[at-l] The "What Now" Thread - plus some other stuff

[icw at esisnet.com (Clark Wright)]

Well, hello to the AT-L hiking world from little ole New Bern, NC.  We 
had our own winter storm a few days back - a whole inch of snow - which 
was enough for our industrious girls [with mucho help from Mom] to build 
three snow-"persons" [gotta be PC, ya know!]  Anyhow, Tim - I think you 
should listen to your better half's suggestion to do a thru-hike - life 
talks to us right directly, if we will only listen - and opportunities 
to experience something like this are rare indeed.  Re Orange Bug's 
comments, I second the fact that Newfound Gap is almost always open, 
even in winter.  I would note that in 2001, I had my toughest 
hitch-hiking experience trying to get back up to the Trail from 
Gatlinburg . . . and I've heard the same anectdotally from others[i.e., 
that it is fairly easy to get a ride down from the Gap to either 
Cherokee or Gatlinburg, but that it can be a good bit tougher getting a 
ride back up . . .  As to Orangebug's crampons/snowshoes suggestion, I 
too was hiking on the AT in the Smokies in March of 2001; I did not use 
either and made it just fine, as did many others.  However, the Park 
Rangers were recommending crampons, and there certainly were some times 
I would not have minded having some of the lightweight, strap-on 
"mini-crampons."  I strongly would recommend at least taking a pair of 
modern, lightweight hiking poles, with the snow baskets on.  I found the 
trickiest times to be on a cold morning 1-3 days after the snowfalls - 
by that time, enough people had tromped on the snow to pack it down, and 
the sun often had melted it a bit, leaving a wicked "ice bed" in many 
places to navigate through or around.

I personally have some of my fondest memories of all thinking back to 
the winter hike portions of my 2001 AT adventure.  Give me 10 degrees 
and snow over 95 degrees and hot, sharp rocks with little water - like, 
say in the great "Keystone State" of PA [no offense to the growing 
number of PA citizens showing their heads lately! :)]

Last, but not least - we now have all our NC license tag designs posted 
on Ryan's backcountry.net website:

http://gallery.backcountry.net/NC-AT-License-Plate-Designs

We will soon be selecting a final design, so this is one last call for 
comments - feel free to e-mail me anytime at my office:

icw@wardanddavis.com

On a personal note, I will actually be in the Smokies for a weekender 
Jan. 22-24, searching for snow!  :)

Take care, and Hike on!

Clark
[Thru-Thinker]