Leaving Ms. Vikki

As we sat staring at our warm waffles and bacon this morning, we all felt a bit sad to be leaving Vikki and the Iron Mountain Inn. As much as we needed to get back on the trail, we all knew how lucky we were to find Vikki and the Inn right when we needed to get off the trail with the bad


weather.

She offered to slack pack us again over the next section of trail, but I think we were all afraid that the longer we stayed, the harder it would be to leave.

We packed up one last time, and she took us to the trail. We will miss her, and we promised to return soon.

We hiked a big circle over the ridge tops encircling Lake Watauga, the lake near Vikki, and enjoyed great views of it from the trail. The day was cold and very windy. It started snowing again! Brrr! The wind was gusting up to 40 mph today.

We were all kind of dragging today, but still managed about 14 miles before setting up camp. It was so cold, I cooked and ate in my sleeping bag, leaning out of the tent. Don't try that at home, kids!

I saw the saddest tombstone ever on the trail today. It's a grave, and the inscription said "Lived alone, suffered alone, died alone.". There was a tent site right next to the grave, but we decided to hike on down the trail a ways before camping. Spooky spot.

We were in the sleeping bags by 7:00, and I don't plan on coming out til it warms up some!!













- Steady and F100