Day 14

Just wanted to give you an update in terms of how my climb into the Smokie Mountains turned out. It actually turned out surprisingly pleasant. Again, like I'd mentioned before, I had been concerned about what I would find in the Smokies. It was a very long climb up out of Fontana Dam, but I actually felt pretty good about it and decided to go beyond the original shelter that was scheduled, and ended up at the Russell shelter for the evening. In the Smokies they require you to stay in the shelters, unless there is not enough room, then you can camp. Day 14, first day into the Smokies was the first time that I had the opportunity to spend a night in a shelter. Actually the shelters in the Smokies are pretty good. It was my understanding that they had actually caged the shelters in, but they've taken those fences down since I read about them. They each have three sides, a little fireplace, and shelves, for you to bunk in. They generally hold about 12 people. Because of the cold weather they've put a big tarp in front of the open side of the shelter, which makes it relatively cozy. Hiked out with most of the gang, which would include Shoe Fly, Nero, OTT, and Battle Cat. I also met Muggles and Survivor Man and Super Chef and Speedy Gonzalez. When I was getting ready to fix dinner this evening on day 14, I realized that darnit I'd left my fuel canister, one of my fuel canisters back at the hotel, so I've got to be very careful in terms of how to manage it. It's kind of funny because as soon as we got into the Smokies, it's like a switch turned on in terms of the cold, cold, cold, bitter weather. It got very cold day 14 and it was nice to have a fire, but it really didn't heat up the shelter at all and it probably got down into the lower 20s. In fact it was snowing and sleeting and when we got up in the morning it was certainly very very cold. I'll tell you about day 15 in a second.

Dictation made on 3/26/2011 7:34 PM EST.