March 2014
As I walked into the snowstorm the night before I notice it was getting kinda chilly. When I get to the shelter and set up, we hang around the campfire and chat with the "spring breakers" from Vermont. It was kinda like, "Are you having fun coming from a winter in Vermont knowing it's not suppose to be great weather down here?" So, we wake up and there is about an inch or two of snow on the ground, but it's nice out, so I trudge on and begin the climb up. Under the cover of the trees everything is great and I'm snapping off pictures while Big Hungry is running around and stirring up the snow. As I suspected I hit the bald of the mountain and the wind picked up a couple of miles per hour with every step. The footprint that I was following disappeared and the snow level gained about an inch or two, to the point where Big Hungry was belly deep and started to shiver so I called it at that and turned around. On my way back to the road it began to pour down snow and all I could think was I'm glad I'm not up in that wind on the bald. Also, I hope my friends that kept going are gonna make it, or turn back around. I got to the road and after a few cars passed me (in pretty heavy snow), I whipped out a 20$, and the first truck pulled over and took me into town. After a good hot shower, the Grinch was at the hostel and we went to the Blue Blaze Cafe for some beers and burgers and saw every hiker within a 50 mile range of Damascus. Apparently we are all thru hikers, not mountain climbers, or Eskimos.
My snow gear rule = Drink beer and eat burgers in a warm restaurant.
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