March 30th - Day 26 - Devils Fork Gap to Bald Mountain Shelter
I walk outside the shed we are staying in and see all white. Oh good, there's snow again. The other hikers staying in the shed are Walk Worthy and his nephew.  We all eat and gear up for the trip out into the cold. We get the second trip out the trail head are the wind is whipping snow into the air and its cold. Two hikers decide they'll wait it out another day. Dan and I march onward. As soon as we are under tree cover the wind dies down and we just have to deal with the cold and snow drifts.

Handsome Dan geared up for a walk in the snow.

Its a burly hike once on the ridge up to Hogback Gap Shelter. Periodic drifts up to our knees and we are breaking trail. We stop for a late warm lunch at the shelter and chat with Journeyman. he tells us that they had 10 people last night crammed into an eight person shelter, and that one hiker slept in the doorway. That hiker was Live and Learn, who undoubtedly got caught in the rain storm and stumbled into a full shelter. Journeyman and I have an unexpectedly meaningful conversation about life and travelling. He is zero-ing at the shelter to try and dry some gear out.
Sam's Gap is less than 2 miles further and a previous thru named Yonder (AT 07) is set up with trail magic. I meet back up with Dan cram 3 brats down and we make a final push eight miles up and over Big Bald.

Dan and I are good hiking partners, both logically minded with similar life experiences and opinions. We share musical tastes and coordinate our Ipods on this climb to "Joe's Garage" an album by Frank Zappa.

The summit is well earned, we push hard to get here. Long cold uphill rewarded by a windier, colder summit. Fueled on Adrenaline and snickers bars. I will never tire of 360 degree views from balds. 

Big Bald summit victory.

Sunset looking back at Big Bald

At the shelter we run into Ginko from Germany, Professor Turtle, Grease and his parents. Ginko draws elaborate sketches in the shelter logs and, Professor Turtle writes blurbs about flora and fauna of the trail, sometimes with samples included. Its been a long day, but I can't be happier to be on the AT.