trail magic

so today was crazy. at 6 am we woke up to single digit temps. even tho there were 12 ppl in the shelter it was freezing. at least I know my 20 degree bag works well. my water, shoes, socks, and basically everything else - all frozen. everyone slowly started moving once the temp got to about 12 degrees - when the sun came out, even the this kid we called nick-sicle who had a 40 degree bag. only pop tarts and granola for breakfast because my hands were too cold to work the stove. tried doing soccer warm up drills to get warm, but they didn't work. decided the only way to warm up was to hike. put on my cold socks and shoes and headed out.  we left the shelter area a few at a time again this morning. trail was frozen. either frozen dirt, snow, or ice. i hiked with my frozen water hanging from the back of my pack so it would thaw in the sun. hiked 10+ miles with lots of ups and downs and slippery rocks. had my first fall of the hike. lost my footing on an ice covered rock and fell backwards off the trail and down the mountain. landed on my pack and slid about 10 - 15 feet before wrapping my legs around a small tree to stop myself. I'm ok! but it was rough and probably funny to see. in the morning, and confirmed along the trail, 5 of us had agreed to go into Helen, GA for the night because it was going to be just as cold again. that was jessica (downhill), charles (starbucks), me, jonathan and nick (Vanderbilt students on spring break - a couple of fun guys we met in the hostel at neels gap). we got to unicoi gap one and two at a time and met dwayne and linda. they were next to their truck grilling food for hikers. it's called trail magic. what a sight. fresh fruit, juice,water, hot dogs, etc. when they found out we wanted to go into town they insisted we stay with them in their spare "cabin". so we did. they took us to the grocery store to get stuff for dinner and then they cooked for us and sat and talked to us for a while. we had a great night sleeping in front of their wood burning fireplace, and in the morning they made us breakfast and drove us back to the trail after taking our picture and then printing it out for us to sign. I washed dishes for them, but dwayne refused money for gas. thank you both!!!
it got down to 8 again on the mountain - good thing we were insde. back to the trail.
L

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