Snow Day Round 2, May 6th

I woke up feeling cold and shaking. It had been raining all night long. I wanted to grab my sleeping quilt hood and in the process of looking for it I noticed there was water on the floor next to me. There was a leak in the roof and it was dripping right on top of me and my side. The center and side of my quilt were wet as were my dry socks i had been using as mittens. I looked  up trying to see if there was a leak and a big drop of water hit my face. My quilt is down feathers and getting that wet is potentially life threatening in the temperatures we've been facing. I tried my best to dry everything out and move my stuff. I had to take a pee break and I didn't hear any more rain so i thought it would be a good idea to pee now. On my way to the ladder I saw some sand on the ground in my red light. I thought that it was strange as I didn't see it before and figured it was just paint so I touched it. It was snow! The other more drafty side of the shelter has 2 piles of snow forming. Straps' gear she was trying to dry got covered in it. There was a good half inch layer on top of all the iced up rain by the time I got outside. I didn't go to far since I was only wearing flip flops. When i came back in my quilt felt a bit dryer. The leak that had been above me started sprinkling snow in instead of dripping. The inside temperature in this much warmer upstairs is 22F. I have no idea how cold it is outside.

It kept snowing on and off for hours. It was just absolutely brutally cold. It had accumulated an inch and a half of snowfall on the ground. It was so hard getting motivated to head out in the morning. Barefoot and I hiked together with the goal of getting to the barn shelter 7 miles down the trail. Straps and Babbit decided to stay and spend a zero in the shelter because of the weather. Everyone else from the first floor of the shelter had already left by the time I got down. My toes were freezing after putting them in my shoes. I had to sit around warming up my feet before leaving. There was a random winter glove mixed in with some trash at the other end of the shelter that i used. I'm so glad I found it because one of my socks that i had planned on using as gloves had gotten wet overnight in the leaking and froze overnight.

The trail was absolutely stunning. After a bit of warming up on the trail I was feeling much better. It was more of a game of trying to keep my feet dry and not slip on the ice. It was still very cold and there was more rain in the forcast for the day so that was really concerning. There was only one major road with a parking lot in the 17 mile stretch between the Roan High Knob Shelter and the town of Roam Mountain, TN, and it was 2 miles away from the shelter. There were cars there and a couple. I made the decision to try to hitch in to town for safety. The couple at Carvers Gap took us down and into town. The drive was beautiful with the snow and ice. It was great to finally be headed somewhere safe and warm.

We stopped at a visitor center on the way down for directions and a bathroom break. I was concerned about needing to poop earlier on the trail. How do i dig a hole if the ground is frozen? How do i use my fingers when they are stiff and frozen popsicles? Luckily it never came to that.

 It was a bit of a drive, maybe 30min? I felt extremely car sick from the winding roads. We got dropped off at Mountain Harbour, the hostel that's really close to the trail. It turns out they were fully booked for the night. Barefoot and I were able to get reservations at the Harmony Hostel which is a bit far off away from the trail but everything else was full for the night. They offered a free shuttle but we had to wait until later in the day. In the meantime we got pizza at this amazing local place, absolutely delicious. It's not on our maps but someone recommended it.

The town of Roan Mountain was having their first annual trail days as a celebration of being recognized as the 41st official Appalachian Trail town. This means that the town welcomes the hikers.

We got pizza then we went to the hiker fest. There wasn't much going on since it started raining. We got free shirts and a bunch of pasteries for free, great trail magic!

The Harmony Hostel felt like a spa. It was very fancy and the beds were in office like cubicles with 2 beds per cubicle. There were a lot of rules but nothing at all like the Greasy Creek hostel. We were shuttled down the street over by where most of the restaurants were by the hostel. We ate at this nicer restaurant, I really wanted steak and also to treat myself because of how crappy the last few days had been. Barefoot had ordered escargot and convinced me to try one. I've never eaten snails before. I actually really like snails and used to have one as a pet.

Barefoot took a video of me eating one. It was actually not bad at all. It was kind of like eating a mushroom until I started thinking about the fact that I had a snail in my mouth and I just made a bunch of faces and started crying.

Dessert was delicious! 

Today we made it as far as mile 378.9 with 1810.9 left to go.