[at-l] Things to see on the GSMNP AT at night... Re: [backpackers-149] you're [NOT] dead [TIRED]

[Tom McGinnis]

--- On Tue, 8/19/08, Chris Ogle <chris-ogle at sbcglobal.net> wrote:

> Tom - WAY too compelling  lol ... I think i will do the "hike 2" group.
> you sold me on that with the info and pics.

### Dude! My bad! You were so sold on night-hiking! I have no neat urls for nighthiking the Smokys, but can I tell you about leaving Ice Water Springs shelter (3.2 miles in) northbound, right at sunset? Colder than snot, but really dry, and nothing but a red single-L.E.D. flashlight? (Thanks for that!) A moonless night? It was so cold, that anything metal stung your bare fingertips to touch, just before they got stuck. Sticking your hands in the springs made the 40°F water seem warm and comfy. But there was no breeze! So when you exhaled, your own "life steam" would hang in the air about you, for a disconcertingly long time... No birds, either. No night sounds at all -- not even a sigh from the balsams -- whose usually faint perfume hung heavy in the still air. And the trail! As your walking along, searching the ground for "shiny" (meaning rock or ice -- slippery and to-be-avoided), you can't help but notice the trail's ridge has narrowed to 10'-20',
 and downhill to the right looks just like downhill to the left. And no breeze (remember?)... If you stop to look at the astounding view -- starlight illuminating a ghostly landscape, down to the homey looking orange glows of Cherokee to the right, or Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge/et.al. to the left... you find your breath frosts whatever it touches, and you must exhale, stand aside from your own cloud, and then look. And each step at night carries with it an amazing geometric specificity, such that mere inches seems to afford a different angle on features many miles off, simply by the minute changes in angle made so exact by the stars and sodium vapor land glows.... Haunting. Surreal. Memories.

(And we haven't gotten to sunrise yet, have we. Nooooo. Do you know how long it is between first light and sun *rise*? Farmers do. You should. Come with. Remind yourself. What magic.)

Cheerleader Boy.