Knot Maul Shelter to Chestnut Knob Shelter

Knot Maul Shelter to Chestnut Knob Shelter

Day Two – Tuesday, March 25, 2014
9.1 miles
8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

 

Snow at Knot Maul Shelter

What a surprise when we woke up this morning—snow! Before we left town, we were expecting snow tonight – not last night.  So we thought we would be closer to town and possibly only walking in snow one day.  Oh well!  We got on the trail about 8:30 a.m. and walked in snowfall all day long, sometimes heavy snowfall. 

Snow at Knot Maul Shelter

Knot Maul Shelter

We stopped for water supply at Lick Creek.  From USFS 222 to the top of Chestnut Ridge was very hard and we were very cold.  We walked through a wooded area and came out on top of an open knob.  We passed a stagnant pond but kept on going and later wondered if perhaps the shelter had been down the trail beside the pond.  We were expecting to see Chestnut Knob Shelter much sooner than we did, and thought we had somehow missed it. We did not know that it was right on the trail and there was no way we could miss it.  So we kept trudging along, not looking forward to stealth camping out in the snow. 

After about 2 hours, we looked up and beheld Chestnut Knob Shelter!  Woohoo!  That was a long 4.6 miles.  No stealth camping after all, thank the Lord!  We were never to glad to see a shelter—and an enclosed one at that!  A former firewarden’s cabin with plexiglass windows—an extra bonus on a snowy evening. 

We were right on the top of the mountain in an open field.  The wind was howling and the snow was blowing.  I glanced ahead of me and saw a deep crater-shaped depression in front of me just before we pushed the shelter door open and rushed inside.  It was a big relief to be out of the wind. 

Rags was already in the shelter bedded down.  The first thing we did after putting on dry clothes was heat some water for hot tea.  I asked Rags if he would like to have some tea, not knowing that our water supply was low.  He accepted, but didn’t have a cup.  Wait-up gave him his cup.  Then Rags told us that there is no water at Chestnut Knob, a fact that we had somehow missed.  Poor Wait-up made several trips outside to get snow to heat up for his next cup of tea.  Oops!

Burkes Garden, aka "God's Thumbprint"
(Photo Courtesy of Greg Hardwicke)

By the time I had warmed up enough to venture back outside to take in the scenery, I was disappointed to see that the clouds were now covering the view of the canyon below—Burkes  Garden, aka “God’s Thumbprint.”   The A.T. follows the ridge around the area for 8 miles, which we traveled the next day, but we never got a good view of this spectacular site.

The privy sat facing the valley below behind the shelter.  The howling wind blew straight into the privy since it had no door.  The snow was piled up on the seat.  This made a visit to the privy quite uncomfortable—no  place to linger!

Before nightfall we were joined by Shaggy Moe, then Jack Rabbit and Jukebox.  The six of us quickly sought out our sleeping bags for warmth.  Although I never got warm all night it was a relief not to be stealth camping.  

Rags was quite a conversationalist.  He engaged first Wait-up then Shaggy Moe in and quickly guided the topic of conversation around to religion.  He revealed that he had recently converted to Catholicism and had found the peace he was searching for.  We enjoyed talking with him and agreed with his statement, “The Lord likes to be included in our conversation.”