miles out of there. Please note how bundled we all were as we headed out!
Here on the edge of the tree line, we were sheltered from the wind, and the first mile or so was fairly level, giving us the opportunity to pick up some speed. We all had our ice spikes on this morning, and I kind of regretted not stopping to put them on the night before-they made a huge difference in traction and our overall safety on the icy trail.
Despite the cold, it was a great morning. We knew we were heading to warmth and shelter in just a few miles, and the landscape was breathtaking. We came across the 500-mile mark, there for those thru hikers who start the trail in Georgia and take it all the way to Maine. Someday that'll be me...
We came to and passed Thomas Knob Shelter, which we had considered sleeping in the night before. It was a tiny shelter, with a donated tarp halfway covering the opening of the three-sided structure, and I was so glad we had opted to sleep in our tents!
I had heard the pine trees in this area were especially beautiful, and with the icy snow on them they looked like a real-life painting.
Soon we came to the spur trail for Mount Rogers. This would've added a mile onto the day, and lots of extra climbing-both up to the summit and back down. Unfortunately, under the circumstances, we ultimately decided not to visit Virginia's highest point. We had had our fill of icy trails and knew the spur trail would be treacherous under the current conditions.
Instead, we hiked on, slowly but surely coming down to lower elevations. The sun decided to show up, and I was not complaining about that!
A little further down the trail, we realized we were following the fresh tracks of a mama and baby bear. It was fun to see the confident and steady prints of mama combined with the wandering playful steps of the baby bear. We never ended up seeing the bears, but it left me wondering if they saw us.
We had also been seeing horseshoe prints on the trail. We were now about four or five miles from Grayson Highlands, but there must have been an escape! Right after the bear tracks ended, we found ourselves overlooking a little sheltered pasture area, and there, munching on grass through the snow were two ponies! We were too far to go for a proper visit, but we called our hellos as we passed by.
I had warmed up quite nicely, but a few members of the group still had frozen fingers and toes. Even a brief pause on trail let us know that the temperature was not warming up very much. Brr! I pulled out my water for a sip and it was nearly frozen!
We continued coming down out of the mountains, and I was being extra careful with my trekking poles. Somehow during the hike up last night, I had bent one of my poles pretty significantly and I was worried that if I put too much weight on it I would snap it. My trekking poles are also my tent poles, so I really couldn't afford to break one!
The further down we went, the more vegetation began appearing. We were well below tree line now, and everyone started to relax. We were out of the ice, the sun was out, and we had just about a mile left until we reached our destination.
The trail came out of the woods and left us in a strange, almost barren-looking area. It seemed we had one more hill to climb!
At the top of the hill, we could look down and see the parking lot-our finish line! The end was in sight!
We made it to Elk Garden an hour ahead of schedule. We hoped our shuttle driver, Paul, would be early. The sun was shining but the air was cold. We bundled up and tried to find good places to soak up the sun's warmth while we waited. Paul wasn't early but the time passed quickly and soon we were all loaded up into his truck and heading back towards Marion.
Back at Marion Outfitters, we once again paid our hostel fees and headed upstairs to The Merry Inn. Our gear explosion was a little more controlled this time, since nothing was really wet. We threw in some laundry and went in search of food.
We headed next door to Macado's again and ended up at the very same table we had sat at on Sunday. This time however, we were in for a treat. Our shuttle driver, Bunny, was our waitress! She is just an incredible woman, and she lifted our spirits whenever we were in her presence. We started the meal out with a toast to "LIVING" because we were all glad to have made it through the ordeal of the night before.
While we were waiting for our food, Bunny surprised us with plates of pickles! This lady knew some stuff! We thanked her and happily munched away on our pickles, reminiscing about the trip so far.
Once back at the hostel, we had to have a conversation. Conditions had been tough on trail, and there was a winter storm on the horizon. If there was little to no new snowfall, we could probably continue, but Friday was supposed to be in the single digits again and did we want to be in that situation again? And if the 4-7 inches of snow that was predicted actually fell, we wouldn't be able to hike at all. All of the landslides and damage from Helene made the trail dangerous enough, and a bunch of new snow would be even more treacherous. As the song goes, "You've got to know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em..." We decided to fold. We didn't want to keep hiking a day or two and then have to keep calling for an emergency transport off the trail, and we didn't know what this storm was going to do. So, unfortunately, we decided to plan to leave the next morning.
That night, we went to a little oven-fired pizza place down the street and stayed for trivia night. The pizzas were great and our team, "Frostbite", took third place for the trivia, with a grand total score of ZERO. It was a great, relaxing night, and we were already able to joke about the severe conditions from the night before.
Total miles: 5.07
Total elevation gain: 577
😬
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