4.5 miles-very very cold and about two feet of snow
This morning I woke up to even more snow. I had slept with my water bottle in my sleeping bag with me and it wasn't frozen, so I was thankful for that. Jack Rabbit left early and I slept in because I knew that I only had 4.5 miles to go to the road. At 10:30 I left the shelter and Chapin Lara was still packing up. At first I was frightened because I knew that I had finished eating all of my food. I was afraid that I could get to the road and there would be no traffic, just like at Clingman's Dome. I knew it would be a 15 mile walk down the road to town. I tried to use my cell phone to call for a taxi, but there was no signal. I learned a few days ago that if there is signal but the phone won't work sometimes you can use body heat to warm it up and then it will be able to work. It's a good trick to remember, but today there was enough storm that I still couldn't get a call through. For the first mile I chanted "safely, forward" to myself in a sort of rhythm to keep myself moving forward and not too worried. By the second mile I was feeling pretty good. Not warm, exactly, but good.
When I reached the road at 2:30 there was absolutely no traffic. I started to take pictures while I thought about what I would do. Just then, I mean I had been at the road maybe three minutes, a park ranger pulled up in his truck. He offered to give me a ride all the way to town. I gratefully accepted. He informed me that within a mile of where we were there had been a landslide six weeks ago that took 100 yards of road 1/2 a mile down the mountain. He told me that work to rebuild it had begun today. The road is a major thorough fare between Gatlinburg, TN and Cherokee, NC. However, because of the landslide the road effectively dead ends now from Gatlinburg to the trail. On a good day there is little traffic there, but today there was ice on the road so the park service had closed it completely. Even if I had been able to call a taxi it would not have been able to reach me. Wow.
I didn't know this at the time, but later I found out that Chapin Lara had arrived at the road crossing about 90 minutes after me. He was able to call his daughter in CA and tell her where he was and ask that she arrange for a cab ride for him. He did not know the road was closed. He started hiking down the road. After eleven miles a police car pulled up and told Chapin that his daughter had called them when she found out the road was closed. The police took Chapin to a hotel, but (he felt) not until after they had given him the third degree of interrogation about what he was doing and whether he was carrying any weapons. But he arrived safely in Gatlinburg, finally.
The ranger that gave me a ride to town also told me about the wild hogs that are in the park. Apparently in the 1950s a hunting sports place imported the hogs from Prussia and they got loose. They have no natural enemy in these woods and can be large and aggressive. The park hires between two and three full time rangers each year with the express purpose of killing the hogs in the park to attempt to maintain a stabilization of the population. Fifteen miles later he dropped me off at the edge of town. I ate and checked into a hotel for the night.
The hotel owner is a very conservative Christian man who felt it necessary to tell me, five minutes after we met, that the reason God sent the floods and hurricanes to the East Coast last year and also Super storm Sandy was because the East Coast states have legalized gay marriage. He had many many other things to say as well, but as I hope that you enjoy your dinner tonight I will not repeat them all here. Needless to say I do not feel comfortable in the hotel lobby, and have plans to spend tomorrow out and about in Gatlinburg. However, the room is an affordable price, so I can't complain there.
View from the shelter this morning.
Trail
I did not use the black and white setting on this picture, it was this snowy and icy today.
Next to this bridge of sorts was a sign that read "Beech Forest Exclosure This is one of approximately 20 special sites that have been identified for fencing against the wild hog, a non-native animal that has been present in the park only since the 1950s. This exclosure contains a beech forest community that is unique to the Southern Appalachians. It contains an assemblage of native plants and animals that would be seriously impaired by the invasion of hogs. The fence was installed in 1984 in an effort to retain the natural character of the site."
The empty road where the ranger picked me up.
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