Miles: 73.5 | A short hike turns brutal in freezing rain, soaked contacts, numb legs, and a shelter full of strangers who quickly become allies. Between shivering through failed sleep systems, crinkling Mylar experiments, and an emotional reckoning with independence, this night pushes me to my limits — and quietly teaches me that needing people doesn’t mean I’m failing.
Whisperer and I got a shuttle at 10am from the Holiday Inn Express at Hiawassee with Sally, a local who works with her partner Joyce to shuttle hikers. The rain had started early that morning. For some reason, my anxiety was off the charts that day. My heart was pounding and my head hurt. I was really nauseous. Before we left I ate a bowl of fruit loops and chugged some whole milk.
We hiked the short 3.5 miles in the heaviest rain I had seen yet. At this point I only had shorts. My legs were freezing. Every time a branch stuck out into the trail I avoided it like the plague. Everything that touched my legs felt like someone slapping me with force. My red legs felt like they were getting a whole other ice bath. Like an idiot, I sent my brimmed running hat home thinking I wasn’t using it and didn’t need it. Rigging my umbrella to my pack was out of the question due to high wind gusts. The rain washed my contacts out of my eyes within the first half hour.
We got to the shelter. A beautiful triple decker shelter. Shivering, I pulled out my food bag and left it on the picnic table where we met Maverick, Buck ‘99, Hott Dogg, Pioneer, Turbo, Sleeping Bear, and Purple Haze. I pulled my pack back on and climbed the ladder to the third floor where Sleeping bear was also set up. I pulled out my new Klymit Insulated sleeping pad and blew it up. I set up the rest of my sleeping gear and changed into dry camp clothes (it was a struggle with slightly wet skin...).
Back downstairs we all made our dinners early and used some extra fuel to boil some water for hot chocolate. We got water in the pouring rain. Thankfully, the water source was close here. I headed to the privy after dinner and realized upon my arrival (TMI WARNING...) I had gotten my period that morning. My mother had called that one... We put our food bags in the bear box and I headed to bed around 6pm at sunset. I was cold.
In my sleeping bag on my new sleeping pad I began to feel the same issue that I had with my last sleeping pad... my top side of my body was hot and the bottom side of me (the side that was in contact with the pad) was FREEZING. I began to shiver and realized this wasn’t going to work. I pulled out the footprint/groundcloth for my tent and put it under my sleeping pad, hoping to block some of the air coming through the plywood floor. I tried again for 30 minutes and could not get warm. Frustrated, I went downstairs and asked the other hikers what to do.
After some joking around, we decided to try putting a Mylar blanket over my sleeping pad. Crinkling all the way (VERY LOUDLY) I went back upstairs and tried it out. Whisperer told me to let him know if it didn’t work. By now it was almost 8pm...
I was homesick and frustrated and I really just wanted to cry at this point. I wanted to call home but there was no service. I knew I needed to ‘embrace the suck’ as they say out here and rely on my family less because I came out here to be independent. I kicked myself for feeling like this. Eventually I realized. If my family is what I need right now, that’s ok! But if I want to be independent I some day need to be less reliant on them. But I also made myself realize: ITS ONLY DAY 12. If I still want to call my mom then I can. I can’t expect change over night.
By 9:30pm I was still FRIGID. Shivering, I LOUDLY (thank you Mylar) got out of my sleep set up and crawled over to Whisperer. He was still awake.
“Rob, this isn’t working!” I whispered from the third floor to the second.
“Come down here!” He said.
I moved down next to him and we laid as close together as possible. The body heat kept us very warm, almost too warm. There were no mice on this night. We made it through the night and woke up to a 35 degree rainy morning.