spring mountain shelter to jerrys cabin shelter

slept well and woke to no rain. the forecast had predicted a wet morning turning to snow, but we were spared. packed up and hiked down to the shelter for breakfast, grabbing my food from the bear cable on the way. a couple packets of oatmeal later and i was on trail.

i hiked most of the day today alone. the trail started with a descent that my knees weren’t thrilled about, but it soon flattened out and the morning was mostly rolling terrain through mixed hardwood and pine forest. there were some mountains through the trees, but nothing a camera could get much of.

there was a tiny trail magic at a dirt road crossing- a table, complete with table cloth, a sign in book, and a bin full of individually wrapped cookies.

about 3 miles later i reached little laurel shelter for some lunch. quick and rocket were already there along with a handful of other hikers i hadn’t met. bugs arrived a while later. during lunch it began to snow, and the temperature dropped significantly. a hiker however gave an updated weather report that said snow would be limited to .6”, and no precipitation tomorrow. apparently the storm was swinging north and we’d be spared most of the bad weather.

i decided to hike in my puffy, which worked well in the snow, except i had to slow way down up hills to prevent myself from breaking a sweat.

the trail got pretty slippery at times, especially as i headed up big firescald knob. it stopped snowing and the sun came out as i ascended the trail. by the time i got to the top, there was no sign that it had snowed.

as i could see towns, i took the opportunity to call magz, and send a video i took to se folks on signal. as i was talking to magz, it began to snow again.

i got down the slippery rocks intact. my shoes’ tread is already worn down considerably, so it was a little treacherous. after a few more miles, i reached the shelter.

quick invited me in, but i didn’t fit. literally the sleeping platform is about a foot too short. i found a decent tent site just outside the shelter, and as i set up, the snow came down even harder. by the time my tent was set up, i already had to flick snow off as it was making it sag. i climbed in, inflated my sleeping pad, crawled into my bag and took a nap to warm up. when i woke there was close to an inch of snow on the ground.

it continued to snow harder. i left my tent briefly to make some dinner in the shelter, but otherwise stayed in my tent the rest of the day. i had to knock snow off frequently to keep it from sagging on me.

one additional image from today: