Winter Blues

There are lows on the trail and there are highs. I can go on for paragraphs about some of the highs, some of the amazing people we’ve met so far, some of the many loving moments of support and laughter Teatime and I have shared, some of the spectacularly beautiful views we’ve seen, I could go on. 

But then there are the lows. 

We left Open Arms Hostel in Luray Monday afternoon after having a relaxing morning tying up lose ends and getting ready to set out on what we thought would be a lovely seven days of hiking to Waynesboro. Our first accent was to Mary’s Rock, just south of Thornton Gap, where this photo of us was taken. The sun was blazing and we were loving it. 

We heard of snow and rain from many people but the locals kept saying it would mostly likely pass over us or likely wouldn't be too bad. As the sun was setting we found a grassy area near a picnic area in Shenandoah National Park to set up our tent. In busy season, this would have been a big no-no to set up so close to the trail and to a picnic area but we weren’t going to see anyone that day anyways so we thought ‘what the heck!’. As we were setting up our food for dinner, Teatime was getting the stove ready. He had mistakenly left it sitting out the night before to release some of the last drops of fuel from a canister before recycling it. We didn’t know this would ruin the way the stove released gas from canisters and end our week of hot meals. When we realized we would have to rely only on cold food for the week, we thought while that sounds awful, we need to keep on hiking and it was just a small bump in the road that we can recover from. We ate some trail mix and some PB and J wraps for dinner, set up the bear bag in a nearby tree and went to bed.

On Tuesday, we woke up inside an igloo! Ice covered everywhere in our path. We punched our way out of our tent. Teatime attempted to get the bear bag down as I rolled up our sleeping bags and pads. It was more of a challenge taking down the bear bag for Teatime as the knot on the rope was iced-stuck to the tree. He used his knife to pry it off. Then the rope hanging from the branch 15 feet above him was iced-stuck to the tree. He finally got it all down and we had our cold oatmeal to look forward to for breakfast. Then came the tent. We had to peal off sheets of ice from our rain fly in order to pack it away. Every steak was frozen to the ropes of the tent. The whole thing took about an hour, a very painful hour.  After scarfing down cold oatmeal and more trail mix, we set out on the trail. 

For lunch we made it to the ‘closed for the season’ Skyland Restaurant and Resort. We found a small corner without ice or wind to eat some tuna. Just when we thought we were the only crazy people on the mountain, a man smoking a cigarette came out of no where. He must have been a caretaker of the place. We said our hellos but he kindly noted that he couldn’t let us inside. We were a bit bummed but kept hiking on. We reached our hut fairly early. We would have continued on longer but knew the smart thing to do was sleep in a hut that night. (A hut is the same thing as shelter on the AT, hut is just the name the SNP calls shelters. It has three walls usually made from logs or stone and a roof). So we decided to stop hiking early and get cozy and warm. 

Wednesday morning we woke to a lot of snow! It was somewhere between 8 to 10 inches to start with in the morning. By nightfall that day it must have been over a foot deep. I’ve hiked through snowy weather but not that much snow. It was tough. Each step used twice as much energy to hike through. We ended up ‘yellow blazing’ some on skyline drive that day (yellow blazing refers to road walking). While I would like to say I am a purist on the AT, only following the trail strictly and purely, I think the situation we were in would have caused us more danger to follow the trail that day. While it may seem easy to say we road walked a few miles in the Shenandoah’s, I like to say we trekked our way on the road with a foot of snow in our way! 

I was getting emotional at the thought of being in this a few more days. I would cry thinking about how I felt like I was giving up or letting people down. Teatime was extremely supportive in all of my crying spells. My boots were soaked through. Our water filtration system had frozen over so we were eating snow to stay hydrated. For me, I was miserable. For Teatime, he was positive and probably could have kept going. The one thing he kept telling me was that he wanted to do what would make me happy and not hiking through a foot of snow was what was going to make me happy. That is why I can’t imagine spending my life with anyone else. Not to be too gushy, but that’s why I love him. 

Thursday I decided to do what anyone in need of help would do. I called Mom. My mother lives in Roanoke, VA and drove out to pick us up. We had been planning on spending a few days in Roanoke when we hiked to the city anyways so we decided to push those days up a little bit and hang out while the snow could melt a little bit. 

I am not trying to make this sound like the worst few days of my life. There are certainly worst things that could have happened. We are excited to get back to the trail in a few days. I am excited to unload some unwanted items I’ve been hiking with in Roanoke and improve some of our current gear. I'm ready for the next hurdle in the road. No one said it would be easy, thats the one thing I keep telling myself to keep going. For now, we sip warm tea and enjoy the time with my mother, my grandfather, and our cat.