We talk it over at breakfast and are ambivalent. We really don't want to take four zeroes. A couple of us need to get to Maine by mid-August, and another has the look of a caged animal in her eyes at the thought of being stuck here. I pull out topo maps to see how exposed the trail is. Today perhaps only 25% of the trail is protected in the trees, and perhaps a third is exactly on the ridge. We'll definitely get blown.
This area is one of the highlights of the entire trail. With Mt Rogers and the Grayson Highlands, this is a rich diverse and scenic section. If we hike now all we will see is gray, just like Clingmans Dome, Roan Mountain, and so many others. This place even has wild ponies! But do we wait four days just to see the views?
For me either I jump on the trail and bang out two twenty mile days or I wait. Why? Because Spirit is coming back! If I can get to Marion in two days (despite the weather) then I meet her Monday night.
Other hikers have opted in or out, and the van drives up. We still go back and forth. The driver hops in the cab and starts the engine. Decision time. I jump in the van and the others join. We're going.
So if I'm headed right back in to the storm, was it a mistake to bail out last night? Nope, I got to bag some serious calories including a breakfast of six eggs, a double serving of potatoes and four pieces of toast.
Back up at Elk Garden, we open the van door and are instantly blasted. Did we make the wrong call?
We head straight across the exposed ridge, leaning hard to the right and bracing with both hiking poles to stay on course. Even so I repeatedly get blown sideways and have to fight to get back on the trail. A thin 13 year old girl leans into the wind and is lifted up, completely airborne, and lands three feet downwind.
My pack cover rips off and I race to catch it. With the heavy rain tomorrow I am dependent upon it. After a hundred yards it pauses momentarily on some brush and I snag it. By the end of the day at least three people have lost their pack covers for good.
Fortunately the rain is light. Even better, those white areas on the topo maps are not fully exposed and brush and trees 5-10 feet high blocks most of the wind. The area was once pasture, but is now reseeding with thickets. That's the reason for the ponies - they were introduced to help hold some of the pasture open for those wonderful highland views. Today I am thankful for the thickets.
Ten miles in, thirteen hikers cram inside one shelter eating lunch. Some are planning how to bail out. Some intend to not move another inch until the storm passes. Some talk of reaching another shelter, either five and ten miles onward.
With my slow pace I need to keep moving or options close out, and I want to make another ten miles. I finish lunch and head out first but no one passes me and none arrive at the distant shelter, 19.7 miles for the day. I'm not sure what the others decided. Instead I join four others already in their sleeping bags, one of whom spent the whole day there.
The rain is heavy by the end of the day. The creeks are full, fast and brown, and the trail is waterlogged. Since my rain gear is unreliable, I planned for everything I wear to be wet, and saved enough dry clothes for sleeping. Once out of the wind, I added the plastic emergency poncho over the rain coat so my trunk was dry. My head was warm, trunk dry if a bit cool, arms and legs cool and wet, and hands and feet waterlogged and cold. That worked well enough and hopefully will do the trick in tomorrow's heavy rain.
The National Weather Service issues a Flood Warning as I head to bed, forecasting 2-4 inches of rain tonight and tomorrow. The creek crossings will become hazardous. I am glad I pushed hard today; now I really want to get down off of this mountain while I can.
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