They closed Skyline drive on Wednesday or Thursday after some snow and ice. This happens often enough that I didn't worry about it. I figured that as usual the drive would open up again in a day or so. But that didn't happen this time. They did open up portions of the drive by Friday, but not the portion we needed to get to for our planned hike. And Friday evening as we were driving out, they preemptively closed the entire drive because they expected more snow and ice.
Well. That changed matters a bit. We had originally planned to drive into the park Friday night and stay at a hut close to the drive, thus saving $100 in motel fees or an early morning drive from home to the park. The previous December we had stayed at the local Holiday Inn and it had been quite nice - fridge in the room, spacious, clean, and best of all a gluten-free-friendly restaurant on the premises. So we headed up to the Holiday Inn to see if they had a room available. They did, and all my information was still in their computer so checkin was a breeze. We ate dinner, did a little pack reorganization, and conked out.
In the morning, the drive was still closed. I made oatmeal with hot water from the coffee maker, stared at the snow up on the mountains, and contemplated. And looked at my map. We could still do our hike if we parked outside the park and hiked in the to the AT. And if we went in at Compton Gap, there was even an entrance station where we could get a permit. Done deal.
I've never intentionally done an overnight hike in snow. I've been snowed on during a hike and then hiked out in the morning, but I've never gone in knowing that I would definitely be hiking and camping in snow. But I have hundreds of nights of camping under my belt. I figured it was time.
We parked the car at the trailhead and started up the trail. There was, indeed, snow on the ground. However, there was no entrance station. We debated briefly and decided to be scofflaws. It wasn't worth hiking back to the car, driving to the main park entrance for a permit, then driving back and hiking back up the trail. It would have added an extra mile and who knows how long to our day.
I'm not a good scofflaw. I planned to throw myself on the mercy of the ranger if caught. Especially as we had relied on the map in good faith.
We saw a few people in the first two hours, but after that we only saw three sets of footprints. And then two of those sets suddenly disappeared at a road. They must have gotten a ride out of the park. So then it was just the one set, and they were northbound while we were southbound. I was pretty sure we'd have the park to ourselves at night.
Several miles from our planned destination (which was 10 miles from our starting point rather than the planned 6 or 7) DeLee was pretty tired. I found a spring running, but I didn't find a good place to put our tent. The winds were supposed to pick up, and our tent needed to A) be staked, and B) be placed with its butt into the wind. All the campsites we looked at either sloped such that our heads would be downhill, or had standing deadwood nearby. And I wasn't sure I could get a stake into the frozen ground. So I persuaded her to keep going. She started slipping and falling on the next hill.
With one mountain left to go, I decided we should walk down the drive to the hut rather than go over that last hill. DeLee was pretty much done. I couldn't hear her over the crunching of my feet in the snow, so I'd stop periodically to check for her. And I turned around once and she wasn't there. I started walking back up the mountain to her. She was far behind. But we were close to shelter, and she made it the rest of the way.
I got her into her sleeping bag and started heating water. She didn't want to eat, but I wasn't having that. I told her I didn't care if she *wanted* to eat, she was going to. Once the water (eventually) boiled, I prepared my soup and she prepared her chili mac. My soup turned out to be a better choice. She had to ziplock up the remains of her chili mac because she couldn't finish it. But at least she got food into her, and she seemed to feel perkier.
We got into our bags pretty quickly after that, because the temperature was dropping. I have no idea how cold it got, but my sleeping bags (15 degree with a 30 degree quilt inside) were up to the task. DeLee was cold at first but soon warmed up.
My fitbit says I woke up 17 times. Only 17? Seems unlikely.
The morning dawned very cold. I was happy when the sun crossed the nearest mountain and began to shine into the shelter. It helped warm things up. Even so, we ended up having to insulate the filter tubes with a down jacket so that the water wouldn't freeze as it dripped down the tube. With the jacket on the tubes, we filtered four liters of water and were ready for the day. We buried the water deep in our packs so that it would stay liquid, and we stashed the bite tubes in our shirts so they wouldn't freeze solid between sips. Dehydration is a serious issue in winter because you tend not to feel thirsty in the cold. I was determined to drink enough to stave off dehydration, mainly because dehydration leads to lack of energy.
After the slipping and falling yesterday, there was no question of going back over the mountains. Instead, we walked Skyline drive. Since it was still closed, we could walk on it anywhere we wanted. We had to stick to the shoulder anywhere there was ice on the road, but much of the ice had sublimated since Saturday. It was a bit tedious walking on the road, but we had great views at the overlooks, and there were a LOT of animal tracks on the road. Way more than I had ever seen in the woods. So that was fun.
Around mid morning a ranger drove by, checking the condition of the drive. He stopped to do a sanity check - were we okay? Did we have warm enough clothing? We reassured him that we were fine, and the very fact that we were taking the safer road rather than the more treacherous mountain paths was an indicator that we were sane. Or at least more sane than we might be.
He told us it was 17 degrees out according to his truck's sensor, and he was on his way. We told him to be careful on the ice.
By about 3 pm both DeLee and I were struggling. We were tired, the temperature was dropping, and the wind had picked up. With the sub freezing temperatures and 30 mph winds, the wind chill was brutal. Fortunately we were nearly back to the car, so I sucked it up and soldiered on. We were both pretty happy to see the car.
I ended the hike wearing everything I had brought except my down jacket and the wet socks from Saturday. I'm pretty sure I've never worn that much to hike in, certainly not without getting too hot. When we got to the car I was wearing: wool socks, my boots, grocery bags in the boots (because the boots aren't waterproof), two pairs of long johns, zipoff pants, a down skirt, a rain skirt, a wicking shirt, a wool shirt, a fleece shirt, a wind shirt, a raincoat, gloves, overmitts, a wool buff, a fleece neck gaiter, a ball cap, and a fleece hat. And I wasn't too warm. Wow.
There are a few changes I'd make if we were to do it again, and I think we might. Waterproof boots. A free standing tent. Chemical water treatment. Extra stove fuel. More wool socks. More high calorie food. And more soups and drinks. But I think we did pretty well, considering. My face is wind burned, and DeLee is a little sore from wearing heavy boots, but I'm happy with the trip. It was beautiful in the park with the snow. I loved the solitude. Even as I was worrying about finding a camp site, I was still impressed with the drama of the scene around me.
Long story short, I went hiking with DeLee and it was good.
