Hypothermia averted…

Yesterday was much like any other on the AT. The A-Team woke up with the sun, rolled out of our cozy bags on the second floor of the new Long Branch Shelter in the Nanthahala National Forest, ate some Pop Tarts, packed our bags, and went on our merry way. A ways down the trail, we passed Sleeping Beauty, got to talking, and he decided to join our ‘crew’ (AT speak for friend group).

After 7.3 miles we hitched a ride 10 miles in the back of Eric’s work truck to Franklin, North Carolina. We did a quick resupply, downed some burgers and sweet tea (the north has failed miserably on this one), and hitched a ride back to the trail in the back of Hill’s truck. We planned to camp 0.3 miles from the road, but as is our style, we hiked another 4+ miles to Siler Bald Shelter. Our tents went up as usual, and we had a lovely evening.

The rain was forecast to begin around 9am this morning. It showed up at 3am instead. Breaking down camp in the rain is no problem (with a bit of efficient strategizing), but it seemed quite colder than it should have been. After a slow start, we were off. Despite our slow pace (rainy muck) all was well… until we started to up our elevation and the wet just kept getting wetter. The rain began freezing to the trees, then it started freezing to us. I had icicles hanging from the hood of my rain jacket, and we all had a centimeter of ice covering our packs.

The ice had set in by 10am, the rain continued, the wind was cold and strong, and trees began to fall. Before to long, hands were cold and wet, feet were cold and wet, and the strenuous up hills were not enough to keep the core of our bodies warm. This is when the risk for hypothermia becomes a problem. It quickly became apparent that we needed to get off the mountain.

Our cell phones had no service. So… we walked on… shivering. From the top of Wayah Bald, at 5,342 feet, we desperately began calling for a shuttle to get us down. The lovely Larry of Larry’s Taxi Service came to our rescue! Sadly, he was 45 minutes from us, so we slowly, burning feet, and blue lipped walked down USFS 96 towards Larry’s route uphill.

Larry found us cold, wet, and very happy to see him, a total stranger. The four of us are at the Microtel back in Franklin. Our faces are bright red and burned, our stuff is strewn about the room dripping, and we are all relieved to be warm.

I have been hiking since I was a small child. I have traveled all around the world. I have done many things. I am a pretty tough kid. I have never existed in such a survival mode as I did today. My hands and feet burned, my face tingled, and my entire body was shaking. We could not stop walking because the cold was so unbearable. It was scary. As I sit here now, I am proud of how the situation was handled. We got off the mountain rather than trying to achieve our milage goal, and hypothermia was averted. Others had to be rescued by ambulance, some had to leave their tents on the trail because of more than an inch of ice cover. Today, without question, I gained a real understanding that weather is not to be crossed. I am safe, warm, and will be happy to get back on the the trail tomorrow… in the bright sun.