Snow, Blowdowns, and Night Hiking on the Appalachian Trail

This morning there was no rush to get up and moving. It had snowed last night and into the morning. So we weren’t planning on having a super early start. It seemed like the snow was going to clear up by around noon. Which meant the later we started, the better.

I got up around 8am, packed up a bit, and had some continental breakfast. Then contacted Steve who does shuttles around the Unicoi area. He was just bringing someone back and said he could take us around 10am. So we finished getting packed up and then he came and got us. He even brought 2 canisters of fuel to sell to us because the gear shop was closed! That was amazing, and we’ll definitely need the fuel to get to Damascus.

Punisher and I outside of Steve’s Unicoi Shuttle.

Before going back to Uncle Johnny’s, Steve drove us to the local coffee shop in down town. I came there last time I was in Erwin and had an incredible breakfast sandwich. I wasn’t too hungry this time around though, and also had a pack stuffed to the brim with snacks to eat. Steve had these free coffee tokens though and gave us each one. Inside the coffee shop was Cheetah who runs Uncle Johnny’s and one other local guy. We chatted with them for a bit before heading on.

Outside of Steel Rails Coffee House.

Then Steve just drove us back to the hostel to continue our footpath from there. Leaving Uncle Johnny’s there is a 3 mile road walk to get to the other side of the river. I’ve heard so many hikers exaggerating it already, calling it a 6 or 10 mile road walk. It’s only 3 miles! That isn’t bad at all. And the roads were all pretty quiet. When cars did go by they always pulled way over and gave us space. Most of the time there was a wide bike lane to walk in. And for a few minutes here or there the shoulder was nonexistent. But it was still perfectly safe and we had no issues. There is no reason to skip it! Keep your footpath and do the quick little 3 mile road walk.

The road walk out of Uncle Johnny’s.

The time went by so quickly on the road. We walked by a house with horses who came right up to the fence. Then continued along until you were across the bridge looking back at Uncle Johnny’s. It is wild that you have to go 3 miles to get around the bridge, which used to just take you 100 feet across nice and easy. But you have to do what you have to do. The bridge is out and is going to be gone for a while. There will be a ferry soon across the river for those who came bear the road walk, or just don’t want to.

A sign indicating not to ford the river across from Uncle Johnny’s.

Once we got on trail on the other side we began a super gradual climb. It was nice and easy and rolling for a couple miles. Then after an hour or so it got steeper and kept up for a mile or two. That brought us all the way to the next shelter. From there the climbing continued on and off for the next handful of miles. You would go uphill for a mile or so and then it would leveled out.

My log book signature from 2023!

The snow was completely covering some of the trees.

When we dropped down to the next road I had the genius idea to put my water filter away. I had it on my bottle still from the other day. But the damage was already done! My filter was completely frozen. Which I should have realized, because it was snowing out. Luckily Punisher had his someplace warm so his would still be working. What a rookie mistake on my part. I’ve been sleeping with my filter every night and even packing it away frequently during the day. But I totally forgot this morning! Now I’ll have to buy a new one the next chance I get. This filter is the same one that I was using on the CDT though, so it’s not a total waste. I definitely got my time out of it.

Even though the snow slowed us down, the views were unbeatable.

Once we got up to the top of Unaka Mountain we got to enjoy some downhill. But the snow got heavier as we went. The worst part though was that the further we went we got into some really bad blow downs. It was pretty terrible honestly. There were a ton of trees down all across the trail. It was another section where the entire side of a mountain had all been entirely blown over. Some sections were cut through and easier to get around. Others were rerouted and you had to climb up and around tons of trees. The combination of that and the snow was rough at times.

Going through a section of downed trees.

Our pace definitely slowed down around this  time which was a little annoying. We had so far to go for the day, so losing time wasn’t ideal. When we got around Iron Mountain the blowdowns were definitely at their worst.  It was slow going but we just kept pushing. Then when you crossed over Iron Mountain Gap fortunately the trail gets off onto a dirt road. The trail in this area wasn’t maintained at all, so instead you have to walk along the road for a while. Which was actually an amazing change of pace! I wished the road would go on for forever. Then we could just fly along. But that was not the case. The dirt road eventually ended and we were back on trail.

The sunset tonight was incredible!

At this point we still had another couple hours to go. It was dark out now which made the blowdowns and snow more difficult to navigate around. It was pretty cold at this point, but every now and then we would have to do a steep stretch of uphill, which would warm me up. One of the most tiring things about walking in fresh powdered snow is that your feet slip and slide. While you were trying to climb your feet with skin and you couldn’t get great traction. Which is similar to hiking on trails with very thick leaves or loose dirt. I felt much slower on the climbs as I walked through the snow.

Punisher up ahead walking through the snow.

It was around 9 PM when we finally made it to the Clyde Smith Shelter. I was exhausted and definitely pretty ready to be done. But I was also glad that we pushed to the shelter because it was freezing out. By now it was probably in the low 20s, if not even colder. My feet were pretty damp from walking in the snow all day so I was excited to take my socks off. When we actually did get into the shelter, it was empty, but I was shocked how cold I remained. We had to do a pretty steep spur trail downhill to get to the water source. But all of the other water sources we crossed along the way were frozen. Luckily this one wasn’t and we grabbed water for the night. It’s a bummer that my water filter froze today, but fortunately I’m able to use Punishers.

A white blaze in the snow.

After grabbing water, I got situated in the shelter. I decided to just eat an easy dinner of cheese and tortillas so I didn’t have to boil water. But I got my water set aside for the morning because it will probably freeze tonight. If you’re hiking in freezing conditions and you want make something warm in the morning, always pour your water the night before. Otherwise you won’t be able to pour it out of your bottles because it’s frozen.

Once I got in my quilt, I felt a whole lot better and warmed up a lot. Putting on fresh dry socks helped as well. But I put my damp socks in the foot box of my quilt to warm them up for tomorrow. They’ll be mostly dry by the morning, which will be nice. That way I can wear my dirty socks and save my nice warm dry socks for tomorrow night. I tried to lay up for a while and get some writing done, but I was pretty exhausted. I didn’t last long before falling asleep.

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