Day 44 - Back on the Trail, but Mark's Injury is Acting Up

Sunday, May 17th - At Thomas Knob Shelter - Tough night - rained hard, with occasional strong gusts of wind, from 9:30 - 11:30 pm, then again from 3:15 - 5:00 am, then again from 6:20 - 7:00 am. Some of the folks downstairs got wet from rain blowing in during the wind gusts, but we stayed dry upstairs. Not that I slept real well. Pity everyone in the tents! Chilly again, too, about 48 degrees. Mark and I got up at 6:00, but we also decided to eat at the shelter, since finding a "nice spot" for breakfast didn't seem too realistic a possibility this morning! So no quick getaway today.

Left at 7:00 am just as the heavy rain was easing a bit - still totally socked in and blowing hard, and we both quickly lost all feeling in our hands (an all too familiar sensation during this trek, so far). The lack of visibility was a real shame, because the view over the balds at Mt. Rogers are renown. Well, not today! And the ponies had the good sense to hunker down out of sight too. "Oh well." The mists began to break a bit around 10:00 am, and the rains ended, but by then we were well past the balds. Tough slogging again - very rocky trail, and running pretty deep in water at various points - Mark and I both got a boot full several times. The poor trail was beginning to aggravate Mark's injury again, but he kept pounding on anyway (not much choice!) We ended up continuing to the Old Orchard Shelter for lunch, arriving just about the time the sun started breaking through the clouds (a mixed blessing, because the temperature started to drop again as the front passed). Soon after we arrived at the shelter, a group of 10 students from Chatham University (near Pittsburgh?) came in, looking pretty miserable themselves. We had seen their vans at the Elk Garden parking lot, but this was the first we had seen of them. They were taking a course in "Environmental Art" (God only knows what that is!), and were out there for a week in the woods. They looked very young - in fact Mark thought they were high school students til we talked with them for awhile. No adults - there was one older looking student who I assume was a graduate assistant, who appeared to be somewhat in charge. They were all hugging each other for warmth, and I suggested that they put on their rain gear, but that was ignored, what do I know, right? Well, at least they were drying out in the breeze, even if half freezing to death in the process. A nice enough group, just unprepared for the conditions. We took our leave of them around 1:00.

The trail improved dramatically after the shelter, much better graded and with much less rock-hopping. We went up about a 1500 foot climb over Iron Mountain, but by the time we reached Hurricane Shelter Mark's leg had had enough, so we bagged it there, around 3:45. He is now very concerned about his ability to continue on the trek, and it seems with good reason, too - this is not a good development, after 2 zero days, for sure. After relaxing for a bit, we ate an early dinner, and also got in our sleeping bags early, since it was still windy and chilly, already in the mid-40's and still dropping. After a terrible start, a decent enough day, and 16 miles down - but even that may have been a shelter too far....