Mother Nature – hear her roar! For every minute I spent admiring her handiwork with the snow yesterday, I spent one freezing my fanny off last night! It snowed another 1-2 inches. Sleeping bags – you’d think it doesn’t require a lot to work one, right? Just crawl in, zip, be warm, and sleep. Well, I pulled the cord to draw the top of my bag tight around my head and somehow in the middle of the night, my face lost the open hole. It’s rather unnerving to wake up in the night and not be able to get out. I think my problem is that I’m little enough that I can turn over inside my bag, and everything just gets all twisted and discombobulated. I need to be still. I don’t want to get up, but I’m tired of lying here. Greg from Florida was getting up the same time. I told him if he’d go get water, I’d boil it. My Polar Pure froze last night. I have no idea if it loses effectiveness after it’s frozen, but it does say in big letters on the bottle, "DO NOT FREEZE." Ooops.

I’m sitting on top of Wayah Bald. The sun is shining. For a while, this morning I was the first one to walk on the trail in the snow – just me and a few little animal tracks. A man from Indiana who has a vacation cabin near just stopped to chat. He just likes coming up here for the view. Told me some bear and snake stories and offered to drive me to town. Then some tourists walked by. They looked at me kinda funny and I realized I am sitting between two walls at the restroom with wild hair and holes in my gloves. I laughed and told them I wasn’t really a homeless person and what I was doing. They asked several questions and if I needed anything. It was 23 degrees when we got up this morning. Sun is up now and warming up nicely. I’m gonna eat a little and move on. I’m really moving slow it seems today. Of course, I only have two speeds … slow and crawl. But I do them both very well and steadily! I’m thinking the guys will catch up with me by the end of the day. Hooked back up with Jiff and Manchester on top of Wayah Bald. We could see Silver Bald from there (where we were yesterday) with its very distinct grassy top – hard to believe we walked from there. Met some more trail angels who were friends of Snake Charmer’s from Florida who gave us water and fruit. They were at Tellico Gap when we came down tonight and found us camping spots and brought firewood, so we’re around a nice toasty fire. Met Baltimore Jack today – apparently a legend out here. This is his SIXTH thru hike! Works in the winter, cut up all the credit cards, says every time he hikes the AT, it’s always different. This is the latest he’s started. He wants to be in Damascus for Trail Days, so maybe we’ll see him then. He’s done 50 miles the last two days. We think Topher went past earlier when we were setting up our tents. Hope we catch him at the NOC tomorrow. We’ve got greasy cheeseburgers. Well, the fire and the chat were good, but it’s off to bed for me. I’m tired. My feet are tired. Wish my chiropractor was here. It’s gonna be another cold night. But we had blue skies and sunshine this afternoon. Another great day!

Oh, Manchester came up behind me once today bouncing by and asked in his best British accent "Is there any particular reason we’re walking like we’re driving Miss Daisy?" Darn kid! Should have a little respect for his elders! All in good fun though (but it sounded just like something my son would pop off and say).

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