The Beast Awakens

3/30/2013


The Beast Awakens

The hike out of Wesser, North Carolina from the NOC, on the Nantahala River, had been difficult.  I had resupplied there for the three days to Fontana Dam, and also pretty much for the planned first four days in the Smokies..... to Gatlinburg Tennessee.  I thought that the seasonal store at Fontana Village was closed. Turns out it opened the day before I got there.
The result was that I hauled an extra 6-8 pounds up some serious hills.........Cheoah Bald was the first one.    I got to the top of it after three hours......took some video with my phone.....a break and had snacks......started hiking again, and reached the actual top an hour and a half later.
Anyhow the result of all this is that when I got to Fontana, I decided not to add any supplies. Better to be a bit short that last day, than suffer extra weight again.

At Fontana, on Sunday, we got free printed weather reports for both Fontana, and up top at Clingmans Dome. The local residents.......(even the business people, who make their living off hiker dollars), are constantly helping us out......even when it costs them potential business.  I am still shocked by this hospitality.........but I see it all the time.
It was gonna be real cold up top....... 17 degrees at night and windy as hell....... with highs in the upper 20s,  then a gradual warm up starting Wednesday.
1-3 inches of snow was forecast.  The locals were concerned.  The Beast is stirring!.......they warned....... careful!......careful!  What if the beast wakes up?  It might be wise for all of you thru- hikers to hang out a couple a days at Fontana, and watch to see if the restless Beast remains sleeping.
A bunch of hikers had already stayed 2-3 days at Fontana to avoid the last three days of rain.  Some to heal muscle strains.......knees....blisters, or just to reenergize. It was getting expensive, and boring, and the Smokies were just across the dam.
My hiking companion at the time........Airborne, said he was staying at least a day........maybe two. Airborne has common sense.
I said........ "I want to see those mountains! Now!  Hell........ I'm from Minnesota!   It's a crummy 1-3, that's nothing!  Ok.  It'll be windy.....it's already windy, all the time."

So all of us, who have half a brain or less,  headed into the wind, and across that big dam..... planning to sneak in.......right past the nose of the restless Beast!

I stayed at the Fontana "Hilton" hiker shelter ......it's the largest shelter on the trail on Saturday night........(Sat afternoon had been very warm.....then a light rain started and the wind picked up.)
Sunday morning, I was second out of the shelter........."Sugar Knome" was long gone.  People said she had left at 6:30 am.
Down at the dam, it was windy......40 mph, and light flurries.
Someone,  or multiple someones, had stomped out the word "Dam" in the bit of snow, in letters 30-40 feet in size, on the steep slope of a dike, surrounded by water,  East of the dam.  I laughed and tried to figure out how the hell they got out there to do that, so early in the day.  They were definitely determined Jokesters!  I was gonna take a picture but found that my phone battery was dead.....again. This phone does not like cold!   So I stopped on the dam and charged the batteries.  Do you like the pics?

Okay.......okay.  Lets get to it.
Five miles into the Smokies........still six miles away from the first shelter,  it became abundantly clear to me that not only was the Beast awake.......he was seriously pissed off........ and was going to bite all of us fools, invading his mountains.......in the ass......really hard.

Just like that, my hike stopped being that......and became scary dangerous.  It became a true struggle to survive.  I knew that I had to make it to that shelter......I had to get to that shelter.  "Grim" a younger man,  passed me up, and a short while later,  I saw by his tracks,  that he had missed a turn in the trail,  and was headed up a peak off trail.  Anyhow it looked like it to me.  I decided that the trail went left....trusted my judgement........ and went left.  Jeez...... Grim was going the wrong way! It was blowing,  and snowing,  and freezing.  He was faster than me.....I could not catch him.....I knew it.  He seemed well equipped......better than me.  If I went after him.....it would be me slowing him up, when he realized his mistake.  I made the rational choice.  I left Grim and his track behind....... and turned left.  I had to make that shelter!
There were some hikers headed in the opposite direction......back toward the dam.  They had been out the night before.  They were all moving fast..... Some of 'em looked really scared.
I wondered if I looked scared to them......I knew that I was indeed,  scared.  One asked for water,  and I gave him some of mine.  Part of it was already frozen in my quart Gatorade Bottle.  I filled my smaller bottle from it,  put it in my pants pocket,  so that it would not freeze,  and dumped the rest,  slush and all into his container.  He was sweating like crazy.....not wearing a hat even......just a poncho hood.  He was trying to catch up to his two buddies, that I had seen earlier.  He was afraid...........panicked.
Yeah,  I was scared too.......not panicked .  I was traveling way faster than my normal pace, and never stopped once to take a break.  It was a mad 11mile dash for that Mollies Ridge Shelter.   Going fast meant sweating like crazy......getting soaked in sweat under my rain gear.....a serious no, no.   But the other choice was bad too.  Stop to rest,  and freeze.
My shoes and socks were wet from the rain the day before.  My gloves,  bought as a last minute concession....(I was not going to bring any)......were just better than worthless.  I was prepared for cold, but not for this brutal storm. This is International Falls,Mn.,  in January.  It can not be North Carolina.   It's just not possible!  And the wind howled at 50 miles an hour!
I got to a sign that said 3.1 miles to the shelter.  I knew I could make it another 3 miles, in this howling blizzard.......I had to make it!    It was an endless 3 miles......just on and on.....forever.    When I could not stand it any more,  I promised myself that it was just one more mile.  I could go one more mile.
Where the hell is that damn shelter?   I couldn't have missed it,  could I?   I forced that possibility out of mind.  The snow was really piling up..... and drifting.  I was trapped in the midst of a snow hurricane!   I had to get to Mollies Ridge,  before it got dark.  It took only about ten minutes for tracks on the trail to be covered over.  
"Grim" had caught and passed me.  And I was trying to follow his tracks.  "Grim" had gone off the AT intentionally.  He went up top, to the top of an observation tower,  that I did not know about.  He said the top of the tower was really rocking.....  and swaying madly..... the metal seriously groaning. Grim had a big smile on his frozen face. ( Oh, to be young, and truly invincible..... and know not fear).

The snow and sleet was sticking to everything.  It was hard to see any white blazes. The AT is heavily used.  You can follow it in the dark without blazes.  But this was different.......I wanted those blazes.....the security of  blazes,  to tell me that I had not gone wrong.
When the fear creeps in, you want to see those whites blazes; blazes to promise you,  that in this swirling.....howling.....killer beast of a storm .........that you have not somehow missed a turn.....have not somehow..... while plodding blindly forward..... gotten off that path.
I pulled open the tarp hanging at the entrance to the shelter,  and stepped out of the jaws of the Beast .   "Sugar Knome" was there, trying to start a fire in the fireplace.....(Wow! The shelters in the Smokies have fireplaces.)  with snow covered, frozen,  wood.  Those branches are green....... look at the buds. That stuff ain't gonna burn .......I noted to myself.
 I did not care.  I was safe.  It was damn cold, and some snow was getting inside...... but I was safe.  I had escaped the jaws of the terrible Beast.
Like every single person,  who stumbled into Mollies Ridge that day.....the first words out of my mouth were,
"There is no fricking way that was 3.1 miles!  That was the longest 3.1 miles of my life!  That was 5 miles, or 6 miles.  It was not 3.1."
No longer afraid .....I was really pissed at that damn, lying sign.  I was not pissed at the Beast.  This was far from over.  It would continue howling,  and snowing another full day.  But I was silent on the subject of the Beast....I was bitten,  but had escaped.  I had learned ....as the locals had warned.  Truly...... you do not want to draw the attention of the Beast!